I hate to nit pick my new car. But I'm trying to figure out why my car is sometimes difficult to engage first gear from nuetral at a stop. SO I was poking around looking at some things. One of the things I found interesting is the motor mounts don't appear to be aligned correctly on one side. This may be the cause of my shifting problem because it seems that the movement of the shifter from left to right plays a role. For instance, if I push the shifter harder to the left then attempt to engage first gear I get a smother shift then if I don't.

Take a look at these pics,The first pic is the passenger side mount.

And the second pic is the drivers side mount. So looking at this it seems that he entire engine is sitting too far to the right hand side of the car. Probably about an inch or so.

Can this be adjusted in any way? Is it just a matter of loosing these two mount nuts and sliding the entire engine a little bit then re-tightening? Or is this really an ok condition and I am on the wrong track?

 

Call Ford (not the dealer) and ask them if there is an alighnment problem, they may have a tolerance specification and might be able to provide measuring points.

 

I'm 99% sure that's within tolerance, but I'd be interested to hear what Ford has to say.. particularly the dealer. Hehe.