rbort

It’s not about seating it’s about hammering and the outer shell gets loose from the inside part. Also they use excessive torque and sometimes you try to take them off by hand they are very hard to loosen. When you finally do the tire rim is stuck on the mounting surface and you have to rubber hammer it loose. Seen that in the past from high torque impact guns. my car has never seen that now almost 3 years old and I Rotate tires every 10k miles and they always fall off the mounting base when I remove the lug nuts. Just saying something to keep in mind. -=>Raja.

I think the real answer here is that they are damaged by impact guns. Repair shops set torque high and they hammer the crap out of the nuts with the impact air gun. If you remove and reinstall using a hand wrench they don’t “swell”. -=>Raja.

Absolutely, my driving score is very often 99 with 100% brake score. But you have to drive like a grandma and anticipate everything. Easier to do around town not on long trips down the highway. -=>Raja.

Makes sense, that car should get in the mid 40s mpg is driven properly at highway speed limit speeds. If you're going 80 then that's another story, more like in the 30's mpg. The more hybrid you drive, the less mpg, the more EV the more. If you average around 70mpg with this car for both, that's about right. Any higher than that you're using the battery too much in my opinion. -=>Raja.

Believe it or not I'm driving here in California the last 2 weeks and I'm driving (not speeding) on the freeway at 65mph and I have not been run over. You know, everyone says you can't you have to drive 80 or you're going to get killed. I also see some police on 15 trying to catch people who are speeding. On the side roads I'm doing what I normally do and if people get ahead then they do they are stupid to race to the lights and slam on the brakes. Doesn't matter to me I'm not in any rush but I know what you mean. I did drive to Arizona and learned that over there when you put a signal people actually slow down and let you in. Here in California people are crazy I saw a motorcycle race past me in the second lane (I was in the far right), then cut on a diagonal not even 50 feet infront of the car in front of me and right into the exit. I don't know how he made it looked like he was past the exit at least well past the solid lines that you're supposed to be inside to take the exit. Too many people in a rush around here, but it is what it is. I just keep a watchful eye on my surroundings and if I drive the speed limit on a side road sometimes I get tailgated. In that case if I feel they are too close I blink the hazard lights for them to send a signal to their stupid brains. Sorry to complain but yes I've seen alot of crazy stuff like that. -=>Raja.

The heater wastes alot of energy of the battery and is harder on the battery (more stress). Use the heat if you start the engine and warm it up but not the best idea to use the heat on battery only. Heat adds like 20 to 30 amps load on the battery meaning you are discharging it at least 1 bar more than anything you step on the accelerator, in other words if you are speeding up with 1 1/2 bars of power with heat at 20 degrees out its like being at 3 bars of power on the battery. In my opinion its best to use the battery for propulsion only. You can always dress for the cold. What do you do when you walk outside? No heat right? Correct. We are not wrapping ourselves in a plastic bag with heat inside. :) -=>Raja.

Driving in L is not the best idea, sometimes its too much regen. If you regen more than necessary and have to step on the accelerator again to make it to that red light well then you lost that battle and used more energy. Its always best to coast and not use the accelerator at all. You can regen with D or L or use the brake to vary regen manually. L has its place but its place is not all the time. You have many tools available to you with this car, even hill decent and N when necessary, you have to use the right setting for the moment. L is handy when you see a hill coming up or when you want to slow down on the highway because someone got in front of you, or you want to slow down to take the exit. Driving in L all the time I would expect that you would end up being less efficient, and overheating the HVB more due to heavier regen all the time. You start learning to keep moving to the red light and regen hard at the end with L to slow down to a stop where is you start slowly decelerating from a distance with light regen that would be better for the HVB. That also in turn gives the light a chance to turn green so you can skip stopping all together, a win win situation. Any speed you save even 5mph is better then none (coming to a full stop). Here is a simple example to teach you what I mean: You're driving and 2000 feet ahead a light turns yellow... a) you keep stepping on the gas in L to keep moving towards the light (wasting battery) and when you get close you remove your foot and regen hard to slow down where finally you press the brake below 5 mph and come to a full stop waiting at the light. Hard regen = battery temp rise. b) you immediately stop pressing the accelerator (gas for short above) and coast in D with light regen slowly losing speed towards the light. This takes longer to arrive at the light and there is nowhere to go anyways (red light ahead). Some people might get anxious behind you but stay calm if they want they can pass and race to the light to slam on the brake (stupid). Coasting in D is low regen better for the battery and you stopped using any battery since you stopped pressing on the gas 2000 feet ago. This way when you arrive at the light you use the brake to regen as necessary (will be lower since you have less speed) and make the full stop if necessary. In option b you'll have more battery left than in option a and you'll have a cooler battery also. Regen is not 100% back of energy so you always lose at least 10% if you accelerate and then regen back. Finally in option b taking longer to get to the light means there is a chance it will turn green and many times it does when you still have 20mph speed then you just step on the accelerator and keep going, sometimes passing the stupid person who raced to the light around you because they were stopped but have no worry they will floor it just to get ahead of you as quickly as possible since that's the only way they will feel good (that they passed you) :) It takes time to learn how to drive this car, but its alot of fun to do it!! I love all the options, keeps you busy making the best decisions for the road ahead. -=>Raja.

Hi Ryan and welcome to the Energi club! The most important thing about this car is balancing engine usage with the battery, and making sure you keep the battery as cool as possible. I highly recommend that you get a scangage to watch several parameters and protect your battery. I also live in Franklin so if you need pointers or lessons be glad to meet up and explain everything. It’s a great car I drive the CMAX version but it’s the same drivetrain so everything will apply. PM me if you want to meet up sometime. all the best and enjoy! -=>Raja.

Suggestions: #1 do not charge the battery at 110 degrees, you're going to ruin it in no time with it overheating. Use gas until the heat wave passes, and leave the battery like between 5 to 10% charged that's it. #2 To set value charge, (a bug in MFT), clear the weekday, clear the weekend, save cleared so nothing there. The set weekday, set weekend, and only THEN hit save. That will save both for you. Phoenix is hot so in reality you should only use your HVB in the winter time, gas otherwise, that is, if you want it to last. -=>Raja.

Its not hard to do to fix the tire with the rubber plug, and you can do it with the tire mounted right on the car. Front tires are easier, you can turn the steering so you can see the puncture from the top and fix it very easily. Rear tires a little harder, you'd have to put the puncture either at 3 or 9 o'clock and lay down to do the repair work if you do not remove the tire off the car. Also possible but as you get older it gets harder. Happy to say though in my 50's I can still do that no problem. The sealant doesn't ruin the tires but causes a mess. I remember many many years ago when I was a kid I used tire sealant on my first car but it didn't work. I took the car in to get the tire fixed. The guy removed the tire off the car, put it on the machine to remove the tire from the rim and did not take the air out first, just put the plate on the side and pushed down on the sidewall to break the seal. Well it blew out allright, and he got sealant all over him and the garage. I was watching through the window and couldn't help but laugh!! That was crazy, they were not happy with me with the sealant mess, but they did fix the tire by putting a rubber patch on the inside, that's what they did back in the day in the late 1980's. -=>Raja.

Never pay for a public charger, if you have to pay to charge, put in some gas its a whole lot quicker. I only charge at free public chargers as the price they charge is more than what it should cost. -=>Raja.

Umm...yeah :) -=>Raja.

Its best to carry the tire repair kit with you, a needle, a rubber strip, some goop clue, and the rasping tool. You use that to fill the hole, and the compressor WITHOUT sealant to put air back into the tire. Use sealant only as a last resort as its known to damage the tire pressure sensors. You also need pliers to pull the metal object out. -=>Raja.

Locked or unlocked doesn't make a hill of beans, totally agree with Murphy. Now look here, the thing only lasted 3 1/2 weeks not even 6!! Next time either jump it with a big deep cycle battery or put it on a trickle charger :) FYI as I said before, my Cmax lasted 4 weeks with a 12v deepcycle connected to it, and yes FYI its unlocked I never lock it inside the garage. If you want to know the cause, disconnected the negative cable off the battery, and then connect it through a voltmeter on 10 amps in series to read the current. Lock or don't lock and leave the car alone for a few minutes until everything times out, then come back and look and see what draw you have on the voltmeter. That is your parasitic draw of the car's computer/power systems/modules that are "sleeping" in the background waiting for you to access it via the remote or the door handle or MFM. That amount is a constant drain on the battery, and then you take the size of your battery and you can calculate how many hours or days it can last. That's it, its not a big secret, there is always some draw and if you never use the car its going to kill the battery is so many days, how many depends on how new the battery is, (new meaning how much capacity is now has), and how well charged it is. -=>Raja.

$273 for the AGM battery? You can get two stock batteries for that price.. I'm glad I live up north, we get the full spectrum of weather here, where in Texas its only two options most of the time, hot or hotter...?? Heat is not good for batteries, it will also destroy your HVB prematurely if you don't watch the temperature carefully, and if you do watch it you'll find out its best not to use the car on hot days at all, try to keep the HVB as cool as possible and discharged as much as possible, like 5 to 25% max. Even with that its going to live a shorter life compared to being in a cooler climate. -=>Raja.