I have a 2003 Escape (14,500 miles) and was told last week I blew the engine due to oil sludge. Of course my warrenty won't cover this b/c the dealership is saying lack of maintnance on my part. Keep in mind, this only has 14k on it!!

Reminds me of the Toyota oil sludge problem, they used the "lack of care" excuse that left thousands paying for new engines on their new cars.

Ford refuses to help so I am stuck with a 6k engine repair bill on my 8 month old Escape. Anyone else have problems with oil sludge?? TIA

 

I don't own an Escape, so I have no idea if the oil sludge is a common problem with them or not. You should still be under warranty for the engine, being the car is a 2003 with only 14K miles. How often did you have the oil changed in this period? If you did it every 3,000 miles or by whatever the owner's manual recommends, then the dealership should replace the engine under warranty. Good Luck.

 

I've never heard of any engines failing due to oil sludge. If you have receipts on the oil changes then they should cover it.

 

You are being given a line of B.S. Oil sludge accumulating enough to damage an engine is impossible in only 14K miles, even if you never changed the oil and filter! Something else is wrong. See a lawyer if your Ford regional vice president won't investigate. Look in your owner's manual for the addresses for complaints. This is definitely not a oil problem caused by sludge. Get a second and third opinion by indeplendent mechanics!

 

The engine could have had some kind of defect (casting, etc.) that caused localized over heating, which resulted in the oil
sludge. If that was the case, then it was the localized over heating that caused the engine failure, not the oil sludge!!!

 

Don't let them do that to you. Keep going up the line and document every conversation you have until you get what you deserve!

 

THanks for all your help and advice guys!!

Bob, would another mechanic beable to tell if it was localized over heating causing the oil sludge?

Basically Ford is trying to get out of the warranty by telling me "lack of maintnance" so I am trying to prove this maybe some sort of defect in my particular engine.
Thanks so much for all of your input everyone

 

I have seen this message on several sites and just want to say,I have worked for all the big three, Ford, Chrysler, and Gm. none and I mean none would or should warranty an engine that has never had an oil change in 14,000 mi. Oil sludge is the result of oil breaking down, which yes can happen to some degree in 14,000 mi. I havent seen this motor have that many engine problems! And to answer before the rebuttal, ALL AND I MEAN ALL VEHICLES HAVE SOME PROBLEM AREA. I have checked and havent seen a significant problem with oiling problems on this engine. That isn't to say there are none just not that many, with the thousands of escapes and tauruses out there 20-30 bad motors is a very good reputation. Those are just arbitrary figures not fact, however, the fact remains no oil changes results in loss of warranty period. It works that way with every automaker. The responsibility is to the consumer to maintain the vehicle. After all if you spend that much for it why treat it like crap? Take care of it. There are technitians in every automaker field. All vehicles have problems. sorry for yours but, thats the way it is.

 

Ranger88a is correct. You must maintain to factory specs to keep the warranty valid. It's very important that no matter who does it, keep the reciepts for labor and materials, tax, which show the work was done. I do most of my own maintenance and have reciepts to show I bought the correct oil by the case, bought the correct filters, oil drip pans, pumps, etc to do the job.

Just for your information, a fleet of almost 200 fruit packing company trucks with gas engines used to run 200,000 miles without changing oil. They changed the filter every 6,000 miles and added new oil as necessary. they never broke down for any reason having to do with lubrication. I wouldn't do that, but they did and saved a ton of money. But they only looked at the bottom line, nothing else. What I think made it possible was, those trucks were all long haul trucks, and seldom set for any length of time, and seldom operated in really cold weather.

 

they NEVER said that they didn't change the oil though so lets now assume that they never did.

 

I assumed she had changed the oil in her 'scape. If she never did, then please ignore my above statement.