On the way to a meeting 40 miles away, while cruising at 70 in 6th, I hear a horrendous racket the rear end of my new 2011 GT with 3.73. At first I thought it was the car behind me, but then I realize it's my car.

I hit the offramp and the racket goes on in every gear. Not a bad synchro sound, but a clattering racket from the rear. I pull into a parking lot and notice a horrible smell. I think my differential has had it. It even rattles in reverse.

Just before the noise, while I was at 70, the car did lunge as if I had down shifted to 5th.

Now I've got to wait 2 hours for a tow from roadside assistance.

And yes, I've had a bit of gear whine, off and on, for the last 1000 miles.

My car only has 1641 miles on it. The only positive is that it's under warranty.

I'll update to let everyone know what the dealer finds.

 

Alot of others have posted similar experience. Kepp us posted on how this works out. GL

 

You mentioned in a different thread that you were going to take the car to the strip Saturday - you have any problems there?

 

manual or automatic?

 

^^ It's a manual as auto's can't have 3.73s from factory.

 

No. Never made it to lapeer due to the rain.

 

got a call back from the dealer and they left a voicemail that the pinion bearing was faulty and let go. service manager said that it looks like the bearing itself was not "pressed in" during assembly.

they'll order parts in the morning and it usually takes 1-2 days to arrive with a day to 1/2 day to install. hopefully i'll have the car back by Friday. sick of 2 days with a rental.

 

That's kinda lame. Still, glad you're getting it fixed. Hopefully this is just an isolated incident.

 

I don't think these pinion bearings are pressed fit at the factory but rather from the supplier. ( China made i bet, just like the tranny) IMO .......Let us know how everything goes.

 

yeah, i don't think ford assembles the rear end. i believe that it is supplier made and assembled and put on the car at the ford factory.

 

my service adviser called me and it looks like ford had decided that instead of just replacing the ring and pinion that i'll be getting a whole new rear axle.

 

Keep us updated.... hope everyting works out well for you.

 

So now you have to wait for one to be shipped in?

 

The 8.8 is a great rear and proved itself over and over. If put together correctly it will take all you can throw at it, or the 5.0.

TED

 

Yeah I'm happy I've got the 3.73 KR Trac Lok rear end. It wasn't imported.

And yes at low rpm's coming up to speed up some twisties, I hear that 3.73 truck rear end (that some complain about) like my (250k) F150. Hell I LOVE that SRA TL moan/clutch sound. Like a tank. I know it will take whatever I'll ever throw at it!
Just like all the other Ford's I've put hundreds of thousands of miles on.

 

She said it takes 2-3 days.

 

This is great news in my opinion because no matter how good the dealership is, its possible something could be slightly wrong and it may not show up until post warranty which would mean $$ out of your pocket. A complete new assembly means anything possibly missed by dealership personnel will be gone. I'm glad they're doing this now.

 

Yasuro - what is the build date on your car? Curious if they might have a run of bad rear-ends around your specific build time, just like the clutch issue.

 

build date was 4/10. it has a 3.73.