06 Explorer V8 - Loud "Woosh"ing Noise

[Rngrs3910]

Over the past few months I've noticed a loud "woosh"ing noise coming from my engine when I accelate. At first it was very infrequent, but the past few days its been occuring more often. Its typically from a dead-stop, but it will occasionally happen when I'm driving at a constant speed and then try to accelerate rapidly. At first I thought it might just be my transmition going to a higher RPM rather than shifting, but I've been trying to watch my tachometer when I here it and haven't noticed any direct correlation. I'm still thinking its either the transmition not shifting to a low enough gear after i come to a stop, or not shifting to a higher gear as I accelerate, because I can get it to go away by easing of the gas and giving it time to adjust. At this point it just concerns me that its happening more and more often.

I'm pushing 70k on my 2006, and havent had to do any major work to the engine, so I'm assuming somethings due to go. I've got about 10k left on a bumber to bumper extended warranty, so if possible I'd rather take care of this before that runs out.

Any ideas? Anyone else hearing something similar?

 

[vroomzoomboom]

i would say you have a vacuum leak near the firewall

 

[Rngrs3910]

I played around with it in the parking lot at work at lunch. First I put the car in drive, and from a dead stop it made the noise. Then I came to a complete stop, put the car in to 1st gear and it made the noise again. However after that I stopped went to second, stopped and went into third, the stopped and put it in drive and it sounded fine.
I always thought that when you put an automatic into "drive" it started you in second or third, but I seem to be able to make this noise happen by accelerating from first.
Should I bite the bullet and just take it to the dealer to have it checked out?

 

[NORDFORD]

I had the same problem once after my wife had the oil changed. The clowns did not get the air filter housing back correctly. Check that first. Not usre if that is the problem, but boy it sure sounds the same....

 

[steve6534]

I played around with it in the parking lot at work at lunch. First I put the car in drive, and from a dead stop it made the noise. Then I came to a complete stop, put the car in to 1st gear and it made the noise again. However after that I stopped went to second, stopped and went into third, the stopped and put it in drive and it sounded fine.
I always thought that when you put an automatic into "drive" it started you in second or third, but I seem to be able to make this noise happen by accelerating from first.
Should I bite the bullet and just take it to the dealer to have it checked out?

Mine does this sometimes based on the outside temperature and it sounds a lot like the fan clutch. Some of my previous vehicles have done the same. For an example see this article and scroll down to "Fan Clutch Noise"

http://autorepair.about.com/library/faqs/bl511c.htm

 

[Rngrs3910]

I checked the air filter set-up and everything looked fine.

steve-is the website refering to the AC fan, or the larger white fan mounted infront of my motor (photo below)? I followed the instructions of the "test" on the larger fan and it was extrememly easy to turn by hand.

 

[steve6534]

I checked the air filter set-up and everything looked fine.

steve-is the website refering to the AC fan, or the larger white fan mounted infront of my motor (photo below)? I followed the instructions of the "test" on the larger fan and it was extrememly easy to turn by hand.

The large engine cooling fan (white one in the picture). If it turned pretty freely it sounds like that's not it.

 

[Rngrs3910]

So tonight on the way home from work my engine coolant warning light kept going off and my thermostat was all over the place. I checked the coolant level and it was really low, and I noticed a little dripping from the bottom of the car.
I dropped it off to get fixed, so we'll find out tomorrow what's really going on...

 

[Rngrs3910]

File this one under the list of Explorers that needed a new radiator...

The "woosh"ing I heard was the enginer trying to cool itself without getting the proper amount of fluid.

Thank goodness for extended warranties...