Hello,

Pulling onto the highway yesterday, I heard a metallic clank sound (almost like having a rock hit the underside of the car) and as I passed 50mph, the Escape developed a vibration that increased with speed. The car was fine on the highway 30 minutes earlier.

When I got to the parking garage and was slowly rolling on a smooth surface, I could hear a faint rubbing noise with each rotation.

Now, this sounds very similar to a problem I had right after I bought the car, vibration at speed + rubbing noise. Turns out then, the rear driveshaft was bent.

The Ford dealer wants to change my ball joints and rebalance my tires (which are less than 12k miles on them), and doesnt seem to believe me to check the rear driveshaft. Would bad ball joints cause a sudden vibration and a rotational noise?

 

Ball joints would not make a sudden change in drivability, but throwing a wheel weight would. Your tires should be balance checked and rotated every 10K as a maintenance item.

 

I'll vote for a thrown wheel weight, too.

 

I know this is an old post, But it also could have been a thrown driveshaft weight.