Grinding, shuddering, hesitating

[petehouk]

Greetings everyone. I have a 2017 that's done 60,000 trouble free miles. But after I got off the highway on my way to work Thursday, I started hearing a noise like a big truck engine braking. This didn't seem like a problem since there were a few big trucks ahead of me. After they pealed off and I was alone on the surface streets I noticed I was still hearing this engine braking sound every time I slowed to a stop and had a genuine moment of panic when I realized MY CAR was making that noise.

I coaxed it into the parking lot at work. When I start from a stop, it hesitates, like it's stuck on something, and then it eventually goes. When I get it up to speed and let it slow down, it makes a shuddering and grinding noise. Also no lights, no warnings. Even with all that noise, I managed to get it over to the dealership (2 miles). On the drive, I thought that it was sounding a little better when I decelerated if I put it in neutral. The service adviser and I took it for a drive and it sounded really bad. So at least this isn't an intermittent thing.

The dealer has now had the car since Thursday morning but they haven't been able to tell me what's wrong. Couple questions for this group:

1. What is likely to be causing this problem?
2. Is there someplace else I should be taking my car to? I'm in Southeast Michigan. If there's a shop in the area that has some expertise with the Focus BEV, I would be able to get it to them.

Thanks

Pete

 

[Heima]

I am afraid that I have no clue as to what the problem is. Parking pawl dragging?
Anyway, bear in mind that when the vehicle is in neutral, the motor is still engaged with the drive wheels. The gearbox is a constant mesh, single speed. There is no neutral like a manual transmission on automatic transmission has.

 

[Anti_Climax]

I believe some other folks have mentioned the gear/transaxle off the motor failing in a way that made it very noisy. I'd expect that to impact the amount of power it takes to get moving as well. If that's what it is, I believe replacement is the only real option. Should that be it, I'd recommend finding one that's been junked.