I have a 2009 King Ranch with the 5.4L engine and 62,295 miles on it. I purchased this truck used about 15 months ago and have put about 25,000 miles on it. The truck has performed flawlessly and I have changed the oil myself every 5,000 miles without fail. It uses no oil and leaks no oil.

Last week, while on a little trip with my wife about 100 miles from home, as I was exiting in Daphne Alabama, the truck check engine light came on and the truck started missing. I took it directly to a Ford Dealership about 5 miles away. In 20 minutes, the service manager came out and showed me a bar graph showing low compression on cylinder 2 and told me I needed a new engine. He told me something in the bottom of the engine broke loose and that the Ford dealership does not tear down engines to work on them. I asked him if it could have been a broken valve spring and he said no. I asked if the engine was under warranty and he told me the engine was 2975 miles over the 60,000 mile powertrain warranty. Cost..$7,500 to replace the engine. I called Ford Customer Service to try to get some financial help since I was only 3,000 miles over the warranty, and they told me there was nothing they could do. Trusting in Ford, I told him to proceed with replacing the engine. I now am questioning Ford and myself. If something broke loose in the bottom of the engine, wouldn't have been making a LOT of noise? The truck was missing like it would with a bad spark plug. Seeing that there was low compression on one cylinder, doesn't it make sense that Ford would have done a little more investigation before hitting me with a $7,500 bill?

I would appreciate any comments from the Ford community.

 

As you know , hindsight is usually 20/20 also not being there to hear or see the problem is pure speculation on my part , speaking for myself.
ANYTIME , we are confronted with a huge estimate for work required to correct a problem a SECOND or THIRD opinion is in order. Most of the time with a legitimate estimate by a service tech a second opinion is welcomed to help put the customer at ease , somewhat.
There are times when a diagnosis is incorrect and a good tech would have no problem if another diagnosis is conducted.
One thing you could consider would be to have another experienced expert look at your old engine and see what he/she has to say, if the old engine is still available for examination.

 

Went through a similar thing with a Dodge dealer and a Caravan. They told me the miss was internal. Changed the plug wires and the miss went away. That was 20,000 miles ago. My wife drives it every day.

 

After I told them to proceed and they had started pulling the engine, I started kicking myself in the butt for not getting a second opinion. I know better than that but I guess that since it was Ford telling me I needed a new engine, I believed them until it finally sunk in. Probably a pretty poor analogy but it was like going to the doctor with an alergy and being told you are going to die. Made no sense. I do wish I had the old engine to take apart but even if I found out it was just a broken springs, what could I do about it. This is all water over the dam and I should just move on but it continues to gnaw at me.

 

it doesn't always make a loud noise if the piston had a hole in the top of it. common sense tells you that if you hear a knock in the engine then something came loose or broke in lower end.

 

It was not knocking. It only sounded like I had a bad spark plug or a bad coil. I guess that is the reason why I was so shocked when they said I needed a new engine.

 

This is the time when some of the bad things about the 5.4 engine surface.
Those engines seemed to be very sensitive as to the type of oil used and frequency of changes.
Before I go off on the deep end on this it might be a better idea if you were to inquire about these engines from a few Ford service shops. Certain parts did not last or hold up as one might expect and engine replacement was the only reasonable option.
If it makes you feel any better , that could have been the reason for the decision.
I think the service person probably might have explained it more to your satisfaction had you insisted on a more thorough explanation and the definite reason for the decision.

 

i'm assuming that it didn't get hot during the trip to the shop or start smoking white or blue or even black out the tail pipe. usually the only sign one gets is a miss or a lot of blow by.
Even brand new engines can and sometimes do go bad. I've seen engines with just 20K miles throw a rod or spin the bearings. but now that it's already been replaced with a new one and you paid a bit too much for a replacement there ain't no reason to kick yourself in the back side too hard. all you can do now is count it lesson learned and go on

 

No it did not get hot at all when taking it to Ford. It just sounded like an engine miss. No smoke either. On your other point, you are exactly right. I am taking this as a lessons learned and from now on, when something major happens to a vehicle of mine, I am getting a second opinion and waiting a few days until things settle down before making a decision. I am also going to start considering more seriously the extended warranties on vehicles before I ever purchase another.

 

I had a piston crack in half one time on my 83 Ranger. It cracked at the upper compression ring groove. No noise, no nothing, just ran like is was missing on one cylinder.Upper part of the piston stayed up at the top of the cylinder while the rest did like is was supposed to and went up and down with the crank. Luckly for me it was still under warrantly. All they did was pull the pan and head, pulled the connecting rod out, put on a new piston and buttoned everything back up. Had no problems after that. But that was back when they actually turned wrenches and fixed stuff instead of replacing whole parts.