StuMur Report post Posted January 19, 2018 (edited) Hi All, I hope I'm doing this correctly? It's my first post after years of viewing other posts! :-) I have a 2001 V6 Ford Escape, which is on close to its last legs. She's a complete dog, if I'm being honest - 200,000 miles on the clock! But due to financial constraints, I keep it running doing usually my own mechanical work, rather than upgrading to a more reliable newer car. Currently, it's making a weird sound, that I hoped someone might know something about?? The car makes a weird, fairly loud groaning/creaking kind of sound whenever I turn left (it's not a full lock hard left turn thing - it does it even on half a turn, if the speed is about between say 10 and 25 miles an hour). There are quite a few undiagnosed oil leaks around the engine, if that makes a difference to the below points? Some details: It only makes this creaking noise under load - ie when accelerating a little bit round or through a corner, at a minimum of say 10 mph speed The noise STOPS IMMEDIATELY if I keep the accelerator down but knock the column auto stickshift into "neutral" - in other words, if the revs are still up but the gearbox is instantly taken out of the equation, the sound instantly disappears It does it quite a bit more when the car is warmed up than when it's cold It ONLY does it turning left - NEVER right The car needs to be cornering under a little load - 2 miles an hour won't replicate it, but around 10 and up will. It doesn't occur at all if I am stopped and just spin the steering wheel full lock in either direction - it only does it when I'm driving forward AND when the gearbox is engaged in drive or other gears. So it seems not to be a steering box issue, as that works fine when stopped and just spinning the steering wheel - no groans. It does it in all the auto gears, not just drive. It sounds like creaking shockies/suspension, but due to the fact that it ONLY does it when the gearbox is engaged, it must be gearbox related, do you think? When I knock it all of a sudden into neutral under slight accelerator load, the noise instantly disappears. Any advice at all would be very much appreciated, thank you, from Australia! StuMur Edited January 19, 2018 by StuMur Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
