I do love to biznitch and write long wordy posts, so here we go: I bought a 2016 Mustang GT Premium / Performance Pack Ruby Red 401A car back in August 2016 on a clearance sale, getting rid of my 2013 Focus ST.



It was nice to have two mustangs in the stable, for a while.... but I started immediately having issues with it. I figure this is a great thread to chronicle some of the mess (and document fixes for others in the same boat). For what carried a MSRP of over $42,000 USD, I expected more.

Some of the issues I've been dealing with:

Rattles galore: This car has 10 distinct rattle/NVH sources. Insane that I can count them out and point to the source of each one. (there were more, but I've resolved them with lots of felt tape and replacement oem panel clips)

1. dash, driver's side near sunglasses compartment
2. dash, driver's side cluster to trim
3. dash, center, trim to dash body
4. dash, riser panel to shifter surround
5. dash, passenger side wind whistling noise over 55mph
6. drivers door constant buzz with stereo on
7. passenger door, follows RPM
8. rear quarter panel, driver's side
9. behind dash, driver's side, unknown foot well area noise/loose component
10. rear quarter panel, passenger side over rough pavement (sounds like plastic to glass

Exhaust leak: driver's side, since day one. Not covered under warranty (aftermarket mufflers). Leak comes from ball/socket fitting area on driver's catalytic pipe. Sounds super chintzy

A/C repeated failures and poor performance: AC has failed dozens of times completely. Never has the evap housing been looked at despite 5 dealership visits. Started buyback process but fell out of it due to the difficulty of the process through Ford. A/C currently "works", but poorly. If ambient temperatures are over 90 (over half the year in Phoenix, AZ) the car cannot keep up and is a sweat fest. At one point had a compressor clutch failure. TSBs SSM-45815 and its predecessor not completed, despite having an open case with Ford Customer Service. UPDATE: 12/12 - the latest "fix" is in place and will see how it goes.

Driver's seat base moves around on its bracket about 3/16", noticeable during turns. I thought I read a TSB for this, but have not seen followup Update: Fixed via TSB

Front seat cooling system. Upper seat backs non-functional. Used 3D printed parts to improve cool air flow to the seat back, but only succeeded in making the seat stay a specific temperature versus warming (as before the cooler would actually warm the seat from its exhaust). No resolution or support from Ford. Also doesn't help the main AC system doesn't work well.

The infotainment system behaves erratically, and gives a message about updating over wifi on every start (despite no available updates, confirmed with dealer)

Chrome trim has bubbled in various places and chipped in the interior.

Clink clank clunk - engaging the clutch at low speed in first causes loud knocking noises. No known fix as its a design flaw with the driveline angles and driveshaft design

There's also some issues I directly caused:

Front bumper clip failure: common on these cars, touched a parking barrier and the front clip practically fell off the car. I'm super careful, but just was a case where it didn't take much.

Suspension squeak in the rear (bushing clocking needed), and thud from front (check right side damper assembly and swaybar endlinks). I installed BMR springs, GT350 dampers and a BMR rear cradle lockout kit, which is likely the cause of those noises.

Paint on the car is in terrible shape. Its pretty soft paint from the factory, but a detail shop I let do a "2 stage correction" just marred the finish with more swirls and scratches than I gave it to them with. That will be corrected Saturday by another shop.

What to do with this thing:

Its been the worst Ford I've owned, but it has a trade value range of $22-24k with 31k mi on the clock. I currently owe $29k, so I'm at least a year from being comfortable with selling it (assuming it doesn't have a massive dip in value, 11 payments should get me to 0 equity and 12 to positive). So with a year to try and get the car to somewhat enjoyable to drive, I want to try to do the following:

• Rip apart the interior and resolve ALL or as many of the noises as possible.
• Get the AC issues repaired, continue to hound ford before I'm out of warranty (though they've demonstrated a lack of care at the dealer and corporate levels in resolving this.
• Fix issues I've caused like the suspension (go through and tighten or reclock things as needed)
• Fix panel alignment issues
• replace the broken trim

Then some fun stuff:

• Tweak the exhaust slightly (add some small resonators to pull out some of the rasp)
• Replace the shaker subwoofer with a mild but better solution, attenuate the speakers in the doors to remove noises caused by overworking the 6.5" oem drivers
• Replace the pillar tweeters with ones with a flat response curve that extend above 10khz
• Get some apex wheels on it to improve its looks
• Add a MGW shifter to remove all the slop in the factory assembly

I've been a huge fan of mustangs, but this one is really tainting the image of the mustang product, I love its looks, and it would be a fun daily driver (especially since I'm paying nothing to finance it, and bought it on x-plan). Hopefully this all pans out, if not, I've been eyeing the Cayman S, Camaro, Corvette, S3/RS3 and others as potential replacements in 2019 when the finances align.

Wow. I need to schedule some time to read through this all.

Good luck with the fixes.

I sure like the look of this thing, but I don't have to live with it

ArizonaBOSS said:

I sure like the look of this thing, but I don't have to live with it

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Hopefully living with it will be much easier soon; going to put in the effort one last time and see if I can make this the fun car its supposed to be.

The S550 Mustang is a good looking car. My GT350 was perfect right up until the OPG failed.

Also look at a Tesla P3D.

Oh and a friend of mine has an S3 and it’s an awesome car. Very quick. But it also lacks the personality of the Mustang.

I did pick up the car from service tonight after putting on another set of fresh pirelli's on the back. They looked over the car and unsurprisingly weren't able to hear any rattles (though that's just a company line, along with "well, mustang is known for rattles, not much we can do").

On the air conditioner, they found it was overfilled with oil, and replaced the shrader valves and refilled the system to spec. We'll see, I do hear it cycling now when parked and running. I'm very tempted to put a dye in the refrigerant and open up the dash to look at the evap housing down the road, but before 36k. It does feel like its blowing colder air, but its also 60 degrees outside.

the seat issue is resolved, there is a Tsb for it they did perform and its nice and tight.

Parts are ordered for the failing chrome trim.

I also tried a Dr colorchip system on the front end, it did somewhat reduce the amount of flakiness in the paint.

Finally, I think I have some ideas on the rattles, there's an amplifier in the driver's foot well that seams noisy, and I'll tear apart the dash over the christmas break.

captdistraction said:

Finally, I think I have some ideas on the rattles, there's an amplifier in the driver's foot well that seams noisy, and I'll tear apart the dash over the christmas break.

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I've been fairly fortunate about not having many rattles with my 16 GT. I do have the intermittent rattle that sounds like it's coming from the instrument cluster in the dash though. I wasn't able to isolate it at all. However, I came across a video (maybe you've seen it) where a guy tore apart his dash part by part to find the problem, only to discover it was from the amplifier in the driver's foot well. I guess it creates some sort of deep buzz that is more prevalent during certain temps. Removing it to apply automotive sound deadening material seems to do the trick.

Thank Goodness I never heard any rattle noise in my Boss....maybe because the only thing I could hear was the engine and exhaust...

I chased a rattle in the instrument panel that only happened at highway speeds. It sounded like it was coming from the right side, but nothing seemed to be loose. Eventually figured out that it was the battery cover in the engine compartment. Now that it's got some felt tape on it, the mystery rattle's gone.

I thought I had a dash rattle developing, turned out to be the cheaply constructed rear-view mirror thankfully. So always check that before ripping apart your instrument panel.

Really odd that you hear about this type of thing so often, yet my personal experience is that my '16 base PP1/Recaro car has been 100% perfect since I got it. No weirdness at all. I wonder if my car being a base has anything to do with that? Less stuff to break? Or are there build quality issues in this, since I've run into several other owners that had no issues at all with their cars. Can't see any other reason for some being so bad and some being so good.

Built on a Friday afternoon?

Coz said:

Built on a Friday afternoon?

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Mondays are supposed to be bad too. Something about weekends and booze?

Oddly, almost all the chrome trim on the car is bubbling. The dealer said the heat has a lot to do with it, and has ordered the parts to replace these. I’m watching eBay for a dash assembly, and the 2018GT or GT350 components as they are painted and not chrome


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JDee said:

Mondays are supposed to be bad too. Something about weekends and booze?

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Wed. must be the best tyme to get a car built. most workers are over the past weekend and not planning on the next one yet....I would think???............All tho I've known some that make their weekend last 7 days a week.....

I realize it was quite a while ago and I'm sure standards/work rules have changed since but.....
While in high school (79-80) I worked 2nd shift in the cafeteria at the old GM plant in Framingham, MA.
The large quantity of booze bottles I bused from the tables every Friday were a pretty good indicator of the source of some of the "build issues" at that time. They also used to joke about drinking on the line and leaving some of the same crap inside doors and under seats. No wonder we lost to the Japanese during that time.

captdistraction said:

The dealer said the heat has a lot to do with it,

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You should move to CT...we haven't reached 40 all week........

captdistraction said:

Oddly, almost all the chrome trim on the car is bubbling. The dealer said the heat has a lot to do with it, and has ordered the parts to replace these. I’m watching eBay for a dash assembly, and the 2018GT or GT350 components as they are painted and not chrome

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Wow, that is crazy. There are a lot of S550 owners out of AZ. and this is the first time I've seen anyone post about bubbling like that.

Wow.....one of the few good points of the internet is the "airing of dirty laundry" for all to see the poor quality that is coming out of these manufacturers. The level of corporate greed is rising at record rates (based on the corporation I work for). I was looking at new vehicles but the more I see of a vehicles poor quality and dealers that want to dispute or make it difficult to use your warranty the less I want a new car or truck. I hope Ford is reading all these posts in hopes they can learn from them (GT 350 dash fix) and improve before they start shutting down plants like GM.

Tim

The plasti-chrome on the GT models makes the interior look kinda cheap IMO. The 350 bits look much nicer. I'd imagine it might not be hard to find some of those since you're going tear apart interior anyway.