Re: 2003 Mountaineer Rear End Whine

start writing letters !

Was told today I will be getting a complete new rear-end that has been redesigned by Ford. They will take the old one off and pop the new one on. Should take 1 to 2 days for install.

Hopefully this will take care of the whine sound at 55MPH. My dealer claims it will.

I just got my Mountaineer back from the dealer today. They replaced the complete rear end. I was told it was a redesigned differential. My vehicle does not "whine" anymore and seems to have less vibration.

The Lincoln Aviator, Mercury Mountaineer and Ford Explorers are affected by this problem. Don't let your dealer tell you otherwise. There is a SSM on Ford's Oasis system that tells them to replace the Rear Diff Assy as a whole unit.

I am very pleased with the fix. Hopefully it will last.

I am having the same problem with a 2003 Explorer. They replaced the gears and it was quiet for about 100 miles and noe the same thing. I told the dealer about what I read on this site and he said there is nothing they see from Ford that says to replace the whole unit. Could you please send me any additional information you have on this such as ssm number or dealer who performed your work. Its going to look like a battle for them to do this and I would think if this is the fix they would want to do that just so they dont hear from me anymore. I'd appreciate any info you can provide--thanks John

I've only had my '03 Explorer for two weeks (used purchase with 7800 miles on it) so I'm not completely familiar with the sounds it makes. I got REAL familiar with my '94 EB after 197k miles! I am finding a slight high-pitched noise at 68 mph and I'm not sure if it is the tires "singing" or if it is the early stages of this rear-end syndrome. Any way to pin this down easily?

dave

Dave--If the whine is present while giving it gas and stops when you let off the pedal then it is probably rear end or possibly something in the drive train. The dealer already replaced the gears in mine and the noise went away for about 100 miles then started coming back again. I am to take it back today and hopefully I can convince them to replace the whole assembly. If it was your tires, it would make the noise even when not giving it any gas. Hope that helps. John

Also Dave you can view the NHTSA web site. Under complaints you will see that this is a documented issue with Explorers along with some other problems. There link is

It is nice just to haveas much documented cases to show dealer that this is indeed a problem. John

Thanks for the feedback, John. Actually, my whine doesn't seem to be affected by acceleration/deceleration forces. It very slowly appears as I'm creeping up to 68 mph and will stay constant at that speed. If I go past 68 (again, creeping up slowly) it will slowly disappear....same with slowing down gradually. That tends to make me think that it is the tread blocks "singing" or creating some kind of harmonic noise at that exact rotational speed. I'll keep an eye on it. If it's the tires, it will probably slowly go away as the tire treads wear down.

dave

Yea you are probably right. It seems that with some tires they will run flawlessly on one make/model of vehicle, but put them on another and they act up. It must have to do with the design of the vehicle. Well hopefully yours will clear up. John

Finally after my service manager speaking to an engineer at Ford, it was decided to replace the entire rear end in my Explorer also. I took the vehicle up yesterday and it supposed to be completed today.

Thanks to the posts on this website, I ended up nudging my service manager about the rear end replacement. He said they have a number that they can contact Ford Engineering and whoever he spoke to gave them the number to order the whole assembly. Its almost if the customer keeps persuing the issue they will resolve it. It is very frustrating because we pay alot of money for a defect free vehicle and its not like we are being picky--the dammm thing is to noisy to drive on a trip. I have a Dodge Durango with

130000 miles on it and it was quieter than my Explorer. Hopefully the new rear end will stay quiet.

I don't know. You could do like I did and go back into the dealer and tell them it still whines. I was 30 miles short of being out of warranty on a 2002 last week. Called the dealer and said the rear end whines worse than ever. They decided to replace the rear end for the 2nd time in this car's life. Now the car sits on a rack in the service department waiting on a pinion bearing thats back ordered.

You might consider changing dealers. I had a leaking transfer case seal problem on my '98 XLT. The dealer worked on it 3 times and finally decided it was truly fixed. I took a trip down to North Carolina and discovered oil all over the bottome of the chassis. Took it into a Ford dealer in Ashville NC and they asked if an actual Ford qualified technician had worked on the transfer case - the seals were totally F--ked up. They perfromed yet another warranty repair and I never had another problem - I also wrote a long letter to Ford about my original dealer.