Currently own a 2020 Explorer St. Also currently have a blown engine that I’m fighting with dealership and Ford about. Purchased July 2020. 56k miles. Provided oil change records per manufacture recommendations (10k miles). Never had a check engine, overheating engine, or low oil pressure indicator light. Both entities are insistent they are not at fault. I have been without a car for 6 weeks with no rental and no solution. All I get is finger pointing back and forth between dealer and Ford. Dealer tells me if I pay to fix I admit fault and will get nothing. Ford tells me dealership is the one who is putting me at fault. Where have I gone wrong in getting a solution?
I'm really sorry this happened to you. My engine blew at 32k miles with zero warning! I have no tunes or mods and I don't drive like a maniac. I have had and still have cars with well over 150k miles on them, so it's not like I don't know how to take care of a vehicle.
Here's a bit of a timeline:
23,000miles. oil change at the dealer - 6 quarters of new oil put in as per the receipt.
+5000 miles later at the deal for some tires where they performed a multi-point inspection. No oil service recommended or required.
+4500 more miles, I'm getting the "change oil soon" message and seeing that oil life was around 10%. I was literally going to get oil done after the weekend I was on.
at roughly 32,000miles, while driving at highway speeds, my engine totally failed. Nothing smelled like it was burning, nothing was dripping, yet when I pulled the dipstick after the engine cooled down, it was bone dry. I couldn't believe a car that can basically drive itself can't tell me if it's running low on oil. Yes, I know it can burn 1quart every 3k miles, but after 9k miles, I should have still had 3qts left. Where did the oil go? (no leaks or anything!)
My suspicion is that the original oil change I had done did not top off the engine with 6 quarts. I think they put less in there and it just burned up. What made me really angry is that the app on my phone told me service was due, but also told me what the remaining oil life was estimated to be. I realize that's just based on an algorithm, BUT why would it say remaining oil life IF there was no actual remaining oil? The car had been running just fine and I had no reason to pull the dipstick. (my 2007 BMW wagon doesn't even HAVE a dipstick!)
I was out of state and had it towed to a local ford dealer. They told me there was metal all through the engine, there was no oil in it, and initially they were going to put it on me. I Sent them my service records and most of the explanation from above and ultimately they decided to perform the work at their risk. They would file it as a warranty claim with Ford. It took me about 90days to get this all done. I have the 100k extended warranty on the truck, but the new engine doesn't start from zero under a warranty claim. It just plugs into the existing mileage on the vehicle. Had I paid for the engine myself, they'd have given me a rider with a new warranty policy for the engine alone.
I hope my bad story helps you out with your bad story. Best of luck with your claim. I suggest you find a more friendly dealership that cares about the customer experience.