11fusionsport

aslo there's a video on youtube of an older dodge neon that had a sticking starter. was making the same noise as my vehicle.

took a chance and Installed the starter .....transmission guy wanted to pull the tranny...but before I did that I just purchased a new starter for 280 Cdn and installed it. you just have to pop off the battery box and its easy access.

Turns out my starter wasnt retracting due to rust/scaling and debris. So it was making contact with flexplate

Fellow 2011 fusion sport owner. I changed my starter today made a world of difference at Idle. So quiet. No more grinding. I noticed the new starter has a hard plastic bushing the old one didnt. It was affecting my shifting somehow too...causing noisy shifts from park to drive....I too thought my flexplate was cracked or warped...but it was the starter.

Man she idles quiet now! Cant hardly tell shes turned on!

FIXED. problem solved. Installed new starter. Old starter wasnt retracting smoothly and would stick (rust/debris buildup)and seemed to be lacking a hard plastic bushing that the new starter contained.

Yes noise disappears totally in drive, though there's an audible noise when selecting Drive or Reverse which dissapear...this seems to be more prevalent with nose downhill as mentioned....Neutral and park at idle there is that same grinding noise....although sometimes there isnt......perhaps i'll get a video of it.The engine also moves aft on the mounts considerably when selecting Park and Drive...not sure if excessively...will be looking into mounts as well as I've heard with transverse engines this can be an issue.

Hey thanks for your reply, honestly didn't expect to see one so soon! Yes, grinding only present in Park up until i throw it into drive. Oil level is fine, within acceptable range. no debris present. today I thought it might be a bad bearing in the AC idler pulley to try and comfort myself.....but after reading other posts from 2010-2012 fusion sport owners, i suspect it may be the flex plate...I also noticed the grinding seems to be more pronounced when starting with her nose downhill...I could speculate all day. But I won't know for sure until it's diagnosed by a professional. Every shop I've called is booked up for at least 2 weeks. Summer time has been hard on a lot of vehicles I presume. They said if It is the flex-plate, its going to be around $1500 (Canadian dollars) I sincerely appreciate your input and optimism. Cheers!

Hello fellow ford owners, please forgive my lack of mechanical knowledge, I'm hoping somebody has an inkling as to what is happening with my vehicle. Suddenly, my 2011 Fusion Sport AWD with 100,000 Kms is making a grinding noise upon start-up. (worse on cold starts) the noise is interupted when bringing the shifter through park to drive...it seems to clear up the noise also. I can't get my car into the shop until later this month. At first I thought possibly my starter was sticking, however, now i'm worried it may be transmission related...As soon as the vehicle turns over, there seems to be a pronounced grinding noise; for lack of a better word. then a dull grinding noise that seems to have a rotational sound if that makes any sense...I'm hoping its not a warped or damaged flex plate...Any ideas, I'm worried I will be forking over thousands of dollars....On a side note, this happened a few days after I took it to a 10 minute oil change...though it seems like its coming from the transmission?