fdesalvo

I want to provide a detailed report from my dealership to you all who have the following issues:

1. Clunking driveshaft sound when engaging clutch at low speed
2. Whine from diff with 373s

I brought my car in several months ago and was told the clunking and whining were normal and the parts were within spec. After a second bout with this dealership, I called Ford CS and was given another dealership as an alternative. I made the appointment and left my car with them for almost 4 weeks. I was provided a rental, btw.

I just picked up my car and the clunk that was so embarrassingly prominent is now almost nonexistent. The whine from the rear end, which became very intrusive - and written off due to my rear end mods introducing noises - is now completely gone.

If you are having these issues and your dealer or fellow board members tell you that clunking or whining is normal, then you need to move on until you find a dealership that will do the work, or get Ford CS involved pronto. Here's what they did.

1. Replace Driveshaft Asy
From Dealer report: "Customer states that there is a banging sound at low speed while engaging clutch…"

"Performed inspection OK. Road test confirmed sound at low speed. Lifted and inspection. Failed found tran mount damage, Insulator and drive shaft center support bearing to have concern. Road test like vehicle for comparison. Removed parts for access for trans mount. Check linkage pass. Removed and replaced mount, Remove and replace driveline pass.

Removed and replaced trans insulator, driveshaft. Check all linkage pass. Torque to spec done. Re-road test at low speeds pass. Concern no present at the time of repair.

2. Rebuild entire pumpkin
From Dealer Report: "Cust states theres a whine from the rear. THe noise is most noticeable at highway speeds.

"Performed inspection. OK. Road test at steady freeway speeds and able to hear whining noise from rear. Return. Lifted and inspection using hearing aid. Found pinion bearings howling . Also notice vent leaking fluid and pinion seal. Removed cover. Found large amount of metal in diff. Removed drive line. Removed axles. Check back lash failed.Spec is .08 - .12. Reading wash .20 removed parts. Clean and prep area for rebuild. Installed new cones, bearings, gears, and seals. Done. Set preload to 29 inlbs. Set backlash to.08. Check pattern pass. Installed axles…."

Do not accept that your car is making these noises. This is not normal. My car is now as it should have been; as you'd expect a new car to drive. You are paying good money for something that the Ford factory workers are carelessly slapping together and most dealerships are being dismissive.

Now the only noise left to eliminate appears to be coming from my passenger rear Whiteline LCA, which this service department was cool enough to troubleshoot down to. They lubed all of the bushings and made sure everything was torqued to spec/torqued while under load where need be. Now I have to deal with this last bit.

PonyMuscletang13

Glad everything worked out as should be Frank. A fan of your posts as well as your work done on the car, I am carefully following your footsteps.

The Steeda Bracket (I went with Black Bushing) was the first step when I was doing the FRPP Power Pack at Hillbank Motorsports. The Whiteline Trans Mount Bushing will be my next mod followed by some suspension work (possibly FRPP Handling Pack).

The Clunk at low speed was the very first thing noticed when I got my car, then the front windshield fogging/ the cabin heat. And then there was a weird ticking after an oil change. I'd say it took me quite some time to adapt and get used to the Mustang (my first). Some of the issues I learned to live with/let go of, others needed attention.

Although my intention was to get TP car in the beginning, I somehow ended up with the Brembo car, 3.55 gears. Now that I'm used to the car, I can appreciate more about the gear choice (by accident lol) because mine doesn't have the infamous whine.

This is until then I discovered on my friend's 3.31-geared premium Gt with 1K miles starting to make humming noise at decel from the rear end of the car. I thought most of the 3.73's have the noise? This sure opens up possible upcoming issue on mine, who knows.

I'm hoping for another SoCal meet, it's been a while since the last one. Shant was pretty busy with his repairs lately. I will look forward to your advise on suspension mods when we meet

cdynaco

I'm curious which led to what...

My initial gut read is that the rear end was slapped together without inspection, and the ensuing excess slop led to vibration problems going forward up the driveline including the transmission mount damage.

fdesalvo

Don't you go looking at me! I don't want to be responsible for anyone's heartache!

I appreciate the kind words. Yeah, I've found the fogging issue to be a small nuisance. I think it's due to the vents resetting to the window position upon restarting the car.

I get what you mean about learning to live with things haha. He only thing bugging me at present is the creaking coming from the passenger rear - likely the whiteline lca, from what Ford is telling me. They regreased everything and retorqued things under load where required. Ah that and I'm going to do the mod to the whiteline transmount insert to reduce some in-cabin rumble.

I'm down for a meet! Haven't been to one yet! Hope your new year has been off to an excellent start.


Good question - and I'd be inclined to lean towards your gut!

alfaromeo

Congrats! It is great. I also have kind of whining at my rear end in my stock v6. But it's hard to fight dealer with my poor english. I might live with it since it's not that bad, just little annoying.

fdesalvo

I can't suggest a course of action because in unfamiliar with that car. If it gets louder def have one of the customer service reps step in!

alfaromeo

Thanks a lot. I will pay close attention to the noise/sound. It has been a while but doesn't get worse so far.

figit

Thanks for the detailed post, I remember you saying this was a definite issue when another member asked about it and I said I also have the whine. The odd thing in my case was we took out another GT, brand new, and it whined past 60mph too although it was much less intense. I think I'm going to head to another dealership as you suggest and have them take a look. Thanks again man.

fdesalvo

Do it - get your car somewhere that's really interested in diagnosing your drive line. Mine started out on the faint side, then progressed in volume between 5-10K miles on the clock. I'm not sure what else I can provide in the way of help or documentation, but let me know. My best resource was Ford CS.

PJRManagement

Glad you got them to fix it, as it should be. Thanks for sharing. Car & Driver magazine's March 2014 issue has a long-term test (40k miles) review of a 2013 GT. In their hands, their GT also had similar driveline problems. It required two trips to the dealer, and two weeks repair time. Sad that some GTs have this issue.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...rm-test-review

roadrunner

Where did you take your car? What shop?

Theres a meet this sunday, look in the SoCal thread

FordService

Definitely get it diagnosed, figit. Also, PM me with your VIN, dealer, mileage, full name, and best daytime number so I can escalate it to the customer service manager for your area.

Thanks for the mention, fdesalvo!

Deysha

figit

Info sent, thanks!

FordService

Thanks, figit! I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Deysha

fdesalvo

Problems are back and Ford is denying warranty work. I'm done.

I bought my car new in February of 2014 from Autonation Ford Tustin, CA and have had the absolute worst new car ownership experience.

Around 8K miles the clunking from the driveshaft became unbearable along with the whining rear diff. After 3 attempts to have them recognize the problem, they acknowledged the issues. On the last visit, they forgot to replace an underbody panel properly, so it was destroyed along my way home, producing an obscene scraping sound. The service advisor called and told me he ordered a new diff and some other parts, but I decided to take it to another dealership that Ford CS recommended. How could I trust them with a complex repair, when they can't even replace two bolts?

Tuttle-Click assumed the work and replaced the DS, Rear Diff, and parts of the transmission under warranty. 5K miles later, all the issues are back again. Two trips to Tuttle-Click produced nothing, so they told me to go back to another dealership if I don't like their work. I decided to give Autonation one last attempt at redemption.

They found the DS is ruined and the rear Diff is in need of repair. But this time, they are saying it's probably due to the suspension components I have on the car. What an insult.

I brought the car in for it's first warranty repair with those parts installed. Tuttle-Click set my car back up after and sent me on my way with no questions. Pinion angle? Perfect.

There's nothing like being insulted after spending over $40K on a new car, knowing I could've gotten another type of enthusiast car from another, more reliable maker with better CS and support.

To add insult to injury, Autonation decided to wash my car - without my permission. I saw what I thought was my black GT in the rear lot, but it was too shiny to be mine, I thought. Mine was a bit dusty. It was mine. I walked up to it and the entire car his absolutely covered with horrible scratches from end to end. NO ONE WASHES MY CAR BUT ME FOR THIS REASON.

Then I noticed the wheels, which were half done. They must've used some type of caustic solution on them - my brembo caliper covers are faded now - as is my window moldings and the plastic beneath my spoiler. This car lives in a garage - I work at home and it never sees the sun.

My car's finish is literally trashed. It looks like they sanded it with steel wool. The manager acknowledged this and asked what I wanted him to do. What? Well, you surely can't be trusted to wash a car without damaging it, so why would i let you remove what's left of the clear coat? The clear on these cars is about paper thin - even less. You want to polish out the scratches, then you have to remove the clear so the surface is level with the lowest depth of the scratches. You remove paint.

They surely aren't going to repaint this and ruin the rest of the car's value, so now I'm left with no recourse. I've got a beat up looking 2014 GT with 15K garaged miles on it that needs warranty work.

If you are considering buying a Ford, know that you will have no dealer support network to rely on; no one will have your back when the SHTF. Even at their best, they cause damage. Here's a link to the car's current pics...

http://s443.photobucket.com/user/fra...ibrary/mustang

mfc133

Man you're not kidding about the fading, that's rough. The level of incompetence at some dealerships is staggering. Hope they make it right for you.

cdynaco

Why is that an insult? Because how do you know the pinion angle was perfect for your lowered vehicle? If it was done by the same dealer lamo then who knows?

What else explains re-thrashing the replaced rear end? Unless they failed that phase... again...
Or could there have been some trans damage from when the mounts were bad in the beginning? Have they checked the output shaft to know it is true?
Could the engine and trans be mounted cockeyed somehow?
Is the unibody true?
Is the rear axle perpendicular?
Either something isn't true, or components within the diff and/or the trans are failing. Something is causing vibration out of tolerance.

figit

Those pics are brutal. When I picked up my car I saw them washing what looked to be a brand spanking new shelby with a broom. I ran to them and told them not to wash the black GT. The guy looked at me (holding a wash broom next to a 60k shelby) as if I had just insulted him. If I hadn't of caught it in time and my car would have been washed like that, I would have most certainly walked away from the deal.

My fan relay (which is covered despite my mods) just went out and I paid to have my car towed to my home. I have road-side assistance but I'm so paranoid when it comes to dealing with their service departments based on horrible experiences in the past that I'd rather just eat the time and money to trouble-shoot and fix it myself rather than get it fixed under warranty for "free". Ford CS offered a free rental too, assigned me a case number and offered to coordinate the entire process from having my car towed from my house to their shop and back once completed. The rep (R.J.) was awesome and for about 20 minutes I REALLY considered letting them have it but then the worry crept in and that was that. I just cant stomach the thought of being kept in the dark and fed crap again like a mushroom while waiting for my car to get home : o )

I still absolutely love my car and certainly don't regret buying it but having to accept that I paid for inferior support has been a hard pill to swallow. Just to be clear I'm sure there are awesome service departments out there. Here is a brief account of my dealings with the local ones around me:

Koon's Ford, Sterling VA - Prep washes (even Shelbys) with brooms. I purchased the car there. My salesman Chad rocks, enough so for me to drive 4 hours to buy it from him/Koons. Just don't let them wash your car hehe.

Yocumm Ford, Lansdale PA - Left my car there for nearly a week waiting for the single guy who was supposed to be good at finding water leaks to figure out why my driver's side rear floorboard is soaked after a heavy rain to show up. I needed the car to be on-site at work for a few days and pulled it before that water leak guru showed up. No rental offered. It's garage kept and now I keep two bath towels (grey color matched of course) with me in case the back gets wet. Sad I know, but so be it.

Faulkner-Ciocca Ford, Souderton PA - Not happy with the above experience, I took the car here for what seemed to be the same whine you experienced. I was told the rear ends are noisy on these cars and that it sounded like a shelby's intake as if that were a cool thing. I almost ripped my face off when I was told that. We took out another new GT (non track-pack) and it whined too. The same headache imposing hell-spawned banshee type of whine at 65mph or higher that I had experienced in my car. The tech. kept a straight face so I lost hope in that shop.

My car gets a lot of visibility and you'd think walking up to it that the owner is a proud Ford owner. These days I don't consider myself a Ford guy. I consider myself a coyote guy, and like a coyote I'm on my own. The engine is brilliant and the car is worth every penny but yeah, in my opinion your rolling solo when you take one of these off the lot.

fdesalvo

They set the pinion angle on the way out after the first repair. These aren't exotic parts that haven't been tested with this type of car. It's not rocket science - at least you'd think it wasn't.

fdesalvo

Well said.