I have a 2013 F150 ecoboost. I was driving home from work a couple weeks ago and noticed the truck seemed to be lacking power. I pressed on the gas to go but the truck wouldn't and my engine light started flashing. I had a miss fire code. To speed my story up I ended up having it towed into a shop. Tech ended up replacing both turbos, catalytic converters and all O2 sensors. He said the cats came apart internally taking out the turbos and possibly causing engine damage. He said it was caused by hitting potholes. I turned a claim to my insurance company but they won't cover unless I can provide them with proof that this happens from either an engineer or a service bulletin from Ford. Do any documents exist or can anyone point my in the right direction? Thanks!

 

I guess there is a first time for everything, but this is the first time I ever heard of a story like this. Maybe some of the story is incomplete, but can you provide some addl info
Might want to wait for some addl opinions.

 

When I realized the truck had a problem and the engine light started flashing I hooked up my scan tool and a miss fire on cylinder one was detected. I was able to drive the truck home and I replaced the coil pack on that cylinder but no change. I drove it to the shop the next morning but it had no power whatsoever. I could barely pull the slightest hills. The first shop said I had a no boost code, replaced 3 spark plugs and said my drivers side turbo was bad. They kept changing the price on me so that prompted me to take it elsewhere. The current tech found the root of the problem which I don't think the first shop would have found and I would have been right back where I was in no time at all. The guts of the cats slid so far it cut the tip off of one O2 sensor and slid far enough to dent the other. He said he's only seen this a few times but each time it was caused by an accident whether impact to the vehicle itself or the pothole jarring the guts loose. Not necessarily direct impact to the cats themselves. He says that once that cat plugged up it caused a vacuum and started pulling all that debris back into the motor. I provided the insurance company with several articles I found on different websites and forums as proof that this happens and I even called local muffler shops and they verified as well. They said they have replaced cats for non impact damage due to potholes, rough roads and washboard gravel roads. That apparently isn't good enough for them. There has to be something out there to help me.

 

If you had struck a cat on a curb etc, causing the chain of events to unfold, I could see some sort of Insurance coverage.
Happens quite often when DEF is introduced into a fuel tank, an extremely expensive mistake, but all paid claims or a portion of generally depends on the company. Many are contaminated and owner realized before circulating the poison on through,, only to have a tow company mistakenly complete the destructive process.......

So,, one of my questions would be,, normally when a cat core breaks loose which is pretty rare with Ford OE units (more common with aftermarket units) the core will tend to rattle in its shell, or more smell may be noticed or present at the pipe end from the failed catalyst.. Was there any noise indication?
Generally when a cat fails it’s from heat (misfire, overfueling) and the result is the core going over temp to melt down conditions destroying the honeycomb/catalyst which may fracture and part out the core causing more indication. With a plugged core, misfires, turbo boost issues are certainly going to be present. A plugged cat if force driven can quickly damage a turbo/s from overtemp, coking etc. Driving with a flashing CEL, not something that should be done or tell an insurance agent.
My guess would be an issue was present that caused the cat to fail, any excessive oil use or ? I’ve seen OE units fail but most often from extended service, and of course impact damages. Aftermarket,, not even close to OE quality, so some may report core failures due to vibs, normal chassis impacts and such..
But for a claim,, if there were pictures taken (?) of the failed cat (no indication of heat/case discoloring) showing the core came loose by a particular unforeseen natural event, as well as images of the damaged 02’s, turbo damage from ingesting debris, a better case or leverage for a pay out. Road surface conditions can certainly cause all sorts of damage,, in fact we were re routed down an alternate road during a wild land fire. The dozers had run the road and to drive it even at minimal speed, rattled my new truck so bad the doors were ‘hammering’ on the latch strikers.
So,,if something had happed to my truck,, an event caused issue, chances are liability would have been covered.. If you can/could pin down a cause, meaning a particular event or condition, area of road, I think it would carry more weight in a claim. Insurance often won’t pay out on quality of build issues, but may depend on representation..

Like mentioned prior, anything is possible, but the unusual normally generally needs to be proven, be it condition caused by area/dates etc,, and supported by images to show probable cause.. As well as supporting docs be it at the manufacture level, or by shop documented history of proven failure for the model and years, if any..
If this was a common problem for cats rattling loose, generally there would be an active campaign, SSM, TSB etc in regards to build issues to cover manufacture liability,, or should be,, None are present..

 

Thank you for the tips and pointers! As far as any warning signs...none! The truck was running great. No noises or funny smells, it just lost power. Matter of fact the day before it happened the weather was nice enough to have the windows down and you could definitely hear the turbos sing...lol. I have the cats and they dont show any signs of heat. The insurance adjuster has also seen them and has taken pictures of all the failed components. They are having a hard time believing this can happen without a direct blow to the failed parts themselves. I believe I have given them enough proof that this happens but thay want more than an opinion of a tech. My question is that if its something a tech has seen and repaired, how is it an opinion??? I can think of a few potholes as potential suspects, one especially. I'm not out to screw anyone, just want my insurance company to be there for me when I need them. Isn't that why we pay them so much money?!?! My tech stands behind his findings and we even offered to take it to another dealership for a second opinion. Instead they have apparently given me an impossible task. Might as well have asked me to go straight to Henry Ford himself...

 

So,, guessing the mileage was outside the emission warranty coverage..
Whats your mileage?

Id hope they offer you up some help,, and not challenging what’s occurred, at all, but I’d be somewhat skeptical as to the potentials for failures as well. Could quite possibly be a more random/build failure but given the number of trucks they may insure, my guess is the failure numbers don’t support a trend..
Being a CC restriction, generally you should have expierienced a ‘random misfire’ issue at the least since globally all the cylinders would be affected by extreme back pressures meaning not being able to flow or breathe. Being the code was a single cylinder, would tend to lend to an overfueling or raw fuel entering the cat system noted by the flashing CEL. Or possibly a combo of internal and external conditions were met to cause a core failure. To rod out a cat,, takes some pretty intense hammer and rod work, the honeycomb cores are pretty tough. I worked in fleet for 35 years and cats were replaced certainly,, but the trend was more external damage, failing catalyst due to time in service, and of course restricted and loose crumbling cores..
Many crumbled cores would still flow enough, but CEL On, and O2 Monitors should/would pick up the low cat efficiency setting code..
Its hard to understand how a core would go from no prior inducation like noises/monitor values off spec for a complete failure in a short time. I’d bet this is the cause for your insurance as a stumbling point. Most often the first indication of core restriction is cat efficiency codes will set..
All of us have had the repairs where we question, how the hell did that happen!? But if failure numbers were supported by M/Y I’d bet the net would be blown up with info and complaint as well as manufacturer noted. Again,, not questioning the occurrences, just hard to grasp a catastrophic failure in a very short time even under hazardous road conditions with instantaneous drivability issues..
How many miles was the truck driven with the CEL flashing?

 

The CEL only started flashing when I turned onto my last stretch of highway only about 6 miles from town and didn't flash the entire time. Only when I really pressed on the gas to go right after I turned did it start flashing. Once the truck got up to speed it quit flashing. Before all that it just felt like I was driving into a very strong headwind. Was still able to reach highway speeds but you could just tell something wasn't right. No miss fire or efficiency codes at all before that.