Hello all, first post to this forum, thanks in advance for any help.
Ford escape hybrid 2006, low mileage, (70000K so about 45000 Miles) no previous problems.
Wife had a small accident last fall. Deer jump out from the drivers side straight at the car, she swerved to the right and clipped a huge fir tree that was about a foot off the pavement. 25 feet one direction or the other and it would have been a non- issue. Needed body work to all the side panels- no big deal. At the time of the accident the rear passenger side tire seemed to be a bit out of line. There was pitch and bark jammed between the tire and the rim so it had certainly made contact with the tree. So the car was towed, all wheels lifted, to the dealer. But- from day one after repairs there was a noise from the rear passenger side that was not there before. No mistaking there was a "new" sound. After repeated trips to the dealer and several test drives with mechanics, they decided it was the wheel bearing, replaced twice now and has not fixed the noise. Now, we are being told it is the PTU and not related to the accident and it will be 2300 bucks thank you very much! Arrgghhhh!
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So, my question is-
Could a rear wheel impact create a situation that requires the ptu to be replaced, or is it simply bad luck? From reading on the forums I see this is a problem with this vehicle but this seems like very low mileage for this to happen.
Vehicle is my wife's car, purchased new from dealer and is truly a little old lady car. It has never been off road or towed anything. Always serviced by dealer at require mileage.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks
Michael

 

After an event like that, compared to what could have happened, repairs like this aren't such a disaster.

I assume you have an awd model, because the PTU isn't installed if you just have fwd. The PTU is one of the awd components between the rear wheels and the transmission. It's mounted farthest from the rear wheels, and in fact is attached to a front halfshaft. So I suppose it could have been damaged in the accident, but ONLY IF the rear wheels were engaged at the time. Come to think of it, I'm not even certain the '06 had a PTU, since my info is for the '09.

I looked this up in the Ford service manual. Note that this is for the '09 Hybrid, and I have no solid idea how it might apply to other Escapes.

Operation of the Power Transfer Unit

The rear axle drive pinion receives power from the engine through the transaxle, PTU, driveshaft and active torque coupling and is always engaged.

The PTU transfers engine power from the transaxle to the front half driveshafts.

The PTU is a gearbox attached to the transaxle. On an automatic transaxle vehicle, the right hand front intermediate shaft passes through the PTU and engages the differential side gear as in FWD. The PTU directs power to the rear driveshaft through a helical gear spline coupled to the transaxle differential case and some other gears...

The PTU is sealed from the transaxle and has its own oil supply.

So the PTU sounds like a version of a differential or transfer case.

If you have awd/4wd, the first check would be whether the noise comes and goes when the awd/4wd is engaged/disengaged. Is there any way to put it on a hoist, start it up with the awd engaged, and see if someone can figure out where the noise is coming from?

 

I have a 2008 FEH AWD, and had to have the PTO replaced in January. It had been noisy for over 2 years, sounding EXACTLY like a cupped tire (which is REALLY common on Escapes in general). Service Tech finally put the vehicle on a lift & had someone engage the vehicle in drive...odd to see all 4 wheels turning on a lift.... After some minutes with a stethoscope, he advised replacing the PTO, as 'it has been found to be problematic'. Fortunately, I have the extended warranty, so I was only out the deductible. (This incident covered the cost of that warranty for me !!). Afterwards, noise is completely gone for the first time in 2+ years. They also replaced the front half-shaft that connects to the PTO under warranty. Nice. We bought the extended warranty mostly because of the hybrid nature of the vehicle, but it's mostly been used for non-hybrid component repair since we've had the FEH.

 

Can you describe the noise in any more detail? My FEH has a quiet but audible background noise that's like a cross betwen a growl and a hum, and only shows up after about 20 minutes of driving. As though it's something that warms up. I've been thinking it's the normal sound from the eCVT, but it may be something else.

I sure wish I'd accepted the dealer's offer of an extended warranty.

 

You may want to have your mechanic check the rear differential. Your description matches almost exactly what happened to my .08 FEH a couple of years ago. The rear diff. was replaced under the original warranty....it would growl when I left off the gas pedal. My mechanic confirmed it with a stethoscope. Expensive part there, too, unfortunately....

Yeah, our Extended warranty has been used now several times, more than paying for itself. It's the first one we ever purchased on a car. My wife has an '10 Fusion Hybrid, and we got it for that vehicle, too.....so far, it hasn't been used on that one, though...

 

Thanks for the answers everyone.
This is also the first vehicle that we had ever purchased an extended warranty for, never needed it, which is fine.
Yes, the PTU is Fords name for the transfer case.
The noise that we hear is just minor enough to possibly be ignored- like rough pavement maybe- but noticeable enough to not be ignored as it wasn't there before. It is actually more discernible on smooth pavement when everything else is quiet.
I spoke to our local mechanic, he is one of those wonderful guys that has fixed cars all his life and loves repairing cars. We decided that we will bring it back from the dealer and he will put it up on the hoist and have a good listen and think on it all.
We are still a little perplexed that the noise did not exist before this fairly minor accident, most of the impact was the rear passenger tire, and now the noise is there and we are told it has nothing to do with the accident even thought it is a low mileage vehicle.
I gues the moral is don't crash your car!
Thanks again
M

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a pretty good idea of when the rear drive is engaged, and this sound has no correspondence to that. It is a constant noise when highway driving, and only when the vehicle has warmed up. It does not vary in synch with the engine rpm's but probably varies with the speed. This is why I suspect the PTU. It could be a driveshaft bearing, I suppose. But it's not loud, and there's no vibration associated with it. So it's in watch&wait status.

 

Bad u-joints can give these symptoms. The torque tube that connects the rear axle to the PTU can amplify and transmit the sound making it appear to come from somewhere else. First time I had this problem finding it kicked my behind trying to find it.

First replace these. There's two of them, one at each end of the torque tube. Either one can be bad, it only takes one. Lots cheaper that the other stuff.

 

Sounds like good advice, Bill. I looked up the symptom noises for a bad PTU, and it's like rattling rocks in a can. Nothing like my noise. The FEH is going in for an oil change soon, so I'll have the mechanic check this. Thanks.

 

RE: PTU noise
Yes, these are helically cut gears at 45º angle. The mesh is fine. So from inception of a pending failure to making nose may take awhile. But once you hear it, its going to fail soon.

It'll be like a rock crusher and once you hear that the remaining life may measured in miles.