This is longer than I hoped...please read. I'm a 63 year old Gramma, disabled and autistic so I am at a disadvantage thinking of solutions.
I have a 2018 Ford EcoSport SE 65k miles, automatic that just died while driving and then threw a "low engine oil pressure" warning on the dash. The oil was changed 5 days prior, so I took it back to the oil change shop. They checked the oil level and told me it was at a safe level, and that Ford has issued a recall (25S64) for a tensioner arm or belt that fails. The dealership said it's not an active recall so they can't do anything.
The car was running a little rough, nothing really concerning, before this all happened. EDIT: The car runs fine, except the rough running. It starts, all the things. I'm not driving it due to the metal in the oil.
I talked to Ford manufacturing about the issue and they agreed to have the engine diagnosed and if recall related they would approve a rental car. The dealership ran diagnostics. The codes came back as camshaft related; P0012, P0014. P0299, P303, P0316, P0340, P344. The shop checked and there is metal in the oil so they say I need to replace the engine. I asked if they checked the tensioner arm or whatever it is on the recall...they said no. That would be 15 hours for diagnostics.
My mechanic friends said that if the tensioner arm fractured, it could cause problems like the diagnostic codes.
Ford Corp won't admit that the recall issue could cause engine problems like this. I talked to them about financial assistance, and even a buyback. Both denied even though the recall notice says, "Loss of engine oil pressure can cause engine damage and/or seizure which can result in loss of motive power (which happened)... "
I filed a complaint with NHTSA about the engine portion.
Currently I am making payments on a huge paperweight, no car, can't afford an engine, and feel screwed over by a billion dollar company, who KNEW about this issue since 2022, did nothing, and now expects parts to ship in the 2nd quarter of 2024. Can a bad oil change cause the diagnostic error codes? Is the engine related to the recall on the oil pump drive belt tensioner arm?
Please help with suggestions of how to get this escalated, or fixed.
XOXO GC
Unfortunately, that's Ford for you. They don't care about their customers whatsoever. I would never buy one of their products these days. Your engine broke and they're unwilling to help you out with it. So if I were you I'd probably hire a lawyer. They've had so many problems with those engines. It would make your head spin. They just don't stand behind it and I'll try to blame you. Or you didn't change the oil enough or some nonsense like that. They've really gone down in quality with those Ford motors. Ford would probably go bankrupt if they had to fix all their problems for free. So they deny everything and help you go away. So probably the best thing to do is to hire a lawyer
Thank you for your response.