'24 Powerboost catastrophic turbo failure at 1200kms

[BonusNachos]

New to the forums and to owning a Ford. Driven too many to count fleet Fords and had really liked the newer ones. I have had my Powerboost Lariat two weeks less a day and about 1200kms (750mi) when parts of a turbo decided they would be more comfortable throughout the engine.

This happened on a Friday a hour before service closed at the nearest dealer, Ford roadside was pretty awesome getting the truck to the dealer, though the tow company took 2 1/2 hrs to get to me. Truck sat until this past Monday when I received notification that it was in the service bay.

Few hours later I got a call they were part way through diagnoses and things were grim. I went in after work to talk to the service tech and he had just sent over a bunch of pictures and the break down to Ford Canada. They didn't mince words and started off with, this needs to be a complete engine and turbo replacement. The only time they had seen something similar was a plugged or blocked oil journal. They were of the mindset that the engineers will be wanting to dissect the engine.

After talking with them I called Ford customer relations and did get someone who seemed to genuinely care. I asked about a loaner or rental vehicle, I had already missed some truly important to me events and had pushed off other things at this point. I was told no loaner is available and a rental may or may not be covered after the engineers decide what avenue they wish to pursue. If I rented something before this, I could very well be on my own and couldn't be given a deadline on when the engineers would make a call.

I'm devastated at this point, this was my mid life crisis, treat myself vehicle. I traded in a rock solid and reliable '19 Honda Civic Touring to get a Ford which promptly grenades itself and then I have to turn around and pay to rent a(nother) F-150 while paying for the one in the shop that's unusable. I am defeated. Is this what owning a Ford is?

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[Captain Dirty Beard]

Jeez sorry this happened to you. What are the lemon laws like in Canada?

The hard reality is that these vehicles are built at a breakneck pace on the assembly line, by people who's only concern is punching the clock. The sheer volume of these that Ford produces, as well as outsourcing the vast majority of the parts, means less quality control, and that a certain percentage will always fail. Add in that the more complex they become, the less reliable they will always be.

@Ford Motor Company - what can you do for this person? At a bare minimum, Ford should provide at no additional cost, another vehicle to use until this gets resolved.

 

[astro_fusion]

I'd be finding a dealer that has loaners, unless something is way different in Canada. That's a pretty big can of worms to open with poor service right out of the gate, wouldn't let them touch my truck without equal transportation provided.

 

[HammaMan]

Jeez sorry this happened to you. What are the lemon laws like in Canada?

The hard reality is that these vehicles are built at a breakneck pace on the assembly line, by people who's only concern is punching the clock. The sheer volume of these that Ford produces, as well as outsourcing the vast majority of the parts, means less quality control, and that a certain percentage will always fail. Add in that the more complex they become, the less reliable they will always be.

Motors aren't built on the line, they're built at plants that specialize in building motors and sent to assembly completed. Ford's lines aren't even that fast -- some lines are down in the high 30 second range, not ford's. Furthermore the turbos are made an even more specialized factory. This has nothing to do with the assembly plants.

 

[Captain Dirty Beard]

Motors aren't built on the line, they're built at plants that specialize in building motors and sent to assembly completed. Ford's lines aren't even that fast -- some lines are down in the high 30 second range, not ford's. Furthermore the turbos are made an even more specialized factory. This has nothing to do with the assembly plants.

Semantics. The engines are built on their own assembly line, and there's nothing special about the turbo's, or how they are manufactured. These vehicles are mass produced, cookie cutter assemblies and things go wrong occasionally. Tooling wears out, materials have inconsistencies, workers have a bad day, the engine oil was underfilled etc.

 

[Snakebitten]

I'm going to sound like an apologist, but that's an extremely rare occurrence. In fact the first I remember ever being posted on the forum.

However, it's absolutely unforgivable if Ford doesn't step up and turn this into an opportunity to make a statement about how they will make things right.

 

[HammaMan]

Semantics. The engines are built on their own assembly line, and there's nothing special about the turbo's, or how they are manufactured. These vehicles are mass produced, cookie cutter assemblies and things go wrong occasionally. Tooling wears out, materials have inconsistencies, workers have a bad day, the engine oil was underfilled etc.

Ah yes, they just haphazardly slap together turbines that spin 60k+ RPM making failure catastrophic. The simplest answer is most often the correct one, a small piece of debris managed to partially clog oil delivery to the bearing. It's often just that simple. Ford needs to step up and get a new motor assembly to this gentleman immediately.

 

[SeanV313]

@Ford Motor Company , can you assist?

 

[Captain Dirty Beard]

Ah yes, they just haphazardly slap together turbines that spin 60k+ RPM

Yep, they do. How many Turbos do you suppose that BorgWarner has produced for the 3.5 Ecoboost/Powerboost engines? They crank these things out by the pallet.

High quality ball bearing turbos, that are assembled by hand with the best parts are cost prohibitive for mass consumption.

Buying an F150 is no different than buying any other mass produced vehicle, appliance, tool etc. 99% will work fine, 1 % has catastrophic failure (or maybe even less) which still adds up to hundreds or thousands of units failing- completely acceptable by manufacturers standards.

Ford needs to step up and get a new motor assembly to this gentleman immediately.

Completely agree on this.

 

[BonusNachos]

Jeez sorry this happened to you. What are the lemon laws like in Canada?

The hard reality is that these vehicles are built at a breakneck pace on the assembly line, by people who's only concern is punching the clock. The sheer volume of these that Ford produces, as well as outsourcing the vast majority of the parts, means less quality control, and that a certain percentage will always fail. Add in that the more complex they become, the less reliable they will always be.

@Ford Motor Company - what can you do for this person? At a bare minimum, Ford should provide at no additional cost, another vehicle to use until this gets resolved.

I had to do some digging but it seems very lack luster in Canada compared to US lemon laws. There is some improvements towards a US style law but fairly toothless. I'd have to talk to someone more well versed.

 

[Samson16]

I'm going to sound like an apologist, but that's an extremely rare occurrence. In fact the first I remember ever being posted on the forum.

However, it's absolutely unforgivable if Ford doesn't step up and turn this into an opportunity to make a statement about how they will make things right.

That’s the key. The dealership and Fords response to this rare but impactful occurrence. Take care of the customer first and then worry about forensic analysis.

 

[dochawk]

Very much not my area of the law, aside from not being licensed up there, and retired here, but I cannot conceive of a circumstance other than deliberate sabotage in which anyone but the manufacturer is at fault for an engine that goes less than 1,000 miles before undergoing what SpaceX likes to call "RUD" . . .

 

[BonusNachos]

I'd be finding a dealer that has loaners, unless something is way different in Canada. That's a pretty big can of worms to open with poor service right out of the gate, wouldn't let them touch my truck without equal transportation provided.

This could be a interesting point in my situation, I bought a very specific trim and model at a end of month to get certain set of incentives. Talking with sales at this (to me local) dealership they could do this deal but it had to be a factory order. Couldn't or wouldn't do a dealer swap. I found one on the lot at a out of town dealership and bought that.

Now the truck sits at this very dealer. It was a little embarrassing calling in to let them know the truck was coming their way when they asked if I had a account with this dealer and I said no, only for us all to realise that there was a partial profile from sales.

I can't speak to what the situation is actually here, and believe by the service advisors statements that they would supply a loaner if they could but speaking to co-workers it appears; there isn't a loaner available and a there isn't a loaner available to you, could and would both be acceptable and normal practise in Canada.

 

[BonusNachos]

I'm going to sound like an apologist, but that's an extremely rare occurrence. In fact the first I remember ever being posted on the forum.

However, it's absolutely unforgivable if Ford doesn't step up and turn this into an opportunity to make a statement about how they will make things right.

The service advisor did say this is like catching lightning in a bottle. Had to look that one up and not sure how I feel about it.

 

[PB2021]

I’ve posted this many times in other cases where a company is slow or refuses to rightfully fix a wrong. I see you are in Ontario so you have likely seen many of the CTV segments where as a news agency they get involved to assist a customer. Sad state we are in but it might be worth a call. Seems one of the only things companies respond to anymore is a lot of bad press or the potential of it. In each segment it’s funny how quickly the company steps up to satisfy customer concerns. I see your case as so rare (good thing in a way) but as Snakebitten has commented it’s a great opportunity for Ford to step up. New engine? No I would suggest they should be handing you a new truck. Let Ford have a dealer fix on their timeline then resell rather than on your timeline. There are examples of one off builds done prior. Please let us know how your situation progresses.

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