So, I have this truck, now my secondary driver, that had Ford install a new 3.5L Ecoboost Engine (timing chain stretch, not covered, original P0016 was at 97033 miles, but they didn't fix it). I hit 108,715 and again P0016 and the engine was full of metal from timing chain, destroyed engine and cost me 11,942.00 to get repaired out of my pocket, see my two previous reports.
So I get maybe 7,000 more miles on the new engine, and then the nightmare started.
I take my little kids up to the snow, like I have done so many times, so we could go play on those little plastic sled things.
As I am turning around to park, all of a sudden with no warning, no lights, all of a sudden a cloud of greyish black smoke pours out from under the hood, rapidly followed by flames shooting out all over around the hood, engine also had shut down. I get the kids out and away from the truck immediately, and pop the hood, flames coming out near the rear of the engine, I begin shoveling snow on it, get it stopped, and it catches fire again, I do this numerous times over the next half hour as it keeps catching fire again.
We are 12 miles from the main road at Drake Crossing Nursery, in snow, and I decide to start walking out about 12:30, as it is obvious that the truck is not going to work, and we have a snow storm coming in, and it is already snowing, cold, windy, and with the truck keep catching fire the choice was to build a survival shelter (had food and water for 3 days), but it was unlikely anyone would see us. So I made the choice to walk back. We all have rubber boots on, and begin the harrowing trek out. Snow was melting on warm clothes, the wind blowing 10 to 20 miles an hour, causing clothing to cool, cold, tired, etc. Around 7 miles I was able to get cell coverage and called friends, and managed to get a hold of someone who had never been in the area, and the directions were not so great. I decided we should keep walking as we were getting cold, and then we hit an exposed area, and got blasted by 20-30 mile winds, and with the sun setting and temps dropping. Luckily atabout 6:30 PM, the guy found us!
So, later, I call up Ford Customer Care, and essentially, after so many words, it ended up that they did not care at all, and could do nothing, as the truck was out of its 100,000 mile warranty, it is beyond any concern of their's. Gosh, how about them cookies!
I am a Service Connected Disabled Gulf War Veteran, 12 years USMC, and I had used money from my disability to buy the "most reliable truck on the planet", not cheap, and you invest in trucks to last to at least 350,000 to 500,000 miles, and then put money in to keep them going. It was my first full sized pickup, the Ecoboost is fraught with issues, and I had even paid to put a new engine in at my cost, and then it catches fire and left us stranded.
Later I find out that the local salvage yard had 3 F150 Ecoboost trucks, but then all of the trucks had the engine catch fire, and of no use to fix mine, which also had the engine catch fire. If you poke around on the web you will find their other Ecoboosts have known fire issues, one of them is the vacuum thing developing cracks that can cause a fire, and other issues.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
click to see larger images
So, I have this truck, now my secondary driver, that had Ford install a new 3.5L Ecoboost Engine (timing chain stretch, not covered, original P0016 was at 97033 miles, but they didn't fix it). I hit 108,715 and again P0016 and the engine was full of metal from timing chain, destroyed engine and cost me 11,942.00 to get repaired out of my pocket, see my two previous reports.
So I get maybe 7,000 more miles on the new engine, and then the nightmare started.
I take my little kids up to the snow, like I have done so many times, so we could go play on those little plastic sled things.
As I am turning around to park, all of a sudden with no warning, no lights, all of a sudden a cloud of greyish black smoke pours out from under the hood, rapidly followed by flames shooting out all over around the hood, engine also had shut down. I get the kids out and away from the truck immediately, and pop the hood, flames coming out near the rear of the engine, I begin shoveling snow on it, get it stopped, and it catches fire again, I do this numerous times over the next half hour as it keeps catching fire again.
We are 12 miles from the main road at Drake Crossing Nursery, in snow, and I decide to start walking out about 12:30, as it is obvious that the truck is not going to work, and we have a snow storm coming in, and it is already snowing, cold, windy, and with the truck keep catching fire the choice was to build a survival shelter (had food and water for 3 days), but it was unlikely anyone would see us. So I made the choice to walk back. We all have rubber boots on, and begin the harrowing trek out. Snow was melting on warm clothes, the wind blowing 10 to 20 miles an hour, causing clothing to cool, cold, tired, etc. Around 7 miles I was able to get cell coverage and called friends, and managed to get a hold of someone who had never been in the area, and the directions were not so great. I decided we should keep walking as we were getting cold, and then we hit an exposed area, and got blasted by 20-30 mile winds, and with the sun setting and temps dropping. Luckily atabout 6:30 PM, the guy found us!
So, later, I call up Ford Customer Care, and essentially, after so many words, it ended up that they did not care at all, and could do nothing, as the truck was out of its 100,000 mile warranty, it is beyond any concern of their's. Gosh, how about them cookies!
I am a Service Connected Disabled Gulf War Veteran, 12 years USMC, and I had used money from my disability to buy the "most reliable truck on the planet", not cheap, and you invest in trucks to last to at least 350,000 to 500,000 miles, and then put money in to keep them going. It was my first full sized pickup, the Ecoboost is fraught with issues, and I had even paid to put a new engine in at my cost, and then it catches fire and left us stranded.
Later I find out that the local salvage yard had 3 F150 Ecoboost trucks, but then all of the trucks had the engine catch fire, and of no use to fix mine, which also had the engine catch fire. If you poke around on the web you will find their other Ecoboosts have known fire issues, one of them is the vacuum thing developing cracks that can cause a fire, and other issues.
- Jar #., Molalla, OR, US