2010 Ford Escape Hybrid knocking noise

Help, my new car is driving us nuts. I purchased a 2010 Escape Hybrid last October. Within a month it would occasionally make knocking noises from the speaker area above the right side (passenger) rear wheel well. It took several visits to the dealer before this noise would “perform” for them. They thought it was the amplifier, so they disconnected the amplifier…it still did it. So they replaced the amplifier … it still did it, but it changed pitch and frequency. I have made videos of it for them since it is so erratic it is hard to get it to do it for them. It will go days, weeks or even months without doing it, and then do it consistently for days and weeks. It seems to do it most when the weather is around 40-60 degrees and often when it is damp … although this is not always the case. It will do it after you turn the car off for up to 30 seconds … It will do it when you first start the car before you move.

This has going on for over a year and I have had it in for service for this several times. I am not getting any help from the dealer … they only began taking me seriously when I questioned them about the Michigan lemon laws. They keep promising to research it, but don’t get back to me. Right now they have the recording of it and have promised they would check with the Ford engineers to see if they can figure it out.

I can send you a video, with sound, attachment if you think it will help. I did the “ask the mechanic” thing on the internet and they admitted that I stumped them.

By the way … my son in law swears it is the little circular thing in the center of a speaker that vibrates back and forth with sound that is “popping”. I suggested that to the dealer and they said that would be really surprising … I told them that whatever it is its going to be surprising!

Any ideas???

Replacing a speaker shouldn’t be too expensive. Popping sounds used to come from high end stereo amps when they were turned on and off. There maybe a power supply problem with either the amp or in the wiring sending power to the amp.

OR anywhere along the speaker wire run. Since they’re designed to be closed systems (power to speaker, return to amp), anywhere along the run that it gets grounded will chirp the amp, and cause a speaker to pop.

Problem is, it may not be that speaker that’s actually the problem. They need to run some tests on the harness, and see if it’s grounding out somewhere, or even grounding to chassis.

If you’ve been back this many times, for the same problem, and the dealer has acknowledged that this problem exists, and worked on it…don’t you fall under the lemon law rules for your state? Next time you go in, not only mention it, but ask them how you go about the process.

edit: The “little circular thing” in the middle sticking out is the tweeter, if it has a speaker on it, and the coil cover if it doesn’t. It could very well be that the coil is grounding to the magnet and causing pops…normally that would happen when hitting bumps, or when you’ve got some undue pressure on the particular part of the vehicle. I’ve dealt with those before, and let your son know, if it is indeed a pop from the speaker, it won’t be coming from any tweeter, it’ll be from the sub portion of those dual driver units.

Chase

The way that most Lemon Laws are written, the defect has to “materially affect the safety or driveability” of the vehicle.

An audio system defect–annoying though it may be–is probably not going to fall into the category of materially affecting the safety or driveability of the vehicle. Thus, I am skeptical that the Lemon Law will help the OP in this situation.

Thanks…I was just guessing on that, anyway. I don’t know very much about lemon laws, as I’ve had relatively few problems, and none that were repeat.

[knocks on wood]

Chase

Try a different dealership…or call ford customer satisfaction phone number in your owners manual.

If this is truly a sound system thing & seems like it is, maybe go to a sound/audio specialty store…that has tech service & have them look it over.

But yes it still should be covered under warranty

Thanks all … I did ask the dealer about Michigan lemon laws and it did help. They took me more seriously - that’s when they replaced the amplifier.

I’m following the guidelines for complaints outlined by Ford … I’ve spoken with the service manager and my next step is the dealership owner and then on to the complaint number at Ford. Wish me luck.

Also, it “pops” when the radio is off
… and will sometimes continue to pop for up to a minute after I turn the ignition off… which leads me to believe it may not be the sound system at all. Its a mystery.

Sounds like a short to ground on a speaker wire somewhere, and the pop is the result of the capacitors in the amplifier powering down. This could be an extremely hard one to locate, though, and may actually require some harness portions to be extracted and examined.

Chase

Thanks Chase … I just talked to the dealership and it sounds like they are planning to follow the path that you are suggesting. The plan is back to the shop next Monday to isolate some wires to try to solve it. In defense of the dealership … they are trying.