Ford faces $1.3 billion lawsuit over EcoBoost engine

theoldwizard1 wrote:

Lessmore wrote:
However the Ford ecoboost V6 engine had me rethinking. I hadn't heard about issues in the area of poor durability/reliability...and particularly not about catastrophic failure of turbo and engine.

Early EcoBoost engine were recommended to use 5W20 oil. A few years ago that was changed to 5W30. Not sure why, but if I had a 4+ year old EcoBoost engine, I think I would switch over to 5W30.

I'm fairly certain the only reason Ford switched to 5W20 was an attempt to squeeze more MPG out of the vehicle under EPA testing.

My 2002 Explorer was one of the first years they made this switch to recommending 5W20. I've noticed the truck uses more oil between changes as well compared to earlier Fords running on 5W30. So several years back after the warranty expired I changed to 5W30, and while fuel economy might have dropped slightly, oil consumption dropped to what I'd expect, about 1/2 quart over 5K miles.
I still have the pamphlet Ford issued to new vehicles in 2001 explaining the "reasoning" for the 5W20.