Eco-broken

Hi everyone,
I am or should say was the proud owner of a 2014 F150 FX4 3.5L (I still own it but once its repaired I wont for very long).. It is still a beautiful truck! I thought I would sign up to let people know my experience so that hopefully they wont have to go through the same issue.

I bought my 2014 truck used from a Ford dealership at the end of 2016 and because it had less than 60,000 kilometers, I could purchase a Ford extended warranty (which I did for ~$3,300.00). It had 59,817 kms on it and at the time and I was super stoked about it. After that off to the tire & wheel shop to make it shine. As I am a bit of a gear head, I have always done my own routine maintenance, its something I enjoy doing. I like to look at the oil coming out of the engine and what condition the filter looks like, Brakes etc etc. . you know the simple stuff. Makes me feel connected to my truck and that I have confidence in its condition.

Over the last 28 months I have put 61,000 kms on it, so now sitting about 120k kms. I can honestly say I changed the oil about every 8000 kms with 100% synthetic 5w30, right in line with the factory recommendations. Just over the 100k km mark, a couple codes pop up "P0014, P0016", so I do some research and figure its the timing chain issue and cam phasers (I wont go into that issue as there are several threads about it already), so off to the dealer I go. The dealer could not replicate the issue, so they do an oil change and say bring it back if it happens again. Fast forward 6 months and 20k kms later and the codes pop up again, only this time there are more.. So back to the dealership I go. I figure, well finally the timing chain and what not really does need to be replaced, ok, cool, I have extended warranty to 160k kms, all good.

Not so fast, get the truck towed to the dealer and talk to the shop super on the phone, same guy as last time. Hes says, yep, must be time for the chain and what not. The next day, they start tearing her down.. once the valve covers are off there is sludge.. whoa!!.. put the brakes on the repair.. Nobody is more surprised than me, that there is sludge in the engine.. WTH??

They then ask for maintenance records, which I happily provide - dates, receipts etc.. I get the one eyed look, " you did your own oil changes??" "Yes I did, as you can see from the receipts".. uh oh I'm starting to get an uneasy feeling, something not right is going on here... They inform me that they will send the information off to Ford for review.. A few days later I get called to come down for a meeting, we sit in a tiny office me with four of them all facing me like I was on trial. They said "prove" you put the oil in the truck.. did you video it? take a photo?.. Well, I can see where this is going, Ford trying to get out of a warranty claim. The ford Technician then went on to say that if I had changed the oil, there would be no sludge as oil has cleaners in it now and will remove any sludge. Now I'm thinking, where did this guy get his ticket?? That's pretty much a straight up lie... let the fighting begin

So its now 6 weeks later, Ford won't honor the warranty, I wont pay for the repair..

The real point of this story is if you do your own maintenance, you had better video it being done, photo it with time stamps or just take it into the dealer. You Americans have it easier, as its illegal for Ford to do that in the USA, us Cancuks, well we are screwed.

Second point would be that if your considering buying a used F150 Ecoboost, I would at least take the valve covers off and inspect it. These are dirty engines, so take the time to do a super through inspection. I figured I had ample warranty and the truck was still newish.. no worries.. yeah right, they will stick it to you given the opportunity.

Meetthetwins

Oh man this sucks to hear as a fellow Canuck. I have never gone through the process of providing proof of oil changes, but I have always heard as long as you have the receipts for oil and filter and a log of when it was changed that this would suffice. Who videos or takes pics while changing oil? Wtf. It’s not like you would buy it to pour down the drain.
good luck man.

RLXXI

You guys to the north get boned because your government does not step in and regulate corporate like we do here in the south.
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David Young

What is the name of the oil you are using? Just wondering...………..

JCR 56

Yes, I would like to know also, because an engine with regular oil changes shouldn't look that bad, unless the oil isn't worth a damn. Did you look at the engine and verify the sludge? I'm not very trustful anymore. lol.

tuflehundon

Damn. This is one of the reasons I took my truck to the dealership for service while I was under warranty. That and I got 12 free oil changes as part of my deal. When I did take it in for service, there was no way they could question anything.

ztman

What does your contract say about proof of oil changes?

tcp2

I would suggest filing a small claims court claim immediately. Sue them for the cost of the timing requirements as well as unused time while it's been sitting. Nothing is as motivating as being served a notice of summons. I would bet they come up with some form of "good-will" repair rather quickly. Canada has enough laws around to help you out.

Any decent oil should have cleared a lot of that sludge out over 60k kms, even if it was abused by the first owner. What oil did you use?

Phyer Phyter

I’ve always done my own maintenance and never had an issue. I let the dealership do the warranty repairs - non warranty repairs I did myself. I, too, live in Alberta.
I have had issues with dealerships misdiagnosing things when I’ve told them the issue and the repair only to have them concede I was right when their “diagnosis and repair” didn’t fix the issue and mine did.

FallGuy44

Terrible. Here in the states there is a law against that.

Still curious those as why there was so much sludge. Out of curiosity, what oil and filters do you use?