Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

I have 2 issues with my FEH involving vibration. I balanced tires several times, switched each tire with the spare, and finally replaced them with no change so the tires are out of the equation. I took it to the dealer. They agreed that they felt the vibration but said that they couldn't do anything for me.

The dealership said that they scoured their diagnostic computer and couldn't find any description matching my symptoms. Thats it. No inspection, no diagnosis, no making sure no weights were missing from the drive shaft, no making sure a motor mount isn't broken, nothing. Here is the specific description of my issue:

1) Vibration / roughness while accelerating at 30mph - from a stop when I accelerate there is a vibration / roughness at 30mph. It stops shortly after 30mph. It feels like side to side torsional vibration. Like a a motor mount is missing or broken. It is pretty severe.

2) While driving steady state between 40-60mph there is a light persistent vibration throughout the whole car. It is low, you can feel it in your butt. It is a more of a buzz, not a rotational tire balance vibration. This is much less severe, but very annoying.

Any ideas from the brain trust? (that's all of you guys!).

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

Did you have all of your axles & rear driveshaft inspected? Since you have an AWD, there should be plenty to investigate. I think someone posted here with similar issues to yours and resolved it with a new axle or two.
You might not be able to reman your axle(s) if they're bent, which may explain why your dealer didn't want to explore this potentially expensive solution.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

I agree that there should be plenty to investigate with AWD. I expected the dealer to do some of the investigating. I am under Premiumcare warranty. I thought they'd be happy to find as much wrong as possible.

I'm probably going to have to chase this down myself. Just surprised that the dealer was so happy to say, yes, that vibration is bad but I don't know how to fix it. And, no, I haven't done any inspection or really looked at it. As it stands, the service manager is driving it today so we'll see what happens.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

Clearly if your case was easy money, your service writer/manager would be all over it. Maybe someone with experience could pitch in on this thread, but obviously there has to be some extra work or other issue for the dealer to justify/document this problem and then get reimbursed for warranty repairs.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

When it comes to Dealers the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Call ford help line and start complaining.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

I would (1) go to a different dealer if there is one available, (2) tell your dealer that if they don't address the problem you will contact customer service at Ford and complain, (3) do 2 if it is not resolved, and (4) have the Tea Party protest in front of the Ford dealership (okay, kidding about 4).

This does not sound like a hybrid issue, so an intermediate possibility would be take the FED to a competent mechanic, pay him to figure it out, than take the diagnosis to the dealer. Might be worth the money just to bring it to closure.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

Instead of vehicle speed, can you verify this vibration is at 2k rpm?

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

I like the way you think DIVER. My nagging has helped. I talked to them today and they were planning to remove the driveshaft and run the car to see if it impacted the vibration.

At the end of the day, if they can't diagnose the issue, I will go to a regular mechanic and have them diagnose. It is worth the money.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

UPDATE - I got my Escape back today and thought I'd give an update on my vibration issue. The dealer kept the car for just over a week. After our first go round, the service manager got involved. They started communicating with the Ford tech "hot line" and decided it was either one of the rear axles or the driveshaft. They took the drive shaft off and drove it without - vibration gone. It took a few days to order a new driveshaft and they installed it today.

I'm now the completely satisfied owner of my '07 FEH. I was worried there for a minute that I'd have to drive it around that way forever. When I test drove it before I bought it (used) I figured the tires needed to be balanced.

In addition to the driveshaft I had a few other somewhat minor unrelated problems (suspension stuff up front, tailgate issue, etc). I was very happy to pay just the $100 deductible for my ESP warranty. I bet the warranty just paid for itself in the first visit! Either way, I'm happy to be back in my FEH.

Re: Need help diagnosing vibration on my FEH
 

Could you post how many miles are on this 07 FEH? Thank you