03 Rears Blownup?

[NASTYCOBRA]

Anyone with an 03 cobra having any rear problems. A friend of mine has blown his up twice. SVT came out and looked at it after the second time, and said it is from abuse, and now the dealer will only pay for half of the cost to repair it. Also, another friend of mine says his 03 is always clunking in the rear after he takes his foot off the gas, and the dealer told him "That's what they all do". I was just wondering if there was something I missed on the board that was talked about the rears already. Did anyone have or experience this problem, you would figure an almost 400 horsepower car could take some burnouts! I don't get to frequent the forums much. Any help or info would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[COBRA90GT]

Your friend grenaded the rear end of his '03 twice? How so? What was he doing? What mods did he have? It sounds like he is lucky that the dealership is footing half of the bill if his cobra is modded or if he was launching it shrug. Also, he might want to look into a built solid axle if he is serious on racing...

As far as the rear end "clunk" goes, it's been documented fairly well that some IRS snakes have had that issue. But, I'm not sure if there is something that T-56 owners have found out, in regards to curing the "clunk" in an 03/04... G'luck...

 

[vipergts281]

I am having rear end problems on my 03 Cobra. I already broke a half shaft because of wheel hop.....less than 6,000 miles when it happened. And there is a constant noise in the back of my car when I drive. Kind of like a "shutter" sound. And my car also clunks. The clunk is from the IRS I believe. Apparently, "it's the nature of the beast".

BTW, where at in PA are you? It says Bucks, PA....do you mean Bucks County?

 

[Uncle Meat]

Yes the clunk is normal in the '03's. It's caused by driveline slop in the IRS. The IRS has a few more components compared to a solid rear end and so there is more play in it.

As for the broken rear end, this is common on IRS equipped Cobra's of any year. There is a torque brace that bolts to pumpkin that causes a lot of stress when the car is getting traction under hard acceleration. Doing a burnout does not cause the problem, hooking up good on the drag strip with a set of sticky tires will though. There are many cases of broken rear end covers over on SVTPerformance.com and Mr. MJChip is working on a new differential cover brace to prevent this from happening. Read about it here: http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=72955

U.M.

 

[98yellowstang]

Your friend grenaded the rear end of his '03 twice? How so? What was he doing? What mods did he have? It sounds like he is lucky that the dealership is footing half of the bill if his cobra is modded or if he was launching it shrug. Also, he might want to look into a built solid axle if he is serious on racing...

As far as the rear end "clunk" goes, it's been documented fairly well that some IRS snakes have had that issue. But, I'm not sure if there is something that T-56 owners have found out, in regards to curing the "clunk" in an 03/04... G'luck...

I seriously think if I tried hard enough I could of broke the axle in 04 twice by the time I hit 1000 miles. I have been driving it hard. I will make ford pay up if anything goes wrong.

Now clunking. Yes it clunks when its taking up the slack. But if it still clunks after he is moving and has the slack taken up then you have a problem.

Why does ford have to be such dill holes about this, why can't they just fess up and replace stuff. I mean for 35k don't you think they can at least back it up? I am losing faith ever since I had to worry about this warrenty crap.

Later

 

[vipergts281]

I seriously think if I tried hard enough I could of broke the axle in 04 twice by the time I hit 1000 miles. I have been driving it hard. I will make ford pay up if anything goes wrong.

Now clunking. Yes it clunks when its taking up the slack. But if it still clunks after he is moving and has the slack taken up then you have a problem.

Why does ford have to be such dill holes about this, why can't they just fess up and replace stuff. I mean for 35k don't you think they can at least back it up? I am losing faith ever since I had to worry about this warrenty crap.

Later

Same here, I could of broke more if I wanted. I'm still convinced something else is going to break....like another halfshaft. If wheel hop causes halfshafts to break, well then I think I am screwed in the future. Sometimes wheel hop is unavoidable. But atleast now I let off the "instant" I feel it. And 1st and 2nd gear are useless because of hop.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Now clunking. Yes it clunks when its taking up the slack. But if it still clunks after he is moving and has the slack taken up then you have a problem.

He stated it only happens when he takes his foot off the gas.

U.M.

 

[98yellowstang]

yup ok upon re-read I see it, and yes that perfectly normal.

Thanks meat