Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

That's exactly what I was saying several posts ago.
Bad Luck = you got the part that came off the assembly line at the exact moment the factory had a lightning strike... earthquake.... change in voltage... moment the tornado siren went off and the worker forgot to torque that one bolt....

Even with modern factories, there's a million variables.
This is "bad luck" if you got that one in 100,000 with a material flaw.
It was equally bad luck that it took so long to fail, and failed outside of the warranty period.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

As you are reviewing your receipts from the lube shop, look to see if they ever did an oil flush service. If they have, there are another few issues to research and discuss.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

In my post I mentioned not only 30 years work in propulsion plants but my share of root cause investigations into failures.

I don't buy the "bad luck" thinking.

Across 30 years I saw one, precisely one case of "bad luck" where a very highly qualified diesel engine tech installed the wrong kind of piston in a diesel and that was really operator error, too.

Everything we have discussed is just speculation until some info is forthcoming. I await information from the more detailed review of events leading up to this. I have my suspicions, but who knows, we'll see.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Did I miss it, or did the OP ever say when the last oil change was done? Was it just before this vacation? That could be a source: wrong/leaky filter, loose plug, etc...

Does anyone else remember the comercial from a while back advertising some new oil, placed to cars (like a charger??) on a dyno, drained the oil and let them run. The 'normal' oil seised up shortly, the 'miracle' oil kept on going until the end of the commercial. Just guessing, wht if the oild was just changed beore vacation (I tend to schedule this way) and the plug was loose/never installed. failure could have happened a long time later.

I'm also curious tho, all this talk about oil, w/o an oil gauge in the FEH, are there any warning/dummy lights to warn of this failure? lack of oil pressure or oil temp? Could these signs or lack there of help point the OP in a direction to look?

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Unless a wrong filter blocked flow or a leaky filter blocked flow the filter thing won't give the results seen here. You'll just get poorer filtration.

Loose plug could surely have drained the oil over a somewhat long period and could have done this.

This has me thinking about an oil pressure gauge... I had a catastrophic loss of oil in my Suburban some 97k mies ago. A serpentine belt idler pulley seized shredding the belt. The pieces whipped around and severed an oil hose. The engine pumped itself down and oil pressure failed.

Oddly, you'd have thought there would have been an engine fire since the leak was in front of and*somewhat above the exhaust manifold, but no, it just made the engine compartment really oily.

I noticed that the oil pressure was odd and wiggly for several minutes before complete loss of pressure (I suppose as the oil level in the pan was dropping). Thus when it went to zero I was forewarned and could shut off the engine immediately (consistent with safely getting to the side of I-64). I never did see the oil light, but then I was busy and may just not have noticed it.

The good news is that oil sampling showed no damage and the temporary road fix was not expensive.

But what I learned, and had had my memory refreshed with this posting, is that if your only indication of trouble is the warning light, you'll likely ruin the engine.

Supposedly the synthetic oils adhere to cylinder walls far longer than dino oils, but in the end unrefreshed and uncooled oil will still result in engine failure. (BTW if you use a synthetic that is not 100% the benefits of this adherence decrease with the percentage of synthetic in the whole mix)

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

You don't "buy" that there could have been a one-time mis-assembly, or a one-time manufacturing defect? My god you have a lot of faith in Ford being 100% perfect all the time!

My 2005 FEH has an oil pressure gauge. It's on the "menu" of items you can display on the message center. The gauge is 8-bit data and has a range from 0-255. Mine runs at 160 to 170. I don't know what the conversion to psi is, but it's right in the middle of the range so I feel good about it. If I suspected something was wrong, I'd monitor it more often.

-John

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

It ain't faith...

I've seen far too many cases where something broke and it looked like parts failure only find out in the investigation that there was operator error.

It's like the aviation world... if you stamped "pilot error" on every accident investigation that came through the door you wouldn't miss much.

If this were a new engine in its first year of production I would more easily accept that, but this engine, and the family its comes from, is well established in production.

I've seen many, many parts come out of the military supply system. Some were better than others, but there were essentially zero that didn't meet minimum specs... and that's the government supply system.

Your faith in happenstance just leads to easy excuses when something is forgotten... and then blamed on "parts failure." As I said, I have my suspicions as to what happened to this guy. The complete absence of info from him just seems odd.

The point of my mention of loss of oil in my Suburban was not that I had chosen to monitor it, but rather that because I saw odd behavior in an always on gauge I was alerted. So when oil pressure did drop to zero I was ready and not mentally somewhere else in the world.

Unless you leave your scangauge on oil pressure continuously and are lucky enough to be able to alert on the changing digits... it won't do you any good at all. If your engine trouble light is your first indication of trouble it will take you a measurable amount of time to react to it, then decide to do something, and then get the engine stopped.

My take is that the scanguage is a wonderful diagnostic tool but won't replace instruments monitoring components continuously. I saw the Navy go through a several year evolution on how to design digital instrumentation. It is a requirement that the instrumentation provide the advantages of a digital readout with the utility of an analog gauge that people can quickly recognize something odd, quickly interpret, and then make time critical decisions based on the information they see.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Bill Winney said: "As I said, I have my suspicions as to what happened to this guy. The complete absence of info from him just seems odd."

For pete sake Bill, give the guy a break! Have some patience!

Only 4 days ago on the previous page he posted:
Folks, credible information has not come forth because there is no new information available. The vehicle is 170 miles from home and, for me, arranging to pay for a $6500 repair is not something I can accomplish in a day or two. Please forgive me: Concluding "operator error" without facts sounds like speculation."

Geeezz.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

For Pete's sake, this guy knows enough to assert that he is initiating legal action against Ford.

What does he know? He has to know something about the failure. What was the condition of the car right after the failure?

Do you really believe he just walked away from his FEH and let the tow truck guy take it to any nearby dealer, just throwing the keys to the driver? Its as if he didn't even go with the tow truck to the dealer doing the work but just called them up and asked the cost of repairs.

Why didn't he check the engine oil dipstick (sometimes metal flakes will stick to the dipstick)? Was there an oil puddle under the engine when the truck pulled away or maybe an oil trail leading to the failure location?

Unless there is something that truly indicates an unusual part or component failure beyond the pale of the guaranty period, but so unusual as to warrant legal action, there is no case (as noted by gpsman1 in making his "bad luck" pitch).

So what does he know? And why doesn't he post it? (I accept that there may be a legal basis for keeping quiet - so say just say so, for Pete's sake!)

Geez!

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

OK, folks, settle down. I have ignored this forum since my last post because I did not have new facts to share. I picked the vehicle up today. Here are more facts, and a couple of opinions from both the service manager of the repairing dealership and the service technician who replaced the engine.

* The bearing on the connecting rod for cylinder #3 was gone. Not 'spun'. Nothing left. As in bare connecting rod clanking around on the crankshaft.
* Lots of metal - in the oil pan, of course, but also in the filter, on the top of the engine, and everywhere else he looked. He believes this is the remains of the bearing. I have the remains, and will post pictures for the curious.
* No oil leakage. Not around the filter. Not around the dipstick. Not around the pan. Not around the filler tube.
* The engine had the correct amount of oil.
* There is no evidence of a disintegrating oil filter. No evidence of any clogged oil passages, other than the previously mentioned metal.
* There is no evidence of sludge. The technician remarked that the oil and inside the engine was 'remarkably clean'.
* There is no evidence of wear or damage on the remaining three connecting rod bearings.

The technician believes the bearing was abnormally wearing for 'a while', although he could not define 'a while', due to the distribution of metal. My only indication of trouble was the (I now realize) connecting rod clanking around the crank less than... 15? 20? seconds before the engine shut down. Prior to this event, I had no indication. Normal temp. Normal engine sounds. Normal RPM. Vehicle behaving like it had for the previous 65,000 miles.

I suppose you could tear the engine down, clean everything out, replace the crank, bearings and a connecting rod, and put Humpty Dumpty together again. I believe the dealership made the right choice to replace the engine. The better question: Why did the bearing fail?

Both the service manager AND the technician have the opinion that this vehicle was "well cared for". They had NO issues with the brand of oil, the frequency of oil changes ("Why are you wasting money by changing it so often?"), or the brand of oil filter.

The last oil change was performed on 7/30/09 at 65,029 miles, or 10 days before I left for vacation. I drove the vehicle around town for ten days before we left. No issues. No noises. I checked the oil before we pulled out. All was well. The engine failed at 65,694 miles. Quite honestly, I did not post this after the tangential dirt road "Non-Ford Oil Changes? Shame on You! You Deserve it!" discussions. I wanted to wait for more facts.

FYI, I have used this same Jiffy Lube for... 15? years and at least 5 vehicles. No issues.

This is a tough one: Go on vacation on a Sunday, break down in the middle of nowhere, get the vehicle towed to a closed Ford dealership while leaving your family where the vehicle broke down because the tow truck does not have seating for five, then wait for friends to rescue you 170 miles from home because, literally, all of the rental car companies are closed on Sunday afternoon in a small town. Will this forum forgive me for not checking the dipstick for oil before it was towed?

So. Back to my original question. Does anyone have any strategies for getting Ford's attention? The repairing dealership is on record: "This is not your fault. There is nothing you could have done. This is an extraordinary event."

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

By whatever means, get photographic evidence to go along with what you have described. Then, keep after Ford through all avenues. This is not a maintenance issue. If the evidence holds up as described, it is almost surely a workmanship (bearing install) or manufacturing defect (in the bearing) issue......both a reflection on Ford - regardless of the warranty period. Good luck. [i don't recall conn rod bearings being listed as 'normal wear' items in the owners manual - at 65K miles]

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Settling down.......

OK, here's what you have.

The repairing dealer's assessment, get it written down, to include an overt mention of:
- Oil present in the crankcase when initially received and its apparent condition
- absence of evidence of oil leakage at any point
- condition of the filter and its manufacturer part number
-absence of sludge and the "remarkably clean" comment of the Ford dealer's tech
- the apparent good condition of the other three bearings and which bearing failed.

I believe that Ford will never split for the whole cost... but you should use that as a starting point, just be ready to say "golly gee whiz, you guys drive a hard bargain" and accept a partial reimbursement. Hopefully on the order of 50% or better.

I believe your tack should be along the lines of this is an extraordinary failure of a major part that should never have failed absent poor maintenance or abuse.

My bet is that what they'll come back with is that the failure happened when an overload caused the crankshaft to touch the bearing. This then melted some of the soft metal bearing surface and that material plugged an oil hole. Then the failure became progressive inside the bearing leading to complete failure of the bearing.

Note that bearings do touch when the engine is started up (and more so on initial startup after oil change) so the "touching" had to be more than this. This is what Ford's assessment and defense will be.

I have no problem with Jiffy Lube other than I wouldn't let anyone but myself change my oil (and haven't for nearly 40 years of driving). Can you be sure they didn't drain oil and restart it inadvertently before filling it? (Can't imagine that the Jiffy Lube guy would admit to this, but, you know...)

I have, on one occasion over the years, forgotten to install the drain plug and began filling. The good news is that all it cost me was two quarts of Mobil One oil as I saw the clean oil on the floor and stopped filling with the plug out... Still it was embarrassing as ----, well you know...

This might also be Ford's assessment as such a startup could easily damage the farthest bearing from the pump (eg which bearing did fail - the farthest one from the pump? - this bearing would run the longest without oil after changing oil). If they make this assessment they may refuse to talk. (And don't volunteer that you use Jiffy Lube.)

If this is the "farthest bearing from the pump" then you just might have a circumstantial case against Jiffy Lube. My bet is that the last event involving lubrication, the Jiffy Lube change, is the cause, not the failure of a bearing out of the blue.

Consider who Jiffy Lube employs as techs. This isn't rocket science and their techs aren't rocket scientists.

Note that around town driving, with frequent starts & stops, probably wouldn't generate enough heat in a bearing to cause damage to progress much. On the other hand a sustained highway run would allow heat to build up in a bearing, significant melting of bearing material to happen, and that leads to failure.

As I reflect on this $10 bucks says the Jiffy Lube guy started the engine without oil. When the valve clatter incident to start up after an oil change didn't clear, he went "Oh s---", stopped the engine, put the plug in that he forgot, (re)filled the engine, drove it out, and said nothing. Or something similar.

Who knows, maybe he gunned the engine right after start & before the clatter went away. I let my engine idle for several minutes before I do anything after an oil change to ensure all oil passages are filled.

You can't pre-fill the stock oil filter leading to a bit longer run without oil on startup with this engine. I changed my filter adaptor and have a different filter that can be pre-filled. I still get valve clatter on start up after I change oil.

Ford may find their reputation is worth appeasing you. My money's on Jiffy Lube, especially if the farthest bearing from the oil pump is the damaged one.

Good luck.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Great overall analysis of the situation Bill. But I didn't think it was possible to "gun" the engine on the FEH with the throttle pedal. Or is there a way to do that?

Just being picky :angel:

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Picky, picky, picky... (Smile)

I never thought about whether you could gun the engine or not... guess I'll just have to go & try it!

I suppose that is another element of "old technology" passing into history...

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

In mine, I can't gun it at all in Neutral... in Park, the rev limiter will only let me go to ~2000 RPM.... or is it the other way around.... haven't tried in years.

FWIW, my valves tap on every cold start in my Honda Insight, and it is said this is common to all Honda Insights, and many go 300,000 miles on the original engine. Not sure that's a biggie there Bill.... The amount of time cumulative without oil is pretty small. I would consider a few to 30 seconds without oil at a jiffy lube to be insignificant.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

dlucarelli - you did not respond to the question regarding your lube shop doing an engine oil flush. Did they?

To get any consideration from Ford, you need to have your selling or repairing dealership sponsor your request. I suggested earlier that you ask if the field service engineer from Ford would examine your engine. If there was a manufacturing defect, they would want to have a conversation with Car Service Engineering. If they determined it was improper maintenance products (or engine operation without oil), you might need their report to follow up with the lube shop.

See if you can find a sympathetic ear with one of the service managers involved. Calling Ford only gets the issue transmitted back to the dealership for handling.

And here is where I agree with Bill, this is likely a situation where the corner lube shop has equity. Ask them what their warranty covers.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Didn't say it at all clearly, but the bearings are designed to take the little insults of starting without oil pressure even after oil changes. It's the heavy loads of power that kills them.

I think the key symptoms will turn out to be: (hopefully) the farthest bearing from the pump failed and the failure did not occur until heavy load was applied (eg at sustained highway speeds).

The idea about getting the Ford rep on your side is a good one. He has the technical assets to say it was a progressive run without oil type failure like might come if JL made an error in refilling. If you can sweet talk him into making a clear statement of the cause, that would help.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Key question...

How did the bearing disintegrate, begin to disintegrate, absent a LOT of unusual engine noise, and a "single" bearing, yet. A single bearing FULLY disintegrated, might lead one to ask just what was the condition of the other bearings...??

The current known circumstances would bring me to judge that someone built a BAD bearing.

Big enough piece left somewhere to analyze..?

Head's up..!! If I were Ford I would want to "claim" the engine for purposes of a complete failure analysis.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

dlucarelli:

In case you haven't watched this website much, paying attention or giving credibility to wwest will be unproductive. He seems to go out on tangents that are not connected with sound engineering practices.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

This has been a rather interesting read. Sorry to hear about your problems and I would most certainly continue this with Ford. Kudos to Bill Winney for his excellent post above, I don't have much to add beyond his points.

As mentioned, I would persue the dealership angle, gathering as much written and photographic evidence as possible, as well as start persuing via blueovalforums as well. If you fail to gain any traction, consider the local news "problem fixers".

As for the failure, it's really hard to determine what would cause only a single bearing to fail while the others seem to show none (Unless I read that wrong). The case could be made for defective components, or it's possible that there was a problem related to an oil change(s).

I will remind all the other FEH owners here, that this is likely not a problem any of you will ever experience; there's no need to rush to your local dealer to have them inspect the bearings at this time.

At any rate, I honestly wish you the best of luck.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

RE: Gunning the engine...

Tried it.
In N it doesn't respond.
In P it runs up to about 2500 rpm and flattens out there.

My FEH is an 06.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Jesse here from cleanmpg. I am sorry to here about your situation. I was just on the phone with Wayne Gerdes. the owner of cleanmpg and he would like you to make a post on his site about your experience. By the way I am an escape hybrid owner. I have a 2005 FEH 4wd with 130k miles on and so far so good with no problems other than replacing the electric water pump at 100k. I bought the vehicle used with 86k on it for 16,800$ back in january of 2008. If you would like you can contact me at 508-468-5463. Go to www.cleanmpg.com, grab a user name and hopefully you will make a posting in our forums as Wayne and the cleanmpg community would be interested in hearing about what happened.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

[quote=Red;209992]dlucarelli - you did not respond to the question regarding your lube shop doing an engine oil flush. Did they?


quote]


"California NBC-affiliate KNBC reports that "customers across the country" have seen "their engines broke down after having an engine flush" at a Jiffy Lube or EZ Lube store. Undercover cameras caught a Jiffy Lube technician telling a reporter that Honda required the service every 2 years or 30,000 miles on her Accord, when Honda has actually "issued a memo to mechanics advising them not to perform engine flushes. Other major car-makers, including Ford, General Motors, and Nissan have all issued similar advisories against the service."
An engine flush runs solvents through the vehicle's engine, ostensibly in order to break up sludge that builds up over time as an engine runs. "But car-makers say, pieces of that broken up sediment can clog up other parts of the engine and ruin it," according to the KNBC report.on U.S. News and World Report-----"

??????????????

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Regarding engine oil flushes:

I consider them an irrelevancy... not worth the money, etc.

- If you use good quality oil, don't routinely run extremely hot, and change your oil at a reasonable interval, there is little sludge to flush out.
- When you change oil you are doing a drain & refill. This removes alot of "stuff" instead of diluting it as happens with a conventional automatic transmission oil change where you dump 5 of the 11 quarts in the transmission.
- When you change engine oil it is worth it to allow the engine oil to drain into your drain pan for, say, an hour or more to ensure that the dregs get removed.

As a side note those oil "additives" that you see advertised are similarly an irrelevancy. If there was truly something that was missing from a lubricant, tribologists would change the spec.

You change oil for two reasons: 1. the chemical additive package has depleted & 2. the ability of oil to suspend "ash" in the oil is used up (eg the oil is "full"). Sludge is merely collected ash that has dropped out of the oil because the oil has become saturated. This ash collects in low flow areas like the oil pan.

If you use good oil and change it regularly (to include early if you have a hot summer or heavy work load such as towing) I see little reason to flush the engine.

There is a possibility that the flush will, in fact, resuspend the sludge and send it thru the engine. That idea I don't like.

My engine oil samples tell me that good filters do great work. I'm a believer in bypass filters. The crap ends up in the filter. Go check out "www.oilguard.com" for their setup.

Musings on an engine failure...
 

As I have driven since this thread was begun, I have drawn the conclusion that there is one driving scenario that just might damage a bearing leading to failure.

I offer the following:
Suppose you are sitting at a stop light or for some other reason are stopped and then need to quickly accelerate from a stop with the engine cycled off. So you floor it... and the engine starts immediately (as it should) and goes to full power.

In just the right setup this might allow a bearing to wipe. Then it is just waiting for the right load to begin slowly, then more quickly, degrading into complete failure.

I accept that this would require just the right set of circumstances, such as a right turn on red into a gap in traffic, but maybe...

Thoughts?

But I believe that the Jiffy Lube issue is more likely. Its just baloney to tell people that a flush is recommended by an OEM.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Or, most likely, the bearing manufcturer had one bad apple out of a million bearings produced.

There are warranty limits for a reason. Things break after a while.
This product performed as promised, which was 60,000 miles in this person's case. It was promised not to fail in the first 60,000 miles, and it lived up to that.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

In my experience (30 years in propulsion plant engineering) when one relies on the "one bad apple" theory, they are accepting the easy answer.

They are avoiding the more obvious things inherent to the recent operating and maintenance history.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

We inherantly want to feel for the person that tried to faithfully maintain their vehicle, but something went wrong. I have seen too many well intentioned customers, who put their faith in non-Ford/Motorcraft products and service, come back with problems. They thought they were doing what was required, only to find out they had not followed the maintenance rules.

I will suggest again, check the specifications of the products you intend to use and get the warranty statements from your vehicle maintainer. If there is any question they will not be there for you if there is a problem, rethink your maintenance strategy.

98% of the influence over Ford's adjustments out of warranty is controlled by your Ford dealership. They are given a pot of money each quarter and they decide how and when it is used. That is a good enough reason for me to build a strong relationship with my dealer's service department. This process puts the decisions with the people that can see the condition of the vehicle, determine if modifications have been made and check the previous maintenance and repair history. They can judge whether the expendature after warranty is justified, from a loyalty perspective (or would be wasted on a customer that has declared they will never buy another produuct from them).

Ford product quality is at the top of the list, so problems will be rare--- if you follow the maintenance requirements. Know what is required and don't rely on a commissioned sales person to always be looking out for your interests.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Hello folks,

Yesterday, while driving at 60MPH down the freeway, we had a catastrophic engine failure in our 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid (75,000 miles), almost identical to what's described here. In our case, there was no warning at all. Then a sudden BANG, warning lights, and get over to the side quickly. I could hear parts falling out of the engine onto the roadway as I brought the vehicle to a stop. The entire undercarriage and back hatch of our truck was covered in fresh motor oil. On having the vehicle towed to the dealer, we're told a piston went through the head, and disintegrating parts shattered the oil pan. The vehicle had been serviced with new oil (yes, from Jiffy Lube) two hours prior. The inspecting mechanic however said he didn't think the oil change had anything to do with the failure.

Until yesterday, this has been the single best vehicle we've ever owned. We're going to replace the engine, and let Ford know about it. Any tips for who to call / report the failure to? We religiously maintain the vehicle, so we're pretty sure it wasn't us.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

I'm curious how it could be cost effective to replace the gas engine on a five year old FEH with 75,000 miles? Are you getting a good deal on a rebuild?
I think it would be highly unlikely that a Jiffy Lube mechanic would admit fault in causing an engine failure. If you want to get Jiffy Lube to compensate you, I imagine you'll have to lawyer up. Some one could forensically examine what type of oil did they put in, what oil filter was installed, did they change the o-rings, etc.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

I had my 2007 FEH dump oil all over the garage floor because the oil filter canister was under-torqued by a local shop. There's a torque spec on that canister (don't have it in front of me) that is critically important imho. If Jiffy Lube treated the oil filter canister like a standard oil filter they might have just hand tightened it, and it loosened on the highway. You might want to check how tight the oil filter canister is right now.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Hi. It's pretty easy actually. The rest of the vehicle is in pristine shape. As I said we maintain it religiously. The book value of the truck is $16,000 or so. We're being charged $6700 for the new engine, installed, which will come with a 100,000 mile warranty. That takes our engine warranty out to 175,000 miles on the vehicle. So, we're ahead by about $10K on the truck by value alone, and by utility and warranty, we come out ahead.

I'm going to believe the inspecting mechanic when he says he doesn't suspect the Jiffy Lube work as the culprit. Hopefully, our dealer will see fit to help out with some of the cost. But even if they don't, we're still OK. As I said in my earlier post, by far the best vehicle we've ever owned. When it reaches the end of its useful life, we'll buy another, from the same dealer, pretty much just like it. That, and our ancient Ford Aspire is up for replacement sooner... We're hoping to get one of the new Ford all-electrics when they come out, or the plug-in hybrid, whichever. We certainly aren't about to give up on Ford, Brien (our dealership) or Hybrid technology because of an isolated incident. If we'd read about hundreds of engines blowing, it'd be a different story. But so far, we know about just the two. If our dealership helps out, it's an isolated mechanical weirdness as far as we're concerned... We'll continue to sing the praises of the FEH.

- Bill

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

I always always always look under my vehicle after just a few
short miles driving it after an oil change. Park it for about 10min
and look. If there is any oil on the ground check the dip stick.
Not to do so can be fatal for the ICE. My FEH has no oil
pressure gauge so I always check.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

Mine took several weeks after the oil change before it loosened and dumped oil. I still use that shop, but I now watch them tightened the filter canister with a torque wrench. They also write the torque setting on my receipt, I think it's 19ft-lbs.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

It's 24 lb-ft.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

I'll post pictures of the damaged engine when I get them from the dealership. We may buy the 2012 electric Focus when Brien gets them in stock. We need a "runabout" vehicle... If we do that, then our re-engined Escape might last us another 10 years.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

As promised folks, here are the photographs of my FEH engine failure. You can see a piece of the connecting rod near the bottom of one of the pictures, and a destroyed engine block AND oil pan. I don't have a diagnosis of cause from Ford, but the dealership (Brien in Everett, WA) is being gracious and offering us a discount on the replacement engine.

http://media.maness-allen.com/FEHEngine1.jpg

http://media.maness-allen.com/FEHEngine2.jpg

They're large images... Any diagnosis you'd care to share would be welcome. Engine go boom.

Best, Bill

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

When this actually happened what were you doing
with your FEH? Driving on a freeway at 60mph,
just started the ICE ( idling at 25rpm ), breaking
from 60mph ( happened at about 30mph ), accelerating
from about 60 mph to pass someone. Your pics reminds
me of my Drag Race Days back in the 60's. Your engine
detonated with a lot of force. Here's some samples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKDkBR8-2mA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2I3bdxKAuM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5fFh31Ejmk

A long time ago far far away a friend of mine put
a brick on the accelerator of an old junk car and
we all stood back watching it do this kind of thing.

A really bad thing to do with any ICE. Going down a
hill put the accelerator to the floor, then take your
foot completely off the accelerator then put the
accelerator to the floor again. All the time going
down a hill. Some ICE's will loose oiling on their
rear main bearing and it will seize.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

First, from the pics this failure is not unique to the hybrid version. Ask Ford what their experience is with this engine in other four cylinder applications. The only piece of this duratec engine unique to the hybrid version is the intake cam.

This looks like a seized bearing followed by severe overheating followed by a crankcase explosion. My bet is clear: the Jiffy Lube thing is the cause. Not their oil but their cleanliness practices. I believe, if you disassemble the engine you'll find something clogging an oil passage to the bearing(s) that failed.

Could be from the filter they put in, but I believe more likely they just allowed some dirt to get into the engine when they changed the filter. IOW the dirt they introduced was in the filter area and was after the filter in the flow path of oil so that it went into the engine.

Since the pictures show the oil filter intact, go look at it closely. The filter for possible disintegration of soft parts and the chamber itself for cleanliness. Have a witness when you take it apart.

Re: 2006 Escape Hybrid: Catastrophic Engine failure @ 65,000 miles
 

@Wildcal, I was on the freeway, doing about 60MPH, No unusual engine loads or RPM.

@Bill Winney, I had no warning or indicator lights of any sort. If it had gotten hot, wouldn't I have had something light up?

I too have seen engines destroyed by over-revving, but the computer in the FEH controls the throttle, not the accelerator. I wasn't doing anything demanding with the engine at the time of the failure, and the computer should prevent it in any case, if it were an over-rev failure. I won't be tearing the engine down... it's at the dealer, and they'll dispose of the wreckage.