Massachusetts Mother and Daughter Experience Coolant Leak in Ford EcoBoost Engines
A woman and her mother both experienced their Ford EcoBoost engines failing for the same reason—and now, they believe the problem lies with a manufacturing defect, reports WCVB Channel 5 Boston.
After Lindsay Hirschfeld first purchased her 2017 Ford Escape in 2020, her mother, Susan, went out and purchased one as well just a few months later. Not a year had passed before Susan ran into issues with the vehicle.
While driving on the highway, Susan’s engine stopped, she lost power steering, and her dashboard lit up with warning lights. She took the Escape to a local trusted auto shop, where technicians told her she wasn’t the only one to experience such an incident.
“Our mechanic encouraged us to go to Ford because he knew it was a known issue, and we should check to see if we were still under warranty,” told Susan.
She took it to a Ford dealer, where a coolant leak into an engine cylinder was discovered. The car having only 44,000 miles, it was still under warranty, allowing Susan to have the engine replaced at no cost.
Three years later, Lindsay has now encountered the same exact problem with her vehicle: a coolant leak into the cylinder. However, with Lindsay’s car now having just over 80,000 miles on it, Ford will not cover it under its five-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty.
As a single parent, Lindsay shared that the $9,400 engine replacement she was quoted was something she couldn’t handle. She ended up having it replaced with a used engine at a local shop, but still ended up paying $7,000 for something she and her mother believe is the auto manufacturer’s fault.
“It's a known issue, and so they should be taking responsibility for it, completely. And they just, they're just not,” said Lindsay. “'It was out of warranty.' 'It's too late.' 'I'm the second owner.' Anything but admitting it was a manufacturing defect.”
When WCVB reached out to Ford inquiring about a potential manufacturing defect in EcoBoost engines, a spokesperson responded that Lindsay was outside of warranty and had services performed at a non-Ford dealership.
EcoBoost engines are renowned among technicians for running into tricky problems. A class action lawsuit recently alleged the engines contain defective intake valves, with another lawsuit over the EcoBoost’s fuel injectors having been recently revived by a NHTSA investigation.
