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

[Shade-010]

How many miles should Zillion put on the FF to totally verify NO CLUNK? I trust it should not return, but where do you think Ford will accept the repair? Are they gonna require 10,000 miles... WHO KNOWS?

[Lipshurt]

My fix of simply wedging a credit card under the brace worked great for about 800 miles. I drive about 800 miles a week. Over the next 1600 or so its still pretty much fixed.
It does not disappear 100% but its waaaay better. It was insane before that.

If it does show up, it's gone after about two minutes of driving. Before it would up to twenty minutes. It's also more muted, and if it makes a full rattle, which is rare, it's shorter and the vibrations are different than before the credit card shim.

I'm ok with he way it is now, and consider my fix about good enough for now. It's not really often any worse in the last two weeks. The sound was gone for a week though, and even though it is still quite good, something has changed.

[Zillon]

Originally Posted by stang74shelby

How many miles should Zillion put on the FF to totally verify NO CLUNK? I trust it should not return, but where do you think Ford will accept the repair? Are they gonna require 10,000 miles... WHO KNOWS?

The last time I had the clunk disappear, was when I did a fresh strut/bearing/mount install. It returned in 1500 miles.

If I can surpass 1500 miles this time with no clunk, I'd hope we're good.

One last avenue I haven't tried yet, since Lipshurt seems to be having success with shimming the strut tower with a plastic card, is bonding the strut ends of the strut tower brace to the towers with silicone, or spraying the ends with Plastidip.

[Sonic_HedgeHog]

Zack... How much the "upgraded" brace set you back (I apologize now if you already said)?

[Zillon]

Originally Posted by Sonic_HedgeHog

Zack... How much the "upgraded" brace set you back (I apologize now if you already said)?

77 bucks for the brace from Tousley.

[killjoy]

OK fourth time in shop for this issue and the dealer has gave up. The response is ford's engineers are working to solve this problem and you are advised to keep updated on the progress of the fix.

What do you do to work with this? If the car made this sound when I test drove it I wouldn't have bought it.

[HuskerFocus]

Originally Posted by killjoy

OK fourth time in shop for this issue and the dealer has gave up. The response is ford's engineers are working to solve this problem and you are advised to keep updated on the progress of the fix.

What do you do to work with this? If the car made this sound when I test drove it I wouldn't have bought it.

Have you seen this thread? http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=302183

Zillon has been on the front lines for us all trying to get to the bottom of this as well. At the very least, you can take solace in that you are certainly not the only one battling this.

[BlazeFocus]

I finally poured through this entire thread.
Are you kidding me? The entire Ford Customer Service presence on this website is complete joke. They are "coordinators" and offer no real added value; neither do the the assigned regional CSMs. They admittedly are not technical.

The nice thing about the web is that the record keeps growing.
Spend just 10 minutes sampling this thread and extension threads Zillon created along the way and you will see how useless the Ford rep dis jour is. It's almost robotic how they grab account names and ask for the same BS vehicle/owner info, with the same "I will happily assist" line.

Like I've stated before, this is that new millennium "social media" awareness campaign thing that medium to large companies are engaging. Looks good, promotes well, gives bragging rights to being "hip & current" but effectively nets zero results or propagation of truth for the paying customer base.

[symbology]

Originally Posted by BlazeFocus

I finally poured through this entire thread.
Are you kidding me? The entire Ford Customer Service presence on this website is complete joke. They are "coordinators" and offer no real added value; neither do the the assigned regional CSMs. They admittedly are not technical.

The nice thing about the web is that the record keeps growing.
Spend just 10 minutes sampling this thread and extension threads Zillon created along the way and you will see how useless the Ford rep dis jour is. It's almost robotic how they grab account names and ask for the same BS vehicle/owner info, with the same "I will happily assist" line.

Like I've stated before, this is that new millennium "social media" awareness campaign thing that medium to large companies are engaging. Looks good, promotes well, gives bragging rights to being "hip & current" but effectively nets zero results or propagation of truth for the paying customer base.

Must be a fun (low paying) dispatcher job to have...

Pouring through this thread will make any Focus owner with these problems upset.
I've also gotten the typical run around from the Ford Customer Service Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area. I did not experience them not calling me back, but they were pretty unhelpful. I also got to know the CS Manager's subordinates fairly well. Only spoke with her once.
That being said, this is my very first car. I emptied my savings account on what I thought would be a great car. Besides the clunk, grinding transmission, occasional jerks, and a half dozen MFT bugs, I can say that this car is pretty decent for what I paid for. That doesn't mean that these issues don't make me feel embarrassed when I have other people in the car, but I got a pretty good car for what I paid for.
I hope Ford finds a fix. I really do. If they don't, I'll drive this car for a few years until I find something else, hopefully get a decent trade in, and never buy another Ford. I'll tell other people how I really feel about Ford cars. If they do fix, I'll gladly recommend them and consider another one in the future (never a 1st gen, though).
I also think it's unproductive to chastise the Ford employee(s) that monitor this forum. Yes they say the same stuff to everybody. Yes escalating to the CSM is a waste of time. At least they are doing something. Big companies often have complicated structures, and they seem like they are doing everything in their power.
For those threatening a class action lawsuit or going to the media, good luck. Especially given that these sounds do not indicate a dangerous precedent in how they operate.
I appreciate all the work Zillon and others are doing, and actively read the threads each night hoping for new developments. The only way we're going to fix this is to work together and stay on topic. Or buy new cars.

[BlazeFocus]

Originally Posted by symbology

Pouring through this thread will make any Focus owner with these problems upset.
I've also gotten the typical run around from the Ford Customer Service Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area. I did not experience them not calling me back, but they were pretty unhelpful. I also got to know the CS Manager's subordinates fairly well. Only spoke with her once.
That being said, this is my very first car. I emptied my savings account on what I thought would be a great car. Besides the clunk, grinding transmission, occasional jerks, and a half dozen MFT bugs, I can say that this car is pretty decent for what I paid for. That doesn't mean that these issues don't make me feel embarrassed when I have other people in the car, but I got a pretty good car for what I paid for.
I hope Ford finds a fix. I really do. If they don't, I'll drive this car for a few years until I find something else, hopefully get a decent trade in, and never buy another Ford. I'll tell other people how I really feel about Ford cars. If they do fix, I'll gladly recommend them and consider another one in the future (never a 1st gen, though).
I also think it's unproductive to chastise the Ford employee(s) that monitor this forum. Yes they say the same stuff to everybody. Yes escalating to the CSM is a waste of time. At least they are doing something. Big companies often have complicated structures, and they seem like they are doing everything in their power.
For those threatening a class action lawsuit or going to the media, good luck. Especially given that these sounds do not indicate a dangerous precedent in how they operate.
I appreciate all the work Zillon and others are doing, and actively read the threads each night hoping for new developments. The only way we're going to fix this is to work together and stay on topic. Or buy new cars.

Define the value they truly add to the "Ford experience" and I will retract what I have stated. People will get a more "direct" experience going directly to the dealership; albeit this particular problem will be met with the usual roadblocks. The value add isn't there. Prove me wrong. It's like a "sign the petition" drive to get things on the local ballot; Ford is "monitoring" all right. But the signatures and the statistics aren't helping anyone with mechanical issues of this magnitude. It's a front. "At least they are doing something." Doing something? What do they bring to the table that you can't already get by picking up the phone and contacting your local dealer?
It's big corporate social media 101 -
Prove me wrong...