I would like to tell the world to stay away from Ford vehicles in general but if you don't heed that warming at least do your self a a favor and avoid Ecoboost Engines.

On March 2018 I got this truck at 71,000 miles for 23,000 dollars of debt and on January 27, 2019 (almost 11 months of ownership) I took it about mile to a local store, got food and ate at the location. Dove it out of the parking lot and made it about 50 yard form the lot I just came out of.

I was accelerate rating at the time, with Bluetooth music blasting, all of a sudden I hear a higher rev then I was expecting and saw the low pressure light right before I threw my hands towards the key to turn it off (if it wasn't already), after I got it to the side of the road, I checked the oil and it was just below the hash marks witch seemed right for what leaked out. After seeing it had oil I try to key bump the engine over and after getting nothing in my mind the engine was seized. Was hoping to be wrong trying to tell myself maybe theirs a safety when the engine detects low pressure so I had it towed to a dealer without thinking about baring over the engine myself,

Dealer pretty much told me the same thing other then the cost for them to put another one in comes to the tune of 10,000 dollars, got a quote form an independent shop and they wanted 9,000 dollars. (both estimates are not including turbos) I guess I should say I'm mechanic at a Intentional Dealer and I did some shopping around if it's just the engine I would need 6k to cover the core, but if I need turbos I would need 7.3k to cover the cores. But after the cores are returned it would only cost me 4.5k - 5.5k.

I did also look at junk yard prices and they are going for about 3k range and with that type pricing I might be better off with a new engine for $1000 more.

But right now I can't seem to find a better location to even try to do the work since the truck right now in soft sand aka my yard. I wasn't able to save up a lot of money when it died I had 1.5k in the bank and thought with this type mileage I wouldn't need to hold on to a lot anyways. Also talked to the dealer that sold me the truck and they didn't want to help at all or work something out.

By the way It was nice this Easter so I did some probing and removed a few spark plugs Cylinder 2 spark Plug was smashed in rented a bore-scope at Autozone (it had a crappy light) but it looked like 2 pieces of the piston are stuck to the cylinder wall and the middle was ripped out.

Update from May 12, 2019: I traded in the F150 for 7,000 dollars for a 2019 Jeep Cherokee. The Ford became a money pit too fast for me to be able to do anything about it and if I was able to pull the trigger to fix that truck, I would of been better off buying a new one since that truck would of cost me 33,000 dollars in the first year if I factor in that I just bought the thing that year. Ford trucks are a bad investment. Just buy anything else and you will probably be better off .

Last (2) months, I needed to make afew trips from WI to MO with my 2012 F150 3.5L V6 Ecoboost Supercrew cab. So far (3) trips I made with a 6 x 12 enclosed trailer with 2/3 of loading 3500Lbs capacity. (3) trips come up with the same problem P0238. Before I made the last trip I replaced both boost pressure sensors.

Starting out about a mile from home the wrench pop up on the display. The air temperature was about mid 70's. I pull the truck over shut down, wait for about 5 minutes, re-start and make the trip. 650 miles later arrive to my place in MO. Next morning unload my trailer and truck. Ready to come back WI, same thing happened around 4 miles. The wrench pop up, the air temperature was mid 90's. Pull over fill-up the tank and re-start. The wrench still there. Turn the truck around, let it cool down. Around 4:30PM start driving to WI. The whole trip the truck ran very restricted with how fast you can go.

The trip ended up taking over 2 hrs longer and no cruise. This is the known issued from FORD ECOBOOST. Why don't they recall the crap they make and fix them. If it is a connector or a throttle body problem, fix them. You will make a lot of consumers happier.

I have a 2012 F-150 and have lost power along with the body of truck shaking on 4 occasions. Want to know how many throttle bodies I have had - the original, the replacement in 2016, another replacement in 2016 and now I broke down again yesterday. Actually on the 3rd throttle body, my husband dropped me off to pick truck up at dealership and I broke down in the Ford Dealership parking lot as I was exiting the dealership. I again left it and they said it was dust on something and later afternoon delivered it to my house. So now one year later...

One year to the day of breaking down, yesterday 5/11/17, I lost power on top of a big bridge on the inside line coming on to our island and by the grace of God no one was in the outer lane and i was able to coast over to the very small and tight emergency lane. People are usually cresting the bridge at 60 MPH so I say God was watching over us.

We called 911 and waited in the emergency lane on top of bridge and had a police escort off the bridge to a parking lot. We were afraid to move on our own in case someone crested the bridge and was caught off guard as we were coasting down. The emergency lane is very narrow on the bridge and it was a little nerve-wracking.

After sitting 5 minutes I was able to start the truck again which is always the case. I had it towed to the Ford Dealership and have called left message twice to speak to the service manager and he has yet to call me back. Way to go Ford! My faith in you is lost. I will never feel safe in my truck again. How many throttle bodies does one have to go through before you feel there needs to be a recall on the 2012 F-150.

Update from May 24, 2017: I received a call from the Ford service manager. He said they were installing another throttle body and that Ford came out with a new one that should fix the problem. Now I don't know if this is true or will be the case. This is my fourth throttle body and I do have a fear of driving my truck now and having it shut off on me on the highway as it has done twice -- both times I was extremely lucky/fortunate to survive and not have an accident.

Update from Feb 2, 2018: Update - Feb 2017 - I lose power again. I have no power and now my vehicle has been towed to the dealership again.

I literally just bought this used truck on 4/18/17. 1 day later, I was stopped at a light. Upon acceleration, the truck started to lose power and act as if it was going to stall. Pressing the gas pedal did nothing but jerk it a few times however, after I kept on the gas it went on. There were NO happy campers in the traffic behind me! The WRENCH symbol came on the dash for a bit. The speedometer stopped working. I went to make a 3 pt turn to take the truck back to my dealer and it would not change gears. Revved as if in neutral but it was in D. Eventually it went.

It is at the dealer now (not Ford) and so far they have no clue. I read online it could be related to the VSS - vehicle speed sensor. Or it could be related to that recall for the PCM - Powertrain control module. Perhaps it could also be related to the CAC- charge air cooler. it only has 50K miles on it. The weather was dry but some humidity. I will update as soon as the dealer figures it out. But if this keeps up, it's a lemon and it's going back!

When driving in humid or when moisture is present such as rain or mist the engine shudder, shakes, misses and even shuts down when quickly accelerating. I have had the engine completely lose power when merging onto freeway in heavy traffic. I took it to the dealer once when it was under warranty. They said the catalytic converter needed replaced. Of course I didn't drive in humid or raining environment conditions again until the warranty ran out. I have experienced the engine shut down at least 4 times since I bought the vehicle new. Almost crashed twice when passing or merging when engine shut down. The first time was March 2013 when vehicle had about 16,000 miles. The last time the problem occurred was November 22, 2015 and vehicle had approximately 56,000 miles.

I have had this problem since the truck was almost new. I complained to the dealer about it several times. First I was told that they had never heard of this and that they "could not duplicate the problem". One time they said they modified the air intake because of a condensation problem, that did not help. About 6 months ago the "big wrench" warning started popping up. I was told that this does not store a code and that all they could find was that the automatic transmission had too much oil in it (no, really, I didn't make that up). While on vacation in another state, the check engine light came on and stayed on. The local dealer there told me about the service bulletin 13.10.10. He didn't have the correct plug to replace it, but he said he was able to repair the plug. This seemed to have worked for about 6 months but now it has done it again 2 times. Both times it was raining, don't know if that was just coincidence or not.

Problems with my vehicle are getting worse, almost on a daily basis. Had it into the dealership two days ago to see if any codes registered from bucking/surge event that happened 5 days ago...as usual, nothing registered. Tonight after driving the vehicle for 35 minutes or so, I parked it and returned an hour later to go home after picking up my son. Once in my truck, I tried accelerating but it was very sluggish, after giving it more gas a wrench warning light appeared in my dash which is the first warning light I've ever witnessed during the multiple issues that have occurred with my vehicle over the past 8 months. It soon disappeared and afterwards, the speedometer was stuck on zero, the mileage reading was gone and a deactivated air bag warning light was on. I decided to take the risk in driving 10 miles on the highway to the dealership so they could hook up their computer to see the problem first hand. While driving I also noticed that while the signals worked, they would not turn off automatically and found this had to be done manually. At the dealership I left the truck running and a technician hooked up a laptop and found various messages...something to do with a module as well as the drivetrain. I will update this once I can get more answers hopefully tomorrow as nothing could be done tonight. After turning the car off and on, everything returned to normal and I was able to drive my truck home with no issues. I'm beyond frustrated and am already in the process to find a a new vehicle as I don't trust my truck anymore. As there have been multiple symptoms, I don't trust that one fix will be a fix all. Ironically, while the service manager was sympathetic to my problems, he admitted they were very backed up and overwhelmed within their service department with repairs and that there wasn't much that could be done quickly. Unfortunately, I needed a vehicle and there was no option to leave it with the dealership so I drove it home, luckily with no issues but tomorrow's another day. Looking forward to cutting ties with this vehicle, soon! Stay safe!

When rapid acceleration is required in 'passing' situations, my 3.5L EcoBoost engine performs reasonably well when starting from speeds up to about 65 mph. However, I recently needed to pass someone on the freeway and when I floored the accelerator at about 75mph, the truck barely accelerated at all. After holding the accelerator to the floor for a few seconds and finally getting around the intended vehicle and back into the right lane and out of the flow of heavy traffic behind me, the engine continued to shudder and acted like it wanted to die.

Normally, at 75 mph and NOT in acceleration mode, I would expect the transmission to be in high (6th) gear. I noticed that it was in 5th gear. As I urged it to shift into 6th gear (by letting off on the accelerator) I encountered the worst shuddering of all. So I urged back into 5th gear with just a light acceleration and the shuddering was mostly eliminated. At this point, the engine light had come on and was blinking. Not being too much far from my destination (15 miles?) I continued. After stopping and letting the engine cool for a couple of hours, I restarted it and the engine light was no longer on.

A day later, the engine light came on again (this time, steady) under normal driving conditions. I have a service appointment tomorrow and will then expect to learn what error code is indicated. I have no confidence in the passing ability of this vehicle at higher freeway speeds given the dismal acceleration performance of the engine.

Has happened on three occasions now, all within a ten day window. First two times while doing roughly 25mph, throttle response disappears and I've had to coast to side street. Engine runs rough, but after turning off and waiting 30 seconds, truck runs fine. Third time it happened, was doing freeway speeds when throttle response disappears, giant orange wrench appears on dash, coast to stop, engine runs rough, turn off, wait 30 secs, truck runs fine. Two trips to dealer have yielded nothing as no codes are being established/stored, and dealership is unwilling to just start replacing parts. Wants me to leave truck with them for awhile so they can drive with their own computer plugged in. Royal pain in the ass, I've lost all confidence with vehicle as its presenting a really dangerous situation both for myself and any passengers with me.

I have been keeping my truck serviced at the dealer... I use it for my job and do a lot of driving. I had just had the 60k service done at a cost of about $1500... then I drove it to Southern California to visit my son in the Marines for Christmas. While driving on Route 5 just as I was climbing the Grapevine (mountain), in the fog, in the middle of the night miles from any service, it began to shudder and lose power, the engine light began to flash on and off... I made it over the top at about 25 mph...

I Googled the issue and found that there are many complaints of this problem and Ford is only dealing with it as needed... They are not notifying customers... This is bullshit!!!! It is dishonest and underhanded... It could have resulted in a huge Safety issue... I am the Safety Director for a large construction company, I have also been the quality manager for products, and this is a problem that could kill someone!!!

In addition, I monitored my fuel and even reset it using the downside of the mountain to boost the mpg... I averaged just over 15 mpg for the trip, and it should have been over 20 mpg... It was even less than mileage I was getting for a combined city highway of just under 18mpg... I had the mph set at 75, which is only 5 over the speed limit...

The problem started in the rain. I tried to pass while towing a 2200 pound load. The engine lost power and as I dropped back behind the vehicle the engine sputtered and continued running at reduced power. The check engine light as well as the wrench picture came on to the status screen.

The dealer has a technical bulletin from Ford stating to replace a control cable which was installed with too sharp a bend and causes the wires to rub through and crack. The cable is said to control the fuel and air mixture and turbo function. It is to be replaced Tuesday 9/23/1014. I hope it cures the problem. I will update my story as it comes to a completion.

The only reason I am unhappy is Ford installed the part improperly and they send a TB into the repair shop but there is no coverage for the repair. Had I pulled out to pass and the engine stalled causing a crash the out come would be much worse and I may never have known about the Technical bulletin.

Update from Nov 23, 2019: The repair per the dealer TB was accomplished and no further problems were encountered. The cable plug to the turbo was replaced. No problems occurred after the repair. Vehicle was traded in April 2018.