In may of 2015 our Ford LCF - L55 (4.5L Powerstroke), with automatic transmission spun a rod bearing in the #1 cylinder and it was brought to a Ford dealership repair. This truck was brought to an independent diesel shop first, but they high-balled the repair at $28,000 (CDN) in a successful attempt to not do the job, IMHO.

Anyway, the dealership had my truck for 3 months and $14,000 later the truck was ready to go. 6 months and 7,000 kilometres later the truck broke down on the freeway and was towed back to the dealership for inspection. I've included a pic of the broken crankshaft that the dealership found when they pulled the oil pan that was machined at a local shop.

I know for a fact that this truck was several thousand pounds under its GVW and GCVW at all times. We've had many trucks of varying sizes and weight classes over the past 23 years as a company and have never had anything like this happen.

We're considering pursuing the matter legally.

Thanks for reading my post.

 

Aren't trucks supposed to haul/pull stuff?

 

My thoughts too, all i seen enough to make me a bit off is; "You didn't sell the truck, and you pulled a trailer with it so we suppose that you pulling something was enough to shear a crankshaft"

Did it shear near cylinder 1? I can't tell. Spinning a bearing there would definitely heat it up and weaken the shaft IMO. These guys are coping out of a repair that they know was caused by them, and they figured since you were planning on selling the truck they would take the cheap repair for your money the last time it was rebuilt

 

I'm not sure why he's posting it in this forum other then venting. He has more of the story over in another forum on this site. IMO, he had an issue with the original motor, the dealership rebuilt it and had the crankshaft turned, something that should not have been done and the rebuild failed. There was a lot of money spent on the in-shop rebuild, while aftermarket companies rebuild these better then this example and for less money.

Somebody will buy the chassis, get a complete rebuilt motor from a specialist and end with a decent truck.

 

@TooManyToys,
Perhaps I should have been clearer on my intent on this thread, aside from venting, which can be therapeutic.

I chose the "6.0L Power Stroke Diesel" diesel forum as the 4.5L power stroke was designed and based on the very same engine as the 6.0L engine, minus 2 cylinders, which I'm sure most of you already know.

The genesis for this thread was to glean information and opinions from savvy diesel folk as I've learned a lot from various people in various threads on this website in general, which is very much appreciated.

I'm not a mechanic, by any means, but I did grow up around heavy diesel equipment all my life as the son of a heavy equipment diesel mechanic in the realm of Caterpillar mining equipment and it just seemed odd to me that a crankshaft would/could break from day-to-day operations of hauling and pulling as we do with our landscape business.

The last reason for posting this thread was to just give people a heads-up that these trucks/engines have a higher than normal probability to mechanical failure. I thought it might be a good PSA for those otherwise uninformed.

As it site I have a chassis with 47,000 original miles on it, with a good transmission and very little wear and tear otherwise. Hopefully someone will want it, lol!

Thanks for reading and the opinions. It gives me more motivation that I might have a case against denial of my warranty.

 

Oh, sorry, I forgot to add on thing. We did not have a deal that we would be putting the truck up for sale when we got it back from being repaired. What was, in fact, said was after I got it back I would be actively looking for a suitable replacement for the truck. I couldn't sell the truck until finding a replacement since I have landscape crews to run and they need a truck.

As I tried to find a truck it quickly became apparent that there was no stock available in Canada due to the low Canadian dollar. All of our good used stock heads south of the border as they're good deals for the US market and quick sales for Canadian brokers.

After finding a suitable truck I was going to market the sale of my truck as having "X-number" of months/tears left on the 2 year warranty promised be the dealership. I figured I'd get more than 4,300 miles before the engine failed again, sheesh!

I'm just trying to shed a little light on a repair shop that is handing out crap work.

Thanks again!

 

6.0s don't have a habit of shearing cranks. Thirteen years visiting every Powerstroke forums 6.0L sections maybe I've missed it but I can't recall any, but I'm getting old. 4.5s have a different harmonic and dynamics. If the crank journal is not machined correctly there can be stress risers just where it cracked with any motor. None of us here plan on removing two cylinders to our motors.

I have no problem your posting your issue here or anywhere else. But I'm still confounded still why its in a 6.0L forum from my viewpoint other then "I got screwed by this dealership".

Maybe they do things differently up north, but down here dealerships really tend not to rebuild motors, they get a rebuild through the mother ship. And there are good reasons for that, this case a good example.

I realize your smarting from this experience and I would not be happy if it happened to me, expending that amount of money. I've bought a rebuilt motor for my truck too, things happen.. And from you postings that I read in the other forum I can see where you got into a jam here.

 

The question you may want to ask is what are the Ford standards for a reman engine.
Like is the crank returned to a 0/0 under rod/main. If that is the case they may of
over turned it to clean it up and on top of that skipped a magnaflux to check for any
internal cracks in the shaft.

Best of luck with this. Please let us know how this goes.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder

 

Just wondered that myself - why would selling the truck (or not) be a point of contention, much less using it as a truck. What are trucks for?

And $14k, for a truck under warranty? You kiddin' me?

 

IMHO, telling him your going to sell the truck gave him the green light to take short cuts.

 

What kind of answer is that?

 

Exactly. It's really non of the dealers business whether or not the truck was sold or kept as a workhorse. It's a friggin diesel and meant to work, and the fact of the matter is folks change their minds all the time for various reasons, non of which are the dealers business really.
All of the fancy wordsmithery in this letter leads me to think said dealer is just trying to pass the buck. If the truck was used as designed, and in fact kept under it's towing and hauling capabilities to boot, gives the OP that much more right for legal recourse. At any rate, it's no excuse for any dealer to short change the customer.

..............I would love to have been the fly on the wall during these "many" discussions, which methinks amounted to a five minutes talk with the owner of the dealership to see how they could get out of paying for that bill.
I could be wrong of course, but it just doesn't pass the smell test.

 

"Oh, well hell, if you're gonna SELL it then, we'll just slap some lipstick on this pig and get it out the door. Let some other poor ******* take the hit."

"You didn't tell us somebody would be using that to haul stuff."

Maybe that wasn't the intent, but that's how it comes off. Jeeze Louise.

 

I'd be speaking with a lawyer

 

x2

Dealer screwed him over as far as I can see,they did a repair and it failed
within its warranty period of two years. They should be able to
at minimal expense at least drop a crank kit or new short in it OR buy the truck back and
put the customer into another vehicle