VonoreTn

Get the one at the dealer. It's worth the extra cost. It will last 6 years.

I just sold my 2010 FFH, $5K. Kelly Blue book said $3.9K private party given my mileage 152K. I had more calls early than I could handle wanting to buy it immediately at $5k; sold it the same day as the ad went online. My 2015 C-Max has a 12 volt battery issue at 90K miles (6 years), it will not start after 5 days unless float charged. It also is at 14 volts when started and drops quickly to 11.8 with engine off. I put my 100 amp load tester across it this morning after not driving it since yesterday, and it read 10 volts. Since that battery will never see 100 amps, that is more than enough to support the system. But when that number gets down toward 7-8 volts, it won't support the 12 volt ignition, fuel pump and fuel injector systems, which might happen after a week of non-use, and internal battery cell low amp leakage. I guess I will buy a new one, since I need to park at the airport for a week at Christmas. I could probably keep this one running for another year otherwise.

A voltage of 12.44 volts should not be an indicator to replace a battery. You need to do a load test, but even that could be misleading on a hybrid 12 volt battery, because it doesn't need the high cranking amps of a conventional battery, since it doesn't have the role of starting the engine. The engine electric motor/generator does that, using the high voltage battery. If you put 100 amp load on the battery with the engine off, it should be OK if it doesn't drop below 10 volts. It probably will never see 100 amp load, but as long as the engine is running, even in electric mode, the 12 volt battery will be supported at some constant level between 13.7 and 14.5 volts. I am still on my second 12 volt battery on my 2010 FFH, at 152K miles. The first one lasted 112K miles and 6 years. Get yourself a cigarette lighter digital voltage meter, like this one (Walmart) to see what your charging voltage is (engine running), and the engine off voltage. My engine-on voltage on the FFH is 13.7 volts which is a good number to extend the life of the battery. If the engine on voltage is above 14.5, it starts to be hard on the battery. 15 volts would be too high, and it would suggest an issue with the 12 volt battery engine-on regulator. With the engine off, the battery may drop to 11.8, which would be low for a conventional non-hybrid car, but not low for a hybrid. Do you have other vehicle symptoms of the battery being bad, or just someones voltage test? If your car is sitting unused for like 5 days or more, it might have slight internal voltage leakage, in which case a short charge from a trickle charger will bring it up to over 12 volts, and the computer will allow the car to start and it will be fine for several days. I have that issue on our 2015 C-Max hybrid, and I have been nursing it along for the last 20K miles, giving it a quick charge if it sat for over 5 days, it is now at 92K miles. It has worked fine on long trips in that time period.

What kind of mpg are you getting? What year FFH? Nickle-metal hydride battery or lithium? How many miles on it? I agree with Waldo. Mine is still running fine at 160K miles, going on 12 years old.

A bad oil filter will not cause the oil to disappear. A clogged oil filter is designed to eventually bypass it's filter portion, and just keep flowing dirty oil. The oil filter engineers figure flowing dirty oil is better than flowing no oil. Dirty oil can ruin your piston rings, and journal bearings on the connecting rods and crankshaft. You will eventually hear a rattling sound from the engine when you accelerate as the journal bearings fail. Good luck.

Can you return the car and get your money back? Sounds like it is an oil consumer, bad rings likely (only takes one bad oil ring out of 4). Have a different dealer run your car through their Ford Vin number record. I did that a day after I bought a Mustang years ago, and the second dealer found that the title had been branded. That means it was either 1) in a major accident, or 2) that the airbags had deployed, or 3)that it had been stolen and abused, 4)had undergone extensive mechanical rebuild. Since I had only had it one day I took it back and got my money back. The first dealer was not interested in the cars actual history, didn't want to hear about it. If your return no questions asked warranty has expired, tell the dealer you will see him in court, and issue a Civil Warrant against him. It will cost you about $75 to have it served to him. He will not want to go to court, based on the data you have that it is an oil burner. The reason you don't see any smoke is because the catalytic converter is doing it's job and burning the smoke. But that will only last so long until the converter is ruined. I'm assuming there are no major puddles under your engine. You may have to take the under shield off, it may be full of oil if it is leaking. It comes off easy if you can get it on a lift. Also for this forum, it helps others if you provide some information on your profile about what your car is, model year, model, engine, etc.

At the end of the life of my first 12 volt battery, at 117K miles, all I did was charge it with a 3 amp charger overnight, it started up fine the next morning and I drove it to the Ford Dealer who installed it a new 12 volt battery which is still working fine at 150K miles. Once it is started, the hybrid system will keep the 12 volt battery charged while the car is on. These charger and surge starters are designed to supply about 80 amps for a very short time 1-2 seconds, long enough for a conventional non-hybrid car to start one time. But as Murphy says, you don't need hardly any amps out of the 12 volt battery to start, because the HVB starts the car. I would not even try one of those surge chargers, I would not be sure how the whole hybrid electric system would respond to that misplaced voltage/amp surge.

Business-wise, I would not have paid the dealer for the second service. You are allowed to tell them up front that if this particular problem isn't fixed, you will not pay them anything. If they don't like that, take it somewhere else, there are auto repair shops who will accept that arrangement. You have a 12 volt current drain. I'm going to guess as much as 800 miliamps. (0.8 ampere) if it is draining the 12 volt battery in one day. Possibly a light or a small cooling fan for the high voltage battery , which will run when everything is off. At least you know it is not internal leakage in the 12 volt battery. It's measurable, after the car has been off for an hour, with everything off, put a 10 amp max. meter in series with either battery terminal, and see how much current is flowing. Let a mechanic do it if you are not familiar with battery safety practices. From that point you start disconnecting 12 volt system fuses until the drain stops and note what fuse stopped it.

I sent you a message.

Is there an Escape hybrid coming out soon? That might work for us. Right now we have a 2015 C-Max (made in Wayne, Mi) and a 2010 Fusion Hybrid (made at Hermosillo). Both working perfectly. I think people are going to be disappointed with hybrid trucks because the frontal area really cuts down on the MPG. We find the hybrids are great for the COVID19 hot weather situation, we just pull into a parking lot at a restaurant, order meals and eat in the car, in park with the engine "on" with full air conditioning. That's the advantage of an electric AC compressor and a good electric condenser fan, that doesn't have to do much engine cooling as well. The engine might come on for a minute every 10 minutes to charge, and I might lose a couple of miles of range for the event, but that's just a fraction of a gallon of gas to support full air conditioning comfort. It's like having an electric vehicle, but with a generator to recharge the battery occasionally.

Define somewhat.

Wow! great job on sizing that plastic to the lower opening. Of course if you move to Phoenix, and spend a lot of time over 100F, you will want to remove it. Looks like you secured it with plastic ties? Smart. Outstanding craftsmanship. That might help my C-Max mpg on short runs, because often the engine warmup time knocks down my mpg.

I didn't know they had ACC in 2014, does that include lane control, or just distance to the car in front of you control? Are you at 220K or 183K ?

That is a good idea for any car that will be left sitting for over a month. A lot of luxury cars, with all their computer gadgets that pull maybe 1-30 milliamps of current when the car is off, recommend doing that for second home vehicles.

See how low the battery voltage drops with a 100 amp load on it. You can buy a 100 amp load tester at Harbor Freight or Ruralking.com for $22 or $15 respectively. Google it. If the voltage drops below 10.3 volts, at 100 amps, the battery is bad. If it does not, there is a load larger than 100 amps from the car on start up. It could be a defective condenser fan motor, the seat heaters, your headlights on high beam on startup, you can track the load down from there by elimination. The 12 volt battery does not start the car like a conventional 12 volt battery. it lives a pampered life of lower loads, being constantly recharged by the high voltage system once the engine is running. I suspect the battery will drop to like lower than 9 volts at 100 amps, which will barely support the ignition system for the plugs and the fuel pump, which would be why the engine won't start. Mine finally failed at 112,000 miles. I charged it, drove 20 miles to the dealer, had them install a new one for $147.