ok so I've had the car now for several months and there are a few noises that are annoying me and I need to see if anyone else is hearing these or m/b it's all in my head.

1) Transmission-Can hear scraping type noise when you shift out of park to Drive etc. I looked it up on the board and it seems to be normal?

2) Noisy windshield wiper blades

3) Back automatic hatch is very noisy and makes a hard click when it finally closes. We actually had to take it in to have this fixed b/c it wasn't latching all of the way and it still doesn't seem right.

Are there any other noises I will be hearing?

 

If you cruise this board a bit, you'll see there's a plethora (that's right, I just used that word!) of noises these pups make, some of them very strange. I'm surprised you haven't mentioned the truck spitting at you when you open a door (the hiss from the suspension sort of "pre-loading" as if it were expecting you to start up and go just becausee you've opened the door).

Now to your noises; my liftgate makes a noise that ranges from a light click and clunk when it closes to a gawdawful whir and grind, depending on its mood. The transmission on mine not only makes that "scraping" noise (another hydraulic or air hiss, really) but sometimes a bit of a clunk when asked to suddenly downshift after a near-stop (we have these idiotic "timing" lights at some freeway entrances during rush hour, where some true genius thought it would be wise to bring everyone to a complete halt just before trying to merge with 70MPH traffic ... anyway, long story short, you just about come to a stop and get a green light, you mash on the pedal, a HUGE CDI delay and then KER-CLUNK as it downshifts for you to run up to the merge point).

Now as to the wipers. I'll assume you mean chattering across the windsheild (otherwise I don't know what you're talking about as there's no motor noise I notice or anything). This one is really annoying to me but it's simple in the end. Might be worse for diesels. You need to do two things - make sure your windsheild is pristinely cleaned, and do the same for the wipers. For the windsheild, you might go as far as to use either white vinegar or rubbing alchohol to get the film/grime off of it (particularly if you've just replaced the windsheild - it's amazing what an installer, even a really good one, can get on there). Then the white vinegar again for the blades, and I'm afraid this is until you get no more black stuff when you wipe the blades down. It can seem like it's going to take forever, but the results are satisfying when you finally get it done - quiet! With no streaks/lines! It's much more fun for us in the desert, where blades die in a month or two of no use from the heat and dry, and we rarely get to use them anyway so they end up with car wash wax (I know, I know), road grime, all manner of fun crud on them and then suddenly we have to use them again.

Anyway, I hope that helps!

ST(former)P

 

On mine, judging by the repair orders, the rear hatch took the PO a few attempts to get it corrected. It works fine now. There is a fair amount of comment on this board about the hatch in 07-08s.

Id agree with Steve on the trans, mine is not real pronounced but it appears to be a solenoid or valve that activates when put into gear. With these electronic set ups, being very deliberate during the gear change process is important to give the system time to work before applying throttle or changing gear again.

I tell ya, as much as I enjoy driving this vehicle and its performance, the jury is still out on my confidence that it will be a good long term vehicle. Lots of electronics and gizmos to malfunction. I'm looking very closely to Steve's rig (and others with higher mileage) for their reliability experiences and trying to decide how much money I escrow for longer term maintenence and repair.

 

I responded in green. Thank you for your input this really is helping me immensely

 

I was reading about the hatch and I just wanted to verify that the noise is "normal" to the GL. Compared to other hatches on other vehicles this one is quite noisy. The Ford Expedition EL had the quietest hatch. Does your hatch still make a lot of noise after it was fixed?

 

all that you hear is the lock motor during final engagement