Figured out what's wrong with the Mach

"03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST" (03mach1)
08/16/2014 at 21:42 • Filed to: None

For those who were here last night, you may have seen that the Mach was making a chirping noise. Well, my dad and I pulled the belt off this morning and everything seemed to be fine, all pulleys seemed to work as normal. The AC worked great to. I started the car to move it afterwards and it stopped, drove it around the block and at 1500 RPM's it returned. We were stumped at this point. Took it down to a Firestone who seems to have techs we can trust and left it there for an hour while I took some pictures of the 5.0. In short, there were a few problems.

The idler pulley I replaced last month already went bad. Not to happy with AutoZone. The tensioner is also going bad. There's some small oil leaks, I didn't spot this earlier because none of it had dripped to the ground. It's somewhat normal for a car with this mileage to have this though. This is all covered by the warranty. So why this is being done we're going to get some other things fixed. The rear axle is leaking some fluid, the ball joints need to be replaced and the throw out bearing might be getting replaced. Which means I might get a new clutch so they can do that all at once. This warranty will pay for itself in no time.

Thanks to everyone who helped last night! I learned a good bit of information. The manager refuses to leave the Mach outside, so it'll be garaged until I get it back next week. I can't wait! So here's some pictures of the 5.0 I took today.

More if you'd like to see them:

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DISCUSSION (10)

JGrabowMSt > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST
08/16/2014 at 23:31

I have a few autozone replacement parts in the wagon, this doesn't make me super confident in them anymore, but I'm not getting any weird noises. Yet.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > JGrabowMSt
08/16/2014 at 23:51

To be honest, they're probably going to be good for most people. This hopefully is just an isolated issue, though for my car I might look for some higher quality parts. If you want, maybe research some better brands that places like Autozone, Napa, etc. also sell. The manager there recommended I get Gates, or Gains or something that started with a g.

JGrabowMSt > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST
08/17/2014 at 00:21

Gates isn't a bad brand. My DD has a full gates timing belt kit (belt, tensioner, water pump) and I had a friend do the install (because the car is a PITA to work on), and he said he didn't have any problems. The car was overdue for it anyway.

Rock Auto is my go-to place unless I'm in a pinch and can't wait for shipping, though I recently used CarID for a bunch of parts, and prices and shipping times were great.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > JGrabowMSt
08/17/2014 at 00:31

My serpentine belt is from Gates. No issues so far. Unless some of that oil that leaked on to it and is causing the squeak. That might take awhile to come out. I've never heard of Rock Auto and CarID.

JGrabowMSt > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST
08/17/2014 at 00:50

It shouldn't, but one option, if there's enough room in the engine bay, is to take off the belt, make sure all the pulleys are clean and free of any oil, as well as the belt itself.

I did the water pump on my wagon, and replaced the water pump idler pulley, as well as the mechanical tensioner for the belt. Since I just have one belt, it's pretty simple, and replacing the belt honestly takes less than a minute when you know the routing.

Rock Auto, CarID and Tire Rack are the best online stores for car parts that I know of. For walk in stores, I typically go with advanced, autozone or napa. When I need specific advice, there's a couple independent shops, as well as a speed shop that's pretty close I can go to. I'm lucky that I have a lot of stores all pretty close together, I know some areas don't really have any parts stores, so some jobs could take 3 days for just the part to arrive, unless you're willing to drive 3 towns over to pick it up.

At least you don't have a faulty MFC stalk. My turn signal switch started to burn up, and I had to drive about 40 miles away from me to buy the part. Took me 2 hours to get there and back and be able to put the part in. I had to do it right away too, because I couldn't turn on the headlights without the switch starting to melt.

A little chirp isn't nearly as bad (but I'd still want to find it, obviously).

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > JGrabowMSt
08/17/2014 at 01:17

Well, we've taken the belt and put it back on twice now. Went through all of the pulleys this morning and nothing, but since it is only happening above 1500 RPM's now, we couldn't find it then. And it's no little chirp, it's pretty loud. The warranty stuff was all approved, it's going to be over 30 hours of man work. Getting to the valve covers and oil pan are going to be a huge PIA. When they had the car on the lift I noticed there was fresh oil outside the oil filter. I'm just glad all of this stuff is getting fixed now.

My original budget was 6K. I can't imagine what those cars are like underneath if mine has this going on. Not that this is bad, it's pretty normal for the mileage. It just really kills me there's so many great cars ruined because some people can't get basic mainetence done on them.

Idiot In The Garage Needs A New CGI Job... > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST
08/17/2014 at 10:46

Just looked at your Mustang's flickr page. You have a glass roof! I thought I was the only one who got that expensive, yet crowd-pleasing option.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Idiot In The Garage Needs A New CGI Job...
08/17/2014 at 13:31

Yes, it's a rare option! A great one to. At a car show we went to, people kept trying to look in the car to see what it looked like. Some even settting off the alarm that came with the security package!

Idiot In The Garage Needs A New CGI Job... > 03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST
08/17/2014 at 15:28

They must have upped the sensitivity of the alarms in the '14s. I swear, nothing sets off the alarm in my '13.

03mach1 - Now has a Fiesta ST > Idiot In The Garage Needs A New CGI Job...
08/17/2014 at 17:37

If someone just sticks their hand in it goes off! That's weird.