Driving my 2019 Ford F-150 with 3.5L Ecoboost to dinner this past Wed evening and heard a loud sound coming from the passenger side of truck when pressing the accelerator. It sounded like when you were a kid and put a playing card in your bike tire spokes ( I know I'm dating myself). Leaving the restaurant and driving home the sound was louder. Once home, noticed the engine was leaking fluid. Couldn't really tell what it was because it was dark. Decided to take the truck to the Ford dealer the next morning which is 30 minutes away. In the morning, the sound was so loud I decided not to risk having something catastrophic happen to the engine and pulled into the first service station I could find open. The technician working on the truck diagnosed the problem as a failed oil filter. He showed me the Ford Motorcraft filter he pulled and it had a crack in it where oil was leaking out of it. He said I had about 2 quarts of oil in the engine. The service station performed an oil change and put a new filter in. No more noise came from the engine. I had the truck serviced at my Ford dealer in Aug and they performed an oil change. The technician gave me oil filter and advised me to talk to the dealership and get them to inspect the engine to see if there was any damage caused by the low oil. I went to the dealership with the filter and explained what happened. They were defensive and said the technician at the service station cracked the filter and that the engine would be fine. They didn't want any part of inspecting the engine or documenting that I had a problem. With all that being said, how likely was any damage done to the engine running on such low oil? I'm really don't need to have my engine seize up on me due to metal shavings nor am I interested in buying a new engine. Appreciate your help in advance.

 

Chances are you wouldn't have any addl problems.
The better thing to have done would have been to investigate the noise before driving as much as you did.

Could be why so many folks have developed, "Bad Bad Dealership Syndrome". .

Might be a better move to have your oil changes done by the shop that helped you. This is how places gain and lose customers.

 

Thank you for responding. Are there any indicators of the beginnings of engine failure I need to look for if a problem comes of this?

 

With two quarts remaining and noise being heard from the engine, one would have to assume nothing good came from running your engine low on oil. Unfortunately, the oil pressure gauge is a "dummy" gauge which will respond with around 7psi.which is hardly sufficient when the engine is running 1500-2000 rpm.The noise you heard was the valve train clattering with insufficient lubrication.
The vehicle should not have been driven in that condition.

 

Copy on the driving with low oil. The Ford dealership technician dismissed my concern about the valve train clattering saying the engine is built with safeguards to prevent damage from low oil. He even went on to say that this happens all the time and he's never seen an engine seize up. What I'm trying to get is some sort of sanity check by someone who is knowledgeable and independent from the dealer. I am not an engine guy but I do know that running an engine on low oil is not good. But that is water under the bridge at this point. Going forward, what signs should I be looking for if there is damage suffered by the engine?

 

If this situation should come up again, STOP and find out why.

If you hear any unusual noises, find out what is going on before driving .
No matter what you do, just pay attention to what you hear and check your vehicle regularly before starting off , never hurts.

If we had a crystal ball that worked, maybe we could be a little more helpful, but worrying about something that may not happen just puts a load on your shoulders
Just take one day at a time and keep having the regular maintenance performed. All the worrying in the world won't help.

 

Thank you for your advice.