2018-2020 Ford F-150 Trucks Burn ‘Excessive’ Amounts of Engine Oil, Class Action Lawsuit Claims [UPDATE]

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Model year 2018-2020 Ford F-150 vehicles equipped with a 5.0-liter engine are predisposed to consume “abnormal and excessive” amounts of oil as the result of a defect, a proposed class action alleges. 

The 84-page page lawsuit out of Michigan federal court alleges the F-150 oil consumption defect typically manifests during and shortly after a vehicle’s limited warranty period has expired and poses a significant safety risk to drivers and passengers in that the problem can be neither reasonably anticipated nor predicted. 

According to the case, the oil consumption problem can cause an F-150’s engine, specifically the 5.0-liter modular V-8 piston engine with direct fuel injection nicknamed “Coyote,” to unexpectedly stall or fail while the vehicle is in use in any driving condition and at any speed, exposing drivers, passengers and others on the road to an increased risk of accident, injury or death. The lawsuit says the problem stems from a manufacturing defect affecting the engines’ piston and piston ring assembly that causes them to allow engine oil into an engine’s combustion chamber. As a result, the case explains, oil is not separated from the combustion cycle as intended and is instead burned and consumed during the combustion cycle. 

Compounding matters for the F-150, the lawsuit goes on, is the presence of an inadequate positive crankshaft ventilation (PCV) system that fails to reduce the pressure within an engine’s crankcase caused by combustion gases escaping from the combustion chamber, past the piston and oil rings and into the crankcase. According to the suit, this “has a direct negative impact on the vehicles’ durability, life expectancy, performance and emissions.” 

The lawsuit alleges Ford not only actively concealed the fact that certain components within the F-150’s 5.0-liter engine were defective but did not reveal that the existence of the oil consumption problem would “diminish the intrinsic and resale value of the Class Vehicles” and lead to the safety concerns detailed in the complaint. Despite its apparent longstanding knowledge of the manufacturing defect, Ford has “routinely refused to adequately repair” affected F-150 trucks free of charge, the suit says. 

In many cases, Ford has even refused to disclose the existence of the oil consumption defect even when a driver’s F-150 displays symptoms consistent with those of the problem, the case further claims. According to the lawsuit, Ford instead “choos[es] to ignore the defect until it has caused significant mechanical problems necessitating costly repairs or provid[es] a band-air repair to mask the oil consumption from consumers.” 

“Many Plaintiffs and Class members have communicated with Ford and/or Ford’s agents to request that they remedy and/or address the Oil Consumption Defect and/or resultant damage at no expense,” the suit reads. “Ford has routinely failed to do so.” 

Moreover, Ford has also failed to do anything to correct the “concealed manufacturing defect” when it manifests outside of a vehicle’s warranty period, the complaint claims. The lawsuit decries Ford’s apparent attempts to limit the scope of its warranty responsibility as it pertains to the oil consumption defect as “unconscionable and unenforceable.” 

Upon information and belief, the lawsuit continues, Ford was “forced to acknowledge” the oil consumption problem plaguing 2018-2020 F-150 models as the number of complaints increased and drivers “grew dissatisfied” with the rate their engines were burning through oil. Rather than provide adequate repairs, Ford has, according to the case, “simply attempted to mask the Oil Consumption Defect from Class Members.” 

The suit alleges violations of the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, New York General Business Law, California consumer protection statutes, Song-Beverly Act and Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act.

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