My 04 has 20,000 miles on it, I bought it new in Feb 05 and seeing as how the 3/36 will expire soon I have a couple things I want to get fixed under warranty.
The car is stock with the exception of the 3" O/R Flowmaster midpipe and 3" Flowmaster exhaust, a K&N Fipk, and up until about two weeks ago an MGW shifter.
Back when I bought the car, and when it was in stock condition, I noticed noise that I associated with a squealing TOB from time to time. It was intermittent at best and the car would go for a week or so and be quiet and then go for a couple days squealing. I also noted that occasioally when letting the pedal out slowly and applying gas the clutch would seem to make a groaning sound for a split second before the car would move smoothly. I figured thats what warranties are for, of course everytime I have taken the car in for service it never made any noises for the Ford mechanics.
I put the exhaust and shifter on about a year ago and though I don't drive the car a lot I noticed within the last couple months that the TOB noise was beginning to get much louder and much more persistent, to the point where at low speeds driving in and around other cars and buildings I could really hear the squealing echoing around, and of course just barely touching the clutch pedal made the noise go away. Really impressive stuff to have a car with an extremely aggressive exhasut note that has this shrill shrieking noise while your sitting in traffic and sitting at a redlight.
So two weeks ago I made up a list of warranty stuff to get fixed and knowing that taking the car in for a transmission issue with the MGW still on would be foolish I swapped the stock shifter back on. Wouldn't you know it, since then I have put about 500 miles on the car and it hasn't made hardly a sound from the TOB. It still makes the slight groaning sound for a split second occasionally when letting the clutch out slowly and accelerating.
On a side note, I can't believe how spongy and awkward the stock shifter feels, I can't believe I put 60,000miles on my 01 Cobra and never changed the stock shifter. It was the single best mod for my 04 as far as improving the drivability.
So, any comments or ideas about my story? Any similar experiences?
The car is stock with the exception of the 3" O/R Flowmaster midpipe and 3" Flowmaster exhaust, a K&N Fipk, and up until about two weeks ago an MGW shifter.
Back when I bought the car, and when it was in stock condition, I noticed noise that I associated with a squealing TOB from time to time. It was intermittent at best and the car would go for a week or so and be quiet and then go for a couple days squealing. I also noted that occasioally when letting the pedal out slowly and applying gas the clutch would seem to make a groaning sound for a split second before the car would move smoothly. I figured thats what warranties are for, of course everytime I have taken the car in for service it never made any noises for the Ford mechanics.
I put the exhaust and shifter on about a year ago and though I don't drive the car a lot I noticed within the last couple months that the TOB noise was beginning to get much louder and much more persistent, to the point where at low speeds driving in and around other cars and buildings I could really hear the squealing echoing around, and of course just barely touching the clutch pedal made the noise go away. Really impressive stuff to have a car with an extremely aggressive exhasut note that has this shrill shrieking noise while your sitting in traffic and sitting at a redlight.
So two weeks ago I made up a list of warranty stuff to get fixed and knowing that taking the car in for a transmission issue with the MGW still on would be foolish I swapped the stock shifter back on. Wouldn't you know it, since then I have put about 500 miles on the car and it hasn't made hardly a sound from the TOB. It still makes the slight groaning sound for a split second occasionally when letting the clutch out slowly and accelerating.
On a side note, I can't believe how spongy and awkward the stock shifter feels, I can't believe I put 60,000miles on my 01 Cobra and never changed the stock shifter. It was the single best mod for my 04 as far as improving the drivability.
So, any comments or ideas about my story? Any similar experiences?
