2012 Titanium Front Strut Low Speed Noise (Clunk/Rattle)

[TORQUERULES]

Is this a TSB we are getting a letter about, or just one to take care of complaints/occurrences of the clunk and you have to go to the dealer and hope for the best? I get the clunk, but it isn't too bad YET. I just wonder if they will do it with me having non-stock springs. I may just have to do it myself...

[hand-filer]

Good news!
I just got a call from the dealership. They have ordered the parts to perform TSB 12-6-17.
Even better news!
At this point it's no longer as urgent as it once was to have it repaired. I have decided to trade it in on a new Titanium Escape.

[dyn085]

Originally Posted by zx3matt

Is this a TSB we are getting a letter about, or just one to take care of complaints/occurrences of the clunk and you have to go to the dealer and hope for the best? I get the clunk, but it isn't too bad YET. I just wonder if they will do it with me having non-stock springs. I may just have to do it myself...

You won't get a letter, if you have the clunk you have to approach your Service dept about it. It is just a service bulletin to help the mechanics diagnose the problem.

[TiStick]

Originally Posted by zx3matt

Is this a TSB we are getting a letter about, or just one to take care of complaints/occurrences of the clunk and you have to go to the dealer and hope for the best? I get the clunk, but it isn't too bad YET. I just wonder if they will do it with me having non-stock springs. I may just have to do it myself...

In many ways, you know that to be the better choice.

I'm hoping the ST has a different(ie. beefier) top hat/bearing assembly that will fit right in to ours. It should, but you never know what these guys change just for the sake of doing it.

[Zillon]

Originally Posted by TitaniumStick

In many ways, you know that to be the better choice.

I'm hoping the ST has a different(ie. beefier) top hat/bearing assembly that will fit right in to ours. It should, but you never know what these guys change just for the sake of doing it.

Don't get your hopes up. Mazda uses same strut bearings for the MS3 and regular MZ3.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Anyone have a copy of the TSB?

[TiStick]

Originally Posted by Zillon

Don't get your hopes up. Mazda uses same strut bearings for the MS3 and regular MZ3.

I feel that there will be quite a bit of aftermarket support for the ST. Suspension is usually one of the first upgrades, so it would seem likely that if there are parts like the top hat/bearing to upgrade, it will be addressed. So, I can still hope that the ST gets the same crappy assembly we apparently have now, as there is greater potential for an upgrade of the ST part then the Focus part.

My hopes are up, but I won't be holding my breath.

[jpolk84]

Originally Posted by FordCustomerService

I don't think I've sent the details to your CSM. I'll loop them in if you'd like; please shoot me your VIN, mileage, phone #, and dealer info. Totally agree with you here; customer satisfaction is tops in our book.

- Thomas

They ordered the part. My sister knows someone up at the front office so she called him. He said they definitely should replace it if they have the TSB. So it worked out. Thanks for the offer, though! I am a little troubled and am afraid of the shop taking this stance. I'm not encouraged about future visits. I worked in a dealer for a number of years and I know how customers can be. I genuinely have been on both sides and try not to be a bad customer. This was my very first visit to the service department and I gave them checklist of things I needed them to look at.

[Bames_Jond]

After an interesting telephone conversation with my service advisor on Tuesday (he pre-warned me before I picked up the car the night before that it still clunks, but to their credit, less noticeably than before) in which I found out that they've got "14 hours in it now" and "everything's tight" (the latter a line reminiscent of a previous service visit), I was very dismayed on the short drive home to discover the crunching/creaking noise that has often accompanied the clunking and popping sounds had seemingly been amplified (now it goes to 11). So... in one manner of phrasing, I guess the clunk is less noticeable.

Oh my, am I ever beginning to despise this car.

And I'm not entirely unsympathetic to the dealer's position: they didn't sell me the car (I moved out to the boondocks to be close to my office after I bought the thing - they just have the misfortune of being located 4 blocks down the road), I'm increasingly less likely to ever purchase a new car from them and they're stuck trying to get reimbursed for all their expended labor from the manufacturer. They're frustrated too and have nary a clue how to repair the vehicle. If they never saw me again at this point, I'm sure they'd be absolutely delighted (I half expected a map with directions to the nearest Honda dealership stapled to the back of the service invoice when I arrived).

Regardless, I'm the one that has to drive around in what sounds like a 50 year old hay wagon. I need to get the thing repaired now just to trade it off (I have a conscience... and work in a highly visible area business... so a private party sale during a heavy downpour isn't really an option). As such, a carefully worded telephone call this afternoon from a CSM at Ford didn't please me.

I'm sincerely hoping Ford doesn't turn this into a legal fight. I've got to believe they know it's in their best interest to repair the car too: if I did figure out a viable way to trade Sir Clunksalot in tomorrow, they're almost certain to lose two customers; right now, they still have the opportunity to retain one.

So for me (thank you, helpful CSM), it will be more vacation time used for something other than a vacation and a drive across town to the next closest dealer (the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this isn't a sinister plot to get me to run up the odometer...).

One potential upside [I hope] to the increased noise after service visit #4 though: over the last day, the car has been more consistently making a creak/crunch during 1-2 upshifts and when slowly backing out of the garage onto the driveway apron (the transition from the garage floor to the apron is very slight - less than an inch) as well as crossing over the curb out into the lane. Could this be helpful in pinpointing the root cause?

The struts, strut mounts, strut bearings and sway bar links have now been replaced and heaping helpings of "mylar and insulative material" have been applied to various underhood points and the inner front bumper cover... I questioned the service advisor whether the "stress noise" culprit could be a transmission or engine mount, but he didn't think so. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Over the past year or so, I've noticed what I once presumed to be an engine rattle at idle (it goes away if I depress the clutch). Now I'm wondering if that might actually be engine vibration getting transmitted to the body/subframe via a faulty mount. Could a bad mount ever be audible as a creak or clunk?

Quite often I get a popping noise almost identical to the ol' low speed (5-15mph) knockity-knock just by releasing the clutch from a stop. And when I drove a "comparable model" SES at the dealer last week, it had none of the dieselly shudder mine exhibits right at start-up...

I realize I have the '10 model, but my Focus has such similar suspension maladies to some of the ones you folks here have been experiencing (and there are a lot of knowledgeable folks on this thread), I'm hoping someone might have an idea or suggestion for a fix.


Dreaming of Clunk-free Motoring,

Mike

[ricomtl]

I'm going on week 3 of clunk free driving - every morning when I leave home, I turn off the radio and still listen ... just in case it was start over, but it seems like it was fixed!

Yay for me !