Accelerating and Suddenly Shudder Shudder Shudder :(

[LDHunter]

I was accelerating onto the interstate here yesterday and as I hit the speed limit (I would NEVER exceed it ;) ) I suddenly experienced a very strange shuddering (for loss of a better word) in my drivetrain somewhere and my check engine light went on.

DAMN!!! DAMN!!! DAMN!!! I thought I'd blown my motor or transmission or something major. I didn't have my foot on the floor and it wasn't shifting at max RPMs or anywhere near there but I still experienced an immediate stomach upset and a distinct sinking feeling.

This is a nearly BRAND NEW 2022 Mustang GT CS (California Edition) with ~1300 miles on it and I was immediately glad it's still under warranty.

I got off the throttle immediately and started watching my mirrors as I had to navigate crossing three lanes onto the shoulder but as I was moving over I noticed that my check engine light had already turned off and the "shuddering" symptoms had quit as soon as I got off the throttle.

Hmmmmmm..... Says I... So what to do? Keep driving home at a moderate speed or pull over and call for a tow? It was Sunday early evening at 5:42pm and I really didn't want to spend what might be hours by the side of I-10 waiting for a tow and then getting a ride home along with all the stress of doing without my favorite car I've ever owned for who knows how long. By the way I also have a couple of pickup trucks so I wouldn't have been without wheels.

Anyway... I elected to limp home at moderate speeds meanwhile closely monitoring the display area where the check engine light is in case it came on again which would have had me stopping immediately and getting towed no matter the inconvenience.

Sooooo.... When I got home and settled I opened Ford Pass on my phone to see if it could shed any light on the problem and lo and behold the answer was right there!

The message was "The Service Soon Light indicates that your vehicle encountered a misfire" and it went on to instruct me to drive carefully with no rapid acceleration or deceleration until I could get it serviced at a dealership or some such wording.

In thinking back and recreating the feeling I encountered, a misfire in one or more cylinders could very easily have been what caused the shuddering feeling and also I might point out that this GT doesn't get nearly as good gas mileage as my previous one which was a 2020 GT Premium 401A that was totaled by a whitetail buck just a few weeks ago. We're talking an average of 22.6mpg on the 2020 GT vs 19.2mpg on the 2022 GT.

Soooooo.... Maybe this problem has been there since I got the car new and that's reflected in the inferior gas mileage?

I'll report back after my dealership gets it on their computers and gives me a diagnosis but I'll venture a guess that it's a fuel injector issue with one of the injectors.

Anybody have any thoughts on this or past experience?

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[LDHunter]

It's an automatic and I just googled Mustang GT Misfire and there are a bunch of hits on this issue so apparently it's not that uncommon.

 

[DandeeLioness]

I just had this EXACT same thing happen about 30 minutes ago. Accelerating on the on ramp, felt a weird shudder for a second or two, and noticed the engine light blinking on my dash before it went off about 30 seconds later. I checked Fordpass and it had the same “service engine soon” alert and mentioned the engine misfire.

I drove her normally back to work with no issues. She’s got about 4700 miles and I’d just put gas (91) in on Saturday, so that was full. She’s an A10, too.

A quick google search does indicate it’s not an uncommon issue — could be spark plugs? Either way, I plan to take her in soon just to be totally sure there’s nothing funky going on. If it wasn’t for the noticeable shudder I felt upon acceleration, I’d think the alert was a false alarm (as some Google results have shown).

Curious what your dealer says if you see them before I do!

 

[LDHunter]

My dealer has agreed to take it in tomorrow morning and to try to fit it in between appointments or to take the place of a cancellation.

I'll report back here as soon as I know something.

 

[joe603]

Haven't had that happen yet, but I have have my 21GT do a loud exhaust pop at very high RPM that has me a little concerned.

 

[KingKona]

There's nothing wrong with your car, other than perhaps some bad gas.

Random misfires occasionally happen, it's nothing to worry about.

 

[Zrussian13]

Every once in a while my car has thrown a code, or stalled pulling up to a light, bucked and gone into limp mode or made a fierce popping noise at wot. (The last one usually only happened right after filling the tank and i only added that for you Joe) These things happened stock, tuned, and now boosted. After every instance I shut it off and fired it right back up and went about my way like nothing happened. Can't explain it but I also don't worry about it. 4 1/2 years later and 83k hard miles and she's still running like a champ. Not once has any of these things left me stranded.

 

[Sariandan]

I had the same thing happen a while back in my '22 Ecoboost. I was passing traffic at the time. A loss of power and the flashing service light accompanied the shuddering. Same thing, it went away, and I had an alert on Ford Pass and codes stored in the system for multiple misfires. It has never happened again. My codes were P301 (multiple misfires in cylinder 1) and P061A Internal Control Module Torque Performance. I cleared them out, and they never came back.

 

[LDHunter]

I've read the latest posts on this thread and agree that sometimes this can be a temporary issue for some cars but in my case I suspect it's more than that.

My 2020 Mustang GT Premium 401a that I had previous to this Mustang before a deer totaled it got 3mpg better than my current 2022 GT Premium California Special and I suspect in my case it's not anything like bad gas or a temporary issue that may or may not ever happen again.

My 2020 GT got an average of 22.9mpg in the very same driving and trips back and forth to work that my 2022 GT CS gets now and the CS has never topped 20mpg yet and usually averages in the mid 19's. The sputtering only happened once but I've never experienced that in any car or performance car or truck I've ever owned and I've had several.

My dealership has my GT CS and I'm hoping they can figure out the problem soon. FordPass says it hasn't moved since they took it in.... Gotta love FordPass... LOL

 

[Cory S]

It was probably the fuel. Todays gasoline isn't what it was 20-25 years ago.

 

[skinnyb]

I've had it happen in my F150 (Gen 3 Coyote 10 speed) when I ran E85 a couple of times. It was from a low volume station and I believe I got a slug of water or something. Probably nothing to worry about but a bit of some crappy gas.

 

[DandeeLioness]

I made an appointment to take her in on the 22nd but also stopped by my local auto store to see if they’d be able to pull any codes for me to research. Nothing came up on their OBD reader and she’s not had any issues since, so I honestly think she was just being temperamental lol I also read this and believe this may be exactly what happened with me, as my wheels spun out before I felt the shudder and had the CEL flash:

The tech also mentioned the same things about it possibly being bad gas or gunk on the spark plugs (seems a bit early for that, imo). He went on to recommend using a fuel system cleaner like Cataclean for the sake of preventing additional buildup moving forward, so I’m considering that for maintenance’s sake.

I’m going to keep my appointment at the dealership just in case they’re able to see something I can’t. I’d also like for them to check out my transmission fluid levels since I’m wondering if they’ve been a bit low and causing some jerkiness — so it all works out!

 

[LDHunter]

Well guys and gals I got the final answer on what was wrong with my '22 GT California Special today when I picked it up from my dealership.

The problem was that the Power Control Module needed to be reprogrammed and there is a Technical Service Bulletin out on it.

I can tell y'all that it runs better than it did before and better than even my 2020 GT Premium 401a did. I had the perfect opportunity to pass a few people on the way home on a fairly straight stretch of 2 lane highway and it was like a friggin rocket launcher when I punched it.

Even with the ridiculous amount of throttle I applied trying to make it mess up on the way home it averaged 23.5mpg and that's waaaaaay better than it had before.

I'd say it's not only fixed but it's better than it has a right to be and I'm simply thrilled.

Nothing feels, looks or sounds like a Mustang GT and you'd have to spend a ridiculous amount of money to outrun it.

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