Car shakes/stutters while engaging 1st gear

[Lurker_350]

[MENTION=17459]altjx[/MENTION] had a clutch go out around 20K i think

I thought that although he had it replaced under warranty, it wasn't the actual cause of the symptoms he had. I think his dealer traced it to a vacuum leak between the intake/throttle body or a loose tone ring. But I don't see a reply at the end of his thread.

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90529&page=15&highlight=clutch

Maybe he'll chime in... [MENTION=17459]altjx[/MENTION]?

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[nastang87xx]

What I was discussing was a change in the clutch's behavior, not an issue I'm having with driving the car. I'm not sure whether you understood that or not. I couldn't tell you what RPM I do anything at, other than it varies greatly depending on the situation.

Yeah I must need more coffee. I had to reread that a time or two.

 

[Hack]

Yeah I must need more coffee. I had to reread that a time or two.

I realize I'm not always the most clear in what I say either. :cheers:

 

[americanmuscle1776]

Car has 25,750 miles or so. For the last 500 miles, it started this strange issue where if I dont hold the clutch a little longer (an extra second or so), it is shaking and stuttering. It does it more while on an incline. Is it the clutch or something else? I read a few other instances of clutch going out around 25-30k miles and also heard clutch in these cars are too soft and doesn’t tolerate the NVH. I m usually extremely gentle with the clutch, no riding it, always perfect or close to perfect rev match and never engage the clutch unless I m shifting it (so never engage it all the time in bumper to bumper etc).

That being said, I had an eagle talon with 145,000 miles on original clutch where the clutch went out and I know the symptoms of slipping clutch and this isnt that. This feels like something else is wrong and it worries me to take it to ford. Is there anyway i can diagnose it myself? Any help is appreciated.

What happened with my mustang

60K miles clutch started shuddering a little at first then horribly coming out of 1st and reverse

No matter how much gas you gave it or how quick you let the clutch out, it felt like when a beginner driver is learning to drive stick and stalls the car out—that kind of shuddering.

The ford dealership said it’d take 1 whole month for them to get to the repair on my car and that I’d have to leave the car with them for the entire month.

Obviously, I couldn’t go without a car for that long, so I did some research and found a highly rated private mechanic shop near-ish me.

They diagnosed the problem and installed a brand-new clutch and flywheel (regular ford replacement clutch and flywheel—i.e., not a fancy performance one)

No check engine light initially, within 24 hrs check engine light came on

Went to mechanic. Hooked up scanner #1 (Zurich ZR15S)

I took a picture of the code: P0304 (meaning cylinder misfire in 4th cylinder) to look up later even though mechanic told me not to worry about it.

I looked it up and seemed like it was potentially pretty dangerous

Did some research on ford forums and found discussions about people having had a similar error code (as well as other P03 codes for other cylinder misfires) specifically following clutch and flywheel replacement. These forums mentioned crank relearn and misfire monitor neutral profile correction as potential solution.

Went back within the hour with that limited info and mechanic was initially very hesitant to believe that that was the issue or the solution to the problem—he had never heard of a crank relearn on a mustang, he said.

Understandable: he’s reacting as a doctor would if you came in and started spouting off things you think are wrong with you from having looked at web md—i.e., he’s the professional and people who come in with that type of commentary usually have no idea what they’re talking about.

However, he looked on scanner #2, higher tech looking and didn’t see an option for crank relearn.

Might’ve been a snap on scanner (?), not positive on that, but it definitely looked more like this one:

Mechanic cleared code, said maybe it was a glitch since I wasn’t experiencing any engine misfire.

Went home. No problem till next day, check engine came back on.

Later that night, I actually felt the engine misfire (before I experienced it, I wasn’t sure exactly what that’d feel like, so I wasn’t 100% sure if I’d even be able to recognize it, but once it was actually happening, I knew immediately). The feeling was like a vibrating ratatat when depressing the gas pedal, and when I felt that immediately looked at the check engine light and saw that it had began blinking. That all lasted for about 10 seconds, then it was fine again, though the check engine light was still on.

So, then I was worried, so I did more research: texted mechanic that there was a lot of talk about check engine light problem after clutch and flywheel replacement on mustang forums. So, despite me not being a professional mechanic, asked him to look into it again with the key terms crank relearn/misfire monitor neutral profile correction.

See official ford technical service bulletin (TSB) outlining the problem:

Had car towed to shop just to be safe since I’d experienced an actual engine misfire the nigh before

He hooked up the Snap On scanner above and when I got there, he said he thinks I might be right. Cleared the check engine light, then ran the profile correction.

Link vid to people running that profile correction:






Been 2k+ miles and running like a top now, no check engine light has come back, and the car is running great. Note: for a few hundred miles (about 500 or so) after clutch and flywheel replacement, there was slight shudder (nowhere even near what it was like when I first brought it in) in shifting out of first and reverse. However, have read others experienced the same break in period post clutch and flywheel replacement, and shudder went away completely by 1k miles.

Turns out then whenever transmission is removed from engine, the computers inside the car need to be recalibrated.

See 2:06 for what it looks like when your transmission Is separated from the engine to access the clutch and flywheel for replacement:



Bottom line: super easy fix, just have to know about the “misfire monitor neutral profile correction” process and send them this doc/insist that your mechanic hook his scanner up and run it, even if he’s understandably skeptical because he’s never heard of it.

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