Bought a 2005 Ford Escape XLT 4 X 4 V6 in December of 2009 (just three months ago). The vehicle was purchased from a medium sized car dealership in VA... a few hours away from where we live. The vehicle had a car fax on it... everything was clean. The vehicle was serviced several times through Ford (shown on Car Fax). The vehicle was a repo and purchased by the dealership at an auction.
We checked the vehicle out in detail and everything on it seemed GREAT. It is powerful... it shifts smooth... it's in good physical condition... and so we bought it.
Flash forward about a month. We went downtown and had to do a lot of tight turning around the city block corners. That's when we started hearing "IT". Within a short come minutes the vehicle went from an EXCELLENT BUY... to a piece of CRAP. The sound is HORRIBLE. It's like this very loud rubbing coming directly from the rear axle. It only seems to happen while turning or going over a significant bump... so highway driving is unaffected for the most part.
I took it into the dealership, trying to find out more about the problem. Of course they find a weak battery and want to replace it for $165... just so they could run a check on the really dimly lit check engine light and charge us another $105 for that. They then came up with a bogus computer code and "cleared it". They said the light wasn't lighting up because the battery was weak... they said the cranking number was about half of what it could be (250 out of 500ish???). Needless to say, with the new battery installed, we've STILL got the check engine light dimly lit. I thought from the start that it was just light from another part of the dash shinning through. Anyway... back to the real issue.
The mechanics say the spare tire was just loose and they tightened it... and that was the problem causing all the noise. I had actually put my hand on the spare tire and shook it, and it seemed tight to me. They said... one side was tight... the other was loose. They also mentioned that there was a bulletin for some creaking that comes from the front, but they didn't suggest that I replace whatever it was. I told them the front is fine, it's the back that is ridiculous with the noise. They then preceded to tell me that the noise in the back was actually coming from the front, and it's just transferring to sound like it's in the back. I told them NO... it's coming from the back. They insisted it wasn't.
Two days after getting my vehicle out of the shop, the noise returned. It came back with FORCE. I take it back in and tell them they need to again look at it. They seemed irritated that I was bringing it back... like I was making it up. They were having a hard time trying to recreate the noise... and I kept telling them... just take it downtown (a mile away) and go around corners and you'll see.
FINALLY, after fooling around with it, they found the sound. They said the sound WAS coming from the rear (like I said). They said it was the differential and it was wearing oddly or something to that effect. The mechanics said that the oil (or whatever the fluid is) in the differential was much heavier than it should have been. They said that someone obviously knew about this problem before, and the heavier fluid was there to dampen the sound.
So, these guys went from saying the vehicle was in GREAT shape for a vehicle with 92,000 plus miles, to saying the vehicle could use a new differential. The cost??? Parts $1,350 and the labor $650 for an even $2,000.
They said it didn't need to be replaced right now... and because the dealership didn't find the problem the first time, they ended up changing the fluid in there with the correct fluid and didn't charge me for the labor either. The bill was about $350... and they didn't charge me... so I'm happy about that.
Just wondering how long the differential is going to last before we actually have to change it. It's an embarrassing sound when you drive people around in your vehicle... but we can't help but wonder if people on the street corner can't hear it as we pass by. Sounds like an old, old house settling in some horror movie.
Bought a 2005 Ford Escape XLT 4 X 4 V6 in December of 2009 (just three months ago). The vehicle was purchased from a medium sized car dealership in VA... a few hours away from where we live. The vehicle had a car fax on it... everything was clean. The vehicle was serviced several times through Ford (shown on Car Fax). The vehicle was a repo and purchased by the dealership at an auction.
We checked the vehicle out in detail and everything on it seemed GREAT. It is powerful... it shifts smooth... it's in good physical condition... and so we bought it.
Flash forward about a month. We went downtown and had to do a lot of tight turning around the city block corners. That's when we started hearing "IT". Within a short come minutes the vehicle went from an EXCELLENT BUY... to a piece of CRAP. The sound is HORRIBLE. It's like this very loud rubbing coming directly from the rear axle. It only seems to happen while turning or going over a significant bump... so highway driving is unaffected for the most part.
I took it into the dealership, trying to find out more about the problem. Of course they find a weak battery and want to replace it for $165... just so they could run a check on the really dimly lit check engine light and charge us another $105 for that. They then came up with a bogus computer code and "cleared it". They said the light wasn't lighting up because the battery was weak... they said the cranking number was about half of what it could be (250 out of 500ish???). Needless to say, with the new battery installed, we've STILL got the check engine light dimly lit. I thought from the start that it was just light from another part of the dash shinning through. Anyway... back to the real issue.
The mechanics say the spare tire was just loose and they tightened it... and that was the problem causing all the noise. I had actually put my hand on the spare tire and shook it, and it seemed tight to me. They said... one side was tight... the other was loose. They also mentioned that there was a bulletin for some creaking that comes from the front, but they didn't suggest that I replace whatever it was. I told them the front is fine, it's the back that is ridiculous with the noise. They then preceded to tell me that the noise in the back was actually coming from the front, and it's just transferring to sound like it's in the back. I told them NO... it's coming from the back. They insisted it wasn't.
Two days after getting my vehicle out of the shop, the noise returned. It came back with FORCE. I take it back in and tell them they need to again look at it. They seemed irritated that I was bringing it back... like I was making it up. They were having a hard time trying to recreate the noise... and I kept telling them... just take it downtown (a mile away) and go around corners and you'll see.
FINALLY, after fooling around with it, they found the sound. They said the sound WAS coming from the rear (like I said). They said it was the differential and it was wearing oddly or something to that effect. The mechanics said that the oil (or whatever the fluid is) in the differential was much heavier than it should have been. They said that someone obviously knew about this problem before, and the heavier fluid was there to dampen the sound.
So, these guys went from saying the vehicle was in GREAT shape for a vehicle with 92,000 plus miles, to saying the vehicle could use a new differential. The cost??? Parts $1,350 and the labor $650 for an even $2,000.
They said it didn't need to be replaced right now... and because the dealership didn't find the problem the first time, they ended up changing the fluid in there with the correct fluid and didn't charge me for the labor either. The bill was about $350... and they didn't charge me... so I'm happy about that.
Just wondering how long the differential is going to last before we actually have to change it. It's an embarrassing sound when you drive people around in your vehicle... but we can't help but wonder if people on the street corner can't hear it as we pass by. Sounds like an old, old house settling in some horror movie.
- chiro2007, Dover, DE, US