Anyone ever hear of this happing? We bought our 4th new Eddie Bauer

Ford
expedition suv recently. While as we were coming off a highway exit

we heard a banging sound and thought we had hit sometime to cause the

bang.

Looking back on the road we couldn't see anything.The suv started

to lose power quickly as we looked for a safe place to pull off the highway

Having found a safe place we called for Ford road side help.They quickly

dispatched a flatbet truck to get us to our Ford dealer. Having called

ahead to our Ford dealer proved worthwhile as he had a nice new vehicle for

us to borrow.Two weeks later we were able to pick up our repaired suv with

a brand new engine.

We were told the a part in the engine ( some type of pin ) was sheared off

and caused the engine to blow. We only had 3800 miles on the suv.

We are all set now but! have you heard of this happing?

We had a 2002(I think) Explorer that started making a terrible sound with only a few thousand miles. Had it towed to the nearest Ford dealer. They called asking if we had driven the vehicle through a flood because there was water in the block. I assured them we had not. Ford had to send in some engine expert to look at the motor. There was a hole in the block which went through part of the water jacket. They never explained what caused it but they did replace the motor.

Oh yes. Saw one delivered without oil rings on the pistons. Block failures were all too common when GM first opened their Mexico engine plant and Ford was bringing engines from Brazil.
Have seen new engines with warped heads leaking after a few thousand miles.
All obviously defective when built.
Then there was the Pontiac delivered with a race engine installed in a family sedan.....? Some kid would have loved that mistake.

Years ago I looked at a beautifull 64 ford galexie 500 for my wife. It was old (in 1977) but all maintance records etc were in it. I knew the dealer and he let me try it out. It seemed sluggish for the hot engine. I had a friend that was a mechanic that lived nearby. I took it to him. He said rev her up as he had his head under the bonnet. It made a awfull noise and quit. Danny said, damn, ya blew a rod! We looked further and found the engine had no oil as the drain plug was gone! I called the dealer and said, Bill, come and git me and bring a rope! WHAAAAT?

Thats exactly what happened to that ford I talked about. It was a flawless beautifull well maintained car turned in by a old couple on a new buick. Normaly it was so old it would have been wrote off or wholesaled out, but it was such a cherry the lot put it up for a high price. Really was a shame!

It happens. Early failures are typically quality problems that weren't detected. Chronic quality problems lead to recalls.

Engines fail at any mileage for any number of reasons. You were just unlucky.

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

Yes, but things like this happend twice with my Chrysler vehicles - never had an issue like this with a GM product.

Owner abuse. LOL

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jj

I once saw an almost new Mercury that stopped dead with a seized engine within sight of the dealer who had just changed the oil and filter. They had overlooked one minor detail in servicing the car - they forgot to replace the oil. Duh........

I had a near new F150 just up and crater on me.

Was running fine, stopped for fuel, restarted ok, didn't make it out of the gas station lot to the road.

Turns out the engine block was cast really thin around one of the cylinders(302ci/5.0L). The thin cast block busted flooding the engine with coolant.

Ford hee-hawed around, but did replace the engine under warrenty.

My first car was a '72 Volkswagen Beetle and boy was I surprised to find out they need to have their oil checked -- frequently.

I ordered a brand new Jeep Wrangler in the autumn of 1994. I loved it, but the engine had a knocking sound. I took it back to the dealer where I got it. The parts manager was a friend. He listened, smiled, and said "bingo, you get a new motor!!" Then he said, "use some common sense, its just wrist pin slap, and the motor will last as long as any other one." So I had my choice, a new motor or a 100,000 bumper to bumper warranty. I had my warranty period to decide. So 35 months later I selected the new engine!

I was sitting at work when I got the phone call, bring the jeep ASAP, the factory man was there for a few hours. I left work, went and got the Jeep, and headed over. I pulled into the end of the dealership where the parts dept and the service bays were located. My buddy told me to pull it around back, he'd be waiting for me. When I pulled up, he had a clipboard and the factory man standing there. The guy listened and said sure enough, I was in the serial number range where the engines were produced, and Jeep was very sorry for the problem.

Then he told my buddy to schedule it in. Instead of going to the service writer, he went to the mechanic who did the engine changes. He was available the next Tuesday. Early in the program, they just replaced the short block. But after a year or two, they decided to rebuild the one in the vehicle. My buddy said it wasn't a problem, he had one of the replacement short blocks "under his desk". It had been a foot stool for him for 2 1/2 years, waiting for me. So then we went to the service writer. And heard the song and dance.

I had to bring it in and have the factory guy approve it. Then we needed to order the parts. After they were in and confirmed in stock, we needed to schedule a time when the qualified rebuilder and installer could do the work. He suggested it would take a month at least. So my buddy said good, he'll bring it in Tuesday and they'll do it. That totally baffled the writer, who called his boss. The boss walked over (he was on the same management level as my buddy. He also looked baffled for a minute, figured out the fix was in, and said "sounds good to me." The service writer was confused. Guess he'd never been sandbagged like that before. So he called the mechanic over, who looked really bored by it all. He gently asked him what he was doing Tuesday and Wednesday. The return look was priceless. He said Tuesday he was putting the new engine in the Jeep, and Wednesday he was taking the day off because it would be done in 8 hours.

Even more bafflement by the service writer, with his manager hiding his face. Then the service writer asked how he was going to pull the engine down, replace all the needed parts, and then put it back in, all in one day. The mechanic, who was tired of the conversation just said "magic", then he walked away.

My instructions were different. I was to deliver the Jeep to the dealer on Monday afternoon. Then on Tuesday I had to deliver a large pizza at noon. I did my share. I've pulled that bribe before, and it has amazing results. Better still, somehow the engine had a brand new head when I got the Jeep back. It was also the strongest engine I've ever had in a Jeep utility size. Before the dealer was discontinued by DC, I bought 2 more new vehicles from them. You've got to reward good service!

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Dick Burg

You make a million a year or more, sometimes everything goes wrong at once.
I ordered a Chevy K-2500, I had the build date and called because it seemed to miss that date, the body plant superintendent, told me that they had a power outage while my truck was in the acid rinse tank----------scrap, rescheduled.

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

Sometimes things just break.

There might not be a telltale reason, and timeframe is no consideration. It was a very sad day when my supposedly healthy, recently refreshed '74 Nova grenaded a piston on I471

(Sadly, I can't claim it was from racing. I was just cruising along in the slow lane...)

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Fast is fine;accurate is final

Sounds like your dealers service department did a great job of taking care of you.

Barb, I know what you mean as I had a 1969 bettle that had the engine freeze up do to no oil. I had checked the oil 3 weeks earlier and thought I was good.WRONG! I ended giving it to a friend.




UOTE=BarbC;135375953]My first car was a '72 Volkswagen Beetle and boy was I surprised to find out they need to have their oil checked -- frequently. [/QUOTE]

The old air cooled Volkswagen Beetles only held 2 1/2 PINTS ( 1 1/4 QUART) of oil, and the line between 'FULL" and 'ADD' are only one PINT, not a quart.

Back in the 70's, oil still came in cardboard 'cans', and you needed an oil spout, or some other tool to open a quart of oil.

People would pull into a gas station with a VW, and be told they were low on oil, which might or not be true.

But, if you put in a whole quart, as many people did, it would blow the main seal on the engine, and the engine would start leaking about 10 or 20 times faster than it had been. The car might only go another 50 miles, because of the blown seal.

I had air cooled VW's back in the '70's, and I used to transfer oil to a plastic bottle, so I could top off the oil, without overfilling it.

My VW was a 1956. After break-in it didn't burn any oil. I think they enlarged the engine in later years which may have caused the oil problem.

Know of a lady who went to a GM Shop for a rear end problem. They looked at it and said it was repaired.

She drove out and got a few miles down the road and the rear end FROZE and was on fire. She came to a SCREECHING halt. The ring gear and pinion gear do not like not being well oiled.

They left the plug out....no oil....no go very far.

i work for an international truck dealer, and yes i do see it more often than you would think

I used to have a 1990 Cheverolet Lumina (with the 3.1L V6). Was driving down the road one day, gave it some gas to pass, heard a clunk and the engine lost power. Weird thing was, below about 3000 rpm the engine sounded normal. Above that, it started making noises.

Took it to the dealer, they said blown engine. I never got a specific diagnosis, but they said they found metal in the oil pan.

They wanted over $3000 for a new engine. I didn't like the car (really bad brakes), so I took it as a sign to buy a new one.

When negotiating trade-in price, the dealer momentarily forgot about the engine, and offered me a price for a car with a good engine. As soon as he gave me the number, I could tell he was thinking "oops..." and I took it before he could change his mind.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I had an old 74 Ranchero GT. While driving home from work one day it felt as if all 4 tires blew at once. I managed to get into the center divider on the interstate and all the belts had popped off. as I tried to reinstall the belts I noticed the harmonic balancer moving. It had broken the crank shaft. i replaced that old cleveland with a 400 m then sold it the 400 just would not go like the cleveland. I miss that old Ranchero more than any of my old cars/trucks.

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SC Army National Guard

I've lost two engines. A Ford 360 installed in a 1969 F250 4x4 threw a rod at 190,000 miles and holed the block. That was in the early 1990s. I replaced the engine because that was my Mexico truck and I wasn't done with remote camping trips. But soon afterward circumstances changed and I never got back there again.

The other one was a VW diesel engine in a 1982 camper. The van was too heavy for that engine, which was managed in Europe by a five-speed transmission. In the US, only a four-speed was available. I was 30 miles south of Watson Lake on the Alaska Highway when a valve spacing disk lost spring tension and popped out of its seat, jamming the camshaft. The timing belt tore the toothed gear right off the end of the shaft. 700 miles to the closest VW dealer to the north (Anchorage) and 800 to the closest dealer to the south (Vancouver). We rolled it into an empty 18-wheeler that was deadheading south and followed it on a Greyhound.

I never got more than 15,000 miles out of a diesel engine in that van without a major repair in all the years I owned it. Two or three of them were warranty repairs, but others weren't. I finally gave up.

You don't see vintage diesel Vanagons on the road any more. Haven't for about 20 years. The company only sold them in North America for one year. Not too hard to figure out why.

Still, in between engine failures, it was an easy car to drive and live in. It got me all the way to Inuvik above the Arctic Circle and to semi-remote places like Las Animas on the Sea of Cortez where the fairly wide tires got me through sand I had no business trying to take a vehicle that low to the ground. Can't complain too much.

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David Wilson

I lost the engine on a 3 year old Craftsman lawn tractor last summer -- just went up in a puff of smoke after stopping to refuel. Must have at least spun a bearing as the engine is seized. If I were to repair it I would have a mower worth maybe $300, so I guess it's totaled.

I still feel betrayed, but it got me on to a John Deere a few years earlier than I expected.

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VIVERE MILITARE EST

1998 Ford Ranger 3.0 V6 @93000 miles the engine seized for no apparent reason or warning. On a trip laid up for 2 weeks while we debated the cause. Copies of maintenance records, remove engine for inspection, adjuster from Phoenix to come and report; Installed a factory 2001 pull out and $200 cost I was on my way..........now @ 155000 miles. No one ever could figure out why.

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I saw a new 6 cyl aircraft engine with 50 hours on it blow a jug clean off the crankcase.

Saw another one 200 hours out of overhaul break a crankshaft in cruise flight.

Was flying jumpseat when a jet engine right out of overhaul self distructed on climbout about 3000 ft over Atlanta, came home on the other one (also just out of overhaul from the same shop).

Stuff breaks, if you are around enough different engines, you will see one spit death-smoke every now and then.

Very old post, but still...

In Finland many have changed original 1.6D (50 hp) or 1.6TD (70 hp) to 1.9 TDI (90/110 hp) from VW Golf III

I had a Mustang timing chain tensioner grenade and lock up the oil pump. Engine destroyed in 2 miles.

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I've still got it made.

That's why I call them the Ford Exploder...

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protocalldesign.com

The smallest things can sometimes be missed during manufacture.

I had a brand new Jeep Cherokee, and on our maiden trip to the north Rim of Grand Canyon the A/C failed. Being August, we drove back home at night. Took it to the dealer, and they stated that mine was the 3rd new Cherokee with that problem. The data plate on the compressor was missing one of the rivets, and rotated down to cut the freon line. Fortunately they took care of it toot suite.

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Only a cold warrior

My 84 Buick Regal V6-turbo engine blew at 33,000 miles after I made a high speed run on a tight interstate on-ramp. The dealer told me I had to pay for a new oil pan because someone had cut the baffles on the old pan. I checked and found out the oil pan gasket had been replaced at another Buick dealer previously. For some reason the mechanic must have torched the baffles (a short cut?), but he was retired so I could not ask him about it.
I got it back after 5 or 6 weeks. On the way home, something happened to the turbo that must have dumped oil into the exhaust. I left a solid smoke screen 4 lanes wide. The engine started knocking. I managed to coast into a parking lot. The dealer picked it up the next day and had to do the whole job over. They never told me what was wrong the second time.
When I got it back, the oil pressure light was fading on and off. I traded it right away.

My new $27,000 1988 suburban the block cracked in the lifter valley area at 58,000 miles. No new engine I got a seasoned rebuilt block. I preferred a season block over the cost reduction new engine. The dealer guys laughed at me when I brought the suburban in.

I been a Chevy owner since I was 14 yo in 1964. I never had a small block crack. Since then I own all Subaru’s not one American car. Can’t afford the time for call backs.

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Plant garlic in the fall

This happened to my uncle back in late 60's or very early 70's. He bought a brand new Mercury, don't know which one but it was the largest top of the line they made. His parts business was one block from Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealership. He saw it on the lot, went in & made the deal for it without driving it. He left the dealership & made it 3 blocks before it as he said "made the damnested noise I ever heard". It stopped at the stop light on main street. He got out & saw where a fluid had stared to pour our 2 blocks behind him. He got on his knees & looked under it. The transmission cross member, transmission & torque converter had fallen out & was hung up under the rear end.

Another uncle was working at the Chevrolet dealer in the same small town.The transporter drove up out front as he was getting back from a test drive. He climbed up on the trailer & got in a Vega that the dealership was getting. He said when he started it it was missing & smoking like crazy. He pulled it in the shop & the shop foreman told him to find out what was wrong. He pulled the head off & there were only 3 pistons & rods in it!

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I'm 67. I don't do timeouts.

I had a nice 08 Corolla; always serviced at a dealer ( It's rare but it's a good dealer that takes care of their customers ) With a little over 100K on it I was told there was an oil leak at, I believe, the timing tensioner. Quick fix with a new gasket. about an hour later I was told take a free loaner as they needed it over night. Nest day the Service writer called and oops, started it with no tension on it and crashed the valves. Their fault, new engine, keep the loaner until it's done. Went to get it , sounds and runs great, new (rebuilt) engine with a years warranty - No Charge. Left the dealer and got a mile away and while waiting at a light was hit from behind so hard the rear seat was shoved forward. Totaled and it went to the salvage yard with a new engine and a set of two month old tires.

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Sceva
OGCA SWCA NRA

You probably needed a marine pump in your house for all the tears you shed when you got home.

I have a 1954 Jaguar XK120, and I have been acquiring parts for a total rebuild of the engine. I have heard that some people who have rebuilt their engines had timing chain failures after a few hundred miles with major damage. It was determined that the timing chains were made in India specifically for the old Jaguar engines.


With that, I looked through the parts that I have for the rebuild, and sure enough, I have new timing chains made in India. Before I throw them in the trash, I'll see if some kid might want them for his bicycle.

Our first, and only new car was a Saturn SL1 at right around 39,000 miles cylinder head cracked it was just out of warranty 3yrs/30,000 miles. I was hot I had all the service done at the dealership. We had to pay for it. I made sure everyone looking at a vehicle in the showroom knew about it. A few weeks later we got a recall notice they reimbursed us the amount we paid. I think they knew they had a problem and were only sending recall notices to those who had issues. At about 70,000 the exact same thing happened again. We went back to the same dealership they were not happy with me once it was over I wound up paying for the parts they covered the labor, which I still think was wrong. Biggest pile of steaming bovine scattology that ever rolled off an assembly line. I sold it after that bought a used Nissan Quest drove it for 12 years without any major issues until the engine gave up the ghost. I really hated to see that one go. Replaced it with a Nissan Rogue as the kids were grown, and didn't need all that room still miss it though...

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Randy

Too bad about the engine failure, but with full warranty replacement in 2 weeks and a loaner to drive I think I would be pretty happy with that dealer!

The only engine I ever blew was a 440 interceptor in a 1976 or ‘77 dodge Monaco. Loud bang and a cloud of steam from under the hood. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw pieces of the engine bouncing on the pavement. Hole in the side of the block the size of a softball. The city mechanic said he had been using straight 50 weight in it to try and keep it together.
In the interest of full disclosure, I was engaged in a speed contest with another cruiser (a Ford) down the main drag at three a.m.
Almost won.

In 1980 I bought a brand new Ford Mustang. Babied it, did everything according to the book and two weeks (literally) after the 2 year warranty was up the engine blew. Ford said they wouldn't do anything for me.

It took me a month, but a friend and I rebuilt the engine and I wound up selling the car a few months later. So YES - I've heard of engines running perfectly fine and then just blowing. Needles to say I haven't bought a Ford lately!

I read an article this morning about a man who had a Toyota Tundra pick-up truck that he had drives 1 million miles.

Toyota took his truck and gave him a brand new on to replace it. They then tore it apart to see what had lasted and what had not lasted. Motor was just a good as new. In fact, there was no damage to the truck/frame/interior to speak of.

Article is in motortrend.com.

In the 1990s I worked part time at a large limo company, business was booming, the Cadillac DeVille sedans were getting 70-75,000 miles a year. That company became a test bed for Cadillac, Cadillac would give them sedans and say"Run them, run them, run them, we'll tell you when to hold them in so our people can come and look at them."

Wow, there are lots of blown engines above my post!!! I have to say that I have never ever had major problems with any car I have ever owned in the last 54 years. I do, however, take extra care of my vehicles and have used synthetic oils for over 40 years. Maybe that helped??

My first car was a 1963 Chevy SS and it had a cracked piston, but apparently that was minor compared to may other 409 engines!!!

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Gary
SWCA 2515

A friend had to install a rebuilt head after a valve failure. With over a quarter million miles on that Toyota truck, the cylinder walls still had cross hatching from the factory honing.

Dont worry guys electric cars are coming.

in 2007 I bought a new F150, Drove it about 4500 miles called to get it's first oil change, I asked the service to check the super charger on engine,. The blower was bad and caused damage to the engine. They gave my a year old F 150 to drive. I took 2 months to get my truck back with a new engine. the dealer had to fight with Ford but Ford made it good. I have been going to this dealer ship for more then 20 years. I know the owner, he is a stand up guy, and an honest business man.

He took a big loss on a really good used car, there was a man that need a car to get back and forth to work but he didn't have much money. He had the service department bring in the car and go though it like their mama was going to drive it. He did a in house financing. and the guy made the payments, everyone of them.

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Carpriver.

Wouldn't happen to be a 5.4 would it?

Wrist pin that connects the piston to the connecting rod. Usually a tight fit with a clip on each end to keep it inside the piston on a Ford

To me the 63 Super Sport was one of the prettier cars ever built. We had a 63 Impala HT but I always wished that I had stretched the budget a little more and bought the SS. Ours was a dark red wine color. It was a good one.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

You beat me to it.
The only "broken pin" failure I can think of that would scrap an engine that fast would be a wrist pin - unless there were some kind of pin in the drive mechanism for the oil pump.

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