WASHINGTON—The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Monday that it has concluded its investigation into 411,000 Ford SUVs and pickup trucks due to a potentially defective engine that could lose power unexpectedly.
In July 2022, the U.S. auto safety regulator initiated an inquiry into Ford Bronco vehicles with 2.7L EcoBoost engines concerning a faulty valvetrain.
Subsequently, the investigation was broadened to encompass other models such as the Ford Edge, F-150, Explorer, and Lincoln Aviator and Nautilus vehicles equipped with 2.7L or 3.0L EcoBoost engines from the 2021 and 2022 model years.
The issue at hand is that under normal driving conditions, vehicles may experience power loss without warning, rendering them unable to restart due to a defective valve. NHTSA received 1,066 unique vehicle reports related to this problem.
In August, Ford issued a recall for 90,000 vehicles after determining that not all valves were faulty, and most failures occurred in vehicles that had been in use for a short period.
The recall solution involves a dealer inspection and a test to verify if the vehicle has not met a minimum usage level to identify if it was equipped with defective valves.
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Ford indicated that the majority of failures occurred in vehicles before they reached 20,000 miles, with more than half experiencing issues before 5,000 miles.
According to Ford, the engine valves cracked and entered the combustion chamber, resulting in severe engine damage. The company attributed the problem to valves that exceeded the specified hardness, were brittle, and prone to breakage, citing the supplier’s manufacturing processes as the cause, as stated in the NHTSA report.
Ford stated that the intake valve material was modified for vehicles manufactured after October 2021.
NHTSA reported that the rate of failures related to the faulty valve issue has been decreasing since November 2021.
On Monday, Ford announced that it would offer extended warranty coverage for the 90,000 recalled vehicles for 10 years or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first. The company also confirmed that there have been no crashes or injuries linked to this issue.
Ford’s stock rose by 1.6 percent in Monday’s trading session.
By David Shepardson
