Hey everyone!
I’m new around here, so apologies in advance if I dropped this in the wrong section.
I’ve been reading your threads since late 2021, right after I bought my Taurus, and I recognize a bunch of you by your avatars - but I’ve never actually posted before.
Guess the time has come, because honestly, I’ve got no clue where else to turn
I own a 2011 SHO. Bought it with 266,000 km (165k miles) on the clock. Since then, I’ve put about 56,000 km (35k miles) on it.
Let me first drop the full list of fluid changes in the transmission, PTU, and rear diff - all done by yours truly, so you know I’ve been keeping up with the maintenance.
⸻
=266,000 km
• Installed a used transmission (came off a 140k km car)
• Changed fluid — FoMoCo ATF
=280,359 km
• PTU fluid change — FoMoCo
• Rear diff fluid change — FoMoCo
=287,000 km
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
=292,948 km
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
=317,000 km
• Flushed PTU 4 times in a row — FoMoCo
(I did it as a preventive measure, driving 5–10 km between each flush to wash out all the gunk from that hellhole of a unit.)
• Rear diff fluid change — FoMoCo
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
⸻
*** Bad times kicked in. That’s when the first weird noises and strange behavior started showing up — I’ll describe that in detail below. ***
⸻
=319,263 km
• Flushed PTU 5 times in a row — Liqui Moly
(1–5 km between each drain/refill)
=319,300 km
• PTU fluid changed twice in a row — Liqui Moly
• Rear diff fluid — FoMoCo
=321,500 km
• PTU fluid change — FoMoCo
=322,240 km
• PTU fluid change — Amsoil
⸻
So here’s the actual story (yeah, it’s a long one):
A few months back, right before summer, I hit the autobahn. At around 120–150 km/h, I suddenly felt a vibration shaking the whole damn car.
I thought - “Okay, maybe a wheel issue or driveshaft imbalance.” But I hadn’t touched anything recently, and it drove perfectly fine before that.
Later that day, during a hard launch, I felt what seemed like the front left wheel slipping. I figured - “whatever,” left side was on dirt, right on asphalt.
But… no TCS light, no dust cloud, nothing.
Got out - no tire mark on the ground.
Tried again. Same metallic clicking and ABS-like vibration under my feet - sounded like splines spinning inside a housing.
(I’ll attach a few videos later - same damn sound that’s haunting me again now. It’s the exact same one from back then.)
A few hours later I’m cruising the autobahn again, end up racing another car - hit 200+ km/h for about 20 minutes, steady pull, no issues at all.
No overheating, no leaks, nothing bad.
Only the usual smell - you know, that burnt chicken shit mixed with crude oil refinery aroma — the classic PTU perfume)))
Had that smell from day one. Thought it was road grime or exhaust residue.
Later learned on U.S. forums - nah, buddy, that’s just “normal SHO ownership.”
Fast forward to that same evening:
After a long 2-hour car wash (so fluids were warm but not hot), I fired it up, did a full-throttle launch - and bam, rear wheels didn’t spin.
Did it again - front wheels smoking, rear drive gone. Felt like I was driving a damn Civic with VTEC and a stick shift. Lots of wheelspin, lots of smoke
So, the next day I decided to drain the PTU fluid - expecting to find a surprise in there, like chunks of gears - and then go hunt for a new PTU
Since I’m in Germany, buying anything from FoMoCo fast is basically impossible. Nothing happens fast here, except cars on the autobahn. So I went with Liqui Moly. Never used it before, but I just wanted to quickly find out what’s wrong with the car.
I sucked that swamp out with a syringe - and saw nothing new. Same as always: horrible, stinky, dark gray sludge. The plug was clean, just a bit of metallic dust. Business as usual.
Mileage: 319,263 km.
I changed the PTU fluid five times in a row (driving 1–5 km between each change).
Could’ve kept going, but after the fifth round I was done. The smell of 75/140 was killing me, oil drops were raining from every part of the undercarriage, my head was itchy, my clothes ruined - I’d had enough.
There’s no drain plug at the bottom, so I always have to suck it out and refill through the side plug. It’s insanely hot around there - the cat, oil pan, and PTU - pure ****. My arm felt like a fried chicken.
Then I went for a test drive.
No sounds from the front left wheel, AWD works, car launches perfectly. Tested in different modes. Everything fixed itself - my favorite kind of repair
A few days later, nothing to do, two bottles of 75/140 were still sitting in the cupholders.
Mileage: 319,300 km - only 37 km after the last change.
Changed PTU fluid twice more (still Liqui Moly).
Also changed rear diff oil (FoMoCo).
Everything’s great, no noise, no problems. Using the car as usual.
Just to calm my soul, I did one more “shot into the void” - 2,200 km later.
Mileage: 321,500 km.
PTU oil change again (FoMoCo).
Fluid looked the same: smells like death, black, no visible metal bits or shavings.
The turn of events.
After a few months of carefree driving - suddenly I hear a hum.
Sounds exactly like a bad wheel bearing. Every day it gets louder.
Under acceleration - louder. Coasting - still there.
Bought a MOOG hub (couldn’t find anything else). Removed the old OEM one - 322,200 km on it. Spinning it by hand - yeah, slight bearing noise.
Put the car back together, feeling happy - rolled out of the garage… and the noise got way worse!
Now it’s a hard metallic vibration through the floor, the same sound I had months ago when the car first started acting up.
But! Now there’s no noise when I let off the gas - silent when coasting.
So yeah, the hub was part of the noise, but not the main problem.
Time to blame the driveshaft.
Of course, there’s no new half shaft available for sale. Ordering one from abroad costs a fortune, and I don’t want to gamble replacing a good part.
Out of curiosity, I tore the old one apart.
With that kind of noise and vibration, I expected to see a completely destroyed CV joint… but no. Looked fine.
There’s some wear on the inner cup, but minimal - you can’t even feel it with a finger. Well, 322,000 km after all.
Tripod bearings spin smooth, no noise. Cleaned everything and packed new grease.
I couldn’t open the outer CV joint - didn’t have proper clamps.
That sucks, because I can’t be 100% sure it’s fine.
But the whole shaft has zero play, no knocking, no crap.
Ordered Amsoil 75/140 online. Wanted to check PTU fluid for metal shavings.
Replaced FoMoCo with Amsoil at 322,240 km.
The drained fluid smelled as usual - nasty, blackish-gray.
But for the first time, I poured it into a clean, clear bucket - and saw a bit of very fine, barely visible gray metallic dust. More like powder than shavings. (Got a video too.)
Filled it with Amsoil - problem didn’t change one bit. Same awful noise.
Before posting here, I tried hunting down similar sounds in videos about PTU or axle failures - even on other cars. Nothing matched.
Shops around here can’t help me. Mechanics don’t know American cars. Their “repair strategy” is just swapping random parts until something works.
Even though the Explorer V was officially sold in Europe and shares many parts with the Taurus SHO - the official dealer still can’t service my car. They can’t even find brake pads by VIN, let alone handle real repairs.
Please share your thoughts or experience - any guesses on what could be wrong.
Sorry for the wall of text - I just hope your comments lead me to the solution of this mess.
Thanks everyone, and good luck out there!
I’m new around here, so apologies in advance if I dropped this in the wrong section.
I’ve been reading your threads since late 2021, right after I bought my Taurus, and I recognize a bunch of you by your avatars - but I’ve never actually posted before.
Guess the time has come, because honestly, I’ve got no clue where else to turn
I own a 2011 SHO. Bought it with 266,000 km (165k miles) on the clock. Since then, I’ve put about 56,000 km (35k miles) on it.
Let me first drop the full list of fluid changes in the transmission, PTU, and rear diff - all done by yours truly, so you know I’ve been keeping up with the maintenance.
⸻
=266,000 km
• Installed a used transmission (came off a 140k km car)
• Changed fluid — FoMoCo ATF
=280,359 km
• PTU fluid change — FoMoCo
• Rear diff fluid change — FoMoCo
=287,000 km
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
=292,948 km
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
=317,000 km
• Flushed PTU 4 times in a row — FoMoCo
(I did it as a preventive measure, driving 5–10 km between each flush to wash out all the gunk from that hellhole of a unit.)
• Rear diff fluid change — FoMoCo
• Transmission fluid change — FoMoCo
⸻
*** Bad times kicked in. That’s when the first weird noises and strange behavior started showing up — I’ll describe that in detail below. ***
⸻
=319,263 km
• Flushed PTU 5 times in a row — Liqui Moly
(1–5 km between each drain/refill)
=319,300 km
• PTU fluid changed twice in a row — Liqui Moly
• Rear diff fluid — FoMoCo
=321,500 km
• PTU fluid change — FoMoCo
=322,240 km
• PTU fluid change — Amsoil
⸻
So here’s the actual story (yeah, it’s a long one):
A few months back, right before summer, I hit the autobahn. At around 120–150 km/h, I suddenly felt a vibration shaking the whole damn car.
I thought - “Okay, maybe a wheel issue or driveshaft imbalance.” But I hadn’t touched anything recently, and it drove perfectly fine before that.
Later that day, during a hard launch, I felt what seemed like the front left wheel slipping. I figured - “whatever,” left side was on dirt, right on asphalt.
But… no TCS light, no dust cloud, nothing.
Got out - no tire mark on the ground.
Tried again. Same metallic clicking and ABS-like vibration under my feet - sounded like splines spinning inside a housing.
(I’ll attach a few videos later - same damn sound that’s haunting me again now. It’s the exact same one from back then.)
A few hours later I’m cruising the autobahn again, end up racing another car - hit 200+ km/h for about 20 minutes, steady pull, no issues at all.
No overheating, no leaks, nothing bad.
Only the usual smell - you know, that burnt chicken shit mixed with crude oil refinery aroma — the classic PTU perfume)))
Had that smell from day one. Thought it was road grime or exhaust residue.
Later learned on U.S. forums - nah, buddy, that’s just “normal SHO ownership.”
Fast forward to that same evening:
After a long 2-hour car wash (so fluids were warm but not hot), I fired it up, did a full-throttle launch - and bam, rear wheels didn’t spin.
Did it again - front wheels smoking, rear drive gone. Felt like I was driving a damn Civic with VTEC and a stick shift. Lots of wheelspin, lots of smoke
So, the next day I decided to drain the PTU fluid - expecting to find a surprise in there, like chunks of gears - and then go hunt for a new PTU
Since I’m in Germany, buying anything from FoMoCo fast is basically impossible. Nothing happens fast here, except cars on the autobahn. So I went with Liqui Moly. Never used it before, but I just wanted to quickly find out what’s wrong with the car.
I sucked that swamp out with a syringe - and saw nothing new. Same as always: horrible, stinky, dark gray sludge. The plug was clean, just a bit of metallic dust. Business as usual.
Mileage: 319,263 km.
I changed the PTU fluid five times in a row (driving 1–5 km between each change).
Could’ve kept going, but after the fifth round I was done. The smell of 75/140 was killing me, oil drops were raining from every part of the undercarriage, my head was itchy, my clothes ruined - I’d had enough.
There’s no drain plug at the bottom, so I always have to suck it out and refill through the side plug. It’s insanely hot around there - the cat, oil pan, and PTU - pure ****. My arm felt like a fried chicken.
Then I went for a test drive.
No sounds from the front left wheel, AWD works, car launches perfectly. Tested in different modes. Everything fixed itself - my favorite kind of repair
A few days later, nothing to do, two bottles of 75/140 were still sitting in the cupholders.
Mileage: 319,300 km - only 37 km after the last change.
Changed PTU fluid twice more (still Liqui Moly).
Also changed rear diff oil (FoMoCo).
Everything’s great, no noise, no problems. Using the car as usual.
Just to calm my soul, I did one more “shot into the void” - 2,200 km later.
Mileage: 321,500 km.
PTU oil change again (FoMoCo).
Fluid looked the same: smells like death, black, no visible metal bits or shavings.
The turn of events.
After a few months of carefree driving - suddenly I hear a hum.
Sounds exactly like a bad wheel bearing. Every day it gets louder.
Under acceleration - louder. Coasting - still there.
Put the car back together, feeling happy - rolled out of the garage… and the noise got way worse!
Now it’s a hard metallic vibration through the floor, the same sound I had months ago when the car first started acting up.
But! Now there’s no noise when I let off the gas - silent when coasting.
So yeah, the hub was part of the noise, but not the main problem.
Time to blame the driveshaft.
Of course, there’s no new half shaft available for sale. Ordering one from abroad costs a fortune, and I don’t want to gamble replacing a good part.
Out of curiosity, I tore the old one apart.
With that kind of noise and vibration, I expected to see a completely destroyed CV joint… but no. Looked fine.
There’s some wear on the inner cup, but minimal - you can’t even feel it with a finger. Well, 322,000 km after all.
Tripod bearings spin smooth, no noise. Cleaned everything and packed new grease.
I couldn’t open the outer CV joint - didn’t have proper clamps.
That sucks, because I can’t be 100% sure it’s fine.
But the whole shaft has zero play, no knocking, no crap.
Ordered Amsoil 75/140 online. Wanted to check PTU fluid for metal shavings.
Replaced FoMoCo with Amsoil at 322,240 km.
The drained fluid smelled as usual - nasty, blackish-gray.
But for the first time, I poured it into a clean, clear bucket - and saw a bit of very fine, barely visible gray metallic dust. More like powder than shavings. (Got a video too.)
Filled it with Amsoil - problem didn’t change one bit. Same awful noise.
Before posting here, I tried hunting down similar sounds in videos about PTU or axle failures - even on other cars. Nothing matched.
Shops around here can’t help me. Mechanics don’t know American cars. Their “repair strategy” is just swapping random parts until something works.
Even though the Explorer V was officially sold in Europe and shares many parts with the Taurus SHO - the official dealer still can’t service my car. They can’t even find brake pads by VIN, let alone handle real repairs.
Please share your thoughts or experience - any guesses on what could be wrong.
Sorry for the wall of text - I just hope your comments lead me to the solution of this mess.
Thanks everyone, and good luck out there!
