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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

It's 24 lb-ft.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

@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.