I recently purchased an 04 Mountaineer with 95k miles on it, theres a slight shudder or vibration when i start out from a stop, turning, reversing all at a slow speed of under 10 mph, there is no other issues after i get up to cruising speed above 10mph.
I had the front and rear differential fluids changed, the transfer case fluid changed, and transmission fluid changed.

 

Could be the harmless torque converter rattle. Mine has it at times at idle, but not all the time, and it goes away over about 5 mph.

 

thank you for the reply

 

How are your tires? The AWD system is sensitive to tire diameter. If you have uneven tread wear it can cause the system to think it is seeing wheel slip and start to engage the front wheels. Sometimes folks think that they can replace just 2 tires rather than all 4 at once. That's a bad idea. Some folks think they can put on the spare when the others are worn down. That's another no-no except for a short while.

 

i had discount tire check the tires and the four tires are of equal tread depth

 

Do you have a limited slip rear end? If it is did they put in the bottle of friction modifier with the oil?

 

They added the xl3 additive and how much was added i don't know, i think it requires 4oz but if that amount was added i'm not certain.

so far it seems after two weeks of driving the shuddering feeling has mostly subsided.

 

I took my mountaineer back to jiffy lube and they added 4oz additional limited slip fluid to the rear end...the shuddering feeling is still there

 

I'm still fighting mine too. I'm thinking about another bottle of modifier for a last ditch effort. The limited slip may lose some grip, but if the noise goes away, I'd be happy. Seems like when I changed my fluid it made it a bit quieter, but it's still doing it. If not, I'm gonna take off the front drive shaft and run it just to make sure it's not the viscous clutch in the transfer case trying to engage the awd. I reread your original post, and drove mine more since then and its got what sounds like the exact same problem. I had mine up on jacks yesterday trying to determine if I had a bearing issue, maybe even a parking brake hanging up issue, but everything turned freely and there was no play anywhere. I'm gonna keep chasing this problem on my free time. I'll keep you posted. I didn't expect it to have problems with this with only 72,000 miles on it.

 

on another post, which i can't seem to find at the moment the individual said he was having the same issues as well and this is what he said:

"I had an intermittent shudder but it would happen more often under light load at low speeds (like when driving through parks and campgrounds). Changing the fluid and filter had no effect so I had my local independent transmission shop investigate. Since I sometimes experienced the harsh reverse engagement as well I definitely wanted the solenoid pack changed out. They found that the common bore elongation issue was a problem in my truck as well. This surprised them since my Aviator only had 80k miles at the time, they said they usually don't see that until above 100k. After the bores were drilled and sleeved and the solenoids were replaced, the transmission works great again and has for about 8 months now, even when pulling our camper."
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o>So i called my local transmission shop and i was quoted around $1,300 - $1,500 to have that done. Another individual said they put synthetic in their transfer case and the differentials...</o>
<o>I too will keep trying to pinpoint my shuddering as well...</o>

 

That was one of my posts you referenced. Find another transmission shop. Maybe ask some co-workers for recommendations. The drilling and boring that was done on my Aviator came to something like $640 out the door. If it had needed only the valve body it would have run $475, but since it also needed to be drilled and bored, it was an extra $150 for parts and labor. The shop said it was only an extra 30 minutes of labor once they had the valve body out. That was in April of this year, so costs shouldn't have gone up by a factor of 2x between then and now. I'm not sure where you're located either, but that still seems like a huge discrepancy.

-Rod

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Thank you for the heads up...i appreciate that...i will definately call around some more.

 

I know this is an old post but I thought I would bring it back up since I have a 2004 Mountaineer (97K miles) with the exact same problem. I think I shall try the following:

1. Check tire tread for even wear

2. Try adding some of that friction modifier to the rear.

3. Look into the procedure described in Ford TSB 06-4-4 here 06-4-4***LIMITED SLIP AXLE CHATTER, SHUDDER, BINDING SENSATION, OR VIBRATION DURING LOW SPEED TURNING MANEUVERS

hopefully one of those will help

 

after getting more limited slip fluid/modifier added it took atleast two weeks for the shuddering to go away on our mountaineer. i am planning on having the fluid drained and replaced on the front and rear differentials along with the limited slip fluid.