Spacebird
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2015
- Threads
- 45
- Messages
- 740
- Reaction score
- 576
- Location
- Boulder County, Colorado
- Vehicle(s)
- 2016 GT350R
- Thread starter
- #1
My 2016 GT350R went to the dealer on August 18th of this year. I was experiencing a very loud groaning sound at low speeds in tight left turns. Only hard left, and only slow. It may happen at higher speeds and harder lefts, but I did not test for that. This dealership has at least one Ford Master Tech: the kind that they get to go work on Ford GTs and such. The dealer worked for weeks to try to isolate the problem. They replaced wheel bearings, and strut top mounts, and probably a few other things that the service guy told me but Iāve since forgotten. They put chassis ears on the car but weāre not able to identify the location of the sound. After 30 days I opened a case with Ford.
Last week an engineer from Ford flew out and worked with the dealerās team to find the problem. Upon demonstrating the sound for him, he immediately said, āwheel bearing.ā After they explained that the wheel bearings had been replaced, he was out of quick guesses. They again used chassis ears, moving them around the vehicle and found that the sound seems to be coming from the vicinity of the steering rack. A new steering rack is on its way and theyāll be installing it this week. The FoMoCo customer support guy and the dealer service guy seem to have declared the problem solved, or at least theyāre telling me that. Tentatively, Iāll be getting the car back this Friday.
I am so glad that I purchased the extended warranty on this vehicle. All the new parts, all the diagnostics, all the labor, will only cost me a $100 deductible.
A few other thoughtsāand I would love your feedback on this. Iām pretty skeptical of the diagnosis. Iām not the worlds best wrench, but I do have a degree in mechanical engineering, was an engineer for NASA, and I have a pretty good aptitude for how these things work. I canāt understand how a steering rack could fail seemingly overnight with only 8000 miles on the odometer. I know, complicated things fail in complicated ways, but steering racks arenāt exactly space flight hardware.
My fear is that itās something structural. Iāve read about buybacks due to bad firewall welds with identical symptoms. This seems more probable than the bad rack hypothesis. It would explain how turning right makes no noise but tuning left does: the structural pieces are compressed one way and pulled apart the other, and the groaning sound and vibration a result of the metal pulled apart and vibrating against itself where the weld has failed.
I guess weāll know in a few days. Any thoughts or feedback are welcome.
Last week an engineer from Ford flew out and worked with the dealerās team to find the problem. Upon demonstrating the sound for him, he immediately said, āwheel bearing.ā After they explained that the wheel bearings had been replaced, he was out of quick guesses. They again used chassis ears, moving them around the vehicle and found that the sound seems to be coming from the vicinity of the steering rack. A new steering rack is on its way and theyāll be installing it this week. The FoMoCo customer support guy and the dealer service guy seem to have declared the problem solved, or at least theyāre telling me that. Tentatively, Iāll be getting the car back this Friday.
I am so glad that I purchased the extended warranty on this vehicle. All the new parts, all the diagnostics, all the labor, will only cost me a $100 deductible.
A few other thoughtsāand I would love your feedback on this. Iām pretty skeptical of the diagnosis. Iām not the worlds best wrench, but I do have a degree in mechanical engineering, was an engineer for NASA, and I have a pretty good aptitude for how these things work. I canāt understand how a steering rack could fail seemingly overnight with only 8000 miles on the odometer. I know, complicated things fail in complicated ways, but steering racks arenāt exactly space flight hardware.
My fear is that itās something structural. Iāve read about buybacks due to bad firewall welds with identical symptoms. This seems more probable than the bad rack hypothesis. It would explain how turning right makes no noise but tuning left does: the structural pieces are compressed one way and pulled apart the other, and the groaning sound and vibration a result of the metal pulled apart and vibrating against itself where the weld has failed.
I guess weāll know in a few days. Any thoughts or feedback are welcome.
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