Clank when Starting or Going in Gear

[pcitizen]

Folks,

I own a 2013 Fusion. It is an awesome car. I really enjoy driving it. It's quiet and responsive. I am putting about 25K miles on it per year. At 42K miles I noticed a thunk sound when putting it in gear or when starting it. Within a few days it was a rather loud clank. It was so annoying I preferred using the remote start rather than starting it from inside the car.

In any event, I took it to Ford "and they fixed it" under warranty, even though the 36K miles cap had passed, but the car was only 18 months old. In any event, it wasn't like it was after "the fix," but it was far better. About 5K miles later, the sound returned.

This past Friday I took the day off of work, jacked it up and looked around. I soon found the problem. The lower motor mount was the problem. This mount has three connections. One on the engine (three bolts), one between the engine fixture and actual mount (one bolt), and one between the mount and frame/body (one big-ass-bolt).

The culprit was the big bolt; e.g., mount to body. I tried tightening it. I could not budge it with an impact wrench or 14" ratchet. Then I tried a 24" breaker bar. No luck. Then I tried a pipe on the ratchet wrench - success! It was cray-cray tight. But even though it was crazy tight, the mount, which is sandwiched between the bottom of the car and another part it could not be tightened enough to keep it from moving around.

In closer examination if found that the slot the mount slid into was .090" wider than the mount. No amount of tightening could over come this. To fix it, I got three pieces of sheet metal to make a set of shims. I drilled a 5/8" hole in them and slid the mount in after the shims were in place. It was snug. Then I reinstalled everything and tightened down the bolt. Starts just like new.

Side Note... If you have your oil changed my someone, other than yourself. Check the fasteners under the engine that hold on the skirt/panel below the engine. On my car, this has to be removed to get access to the little oil filter. Several of the plastic fasteners were stripped on my car and two screws were missing. This is exactly when I prefer to do my own work. Sadly, I've had my oil changed by Ford a few times on this car. Kicking myself now!

Humble Regards