Thumping noise & feel from rear axle

[FlowDesign]

Hi all,

Enjoying my 2021-07 (Job 2) MME RWD SR for 1,5 years and 20.000 km already. I bought it new in Germany in 2022 and imported it to the Netherlands.

Since the beginning, I had the feeling there was some sort of thumping noise and feel coming from the rear, but only when accelerating heavily. I already noticed this early on. After a few months, I had the springs replaced for a bit less springy back, lowering it 25 mm as well. The thumping noise was not less or worse after charging the springs.
Last year in October, the car has been checked by the dealer, but they said they could not find anything faulty and the importer had said it was a "Product characteristic". To me this sounds as if I'm not the only one with this complaint.

The thumping noise and feel is the heaviest and very noticeable, when accelerating heavily in a right hand corner. I have a feeling it has something to do with the link between the engine and the drive chaft, but I'm not sure.

We already ruled out the spring blocks and tyres, since the same issue persists with both summer and winter tyres.
I also don't have/had any issues with braking and/or the parking brake.

The thumping is only present while accelerating, especially while cornering, and also when cornering at higher speeds without accelerating.

Does anyone recognise this from their own MME and perhaps know of a solution? Thanks.

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[MachA]

My Mach E does the exact same thing. Ford dealerships are absolutely worthless over here, so they just refuse to do proper diagnostics. One even told me that hard cornering is an "extremely uncommon driving situation". I've done 25k kilometers since purchase, and it hasn't fallen apart yet, so I can only surmise it isn't a critical problem.

My personal suspicion is that the ESP activates interval braking on one or more wheels in these situations, but it doesn't show up in the instrument cluster. This is due to the fact that I have had the same clunking noise when going into high regen braking while driving on wet tram tracks with both left tires and a grippy asphalt surface with both right tires.

 

[FlowDesign]

@MachA Lol, so they basically told you to drive like an old lady with a Mustang ?

But interesting theory, I had not thought about ESP or ABS yet. If it's related to that, then it sounds more like something that could be solved by changing the software and hopefully it's not a mechanical problem.
However, then I'm also hoping it will not damage anything mechanical.

Good to hear that mine is not the only car with this issue and that it's not related to the lower springs. Now, we just need Ford to come up with a solution.

Another issue I had by the way, that many of us experienced, was that the car would release the regen braking when entering a corner with high speed, which I found to be really dangerous!

When I got my car back from the dealer, they had updated all software, including for parts that are not updated via OTA. Now that I think of it, the regen release issue has been sorted, but the thumping noise and feel from the back when accelerating and cornering might have gotten worse since those updates.

 

[FlowDesign]

@MachA I've tested cornering while accelerating with traction control off, but that made no difference.

 

[MachA]

@MachA I've tested cornering while accelerating with traction control off, but that made no difference.

I have tested the same thing. I believe that it is stability control and not traction control (which the button in the car turns off) causing this issue. According to the manual, stability control cannot ever be turned off, and the diagram showing how stability control works reminds me of exactly the driving scenarios causing the noise.

One could try and test it in reverse gear, as apparently stability control does not apply there, but I foresee some practicability concerns...

 

[FlowDesign]

I have tested the same thing. I believe that it is stability control and not traction control (which the button in the car turns off) causing this issue. According to the manual, stability control cannot ever be turned off, and the diagram showing how stability control works reminds me of exactly the driving scenarios causing the noise.

One could try and test it in reverse gear, as apparently stability control does not apply there, but I foresee some practicability concerns...

It's indeed not the same, but I wanted to give it a try to rule it out.

Perhaps an official dealer can turn ESP off with a laptop hooked on to the car while driving. Then it could be really tested.

 

[FlowDesign]

@MachA If you have a GT or job2 car, you can push and hold the TC button to turn off ESP.

Unfortunately, it makes zero difference to the thumping from the rear axle.

 

[MachA]

Interesting, thanks for letting me know. I guess that's one hypothesis for the bin as well.

I'd love getting an accurate assessment from a Ford tech, but that's not likely to happen.

@Mach-Lee sorry to summon you, but maybe you'd have an idea what the cause could be?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Interesting, thanks for letting me know. I guess that's one hypothesis for the bin as well.

I'd love getting an accurate assessment from a Ford tech, but that's not likely to happen.

@Mach-Lee sorry to summon you, but maybe you'd have an idea what the cause could be?

Not much I can tell without a recording. Sounds like an issue with the CV shafts or the motor mounts.

 

[FlowDesign]

@MachA Just for reference, a CV Joint is "Homokinetische Kupplung" in German or "homokinetische koppeling" in Dutch.

@Mach-Lee Tanks for your insights. I also believe it's one of those causing the thumping noise and vibration.

I found this description I translated from a Dutch site of a company that specialises in repairing Teslas. In the case of my Mach-E, I have a SR RWD and the noise and vibration are most present when accelerating hard in a straight line, and more so even when accelerating in a corner, but also noticeable when keeping constant speed in a corner on the highway (say cornering at 75 mph).

This is the description I found:

When should you have a joints replaced for Tesla ?
When the joints of the joints show slack then it is time to have this part replaced. Generally, it can be said that the slack will be due to worn universal joints. In a front-wheel-drive Tesla, a worn joints will be heard by a thumping noise when accelerating and steering. Especially in the early stages, it can be difficult to determine that it is a worn out joints. In rear-wheel drive Tesla, the slack of a joints is easier to check than in front-wheel drive Tesla . To check the slack properly, it is important that the driveshaft be removed first. It is possible that the joint cover has hardened due to weather conditions. If this is the case, such a cover can make a lot of noise, which leads people to believe it is a worn out joints. The noise can easily lead you astray while such noises can just as easily come from the suspension rubber.

 

[MachA]

Not much I can tell without a recording. Sounds like an issue with the CV shafts or the motor mounts.

Thank you for looking into this. I've sent you a video containing the noise in a typical scenario via private message.

 

[FlowDesign]

Thank you for looking into this. I've sent you a video containing the noise in a typical scenario via private message.

Could you send it to me as well please?

I'll see if I can also record a video and share it.

 

[dtbaker61]

Hi all,

Enjoying my 2021-07 (Job 2) MME RWD SR for 1,5 years and 20.000 km already. I bought it new in Germany in 2022 and imported it to the Netherlands.

Since the beginning, I had the feeling there was some sort of thumping noise and feel coming from the rear, but only when accelerating heavily. I already noticed this early on. After a few months, I had the springs replaced for a bit less springy back, lowering it 25 mm as well. The thumping noise was not less or worse after charging the springs.
Last year in October, the car has been checked by the dealer, but they said they could not find anything faulty and the importer had said it was a "Product characteristic". To me this sounds as if I'm not the only one with this complaint.

The thumping noise and feel is the heaviest and very noticeable, when accelerating heavily in a right hand corner. I have a feeling it has something to do with the link between the engine and the drive chaft, but I'm not sure.

We already ruled out the spring blocks and tyres, since the same issue persists with both summer and winter tyres.
I also don't have/had any issues with braking and/or the parking brake.

The thumping is only present while accelerating, especially while cornering, and also when cornering at higher speeds without accelerating.

Does anyone recognise this from their own MME and perhaps know of a solution? Thanks.

you could try driving the same section of road, same speed, with 'traction control' turned off.... that would indicate it might just be a traction issue with rear tire slip/stick.

There were also a batch of early vehicles that had bad bearings in front half-shafts. I just had mine replaced under SSM. but it was more of a clicking, only in the front, and you could only hear it when accel from a stop during a hard turn.

 

[FlowDesign]

you could try driving the same section of road, same speed, with 'traction control' turned off.... that would indicate it might just be a traction issue with rear tire slip/stick.

There were also a batch of early vehicles that had bad bearings in front half-shafts. I just had mine replaced under SSM. but it was more of a clicking, only in the front, and you could only hear it when accel from a stop during a hard turn.

Thanks but it's not TC and not ESP, I've already tested that by turning those off.

Clicking noise would fit with the front CV joints. But if those had bad ball bearings, then perhaps some of the CV joints on the rear axle could be bad as well.

I've tried to get a decent video of the vibration noise but it's hard to capture the sound on film:

 

[Mach-Lee]

Thanks but it's not TC and not ESP, I've already tested that by turning those off.

Clicking noise would fit with the front CV joints. But if those had bad ball bearings, then perhaps some of the CV joints on the rear axle could be bad as well.

I've tried to get a decent video of the vibration noise but it's hard to capture the sound on film:

Can you specialty which time index exactly you hear the noise?

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