Hello, everyone, I'm experiencing an issue with my 2014 Limited AWD so I decided to come onto this forum and do some research. I bought my Flex three years ago from a used car dealer, showing 95K miles on it and have been using it for mainly commuting to and from work, short trips out of state, and have not used it for any towing- it didn't come with a tow hitch- and have accumalted miles to now total 160K miles. I have not have to do any major repairs in that time, only having new tires and tune up within the month of purchase, replaced a fouled solenoid, has the transmission fluid changed- not flushed- and routine oil changes in these past three years.
During September while my wife, kids and I were driving, I performed a u-turn and, at the apex of the turn, we all heard a loud THUD and I honestly thought I had blown a tire. I finished the U-turn and pulled over into a nearby parking lot to check for damage. None of my tires were blown so I passed it off as maybe I had hit a large rock or debris, and got back in to continue on our trip. As I pulled out of the parking spot, turning left, I heard a rhthmic, dull thud, then a pause, thud, pause, thud. I pulled into another parking spot and got out to look under the car but still didn't see anything, so I asked my wife to drive the car around the parking lot while I watched to see if I could notice anything out of the ordinary. I was able to determine the sound was coming from the rear, possibly the driver side, but I wasn't sure. We weren't far from home and, since I couldn't figure out definitely what was causing it, I decided to risk it and drive on home. The sound continued as we were turning, but it didn't make the sound aslong as we were moving in a straight line and not moving slowly- it didn't make the sounds in any of the curves either.
I found this forum while doing research on what this could possibly be, and I noticed many posts about rear differentials and something called a PTU- I am not very knowledgable when it comes to working on vehicles beyond very basic routine maintenance, so please forgive my ignorance. I figured that I could eliminate eliminate a wheel bearing issue as from what I learned here is that it should have gotten louder and worse the higher the speed. So I decided to try and replace the CV axles. Between myself and my father, we were able to remove the old ones and replace them with new ones from Rockauto and, while it did make the sound less sound and prominent, it still continued to make the noise while doing turns in my yard. Instead of just throwing more money and parts at it until we figured out what it was, I decided to bite the bullet and pay a $100 for a local mechanic to figure it out for me. Within the next few days, putting us at the end of September, he came back with that the rear differential would need to be replaced. I've been scouring the internet and our local pull a part locations for a replacement but have been unsuccessful so far for one thats in my price range.
While I'm still searching, I wanted to put this problem out to everyone here and see if this matches up to what you all have experienced with your Flexes, and hopefully you can help point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and for any advice you impart.
And, unfortunately, my local mechanic came back with that my rear differential would need to be replaced.
During September while my wife, kids and I were driving, I performed a u-turn and, at the apex of the turn, we all heard a loud THUD and I honestly thought I had blown a tire. I finished the U-turn and pulled over into a nearby parking lot to check for damage. None of my tires were blown so I passed it off as maybe I had hit a large rock or debris, and got back in to continue on our trip. As I pulled out of the parking spot, turning left, I heard a rhthmic, dull thud, then a pause, thud, pause, thud. I pulled into another parking spot and got out to look under the car but still didn't see anything, so I asked my wife to drive the car around the parking lot while I watched to see if I could notice anything out of the ordinary. I was able to determine the sound was coming from the rear, possibly the driver side, but I wasn't sure. We weren't far from home and, since I couldn't figure out definitely what was causing it, I decided to risk it and drive on home. The sound continued as we were turning, but it didn't make the sound aslong as we were moving in a straight line and not moving slowly- it didn't make the sounds in any of the curves either.
I found this forum while doing research on what this could possibly be, and I noticed many posts about rear differentials and something called a PTU- I am not very knowledgable when it comes to working on vehicles beyond very basic routine maintenance, so please forgive my ignorance. I figured that I could eliminate eliminate a wheel bearing issue as from what I learned here is that it should have gotten louder and worse the higher the speed. So I decided to try and replace the CV axles. Between myself and my father, we were able to remove the old ones and replace them with new ones from Rockauto and, while it did make the sound less sound and prominent, it still continued to make the noise while doing turns in my yard. Instead of just throwing more money and parts at it until we figured out what it was, I decided to bite the bullet and pay a $100 for a local mechanic to figure it out for me. Within the next few days, putting us at the end of September, he came back with that the rear differential would need to be replaced. I've been scouring the internet and our local pull a part locations for a replacement but have been unsuccessful so far for one thats in my price range.
While I'm still searching, I wanted to put this problem out to everyone here and see if this matches up to what you all have experienced with your Flexes, and hopefully you can help point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and for any advice you impart.
And, unfortunately, my local mechanic came back with that my rear differential would need to be replaced.