IkeH
New Member
- Joined
- November 4, 2009
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 03 Mountaineer AWD
So this is my first post here. I'm trying to figure out what are likely issues with my mountaineer before I take it to a dealership (or stealership as I see it called so many times here...very apt) so that I'm reasonably well enough informed to be sure that I'm not being taken for a ride.
First: The story of what happened, as there may be things here that are important that are more important than I thought.
Anyway, I bought my used mounty just a couple of months ago as a replacement for my old Grand Am that has now gone to the big junkyard in the sky when its oil pump went out while traveling down the freeway. I bought the mounty from a local ford dealer because we needed the room for the kiddos and my wife liked the way it looked on both the inside and outside. If it weren't for the drivetrain issues we've had with it since then, we would probably love this vehicle. As it is, I'm almost wishing to have my Grand Am back. Almost.
Anyway, when we bought the car, the rear tires were worn all to hell. We asked (and got) the dealer to put new tires on the rear. Front tires looked nearly new. After the new tires were on, felt vibrations that got worse with speed. Took to a tire shop who found that rear wheels were not at all balanced. Said alignment was fine. They also noticed that there was differential fluid that had been sprayed over much of the undercarriage, but mostly near the front diff. They cleaned that off, but said that it was likely just coming out of a release valve because it was probably overfull. They noted that the front diff looked brand new, but that it would be a good idea to have that checked at a ford dealership.
We drove the car for a week after that, planning to take it to a dealership the next week due to time constraints. At the end of that week, the front diff basically forced us to have the car towed to the dealership. It had apparently gone bone dry, and failed. (It should be noted here, that a: we had at this point put less than 500 miles on the Mounty, and b: had at no time seen any differential fluid on our driveway. Not even a tiny drop). Anyway, we take it back to the dealership, and after presenting them with the evidence that was found at the tire shop, convince them that they should fix the front diff on their dime. They do that, and give us back the car a week later with a rebuilt front differential, and a warranty on that front differential.
Fast forward to the past week (we are now at about 3000 miles put on the Mounty by us...80,000 total). I notice at the beginning of the week that the rear tires are exhibiting a fairly strong "heel-toe" (thanks google!) wear pattern. I have no idea if this is relevant or not, but I mention it so that you all at least know what I know. Unfortunately, however, I can't really do anything about it at the time, because my wife's mother has passed away, and we are having to travel back and forth to her parents house to deal with arrangements and what not. But I call a mechanic (I should mention that I don't really have a mechanic in the area because I just moved back to my hometown after 7 years in Chicago) and make an appointment for next week (because that's after the memorial service) to have him take a look at what could be going on. Then yesterday, my wife is driving home from her folks house (40 minutes, freeway driving), and says that about 10 minutes from our house, she starts smelling a strong "burnt rubber" smell. She drives the rest of the way home, but the smell gets stronger and stronger. She parks the car in the garage, and notices some oil near the rear drivers side tire, and calls me freaking out about it. After calming her down, we agree that it probably shouldn't be driven at least until it gets looked at a little more, and her father loans her her mothers car. Her father is thinking that now we have a rear diff problem.
Anyway, so when I get home from work, I notice that not only is there a little puddle of oil near the drivers side rear tire but drips of oil/diff fluid almost everywhere underneath the drivers side of the vehicle. I get down and look under the car, and it looks like my wife had run over an oil-filled grenade. oil covering almost everything on the underside of the vehicle. And the biggest puddle is underneath the connection between the front diff and drivers side axle.
So thats where we are today. I'm going to have the car towed to the dealership so that they can fix the front diff (again, and now under warranty). But there are a few things that still eat at my brain that I am hoping to solve. First, there's no way I can think of that the front diff should fail (or in this case, I am guessing it was just the seal that failed) in only 3000 miles without something else being wrong. I'm guessing that it failed the first time because oil had leaked out of the front diff before it was sold to us and the vehicle was basically sold to us with a nearly dry front differential. That makes me think that one or more of the seals on the front diff either is having persistent problems, or that there is something else that is wrong that is causing the seals to rapidly fail. Second, I can't help but wonder if the bizarre (to me) wear pattern on the rear tires is somehow related to this. I'm not a mechanic (although I try to learn as much as I can whenever I get the chance), but I'm wondering if this may lead to a case where the front diff is nearly always having to work to keep the front tires up to speed with the rear tires, thus causing the fluid in the front diff to get too hot and cause failure of one or more seals.
Anyway, since I've found this forum to be a great source of information thus far, I thought I'd ask all of you if you have any ideas. The last thing I want is to ask the dealership to try to solve this mystery, have them charge me an arm and a leg, and then wind up with something expensive getting fixed that wasn't really contributing to the problem in the first place.
And a further thought to consider: If it winds up being that this is the kind of thing we are just going to have to deal with periodically (a situation I'd rather not have), What are the pros and cons of converting the mounty to a RWD vehicle? To be honest, I really don't care much about the AWD-ness of this vehicle. We really aren't in a location where it will be of much help, and on the rare occasions when it would be (ice storms), our other car is a Subaru that we have been very happy with. We only got the AWD model because my wife happened to like all the other features that came with this particular Mounty.
First: The story of what happened, as there may be things here that are important that are more important than I thought.
Anyway, I bought my used mounty just a couple of months ago as a replacement for my old Grand Am that has now gone to the big junkyard in the sky when its oil pump went out while traveling down the freeway. I bought the mounty from a local ford dealer because we needed the room for the kiddos and my wife liked the way it looked on both the inside and outside. If it weren't for the drivetrain issues we've had with it since then, we would probably love this vehicle. As it is, I'm almost wishing to have my Grand Am back. Almost.
Anyway, when we bought the car, the rear tires were worn all to hell. We asked (and got) the dealer to put new tires on the rear. Front tires looked nearly new. After the new tires were on, felt vibrations that got worse with speed. Took to a tire shop who found that rear wheels were not at all balanced. Said alignment was fine. They also noticed that there was differential fluid that had been sprayed over much of the undercarriage, but mostly near the front diff. They cleaned that off, but said that it was likely just coming out of a release valve because it was probably overfull. They noted that the front diff looked brand new, but that it would be a good idea to have that checked at a ford dealership.
We drove the car for a week after that, planning to take it to a dealership the next week due to time constraints. At the end of that week, the front diff basically forced us to have the car towed to the dealership. It had apparently gone bone dry, and failed. (It should be noted here, that a: we had at this point put less than 500 miles on the Mounty, and b: had at no time seen any differential fluid on our driveway. Not even a tiny drop). Anyway, we take it back to the dealership, and after presenting them with the evidence that was found at the tire shop, convince them that they should fix the front diff on their dime. They do that, and give us back the car a week later with a rebuilt front differential, and a warranty on that front differential.
Fast forward to the past week (we are now at about 3000 miles put on the Mounty by us...80,000 total). I notice at the beginning of the week that the rear tires are exhibiting a fairly strong "heel-toe" (thanks google!) wear pattern. I have no idea if this is relevant or not, but I mention it so that you all at least know what I know. Unfortunately, however, I can't really do anything about it at the time, because my wife's mother has passed away, and we are having to travel back and forth to her parents house to deal with arrangements and what not. But I call a mechanic (I should mention that I don't really have a mechanic in the area because I just moved back to my hometown after 7 years in Chicago) and make an appointment for next week (because that's after the memorial service) to have him take a look at what could be going on. Then yesterday, my wife is driving home from her folks house (40 minutes, freeway driving), and says that about 10 minutes from our house, she starts smelling a strong "burnt rubber" smell. She drives the rest of the way home, but the smell gets stronger and stronger. She parks the car in the garage, and notices some oil near the rear drivers side tire, and calls me freaking out about it. After calming her down, we agree that it probably shouldn't be driven at least until it gets looked at a little more, and her father loans her her mothers car. Her father is thinking that now we have a rear diff problem.
Anyway, so when I get home from work, I notice that not only is there a little puddle of oil near the drivers side rear tire but drips of oil/diff fluid almost everywhere underneath the drivers side of the vehicle. I get down and look under the car, and it looks like my wife had run over an oil-filled grenade. oil covering almost everything on the underside of the vehicle. And the biggest puddle is underneath the connection between the front diff and drivers side axle.
So thats where we are today. I'm going to have the car towed to the dealership so that they can fix the front diff (again, and now under warranty). But there are a few things that still eat at my brain that I am hoping to solve. First, there's no way I can think of that the front diff should fail (or in this case, I am guessing it was just the seal that failed) in only 3000 miles without something else being wrong. I'm guessing that it failed the first time because oil had leaked out of the front diff before it was sold to us and the vehicle was basically sold to us with a nearly dry front differential. That makes me think that one or more of the seals on the front diff either is having persistent problems, or that there is something else that is wrong that is causing the seals to rapidly fail. Second, I can't help but wonder if the bizarre (to me) wear pattern on the rear tires is somehow related to this. I'm not a mechanic (although I try to learn as much as I can whenever I get the chance), but I'm wondering if this may lead to a case where the front diff is nearly always having to work to keep the front tires up to speed with the rear tires, thus causing the fluid in the front diff to get too hot and cause failure of one or more seals.
Anyway, since I've found this forum to be a great source of information thus far, I thought I'd ask all of you if you have any ideas. The last thing I want is to ask the dealership to try to solve this mystery, have them charge me an arm and a leg, and then wind up with something expensive getting fixed that wasn't really contributing to the problem in the first place.
And a further thought to consider: If it winds up being that this is the kind of thing we are just going to have to deal with periodically (a situation I'd rather not have), What are the pros and cons of converting the mounty to a RWD vehicle? To be honest, I really don't care much about the AWD-ness of this vehicle. We really aren't in a location where it will be of much help, and on the rare occasions when it would be (ice storms), our other car is a Subaru that we have been very happy with. We only got the AWD model because my wife happened to like all the other features that came with this particular Mounty.
