Axle clunk

[FachE]

My 24 GT does this. Backing up at full lock left or right, there’s an odd little jitter you feel in the steering wheel. Sometimes it is noticed when moving forward at slow speed, wheels turned tightly. Ugh.

Sponsored

 

[Ford Motor Company]

My 24 GT does this. Backing up at full lock left or right, there’s an odd little jitter you feel in the steering wheel. Sometimes it is noticed when moving forward at slow speed, wheels turned tightly. Ugh.

Hi there! I can look into your Mach-E's steering wheel concern on my end. To get started, could you please send a private message over with the name/location of your local Ford dealer and your Mach-E's VIN?

 

[azerik]

My 24 GT does this. Backing up at full lock left or right, there’s an odd little jitter you feel in the steering wheel. Sometimes it is noticed when moving forward at slow speed, wheels turned tightly. Ugh.

From what I found with my car the tires can cause what feels like a clunk in the rack when turning to full lock. Oddly my car only does it when turning one way but not the other. The Conti RX's. Since I put on Pzero AS3's I don't have it anymore.

 

[phil]

From what I found with my car the tires can cause what feels like a clunk in the rack when turning to full lock. Oddly my car only does it when turning one way but not the other. The Conti RX's. Since I put on Pzero AS3's I don't have it anymore.

How could tires do that?

I have had the Continental CC RX tires for three years now. My clunk began just two or three months ago, and Ford is blaming the Eibach lowering springs I installed around that time. Could the issue be the amount of wear on the tires, rather than the brand/model we're using?

 

[azerik]

I would get a physical hang up in turning the wheel. It'd feel like the rack is messed up and it would bind then skipped a tooth. Reality was the tire was being twisted too much and the contact patch stayed put until I backed up just a hair more at which the contract patch would skip/snap back to normal. The last 1/8th of a turn on my steering wheel had always been 'weird'.
In troubleshooting yours, can you try running the tire pressure up more in the front. You don't actually need to drive on them more than a block to pin this down but run them up to 45psi or so (50 is max anyway so 45 is safe). Idea being, to see if the tires are grabbing. Running the pressure up would make them easier to skip/slide. This isn't a fix but a troubleshooting step to point at the tires possibly. It's quite possible they make more noise with more contact on the pad.

I replaced my RX's at 5mm. When they'd 'let go' and skip to the full lock it made a low pitch clunk, at the same time the steering wheel would snap over the 'busted tooth' feeling. I only noticed at full lock backing up and I hardly ever made tight turns or U turns.

Interesting... replaced my tires with Pirelli PZero AS Elec yesterday and the issue is gone.

This was my experience as well. I'd forgotten about how much of an annoyance it was.

 

[phil]

In troubleshooting yours, can you try running the tire pressure up more in the front.

That was a good idea - thanks.

I'd had the tires at 36psi (cold). This morning, I cranked the fronts up to 47psi, and my clunks disappeared, completely or nearly completely. I'm still not sure that my clunks were the same as yours. I could just turn hard left in circles, steering wheel at the lock, and I would get my clunks approximately once every full circle. So it was not caused by turning the steering wheel, but rather by driving the car while turning left. I don't fully understand your description of the tire contact patch sticking/skipping - my clunks didn't sound or feel like that to me, but they did stop when I overinflated, so I guess that says something.

Any suggestions as to what to do next? I figure I can stay overinflated for now - maybe 40 or 42 psi or will be sufficient to greatly reduce the clunking. My tread is down to 4/32", so I wouldn't mind getting new tires, if that would fix the problem.

 

[azerik]

From what I can figure out the tires are echoing and sending a shockwave, which makes it sound like a metallic clunk because it's vibrating the suspension/car, possibly the spring is the real culprit acting like a tuning fork of sorts.

To explain the tread skip. If you've ever been on smooth concrete and turned the steering wheel of the car and heard it's terrible 'reeeaaacket" the contact patch skip is that except on a rough surface. The tire will hold until a point where it breaks free and snaps. It's much lower pitched than the garage floor sound of just cranking the steering wheel. When the tires are worn they'll hold more, until they break free. Think the difference between slicks and brand new tires. The new tires will have 9/32's of tread and that tread will create a contact patch of say 60% of the contact square (on smooth and rough surfaces). It'll also allow that 9/32ds to twist. Now cut that down to something like 3/32ds tread, it wont allow it to twist as much or as far and now the tire ares between the tread can touch parts of the road because it only needs to have ~ 2/32ds of rough surface (because there's 5000lbs of down force on those 4 contact areas) I had my clunk/pop even at 6/32ds with the Conti's when backing up at full lock.

It's possible that what you're finding just driving around in a circle is what we used to have with the i-beam Ford front ends where the truck would literally wiggle the whole circle because you could turn tighter than the tires could handle. Why you only get it turning left still puzzles me, I'm still thinking.

 

[Jerrytball]

1200 miles, AWD std range premium . I hear a clunking from the front left axle that goes with speed under acceleration with a right hand turn. Sounded like a cv joint to me, so i brought it back and the Dealer said I need a new axle, but they are backorder. Am I an isolated event? Any idea how long till parts become availible?

So here’s my my two cents. With the way, these cars have cost customers time in the shop, and if the loaner expires and you have to pay after that, pain in the neck, but if they did not charge you and you could keep a loaner while the part came in fine. Something like this just searching for front axle for this model of car $235. I think I would buy it have the dealer put it on and then see if there’s someway Ford would reimburse you instead of being out of a car for three months , or broke down on the road waiting for the part.

 

[phil]

...possibly the spring is the real culprit acting like a tuning fork of sorts.

I believe the Eibach springs must be contributing to the problem in some way. Otherwise, we would see many more reports of noises/vibrations like this from people with the original springs, and we don't seem to see that. Also, I did notice the issue shortly after getting the new springs installed.

 

[azerik]

The new springs are softer by a bit in the first stage so they could echo (or work like a tuning fork) easier. I'll try to find a area where I can do circles and attempt to recreate. I can't think of a way the spring could hit anything. Do you have the stock sway bars on the car?

 

[phil]

Do you have the stock sway bars on the car?

Yes. I have not yet changed the sway bars.

 

[azerik]

Interestingly you arn't the first to have noises when installed with the stock bars. The other gentleman had a rubbing/creaking noise from the left rear of his when his wife was in the back seat turning right going up a parking garage. The only noise I could point to on his migt have been a loose bar bushing. It could well just be the bushing it's self as they're rubber and fixed in a position which should be level with the car. When we lower the car the bar ends up at a slight angle. Not sure if it's enough of an angle that the bushing causes noise but we might be on to something here because the bar is under tension at rest and under more tension under load (as the car is leaning over on the right side on your car.) Possibly the bar mount rubber giving up, or the mount isn't tight enough to hold the rubber. (just brain storming here)

Why the tire pressure would change the behavior of the bar I'm still thinking. Can you tell where the noise appears to come from? And when it makes the noise can you feel it in the steering wheel or center console?

Sponsored