grinding noise and rough ride only when in 4A

[brewer20]

I'm not sure my issue was the same as yours. But the first winter I had my 2022 Limited Max, I put snow tires on used 20in F150 wheels. It was perfectly smooth in 2A. But rough and jerky in 4A accelerating through gear 6, iirc. The dealer performed some TSB for rough shifting, but that didn't resolve the issue. I ended up selling those wheels/tires to someone with a 2wd Expedition.

As soon as I put on the original wheels/tires, 4A normal again. This winter, I kept the original wheels and replaced the tires with snow tires, and 4A is behaving normally.

I can't be sure what caused the problem. I'm guessing one of the wheels/tires was slightly off in diameter from the others. Or, the 20in wheel/tire combo was different enough from the stock 22in wheel/tire combo. The tire shop did try to swap things around, but that didn't help.

 

[bocabimmer]

I got mine back from the shop. They “couldn’t reproduce the problem”. Meanwhile I offered to drive with them so they could feel it and they declined my offer.

I just bought it and it does have brand new Firestone rear tires and some off brand fronts. The tread depth is within 1/32” between axles. I plan on rectifying the mismatched brands either way but now this adds a new reason why.

 

[volkerforster]

I got my other pair of Pirelli's, and now have identical tires on all 4 corners. The rough ride is gone, and I didn't see the "reduced torque" message yet. As it seems, the difference in circumference between a Pirelli and a Hankook is larger than the difference between Hankooks with 20% and 80% tread (which was my starting point when I replaced the 20% Hankooks on the rear axle with new Pirellis).
I think this is pretty crazy. Tires of the same nominal dimension shouldn't have that much difference.
Problem solved, case closed.

 

[bocabimmer]

I just got my matching set of Firestone Destination LE3 on the front put on an hour ago. My 4A issues are solved now too. Good thinking about the tire circumference.