G6Et Driveline Clunk

[sam_g6et]

My G6ET has 8000kms on it now, and I have noticed a driveline clunk. it seems to happen on light to mid throttle applications at slow speeds. eg. entering a round about etc....

Has anyone experienced the same thing?

[Benji_vs]

Happens in my BF, you would have thought they would have fixed it for the fg. I think it is the diff bush which is commonly known to be rather crap and cause a clunk.

[Shcbri]

Happens to my FG G6ET (5000km now )as well at slow speeds or just getting going.....

[Pete A]

No clunking issues with my FG. The BAII was pretty bad though.

[INASNT]

Is it the same clunk you get when you accelerate hard then come off the throttle quickly?

[Shcbri]

No mines usually after reversing say down the driveway then as I start to move forward. Very intermittent.

[AIM-300]

I thought fraud got rid of this as a NCO on the fg's

[NB4C]

The problem lies in the diff mount, looks like Fraud either haven't been arsed to fix it OR were too cheap to install better quality diff setups.

From Australian Ford Forums:

Originally Posted by Kieron

The clunking is a combination of all driveline lash chiefly in the diff area.

The backlash also existed in previous Falcons (and the Late model camira shares the same diffe center) but where the problem lies is the diff mount which in the BA of course is directly to the body shell, from what I have been told, the XR's have a stiffer mount than the lessor models to cope with extra power, this also includes the XR6.

Specifically, the stiffer mount is to stop the diff rocking up/down under acceleration/deceleration and this in itself adds (or could be the root) to the problem, any driveline lash is amplified up into the body shell.

You can reduce it by smoother gearchages, and heal/toeing but its still there even if you just disengage cruise or take your foot of the accelerator and/or replace it.

Ford are well aware of the problem and from what I have been told, they actually took a car back from an owner in Adeliade to do testing early to mid 2003, up until this point dealers where replacing diffs to solve the problem but it appears when Ford worked the root of the problem out, they told dealers to stop replacing diffs (I was shown the Ford documentation for this) rather than solving the problem, and as we all know they let it continue into the SII.

I'd suggest their lack of action comes from manuals being only a small propertion of sales so the expenditure required to fix the problem wasn't justified.

Pretty poor effort really, I've been in old Mitsubishi Express vans with better drivlien than these cars and my old manual EF XR6 was far better in this regard.

[seduced]

check the diff bush first. I took a video of mine recently. Under full throttle, the diff bolt squashes down so hard that it sits on the diff cradle.. then a heap of noise enters the cabin. This is on a BRAND NEW bush... I doubt it will last 5,000kms....Rusbbish really... I assume the FG ones are far too soft aswell? Soft is good for soaking up diff noise...but bad for constantly splitting..

The only fix is a stiffer bush from SuperPro. However more noise will be transferred to the cabin and there have been a few examples where it rips the thread off the diff bolt

due to the restricted movement. We can't win really...

Edited 04/11/09 06:25 AM by seduced

[sam_g6et]

Is it the same clunk you get when you accelerate hard then come off the throttle quickly?

Yes, after reading this, I went and tried it, definitely does that as well.

Took it back to Ford, went for a drive with the mechanic and his reply, was that nothing it wrong, its just how the ZF works, because its always in a gear. I am not happy with that reply, as it very noticeable and when not punting it around, it ruins the drive with the clunk every time you touch the accelerator.