Easy Rider

They CAN do a lot but usually won't because, I believe, they won't get paid unless they come up with some concrete "fix". They can check connections associated with the alarms. They can test sensors. Maybe other stuff. If all they do is scan for codes and try to give it back to you, you should ask to talk to the Service Manager.

If you are really concerned, have the dealer or independent shop look at them. But it likely is perfectly normal. I just went and looked at mine. All 4 have the "vinyl record" look but feel smooth to the touch. If it sits outside overnight and the humidity is high, all 4 will have surface rust the next morning.......which disappears completely upon moderate braking. You can't, or don't want to, make the rotors bright and shiny because they work on friction and less friction equals less effective brakes.

There are a couple of threads on here about this. Please look. Bottom line is: The problem the TSB applies to is an odor that NEVER completely goes away not matter what you do and parts must be replaced.

I've been "poisoned" by liquid "food" a few times........but not recently. :)

Yes disk rotors tend to develop ridges and groves that make them look somewhat like a vinyl record......if viewed at the right angle. They should be very minor though and almost hard to feel if you run your finger over the surface. It vaires some by model of car and pads used. Some seem mirror smooth but many have the grooves you speak of. Now that you are aware of this, look at cars you see parked.....and notice that quite a few of them probably look just like yours.

You aren't considering the whole picture. How much of the time do you drive in crappy conditions where tail lights would help versus "normal" conditions where they aren't needed ? Truth IS that having your tail lights on all the time makes your BRAKE lights a little bit less noticeable in normal daylight conditions. And since the vast majority of your daytime driving probably is in relative sunny and clear conditions..........leaving them on all the time tends to give you a net reduction in safety, not an increase. If the conditions are bad enough either the auto control or the wiper control will turn them on anyway. I don't think running they the other 95% of the time is really wise.

That sounds logical but......a multitude of brands have AGMs for large lawn mowers and those aren't that different than the current crop of batteries in hybrids, either in size or capacity. I think they likely will catch up soon. Batteries Plus seems to be a leader in this regard.

That is your opinion but that does NOT make it truth. Several models of the Pruis suffers from the same kind of problem. I think I've seen Volt complaints too. You can't engineer for every possible situation. The battery is a bit too small; almost all hybrid owners think that. You can only charge a battery SO fast without damage. I personally think that a good bit of the problem is battery DAMAGE by being misused at the dealerships. I,E. Letting the battery get low and then letting it just SIT there like that for long periods of time. Even if you do short trips, I think the fix is a well charged new AGM type battery. They are less prone to damage from being left at 50% charge or less. And then if you KNOW you are in the target population for the problem, throw it on a charger overnight ever couple of weeks. It's pretty certain that Ford is not going to admit to any mistake here so staying worked up about it does nothing but shorten YOUR life span. Once again, pretty much ALL hybrids on the road now suffer from similar problems. Even some "conventional" cars do too; Granny only drives to church on Sundays and it is only 6 blocks away type of thing.

And it is bad on a battery's health to LEAVE it sit at low levels of charge. So Ford's solution is to let it sit at an EVEN LOWER charge before the car warns you about it ?????? Exactly the wrong thing to do.......unless you are just trying to save a few bucks on warranty claims. I think that "fix" is reprehensible.

They want to extend the interval that a dying battery lasts before changing it out, thereby going past the warranty period maybe. I think it is a despicable change to make. At 30%, you are on the verge of a complete shutdown. The "system" will keep a healthy battery at a respectable SOC under most conditions. Their "fix" isn't a fix at all. It just postpones the treatment until the "cancer" gets much worse. P.S. I think mine might only maintain the charge at 85% or so because I connect my tender after it sits idle for 2 weeks or so and it always takes about 14 hours to get it full again.

And the fact that you are NEVER "perfectly safe" when going 80 MPH, unless maybe you are the only vehicle on the road. Also the gauge of "perfectly safe" has absolutely nothing to do with what others are doing; it is not a relative thing.

+1 So.....assuming that you just didn't get a defective battery.......what might be causing it to go that low ? I'm surprised that it still works at a 30% SOC. Do you drive the car infrequently ? Are you in the habit of sitting there in the ACC mode instead of READY ? There is a remote chance that they installed a battery that was never charged up like it should have been and it just gradually failed over time. I they replace the battery again, make SURE that it gets fully charged at least once. And it doesn't get driven regularly, consider getting a battery tender.

And I think the "main pull away point" is that too close is too close. Being hyper aware is a short term thing; your attention soon wanders, whether you think it does or not. And we are talking about being behind a semi-truck here.......where you can see virtually NOTHING about what is going on up ahead to help you gauge what might happen next........including but not limited to the truck running over something and kicking it up right into your windshield. You are, of course, welcome to do what you want but all of the driving experts agree that you need about a 4 second interval to have any chance of stopping at all if the vehicle ahead makes a panic stop. Just because people tailgate at 80 MPH every day doesn't make it right. Accidents happen every day because of it too. Sometimes people die.

I wonder.............. If the morons even charged up the battery while they had it ? And I wonder how many more times they will have it before they really do a good test on the battery ?? Hint: If the normal VERY small drain while the car is off makes the battery dead in two days then..........what's that old phrase.....it should be obvious to an untrained 3 year old !!

For long term travel, MUCH too close.......especially when you have extra "gadgets" to distract you. Looks less than 2 seconds to me. 4 seconds is the most recent recommendation. I'm not saying this to be argumentative; I'm saying it because it is important to your continued health. I've seen and participated in accident clean up where the car ran under the back of a semi. I don't ever want to do that again.