Braking and Thud Noise

[VOATMJ1]

I have a 2000 Sport 4x4, with 25,000 miles, and when ever I stop, I hear a "thud" that seems to come from the front and the rear when the vehicle rocks back and forth when stopped medium to hard braking. I can also feel it. My Ford dealer says that this is "normal." for the Sport model. I think he's lying just by the way he said it. I had a Bronco II and it never did that. Can anyone tell me/confirm for sure that this normal before I seek out another Ford Dealer? (Vehicle is still under warranty) It does not do this when ever I throw it in neutral and stop, it makes no noise at all, only in Drive or Reverse. Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Jason_25]

No this is not normal. I can't beleive the things they can get away with saying these days

It is most likely one of your drive shaft slip yokes. They just need to be greased. It's a fairly easy job to do yourself. Do a search on it if you don't know how to do it.

 

[VOATMJ1]

Thanks, I will look into that!

 

[babyhuey]

It is definately the driveshaft slip yoke, my 99 Sport did it and here to the dealer said that it was normal. Fairly easy to do and only about 25 minutes out of your day.

 

[VOATMJ1]

Thanks for the confirmation. Since the vehicle is due for warranty service anyway, (part of the bumper-to-bumper warranty) I will demand that the dealer grease these things. For warned is for armed, and no more lies from him!

 

[RedBeard]

Dang, I have this too.

 

[wallygetsit]

Only the sports do it. My old four door never had this problem. My sport does it right now. I bought this one used for a second vehicle. It had 60,000 when I bought it, and it will hit 90,000 sometime this week. It has had the thud the entire time. It does not get worse, so if you neglect to grease the slip yoke, you'll be okay for quite a while. I am not saying that is a good thing, don't get me wrong.

 

[DonM]

Not just the sports, i have this problem too! On my 95 XLT.

I plan to take it in and have it greased when i go for my next oil change next week.


Don

 

[MyExpWork]

Mine did the same thing. I cleaned and greased the slip yoke and everything was fine.

I think its starting again though.

Good luck with Ford doing.

Brian

 

[Robert]

Originally posted by VOATMJ1
Thanks for the confirmation. Since the vehicle is due for warranty service anyway, (part of the bumper-to-bumper warranty) I will demand that the dealer grease these things. For warned is for armed, and no more lies from him!

Don't be surprised when they argue with you about it. Lubricating the slip yoke is listed as routine maintenance along with oil changes. Getting Ford to lubricate your slip yoke under warranty will be about as hard as getting them to do an oil change under warranty. Just be careful you don't tell them to do it explecting it to be covered under warranty and then get stuck paying the bill when you pick up your Explorer.

 

[William Schumacher]

yup...me too

on my '99 sport ,what exactly needs to be done ,is something worn out and needs to be replaced or what ?.

 

[wallygetsit]

Well, I just had my slip yoke lubricated yesterday along with a normal service and the 'thud' is completely gone. Amazing what you'd get used to. Feels like a new vehicle again. The dealership told me it is not a normal service. It only requires lubrication if we experience that problem. They charged me just labor, $26.00 for a half hour.

I have a slight leak in the front pinion seal and the rear seal of the transfer case. Approximately $140 to repair both, but the dealership told me not to do it until they start leaking bad. They said the levels were still good. I have a lot of trust in this particular dealership. Another dealership I've been too, I would not trust them farther than I could throw them.

 

[Robert]

You might want to let your dealer look at your Service Maintenance Guide the next time you are in there. It is normal service per Ford. It is due t be lubricated at 5K miles under Normal duty and every 10K miles thereafter and at 3K miles under Severe duty and every 6K miles thereafter. You can actually go longer than thse intervals as I do mine whenever the clunk reappears, but according to Ford it is regularly scheduled maintenance.

 

[VOATMJ1]

My Ford dealer told me that my my OEM factory slip yokes were permanently sealed and lubricated, and that after replacement could they then be lubed. Does this sound right?

He then let me drive a brand new 4X4 Sport with only 30 miles on the odometer, (in the parking lot), and it was doing the same thing that mine was with 25,000 miles. Now I am not concerned, as this is apparently normal.

 

[Robert]

I don't think it will cause any problems since I have let mine go for several thousand miles before I did anything about it. Your slip-yoke is not permanently sealed and lubricated. There is a rubber boot over the slip-yoke that is fastened with two clips. You remove the boot and slide the driveshaft out of the yoke and lubricate it. If it the factory one was not designed to be lubricated Ford wouldn't have it listed under scheduled maintenance starting with the very first oil change. How many people have had to replace their yoke by the first oil change (probably none)? There would also be a note in the Service Guide stating that they were lubricated for life similar to the notes for Ford U-joints, wheel bearings and synthetic rear differential fluid. All of these have a note in the Service Guide that states that these are sealed for life and do not require maintenance. There is no such thing in the manual for the slip-yoke. If the yoke was sealed for life, the rubber boot would be held on with a more permanent method than retaining clamps similar to a hose clamp.

Mine first showed up at about 20K miles after I spent a weekend of off-roading in dusty conditions. At 30K miles I had my Explorer in for warranty work and mentioned it to the dealer. They spent 3 days tearing my front end completely apart before they found that the only thing it needed was for the slip-yoke to be lubricated. They did it under warranty since they weren't aware that it was listed as routine maintenance. I noticed it in my manual some time later and realized I was lucky they didn't charge me for doing it. If your dealer only charged you $26 to do it then you got a very good deal. Maybe labor rates are lower in your area than they are here in Phoenix. The local dealers here charge $72 an hour and would have no problem charging for a full hour to lubricate the slip yoke. I do not lubricate mine every other oil change like the manual suggest though since that is over-kill. I do mine when I start to notice the thump (about every 20K-30K miles).

 

[VOATMJ1]

Ok, let me be clear on this, how many of these slip yokes do I have, and are they on the front (4X4) as well as the rear?

I will ask my personnal mechanic to lube these things for me, just for piece of mind. Thanks!

 

[Robert]

'95 and up 2WD and 4WD have one slip-yoke at the front of the rear driveshaft. It appears that '94 and earlier have two, one at the front of the reara driveshaft and the other is probably at the rear of the front driveshaft (not sure on that one though).