Major Ecoboost repair, long delays

[Groover]

My daughter parked her 2013 F150 Ecoboost with about 140,000 miles on it back in mid-May. When she started it back up it would barely run and was very rough. To make a long story short it was parked at the location of her medical school graduation and after graduation she had about 7 weeks to move from San Antonio to Dayton Ohio for the 5 year residency period. That included buying a house and moving her stuff and her horses. The truck was required to move the gooseneck horse trailer.

She took it to a local mechanic that seemed to have a good reputation but also he was the only one that would take the truck in quickly. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as a failed electric vacuum pump that had self destructed and some of the debris got sucked into the engine. The debris made a mess of the passenger side head. After working on it for about 2 weeks he told her that it was fixed and to take it away. It was far from fixed but did make to my house in Tennessee where I borrowed a truck with a gooseneck hitch to get her horses the rest of the way to Dayton.

The truck has been sitting at the local Ford dealer ever since waiting on a factory reconditioned long block. I was first told the long block would be there in August which was by far the best delivery promise that I could find plus it would come with a 3 year Ford warrantee. In August the delivery promise got changed to October 27th and I was advised that I was the 104th customer in line. Well, I still don't have long block but I have moved up to the 84th customer in line. At that rate I expect to get the truck back around Christmas, 2023. The place that rebuilds engines for Ford says that they can't get parts and are only filling high priority orders. The dealer told me that mine is a high priority but even that obviously isn't helping.

I have heard that there are various impediments to making new vehicles but those seem to center around electronic items, not engines.

I am trying to figure out if I have any viable options. I found some taken out of wrecks on the internet but looked up reviews for those places and they were awful. I got the impression that less than one in four of the engines they shipped actually worked.

If anyone has any good ideas I would love to hear them. I do want to be able to have confidence in the truck after the repair since my daughter plans to drive it for the next 5 years. To me that is going to take a long block or better but I don't know where to find one with a reasonable delivery.

Oh yeah, the electric vacuum pump seems to be there in case you need to apply the brakes while the turbo charger has the intake manifold pressurized. So it connected to the manifold via the brake vacuum booster and debris can be sucked through. Apparently, failures of the electric pumps are not uncommon. The amount of damage that my daughter's truck suffered is. That is what the mechanic told us but based on some other issues that have come up I don't put a lot of stock in what that guy told us but the bottom line is that I still need a good engine.

[Pbutler97]

Groover wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

mkirsch wrote:
Add full coverage back on and two weeks later the truck turns up stolen? If you don't think they're going to do a full-court-press investigation on that, you are delusional.

After two seized lifters within 500 miles on my Chevy, when the fuel pickup line immediately started leaking the day I picked it up from the second, I was hoping for a wayward match, but I knew I'd end up in jail, so I got it fixed.

Yeah, always said criminals are dumb. 2 weeks and it's pretty obvious. Probably better to have an "accident", even then, you might want to wait a month or two.

Of course, I was speaking in general terms that for most people with a $20k truck that they can't replace with pocket change, keeping full coverage makes sense.

I can afford to replace it. But the reason I can is that I don't run out and buy a new vehicle every time there the old one has a hickup. I think that this one has several more years left in it. If I can get a long block and extend this one's life another 6 or 7 years that would be a lot less expensive than a new truck.

The dealer told me yesterday that they have escalated my case up the corporate ladder. They gave me the impression that the people they talked to were unaware of the shortage of spare parts and the difficulties it is causing customers. I am not so sure of that but I am pretty sure that automakers are required by law to have spare parts available for vehicles up to 10 years old and Ford may be in violation of that law. Since Ford told me that 83 people have been waiting longer than me this could be a ready made class action suit.

I'd definitely go the RV.net approved insurance fraud route LOL:E

[Grit_dog]

Groover wrote:
but I am pretty sure that automakers are required by law to have spare parts available for vehicles up to 10 years old and Ford may be in violation of that law. Since Ford told me that 83 people have been waiting longer than me this could be a ready made class action suit.

That says it all....
Running around with your hand out for anyone that will feed you, regardless of their responsibility to do so....
Ok, then, next topic...have a nice day!

[Groover]

valhalla360 wrote:

mkirsch wrote:
Add full coverage back on and two weeks later the truck turns up stolen? If you don't think they're going to do a full-court-press investigation on that, you are delusional.

After two seized lifters within 500 miles on my Chevy, when the fuel pickup line immediately started leaking the day I picked it up from the second, I was hoping for a wayward match, but I knew I'd end up in jail, so I got it fixed.

Yeah, always said criminals are dumb. 2 weeks and it's pretty obvious. Probably better to have an "accident", even then, you might want to wait a month or two.

Of course, I was speaking in general terms that for most people with a $20k truck that they can't replace with pocket change, keeping full coverage makes sense.

I can afford to replace it. But the reason I can is that I don't run out and buy a new vehicle every time there the old one has a hickup. I think that this one has several more years left in it. If I can get a long block and extend this one's life another 6 or 7 years that would be a lot less expensive than a new truck.

The dealer told me yesterday that they have escalated my case up the corporate ladder. They gave me the impression that the people they talked to were unaware of the shortage of spare parts and the difficulties it is causing customers. I am not so sure of that but I am pretty sure that automakers are required by law to have spare parts available for vehicles up to 10 years old and Ford may be in violation of that law. Since Ford told me that 83 people have been waiting longer than me this could be a ready made class action suit.

[valhalla360]

mkirsch wrote:
Add full coverage back on and two weeks later the truck turns up stolen? If you don't think they're going to do a full-court-press investigation on that, you are delusional.

After two seized lifters within 500 miles on my Chevy, when the fuel pickup line immediately started leaking the day I picked it up from the second, I was hoping for a wayward match, but I knew I'd end up in jail, so I got it fixed.

Yeah, always said criminals are dumb. 2 weeks and it's pretty obvious. Probably better to have an "accident", even then, you might want to wait a month or two.

Of course, I was speaking in general terms that for most people with a $20k truck that they can't replace with pocket change, keeping full coverage makes sense.

[mkirsch]

Add full coverage back on and two weeks later the truck turns up stolen? If you don't think they're going to do a full-court-press investigation on that, you are delusional.

After two seized lifters within 500 miles on my Chevy, when the fuel pickup line immediately started leaking the day I picked it up from the second, I was hoping for a wayward match, but I knew I'd end up in jail, so I got it fixed.

[valhalla360]

Groover wrote:
I dropped full coverage several years ago.

Ummm...add full coverage back on?

If it's really a $20k truck and the money is a big deal, probably should have it. If it's not a big deal go find a used truck and deal with the POS truck when the motor comes in...then sell it. Shouldn't be a big cost difference.

Alternatively, if you really want to be done with it now, get a junk yard engine. Get it running and then sell it.

[Groover]

I dropped full coverage several years ago.

[Grit_dog]

Never provided any input here, nope, nada, no sir, move along, nothing to see here!

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Wow, what a mess. Sorry about your troubles. I don't see how people can live with themselves doing that to people.

At this point I agree with the dealer about the long block. But you are in a jam for time so that puts you between a rock and a hard place.

So you might want to go junk yard engine at this time to get your daughter going again. Problem is these engines are a high performance engine. People don't want to admit that but they are. And like any high performance engine, maintenance needs to be beyond stellar. So if you get a JY engine who knows how it was treated? If you did go JY see if you can find one with a 6 month + warrantee. Any less than that and you could be throwing thousands of dollars down a rat hole.

Any way you go this is going to get VERY pricy. If you have the dealer do it they are going to want you to get new turbos too. And rightly so "if" trash went through them. Maybe new cats too if enough oil went through them.

Man you have some very hard choices to make and none of them are good. I would not want to be in your shoes. ( and I have been there) Anyway, good luck and I hope you get it sorted out.

PS. When you get this thing back together I would dump it. Last thing your daughter needs is a truck with a high perf engine in it. She needs reliable so look for a truck with good reliability in its ratings.

PSx1. Please don't get a Jasper engine. Gesus Fish!!

[Groover]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Groover wrote:
She took it to a local mechanic that seemed to have a good reputation but also he was the only one that would take the truck in quickly. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as a failed electric vacuum pump that had self destructed and some of the debris got sucked into the engine. The debris made a mess of the passenger side head. After working on it for about 2 weeks he told her that it was fixed and to take it away. It was far from fixed but did make to my house in Tennessee where I borrowed a truck with a gooseneck hitch to get her horses the rest of the way to Dayton.

So many questions:

#1. Did you physically see the damage to the head or even a picture?

#2. So what did the mechanic do? Recon the head? Get a junk yard one? Buy a new one from Ford?

#3. What does far from fixed mean? Is is low on power. Runs rough? Smokes? Knocks?

#4. Did you take it back to the first guy and tell him it runs bad?

#5. Was the turbo replaced? If not why not?

#6. Was any pistons replaced? If not why not?

A lot of this doesn't make much sense to me. I haven't heard of one instance that the vacuum pump blows up and kills the engine. Not saying it can't happen but it just seem sus to me.

Maybe after seeing the answers to the above questions I can give more help.

I will answer #4 first. The guy had worked on it for two weeks and missed about 6 promised completion times. The owner was on vacation and unreachable when the shop told us to come get the truck. It was running rough and smoking badly but they swore that it would all clear up in a few miles. Also, the running boards had been badly damaged. It looks like they did not get the lift properly positioned at least once. We were on a tight schedule to relocate and had already given up both the rental property and the horses's barn stalls.

It ran very rough, smoked, the turbos did not work, multiple error codes that wouldn't clear and a vacuum line was dangling from the top of the motor.

It is 900 miles back to San Antonio and I see no point in going back there anyway.

The passenger side head had been worked on and two valves replaced along with several other things but much of what we were told did not really make sense. We were able to recover a big chunk of the bill from the credit card company.

The dealer hasn't been excited about fixing someone else's mess and wanted to go with a long block. At the time that made sense to me but with the roadblocks we have run into I may not have a choice but to get someone to dive into the engine and try to fix it.

I have asked the dealer to at least run a compression test and start making alternate plans if the long block option appears to be dead.

[Grit_dog]

1 more...nothing to see here...

[Grit_dog]

And another....

[Groover]

I don't want to leave any stone unturned so I called Jasper. They declined to quote one.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Groover wrote:
She took it to a local mechanic that seemed to have a good reputation but also he was the only one that would take the truck in quickly. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as a failed electric vacuum pump that had self destructed and some of the debris got sucked into the engine. The debris made a mess of the passenger side head. After working on it for about 2 weeks he told her that it was fixed and to take it away. It was far from fixed but did make to my house in Tennessee where I borrowed a truck with a gooseneck hitch to get her horses the rest of the way to Dayton.

So many questions:

#1. Did you physically see the damage to the head or even a picture?

#2. So what did the mechanic do? Recon the head? Get a junk yard one? Buy a new one from Ford?

#3. What does far from fixed mean? Is is low on power. Runs rough? Smokes? Knocks?

#4. Did you take it back to the first guy and tell him it runs bad?

#5. Was the turbo replaced? If not why not?

#6. Was any pistons replaced? If not why not?

A lot of this doesn't make much sense to me. I haven't heard of one instance that the vacuum pump blows up and kills the engine. Not saying it can't happen but it just seem sus to me.

Maybe after seeing the answers to the above questions I can give more help.

[Grit_dog]

Another post I'd like to not be part of the OP's lawsuit happy ending on the next page...