ford will recall 90,736 vehicles because the intake valves of the vehicles’ engines can break while driving, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Saturday. The recall affects certain 2021-2022 Bronco, F-150, Edge, Explorer, Lincoln NautilusAnd Lincoln Aviator vehicles equipped with a 2.7L or 3.0L Nano EcoBoost engine, according to the NHTSA.
According to documents posted by NHTSA and from the automaker: “The engine’s intake valves can break while driving, potentially causing engine failure and loss of driveability.” After an investigation that began in January 2022, Ford found 22 instances where “the engine’s intake valves broke and fell into the engine’s combustion chamber, causing catastrophic engine damage.”
The automaker’s analysis continues: “Ford determined that the potential root cause of the failures was a failure of the engine’s intake valve because the valves exceeded the designed hardness specification, were brittle, and were more likely to fracture. Ford determined this was due to the supplier’s grinding processes and the sensitivity of the intake valve material to grinding processes that were not within control specifications. The intake valve material was changed for vehicles produced after October 31, 2021.”
To fix the problem, the entire engine must be replaced. “Dealers inspect each vehicle to determine the cumulative number of engine cycles. For vehicles that do not meet the engine cycle threshold, traders will accumulate high revolutions per minute (rpm) engine cycles as per a service procedure. Engines will be replaced on vehicles that do not pass the engine cycle accumulation,” Ford said.