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]

 

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.

 

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

 

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...

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.