Can’t anyone identify this sound?

[rparge]

Noticed it making a slow left turn going through a drive through. This is me turning my steering wheel back and forth to reproduce the sound.

thanks.

Should it be moving laterally? (If that is the correct term.)

Here's a screen shot at the the start and the end, does not look like the camera is moving, but there is more of the hole in view.

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[Mokume]

Hi NY,

I have a back on what we call dry parking which was what you were doing in your video. This is hell on tires to grind them into the flat spots in short order.

We have requirement to do a cyclic dry park on several vehicle of new chassis design. This is a very difficult procedure to park on concrete and cycle the truck for 1000 cycles. Not something even a test track driver could do. You get arm weary in a few hundred cycles.

So we had a production problem on Explorer where the intermediate shaft connected to the steering gear. There is a coupling that we call the rag joint that flexes to provide damping and alignment to the intermediate shaft and the steering gear. The line worker told his foreman that he heard a crack when tightening the clamp of the rag joint to the steering gear. So the vehicle was taken to the repair area and the rag joint/intermediate shaft was removed. Then another and another and another....Huston, we had a problem, so the plant went into build and park vehicles. At 75 units an hour this resulted in a critical issue. So they sent the failed shafts up to me in Design Analysis. The question to begin with was does a cracked clamp result in steering failure. So our vehicle dynamics folks got involved to answer that question. Their approach was to install a cracked shaft and dry park it. Well it turned out that this proved more difficult than they imagined so they had to trade off people to dry park, lock to lock and back...hold and lock to lock over and over again. Since time was not on our side, the Supervisor took the test vehicle back home and tired in his driveway but his arms gave out as well. Good new was that there was no loss of steering even if the cyclic requirement was not met at this time. In the mean time my engineer and I set up an automatic test in the Building 4 Test lab to test the failed shafts. I also had shafts sent to Central Labs for a fracture analysis on an asap basis. The test fixture showed no loss of steering as well, so I could at least sleep the night not worrying that we might have accidents. Central Labs reported that the crack was a result of a seam in the bar stock that the manufacturer was using. Now here it where it becomes difficult to describe... The manufacturer bought a Heat Of Steel. This is one of the giant ladle of steel that you see in pictures of steel production. This Heat was the size of a box car. Anyway when pouring the steel into a mold, there is a possibility that the steel cools to the point where then next layer does not "bond" with the layer below and results in a seam. Now if you take this Heat and draw it down to length of rod for the raw material to make these rag joint clamps, the seam follows the drawing process so the finished clamps are in reality, the parts are pre cracked! Yikes! I learned a lot on this panic.

So the good news was that no Explorer would loose steering and that we knew the cause of the problem and the manufacturer would use certified stock, we could issue a recall for units in a specific time frame to replace their intermediate shaft/rag joint.

Sometimes it can be hard to sleep at night when involved in things like this, but knowing we contained this quickly and kept the line running with no danger to the customer was a huge relief. So the Vehicle Dynamics supervisor to my knowledge never was able to shed his stupid attempt to be the He Man and finish the dry parking test in short order as needed but never completes.

Okay...enough for tonight...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Fascinating and very interesting story Phil.
Your concern in this problem is a testament to your commitment and integrity to Ford, but also ultimately to the Ford product purchaser.
So very glad you are a member of this forum.
With that said, care to elaborate further on Ford's bastard car, the Pantera?...lol!

 

[Mokume]

Should it be moving laterally? (If that is the correct term.)

Here's a screen shot at the the start and the end, does not look like the camera is moving, but there is more of the hole in view.

I'd say that is completely normal, that is a rubber bushing, some "give" is to be expected on that lower control arm.
Do you hear/feel the noise from this bushing movement?
Remember, all suspension/steering components are under tremendous stress as Phil explained in dry park mode

 

[NerfYoda]

Should it be moving laterally? (If that is the correct term.)

Here's a screen shot at the the start and the end, does not look like the camera is moving, but there is more of the hole in view.

Ya I am not sure, the camera was not moving though. I placed it and then got i. The truck to turn the wheel.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

VW's are notorious for making this noise if the strut bushing is not clocked correctly when reinstalling the front struts.


Check to make sure everything, including the the strut mounts are properly torqued, as well as nothing is binding when the wheel is being turned. To do this have someone rotate the wheels while you lean in on each side listening for where the noise is coming from. You can also reach in and touch the suspension components and feel for the thunk. As loud as that is you should be able to locate it by sound/feel in no time.

 

[NerfYoda]

VW's are notorious for making this noise if the strut bushing is not clocked correctly when reinstalling the front struts.


Check to make sure everything, including the the strut mounts are properly torqued, as well as nothing is binding when the wheel is being turned. To do this have someone rotate the wheels while you lean in on each side listening for where the noise is coming from. You can also reach in and touch the suspension components and feel for the thunk. As loud as that is you should be able to locate it by sound/feel in no time.

Just got call back from ford. Things were lose.

 

[I_smell_like_diesel]

Just got call back from ford. Things were lose.

Oopsy Poopsy.....

 

[Gizmokid2005]

Just got call back from ford. Things were lose.

That's how it happens. As Phil mentioned above, depending on the hardware, loosening of fasteners/etc is a problem that can occur, which is why even after changing tires, lugnuts should be retorqued after 50-100 miles. Things can shift quite easily and gradually over time. Glad you got it figured out!

 

[NerfYoda]

That's how it happens. As Phil mentioned above, depending on the hardware, loosening of fasteners/etc is a problem that can occur, which is why even after changing tires, lugnuts should be retorqued after 50-100 miles. Things can shift quite easily and gradually over time. Glad you got it figured out!

Yeah, the level kit did specify to re torque everything after 300 miles. I went 3k with no issues, so that’s my fault. Hopefully I’m good to go now.

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