Chris74

FYI - I am a fleet manager for an agricultural company here in Ontario Canada. I have a fleet of 126 trucks, which includes 57 F-150's reg-cab 2wd ecoboosts (2011-2013's).

I am a huge Ford supporter and have been very "pro-ecoboost" since it's launch in the F-150. I also own a 2011 FX4 crewcab that has been 5-Star tuned for abour 20,000km's and now SSI tuned for the past 10,000km's.

I am starting to become very concerned with this engine and specifically the timing chains. In the past 4 months I have had 17 timing chains break on 2011 ecoboosts. All trucks were between 130,000 and 160,000km's. Some of them only needed a timing chain replacement and others need a whole new engine (which is over $13,000 Canadian). I am still working with my Ford rep to see if they will help me out with some of them......but it's not looking good because they are slightly past my goodwill warranty (130,000km).

The interesting thing is........the replacement timing chain is thicker and more stout than the original. This tells me that Ford knows they have a problem!

I am becoming very disapointed in the performance of these trucks and loosing confidence in their reliability in my fleet. So far the following issues with these 2011 ecoboosts (outside of the usual ball joints, brakes and regular maintenance) have been very costly for us......

Rear differentials - almost every truck
wheel bearings - most of them
left side turbos - 3 trucks
vacuum pumps, master cylinder - 15-20 trucks
timing chains - 17 trucks and counting (all within recent 4 months)

I am not bashing Ford (yet).......just sharing some real world info with you guys since I have so many of these trucks in a heavy service fleet environment. I even have 6 of them with well over 200,000 km.

Am I concerned about timing chains/engines on these 2011 ecoboosts?......You bet I am. I am even more worried about my own truck since it is tuned and I drive it pretty hard on occasion.......will the timing chain break even earlier.??? I don't know, but I am worried that it will. If I am going to keep it past 100,000km, I will be looking to add an aftermarket extended warranty.

My intention is not to **** anybody off with this post.......I am just giving you guys a heads-up, especially if you are nearing 130,000km's or 80,000 miles on your 2011's.

Azuri

I'm not here to stoke the fire but are there any 5.0's in your fleet and their track record? I personally haven't had a ton of luck with GM in the past and this F150 is my first domestic after 14 trouble years free with a import so I wanted to give Ford a fair shake. Good luck with this issue.

11screw50

How many non EB F-150's do you have in your fleet?

Azuri

Lol great minds think alike.

LTC F

Hmmm. A 31% failure rate on timing chains, 35% failure rate on master cylinders and a nearly 100% failure rate on rear diffs? Rigggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhht.

Azuri

Chris I'd suggest you provide some sort of proof regarding your fleet at the very least, expect a sea of doubters like the poster above calling you out as a troll until you do it's the nature of the forums especially with the EB engine here. Just my opinion.

Chris74

We have about 20 5.0's in the fleet .......they have all basically been trouble free so far (but they are all 2012's and 13's with 80,000km's or less on them).

I am not going to provide any proof per say. I could scan and post invoices for these repairs (which I am not going to go to that effort)..... I could list the names of dealers in Ontario where I have 3 trucks sitting with engines tore apart right now. But frankly, I don't care who does or doesn't want to believe me. Like I said, I am probably the biggest Ford supporter around and I have defended the ecoboost at nausia to the nay sayyers. I am certainly no troll.

Nobody has to believe me or agree with me........I am just telling you right now, I suspect we will see a widespread problem with timing chains on 2011 eco's. I guess we will soon see.

And to LTC F.....yes pretty well every F-150 (with over 120,000km's) in our fleet has had bearings and/or clutch packs repaired in our LSD rear diff's (some of them 2-3 times). If you don't think Ford has a problem with that......you should ask a service advisor next time you are at a dealer.

Azuri

Thanks, yeah I'd agree it's too early to comment on your 5.0s and I honestly don't care what others say either. Longevity debates have been discussed on all the engine platforms here for some time. From my observations the 2011's are starting to show some issues as they age or getting to the 80k to 100k mile range.

As far as asking service advisors that's hit and miss for example "that's the first time we've had a vehicle in for that" Some will be straight up with you.

Wanted33

Chris, thanks for the info. I have seen many threads asking for those that have these new engines to report if they have had problems. But, being new not many had enough miles to answer. You do, and I appreciate you posting here. Good luck with the "good will" warranty. I know as a business owner you do plan for maintenance problems, but not at this level.

vozaday

There have been a lot of posts recently about startup noise and it ultimately being timing chain or phasor related. Wonder if there is a difference between the 11's, 12's and 13's