Ford Engineer came to look at my clunking/whining rear end....

PoopDawg

Autozone Junkie
Founding Member
Jun 21, 2002
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Orlando, FL
And he tries to explain to me that it is "normal given the mileage of the vehicle" Which is 8000!!! I try to keep out of these things and let my wife handle them because she does it a little more civilized then I do. I just get REALLY pissed off when some dick head tries to tell me what isn't wrong with my car. I've been doing this too long to let some dip **** tell me what is right and what's not.

Conversation goes like this:

Him:"Hello, I drove your vehicle today and I cannot find anything abnormal with it. I drove it from 40MPH to 45 MPH where most whining should happen and I got nothing"

Me: "So you're trying to tell me that my 27,000 dollar vehicle is supposed to whine at speeds over 65MPH and clunk everything I hit the gas or shift??"

Him: "Yes, it is normal for these vehicles to do this"

Me: "Why was I not informed of this problem BEFORE I bought the car?"

Him: Silence.

Me: I want you to go pull a vehicle off the lot and tell me it makes the same noise. It won't!

Him: That's because it hasn't "broken in" yet. They make more noise with more miles on them

Me: hahahahah. You're haven't a clue what you're talking about.
This is where it gets good:

Me: So you're telling me this problem that the dealer has attempted for fix SIX TIMES is all of a sudden "normal"???"

Him: Yes

Me: Listen: I'm not an idiot. I run my own shop and I am a technician myself. I have worked for Ford and know what you guys are about. There is SOMETHING WRONG with the rear end and YOU need to fix it or give me my damn money back for the car. I know you hate it when you get a customer that actually knows what he's talking about and doesnt let you mow him or her over with all your semi-technical words. I know what I'm talking about, and I KNOW there is a problem here.

Him: Your vehicle with the mileage you have on it, this is considered a normal noise"

Me: So should I have all my friends with 05+ Mustangs bring their vehicles into the dealer to have this "normal" noise installed???

Him: Well, no...

Me: This dealer has attempted to fix this car 6 times now. They obviously understand there is a problem. They have replaced the ring and pinion many times and replaced the whole axle assembly once already.... The assembly only made it WORSE

Him: Well you see then, attempting to fix this problem is only making it worse. This is why we are not going to attempt to fix this problem again. If a whole axle assembly didn't fix it, nothing will.

Me: You know what the problem with your axle assemblies are? They're made is MEXICO! And don't even try to tell me their not, because I KNOW this are.

Him: Silence:

Me: What happened to the good old days of "Quality is Job #1"???????? I have a 90 5 liter with 107K on it, stock rear end, with no rubber bushings in the back, all spherical, and it makes absolutely ZERO NOISE. There is NO difference in that rear end then this one. So why after 17 years you have so many damn problems with it?? The problem here is in the 3.55 gear set. Ford specifically cancelled the 3.55s as the standard ratio in 07 because they had these exact same problems with many vehicles! This is the reason they went with a 3.31 gear set! I want you to put in a 3.31 gear set and give me my 100 bucks back!

Him: We can't do that. It will mess up the PCM's programing

Me: Are you f***ing kidding me dude??? Mess it up? You have the scan tools to reprogram it for the 3.31s!

Him: It will mess up the way the car runs

Me: HAHAHA Are you out of your mind?!? It will make the speedo run a little slow! That's IT! You're tryign to tell me axle ratio determines fuel and timing maps??? You have NO idea what you are talking about

Him: Well sir, we will not be fixing your vehicle any longer for this problem

Me: Just another point here: My rear brakes are squeeking, and the dealer tells me there is nothing wrong with it, to come back in 20-30K miles and they'll look at it then... I AM NOT AN IDIOT! The brakes are only covered for 12 months, 12K miles! They're trying to trap me into coming in after the warranty is up so they can attempt to sell me brakes for the same reason it's in now! That's BULL****. THEN my shifter falls apart on the way home on me!! My WHOLE family has ALWAYS been Ford! All you are doing is turning me off to you guys. All you're doing is dicking me around.


Me: I would like your comments in writing faxed to me on a Ford letter head so I have proof that you are lying to me, trying to tell me there is nothing wrong

Him: That's fine. I will get that to you within the week


There's a lot more I'm forgetting, but it sure was nice to get all this BS off my chest. My technicians were standing in awe because I'm not the type of person to go off like this. They know I know what I'm talking about, and they knew this guy just buried himself trying to tell me there is nothing wrong.


In short. This guy had no idea what he was in for. I am still stuck with a POS rear end that they consider normal. But this is far far from over. I'm not taking no for an answer until I'm on the phone with Bill Ford, Jr himself. There is always someone higher up then who I'm talking to. We are considering selling the car, as we could get more for it then we owe. But we will see


Sorry for such a long post. This just didn't make my day any better, and just wanted to warn you guys.... If a Ford Engineer is coming out to look at your car, be ready. All they are going to do is say everything is just fine. No wonder Ford is in the hole billions.......

Nick
 
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Perhaps you can get the opinion of a third party (another mechanic shop) and see about lemon laws. You wasted your breath with a jerk like that.

I know I wasted my breath. But I felt better afterwards. I have all my techs take it for a ride, and many others... and all agree there's a problem.

We contacted Ford again today, and the Customer service person said they can only help us by paying our car payment for one month LOL. I think not! Fix my damn car, or give me one that isn't broke! Then he stated he will NOT let us speak to his supervisor.... Unless his name is Bill Ford, Jr... There is someone else I can talk to. Presistance pays off in situations like this. The more people we talk to, the higher up the latter we go, the more likely we will get what we want.... and I don't want something I shouldn't have. I want my new car to function correctly.

Nick
 
You know what that tells me. Tells me Ford has passed the word down that no extra money or effort is to be spent ANYWHERE as they need to save literally every penny to improve their cash position as a company so that they can cash out and sell the company.

I knew Ford might be gone as the company we knew it as--in a couple of years--but now it could be a lot sooner. :\

Rear end clunk and whine
Leaking brake fluid cap
Fuel filler issues
And so many more

All 100% obviously defective yet nothing has been done.
 
Perhaps in the UK, we have a different sense of humour but I would have thought twice about titling my thread:
Ford Engineer came to look at my clunking/whining rear end....



Sorry, I'll get my coat...

Hope you get it sorted. I keep reading stuff like this and worry about Ford quality as we don't have any warranty here in the UK so we have to pony up the readies when things go wrong.
 
Had the same problem with the Ford guru. The guru, the tech, the tech manger guy who runs the joint all said "there is nothing wrong." So I said lets go to the parking lot, drive the car 5 feet and then you 3 experts tell me there is nothing wrong. The head guy said "lets go" like this is going to be a joke and he's going to show me up, after all they did all drive the car and found nothing wrong. They moved the car 5 feet and all looked at each other with that look like "oh fudge".. My car is now doing my clicking noise again, I wonder if it's going to be a pain again to get it fixed again.

Ford is broke, you'd be an idiot to buy a Ford, they can't fix problems because they have no money.

You can call Bill Ford Jr, the very man who got them in this mess and who keeps Matt Millen ruining the Lions, they don't and won't care. It's over for Ford, in a few years once they run out of that money they leveraged against their assets, it's OVER!

Lincoln is a national embarrassment.
 
I've got what sounds like the same problem in my 06 GT that started at 3000 miles. I'm up to 4500 miles now, but I can't take it any more and I'm gonna have to break down and take it in for service. My gears moan really bad and it sounds like your dragging a sick cat. It happens at 39 to 43 miles per hour in fith gear. It is so loud that with the shaker 500 turned up, I can still hear it. Is that the sound that you have? Any suggestions when I bring it in for service? Thanks.
 
Exactly the same sound, except mine is from 65MPH and on. The retard engineer did say most whines come at the 35-45 MPHish range. Good luck. Like I said, the dealer did try to fix it 6 times with no luck... so they got Ford involved so they could get a "get out of jail free" card. They knew Ford would say nothing is wrong with it and they wouldn't have to fix it anymore. And yes, with my Shaker 500 turned way up, you can still hear the whine. It's annoying as ****
 
First off, if I had to go back more than twice, I would just sell the car. I have no patience for that type of ignorance and stupidity. If you like the car, why not save yourself some grief and just pay and have the rear redone again. It'll probably cost you maybe 500 to have a new ring and pinion put in. I'm sure mine is gonna moan at 65, I just never drive my car over 50. I've got a short drive to work. I guess I'll let them try and fix it, although, after hearing what happened to you, I'm not going back more than once. Hey, here is an idea for you... Upgrade your audio system and you wont' even hear the motor. I'll bet my car has been doing this for a while, because I didn't hear it until I took my system out. It started at about 3000 miles and right now I'm at 4500. Anyway, keep us posted and let me know how you make out..
 
Exactly the same sound, except mine is from 65MPH and on. The retard engineer did say most whines come at the 35-45 MPHish range. Good luck. Like I said, the dealer did try to fix it 6 times with no luck... so they got Ford involved so they could get a "get out of jail free" card. They knew Ford would say nothing is wrong with it and they wouldn't have to fix it anymore. And yes, with my Shaker 500 turned way up, you can still hear the whine. It's annoying as ****

my 05 vert had the whining gears from 55 to 65 mph at about 2000 miles - took it in and they replaced the rear end; fortunately i have had no problems since then;;; there is a problem and yours should get fixed - sorry for the grief you are taking...hope you get it worked out as there is a problem with the 05 rear ends and they know it.
 
My buddy has his rebuilt 5 times before they fixed it. That was back in 05, so now that Ford is in even worse trouble, I doubt they'll fix it. To me, I would go after the sales guy and the owner of the dealership.

IT'S WAR AT THE STEALERSHIP! You gotta go in there with an attitude, that you are not going away.
 
It seems like 1 of 2 things are happening here:

1). Ford has trained its engineers (most likely a direct contracted engineer and not a Ford Corp engineer) to mitigate liability and risk by claiming everything is normal unless it is life threatening or something that will easily bite Ford in its butt.

2). The Ford engineer is clueless about engineering and just has a degree. He/she probably couldn't tell the difference between a synchromesh manual gearbox from an automatic transaxle.
 
My buddy filed paper work for the lemon law, Ford sent a letter asking that they want one last time to fix it, he told them no and is going to arbitration. File the paper work, regardless of what Ford says if your state has some sort of arbitration you are good to go.

My roomates father did the lemon law with an 06 C6 that was burning a quart of oil a month. They ruled in his favor and GM had to buy the car back.
 
man, this sounds all too familiar for me. i actually went thru arbitration with GM on a car we had several years ago. basically it is a long drawn out process that does nothing but piss you off in the end. we were told that we HAD to give them one more chance to repair the vehicle, after it was in the shop for a total of 39 days, and 7 times for the exact same issue. now, our state's lemon law is only 6 tries and i think 21 days, but yet they didn't do anything to our liking. unfortunately, we did not let them attempt to repair it again, we simply traded it and was done with it. i feel for anyone caught in this position, whether it be with a Ford or GM or whatever. it is a mess to deal with, and it almost makes you hate cars. but Ford is hurting right now, and bad. i don't look for them to make any good changes.

oh yeah, and if you are lucky enough to get a ruling in your favor, chances are you won't get the money out of your car that you owe, unless you didn't finance all of it. the go off of a depreciated value, as well as mileage, time owned, and condition. it is a total crock!
 
I think it varies state by state. In the case of the C6, lawyers got involved and in the end it cost him 2k to drive a brand new vette for 1 year plus legal fees. The dealership was on the side of my roommates father, they use to buy a new vette every few years but the dealership couldn't help them..

I would never ever ever go into this without an attorney. 500 bucks to talk to a lawyer could save you tons of money and headaches.
 
that is true, because the "state" lemon law person that you deal with, they usually go with the manufacturer, especially since they get paid either way...if i ever have to go thru it again, i will contact an attorney first thing, before i even send the manufacturer any letter, i would actually let the attorney do that, so it's more professional.