Good catch Mike. I wonder where Ford, or the dealer got the parts made? Send the next flex plate out to get Tig welded and balanced or better yet see if the tyranny is still warrented and have them replace flex plate and do a teardown of tyranny to check for other worn parts. The owner doesn't have a 16yo boy do they? Who likes doing neutral drops and burnouts they aren't aware of?

I still love turning wrenches, but I don’t miss doing it for a living.

🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧🔧Mike you are a automotive detective. Great work.

Guy at salvage yard" oh yeah ain't nothin wrong with it"

Hey mike...did this escape have a blown head gasket? Maybe a cylinder filled with antifreeze and hydro shocked the piston thus bending the crankshaft. .....the crankshaft flange will now have a wobble to it thus cracking the flex plate no matter how many times you replace it...could be destroying that transmission bearing too...this happened to a dodge aries 2.6l Mitsubishi with a blown head gasket...my 2 bits...

Nothing a new engine and transmission can’t fix.

Great !

So much for Ford quality

Aint they precious pieces of junk. Louisville KY, brand new one owner Unserviceable luxury model Edge. Timing Chain Slap. 😑 that was my expression when I informed the dealership what was wrong with the vehicle. Yours Today Only $1600 was the advertisement. 😏 another $1600 you could have a 302 cruising in luxury Orange. I bought a 20k Explorer for $1750 new thermostat housing, radiator, hoses, clamps, belt, carrier bearing, transfer case, 2 transmissions, battery, tires, wires and antifreeze, them accessories are something else. Lord Mr. Ford. Owns the straight six Chrysler Line and the 8hr/5 day work week. Thankfully there's a Firestone nearest you. 😂

Oof with labor and parts maybe a used trans instead??

Push from the top and bottom on the torque converter. . It won't move then .

Just went through that with my Escape. They replaced flex plate and torque converter. $4400. Am I gonna have to worry about that again? Crap!

There flex and then there's " flex ".

It seems like it doesn’t want to match up with the other side

Hey Mike if those bolts are torqued all the way as tight as I can go and that play the still moving to me it seems like those bolts are bottoming out. How to flat washer to it and re-torque it again and see if that holds that flexplate tight. Secondly that's snout should be tight inside the crank therefore erroneous torque converter. But even with all that said if the flywheel is tight against the crank and the converter is tight against the flywheel a little bit of play on the pump bushing should not cause a problem, I would focus more on getting the converted to to flywheel to crankshaft tight. If the pump bushing is bad it spew tranny fluid especially because especially because it would not be sitting inside the pump correctly and the seal on one end would not properly seal it. Anyways from one tech to another just trying to share my ideas.... we're all the same Brotherhood. I hate it when the dealers don't like to give advice, they instead tell you bring it in so we can diagnose it for $150. And then to cover their ass they just want to replace everything all at once for $2,900

That's a Ford for you 😂😂