Highway shudder

[madconcept]

Hi everyone. Its been a long time since I posted.
Been having an issue with my 2016 Explorer Sport(well a couple but this is the most annoying one). Anytime I'm travelling at highway speeds, 6th gear between 80-100 kph, I get a shake or shudder. It happens when cruising at steady speed, or slightly speeding up. More noticeable when going up hill. If I push harder on the accelerator to make it drop down a gear it goes away. Also goes away when coasting. You can also see the tach bouncing around.
Been to dealer several times. They've replaced the throttle body,ignition coils and plugs thinking it was a misfire issue. That did not fix the issue. Naturally the technician threw those parts in it and gave the car back to us, saying it was fixed. Guess the guy never drove it on the freeway after repair, since the techs probably don't get paid to do that. Customers are suppose to test drive their own cars!

We told the dealer to keep the car till it's fixed and to give us a loaner. They then replaced the torque convertor in the transmission. The issue seems to be a lot better but can still subtly feel it still from time to time.

Anybody else notice this issue at all. No info on the net at all!

Of course I'm in the dog house since I pushed my wife to get the Explorer over the Toyota Highlander(boring!!) Now I get to constantly hear "Why the f@#k didn't we get a reliable Toyota"

 

[613GT500]

There's a thread about owners experiencing what they presume it to be drivetrain vibration.

 

[peterk9]

............Guess the guy never drove it on the freeway after repair, since the techs probably don't get paid to do that. Customers are suppose to test drive their own cars!

We told the dealer to keep the car till it's fixed and to give us a loaner. They then replaced the torque convertor in the transmission. The issue seems to be a lot better but can still subtly feel it still from time to time.

Anybody else notice this issue at all. No info on the net at all!

Of course I'm in the dog house since I pushed my wife to get the Explorer over the Toyota Highlander(boring!!) Now I get to constantly hear "Why the f@#k didn't we get a reliable Toyota"

The service people at the dealership I deal with always test drive the cars when it needs to be done. As for the loaner, just as ab FYI, that would be provided at the dealer's expense since Ford does not supply them. I'm on my 3rd Ford product (2nd Ex.) and have found them to be every bit as reliable as the 3 Highlanders I had.

Peter

 

[Sixonemale]

I'm on my 3rd Ford product (2nd Ex.) and have found them to be every bit as reliable as the 3 Highlanders I had.

Peter

Peter, To be fair there needs to be a disclosure with your comment. If I recall correctly you lease your Explorers and put maybe 5,000 miles on them per year? Also, how long did you own your Highlanders and how many miles were you driving them per year. After 100,000 miles a vehicle's reliability is more clearly defined IMO.

In general, vehicle owners nowadays should not encounter any major mechanical problems within the first 100,000 miles of any vehicle made.

 

[peterk9]

Peter, To be fair there needs to be a disclosure with your comment. If I recall correctly you lease your Explorers and put maybe 5,000 miles on them per year? Also, how long did you own your Highlanders and how many miles were you driving them per year. After 100,000 miles a vehicle's reliability is more clearly defined IMO.

In general, vehicle owners nowadays should not encounter any major mechanical problems within the first 100,000 miles of any vehicle made.

I had each of the first 2 Highlanders for 4 years and estimate I put around 32k miles on each. The lease on the 3rd one was taken over by a friend after 1.5 years when I decided to get the 2011 Ex. I can only base my experience of ownership on the times that I had the vehicles. Many issues raised here are also not really 'miles' related but have to do with equipment malfunctions, misalignments etc.
You do raise a fair and valid point in that my vehicle are not driven that much so long term mechanical experience/reliability is not something I can comment on with the Explorer. BTW, my current annual mileage is around 3.5k miles.
I'll try to limit my remarks to non mileage based issues unless they fall within the parameters of my experience. Thanks.

Peter

 

[madconcept]

There's a thread about owners experiencing what they presume it to be drivetrain vibration.

Is it the tread beginning with the guy talking about tire issues?

I know it's not tire related. It only happens/happened when just touching the gas peddle to hold cruise speed or slowly speeding up. Worse when you hit an incline.

As I mentioned too the new torque converter seems to really have helped, but do still feel it intermittently. Could compare it to say a clutch or transmission slipping for a split second, rapidly. It's not a violent shaking or anything, just more annoying than anything.

My uncle has the same vehicle, 2016 Ex Sport, and I swear I felt it in his too going down the highway when riding in it.

Everyone should try setting their cruise to 58 mph/93 km/h and see if they feel anything.

 

[madconcept]

The service people at the dealership I deal with always test drive the cars when it needs to be done. As for the loaner, just as ab FYI, that would be provided at the dealer's expense since Ford does not supply them. I'm on my 3rd Ford product (2nd Ex.) and have found them to be every bit as reliable as the 3 Highlanders I had.

Peter

They gave us a loaner for almost 2 weeks while waiting for and installing torque converter. My wife has 3 little kids to pack around and we needed a vehicle. Lol, not really my problem that Ford doesn't pay for loaner cars. They built a product that we paid good money for that has a warranty and isn't running properly.
Didn't mean to knock the technician, I just know the manufactures only pay the techs so much for warranty repairs. My friend is a flat rate Toyota tech, the warranty repair pay is peanuts!
It took 3 separate visits and repairs till it was fixed(somewhat) properly. Pretty annoying picking up the car, getting onto the freeway 5 min later and having the same issue!
After torque converter was installed my wife said "I'm keeping the loaner car keys. I'll drive the explorer and if it's fixed I'll come back and give you back the loaner keys!"
She was satisfied with the repair this time.

 

[madconcept]

So it seems the issue has made a comeback!
So frustrating, because I love everything about the Explorer.
It's not as bad as it was before, use to be on steep inclines it was worse but now seems to occur on flat sections under slight acceleration!

Anyone else notice their Explorers doing this?

 

[Steve in CA]

I have noticed a similar shuddering (slight at best) in my '17 XLT with 2.3l (no trailer package).
It occurs only when the gearbox is in 6th gear with RPMs of 1,200-1,400. It reminded me of some of the underpowered manual shift cars I owned in my youth. It feels like the 6th gear is a little too tall, so the engine is lugging just a little. In my manual shift days, the solution was to speed up to a higher cruising speed, where the motor is happy with the load, or downshift to get back into the power band.
Going with the tall 6th gear may have been a mileage boosting strategy on Fords part, which is why service techs can't seem to find an actual fault. If you have the paddle shifters, try driving the truck 'manually' for a bit to see if your shifting choices are better than the computer's.

 

[madconcept]

The car has been at the dealer since last monday. Various people from the dealer have driven it, and they can't seem to figure out the issue.
The manager drove our car and another one they had on the lot. The consensus is that this shuddering may be a NORMAL driving characteristic of it. Like Steve and various other people have said, could be "lugging" due to the tall gear. But this is a 365 HP Ecoboost!

I'm still convinced that this is not normal. A vehicle shaking going down the freeway is not NORMAL, especially a $56,000 one. Not like we spent $9,000 on a Kia here.

Probably going to contact Ford Canada today to express my frustration. I love everything about this car, except this ridiculous issue!

 

[613GT500]

Is it the tread beginning with the guy talking about tire issues?

I know it's not tire related. It only happens/happened when just touching the gas peddle to hold cruise speed or slowly speeding up. Worse when you hit an incline.

As I mentioned too the new torque converter seems to really have helped, but do still feel it intermittently. Could compare it to say a clutch or transmission slipping for a split second, rapidly. It's not a violent shaking or anything, just more annoying than anything.

My uncle has the same vehicle, 2016 Ex Sport, and I swear I felt it in his too going down the highway when riding in it.

Everyone should try setting their cruise to 58 mph/93 km/h and see if they feel anything.

I may not be sensitive enough to pick this up, but will try cruising at 93 km/h today after work (I'm on the highway for a good 10min).
To me it appears everything is working as is, as I take the same route to work everyday and there is one stretch with an incline and eveytime I'm speeding up between 60km/h-80km/h, the tranny is holding the gear until I get over the incline.

 

[Steve in CA]

That sounds like a good spot to test. Roll off the throttle, and hold your speed between about 80 and 85 km/h on a nearly flat section with just a slight climb, so that you have the rpms really low in 6th. See how it feels. That's right in where I feel it during a short freeway section of my commute that is usually running at that speed due to traffic. Once past the traffic I usually open it up to between 110 and 120 km/h for the rest of my commute to match traffic flow around here. That feels like it is more in the sweet spot for 6th, pulling at a little over 2200 rpm.

 

[Sixonemale]

The car has been at the dealer since last monday. Various people from the dealer have driven it, and they can't seem to figure out the issue.
The manager drove our car and another one they had on the lot. The consensus is that this shuddering may be a NORMAL driving characteristic of it. Like Steve and various other people have said, could be "lugging" due to the tall gear. But this is a 365 HP Ecoboost!

I'm still convinced that this is not normal. A vehicle shaking going down the freeway is not NORMAL, especially a $56,000 one. Not like we spent $9,000 on a Kia here.

Probably going to contact Ford Canada today to express my frustration. I love everything about this car, except this ridiculous issue!

Poor performance of any kind is not normal. IF it's transmission related, my wild guesses would be possibly a bad solenoid or the need for a software upgrade. Both of these thoughts are fairly obvious, so I don't doubt the dealership has probably eliminated both of them.

 

[613GT500]

After repeating the 98km/h test, both on the freeway and a back road to my home; I can't say that there was anything unusual.
I even attempted to upshift repeatedly to get to the next gear quicker and the EX did not lag.

 

[madconcept]

Been driving the EX for the last month basically feeling this issue every time I get it on the freeway.
The dealership we had the car at isn't willing to invest any more time into it unless Ford comes out with a TSB. I guess in a way I can't be too upset with the dealer as just throwing parts into it could potentially be a waste of time and resources. Plus having them rip apart my car constantly can't be ideal!
I've also been in contact with Ford and they're basically giving me different options.
-try a different dealer to see what they come up with
-Live with the issue(totally unacceptable!)
-wait for the issue to get worse, then go back to the dealer with the more severe problem
-wait and see if Ford comes out with a fix and to see if others are having this issue.

I'm convinced that the other 2016 EX on the dealers lot that they had us drive is also "faulty" and believe there is truly an issue here.

The dealer also has a 2017 Sport on the lot I'd like to test drive to see if it does it. Problem with that is then they'll say "oh thats a 2017! Of course it'll drive different than yours!"

If I manually shift to 5th gear while going up hill or lightly accelerating the shake goes away. It's only in that 6th gear,
85-100km/h, foot slightly into pedal, cruise or slowly speeding up through 85-100 km/h.

It'd be nice to get some answers, or have Ford give us a new car(doubtful), be nice if we had a lemon law here!

 

[peterk9]

Does the following thread appear to be somewhat similar? http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?threads/chugging-when-coming-to-an-incline.457163/
While we do not have the "Lemon Law" here, there is an equivalent; https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=...RrulaHsthp4k9Azsw&sig2=5AARqQSizqF8QoearUUckw

Peter

 

[peterk9]

Came across this post this morning. Interesting. http://www.explorerforum.com/forums...t-bought-piu-surging-rpm.462399/#post-3627564

Peter

 

[KurtR]

I have a 2016 Platinum. I've had the exact same issue since 4/1/2017, when the PTU exploded at highway speed, same speed. They replaced the PTU, drive shaft, rear half axles and it still keeps doing the same thing.

 

[Parastang]

So it seems the issue has made a comeback!
So frustrating, because I love everything about the Explorer.
It's not as bad as it was before, use to be on steep inclines it was worse but now seems to occur on flat sections under slight acceleration!

Anyone else notice their Explorers doing this?

Yes, we are having the same problem. 17 Ex Sport. I have taken it to the dealer twice so far and no luck with a fix. They added a little fluid and reflashed it. The vehicle is not throwing any codes. Very frustrated as my wife hated fords before but now she REALLY hates them.

 

[peterk9]

Yes, we are having the same problem. 17 Ex Sport. I have taken it to the dealer twice so far and no luck with a fix. They added a little fluid and reflashed it. The vehicle is not throwing any codes. Very frustrated as my wife hated fords before but now she REALLY hates them.

Welcome to the Forum.
No issues with mine.

Peter