Complaint 1961276

Complaint Summary

ENGINE

Owner Narrative

We operate numerous 7.3L Ford engine equipped vehicles in our fleet of ambulances. Over the past year we have experienced 4 engine failures of this 7.3L engine in vehicles ranging form around 60,000 to 90,000 after exceeding the service recommendations stated from the manufacturer. I have contacted the Ford Pro Fleet experts and have asked repeatedly about what could be causing the failures, trying to figure out if we are doing something wrong in our maintenance or operation. They assure us we are not doing anything wrong, however we continue to lose engines. Each time the repair bill is around $12,000. We have been lucky that Ford has offered financial assistance, but now that has gone away. At first, we were told that we were the only ones experiencing these failures, but now I am hearing from other operators of similar vehicles that they are experiencing the same concern. We cannot afford to keep replacing engines in relatively new vehicles, especially when there is an apparent defect in parts or standard operation. Symptoms we experience that lead to engine replacement are loss of power while driving caused my multiple cylinder misfires. Loss of power while running an emergency call pose a significant safety risk to operators and patients.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.