The National Highway Transportation Administration (NHTSA) has wrapped up an investigation into more than Ford 411,000 vehicles with engines that may fail.
The vehicles include model years 2021-2022 Ford Bronco, Edge, Explorer, and F-150 and Lincoln Aviator and Nautilus.
“Under normal driving conditions without warning the vehicle may experience a loss of motive power without restart due to catastrophic engine failure related to an alleged faulty valve within 2.7 L and 3.0 L EcoBoost Engines,” NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigation (ODI) said in its final report.
The report said there have been 1,066 reported engine failures in the affected models. Complainants were reporting sudden engine failure while driving resulting in a loss of motive power, often without the ability to restart.
During the investigation, the cause of engine failure and loss of motive power was determined to be an intake valve fracture and the full scope of vehicles affected by the subject defect was identified as all 2021-2022 Ford and Lincoln models equipped with either the 2.7L or 3.0L EcoBoost engines, referred to as the “Nano” engine family.
Ford said its investigation determined that most engine failures occurred before the vehicles had been driven 20,000 miles and that half occurred before 5,000 miles.
What happens next
The remedy includes an inspection at a Ford/Lincoln dealership where the lifetime engine cycles of the vehicle will be determined.
If a vehicle does not meet a threshold for lifetime engine cycles, the dealership will conduct a high RPM engine cycle accumulation procedure, which will try to determine if the vehicle is equipped with defective intake valves.
Any vehicle that fails the accumulation procedure will receive an engine replacement under the recall. Ford said it will will provide extended warranty coverage to the affected vehicles through the earlier of 10 years or 150,000 miles.