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

[revhigh]

Originally Posted by FordCustomerService

Seriously though, I know they’re working hard on it.

Sorry Cory .... nobody believes that. You're now the third or fourth 'customer service rep' here that has been singing that same old off-key tune.

It is absolutely inconceivable that Ford's suspension engineers can't figure out a simple suspension clunk in close to two year's time if they were 'working hard on it' .... I bet Zillion could figure it out in less than a week if he had the manpower, equipment, and spare parts ... oh yeah .... and one other thing .... THE WILL TO ACTUALLY RESOLVE THE PROBLEM without regard to the cost to the Ford pocketbook and/or reputation.


REV

[sgmfocus]

not to stick up for Ford,but Dodge had a similar clunk on there 2nd(2001 thru 2006) generation Stratus took them until the 2005 model year production started; to issue a tsb(2 rivots in strut tower/wheel well took care of problem) about it

[Dysan911]

Thought I'd share this link.. Lots of pics and explanation of our suspension. If anything it might give us ideas on what to tap with a hammer to see if we can find the noise. lol

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/t...alkaround.html

[revhigh]

Originally Posted by Dysan911

Thought I'd share this link.. Lots of pics and explanation of our suspension. If anything it might give us ideas on what to tap with a hammer to see if we can find the noise. lol

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/t...alkaround.html

Nice link !

My guess, however, is that it's not in the hardware of the suspension system, it's in the car's frame itself ... maybe in the connection of the firewall to the strut tower (or that area). The reason it sometimes is 'fixed' temporarily is that the new parts that they install temporarily eliminate the interference that's causing the clunking ... maybe through tightening or slighly displacing the two offending parts due to different tightening torque values or different positioning of replaced parts. This is why some fixes last 10,000 miles and some last a week .... like mine did.

If it's a construction frame issue ... it's easy to see how Ford would not want to disassemble these cars to the unibody in order to fix the issue .... maybe the welds have broken, or there were not enough welds, or the guage of the metal was not thick enough to prevent the flexing that is causing the clunking.

My guess is we'll never know ... Ford will resolve it in production and the rest of the current owners will be stuck with clunking cars that they're embarassed to drive with anybody else in the car.

They've already identified the location with the chassis ears, they're already tried replacing almost every related part, and still no fix. THe only thing left that I can see is the unibody itself.

REV

[Lipshurt]

I had an appointment today at but when I went in it was too warm outside to really make it obvious. We decided to have me come back as soon as it gets colder out. That was fine with me. I want it to be really obvious.
A little update on my noise...
I'm the guy that fixed it with a credit card stuffed under the strut tower brace. All was good until I had the dealer rotate my tires. BAM the noise was back completely. So lifting the car off the wheels or something had an effect. So its been in the 40's here and the noise was really bad. Then a few nights ago we got lost and out GPS sent down a road that went into some kind of flood damaged area with huge ruts and holes and the car took a beating getting through it. Guess what? The sound was gone. And it was bad for a whole month before that. Since the its come back but not nearly as bad, and its following the pattern of only doing it when it cold and it goes away completely when the car warms up, but it takes about ten minutes or more.

So since I took off a whole day today to go to the dealer, on the way home I bought some ramps and put the car on then and slid under there to look around. All looks great except the drive shaft has about .030 inches of play. If I jiggle it back and forth it makes the sound that I hear coming from the wheel area. Is a CV joint supposed to have any play at al? Would that tighten up after it got warm? I'm doing research on it right now.

[Dysan911]

Rev,

I found a couple good videos too on Youtube. When this driver rolls back and forth over his driveway curb you can't miss it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w19NZS3i-GE

and this one is interesting too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se7pC9_LY3g

What I can't figure out is, why does the noise for a lot of people only occur with passengers in the car. Just add another 150+ person next to me and I can reproduce the sound by hitting the right bumps and the harder I nose dive the car (suspension compressed) the stiffer something is getting under the car and rattling. Has anyone already tried replacing the end links on the sway? I suspect Zillion probably already did.

[Dysan911]

Lip,

Mine has that same amount of play. I thought the same thing. How easy would it be for you to disconnect the Sway bar completely?

[sgmfocus]

Originally Posted by Dysan911

Lip,

Mine has that same amount of play. I thought the same thing. How easy would it be for you to disconnect the Sway bar completely?

Zillon tried that already it didn't help, just have to unhook the ends and secure them
http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/s...&postcount=195

[BlazeFocus]

Originally Posted by FordCustomerService

These things take time, guys. I’ve been told engineering is looking into this. Please stay strong while they work on it.

Cory

Cory, your response begs the obvious question:

If the Ford team is working on this issue, doesn't
it make sense to hold off on wasting time scheduling
a service appointment until something concrete comes
back from the engineers - like a TSB or something definitive?

[HuskerFocus]

Originally Posted by BlazeFocus

Cory, your response begs the obvious question:

If the Ford team is working on this issue, doesn't
it make sense to hold off on wasting time scheduling
a service appointment until something concrete comes
back from the engineers - like a TSB or something definitive?

In all fairness, a service appointment still makes sense. *IF* the dealer mechanics /technicians pass along information they receive. Also, likely some of the noises some of us hear may be tied to other issues, such as the wiper fluid reservoir rattling (I believe that was a fix for a couple people) or something else that could be resolved with a visit.