1997 Ford F-150 XL, with a 4.2 L V-6 engine - recall notice from Ford reported engine coolant leanks, severe engine damage if not corrected

1997 Ford F-150 XL, with a 4.2 L V-6 engine - recall notice from Ford reported engine coolant leanks, severe engine damage if not corrected

1997 Ford F-150

In December of 1996 I purchased a brand new 1997 Ford F-150 XL, with a 4.2 L V-6 engine. Over the past seven years I have followed the maintenance schedule to a "T". In January of 2000, I received a letter, from Ford Motor Company, in reference to a recall which stated "affected vehicles may experience engine coolant leaks at the engine front cover gasket; this could cause severe engine damage if not corrected". At that time I was stationed in Kaiserslautern, GE, due to military service.

I promptly contacted my local Ford dealership service department to arrange for the recall work to be performed. The service manager had no knowledge of the recall, but due to the fact that I had the letter from Ford, he agreed to perform the work at no charge to me.

Since they did not have the gasket on hand, they had to order one. Several weeks later, I received a call from the service manager, who told me that the required parts were in and that I could bring my truck in to have the maintenance performed. The maintenance was only supposed to take one day. The next day, I called the service desk to find out if my truck was ready, and I was informed that the mechanic performing the maintenance had broken the gasket when he was trying to put it in and that another gasket had to be ordered, which might take several days.

About a week later, I contacted the service department again, and was informed that the parts had come in, but that the mechanic had broken the tool needed to put my engine back together. The service manager told me that they had ordered one and that it should be in within a couple of days. At this point, of course I am furious and wondered if I would ever get my truck back in one piece.

Finally a couple of days later I got my truck back. Skeptical about the quality of workmanship performed on my engine, upon returning to the United States, about one year later, I promptly took my truck in to my nearest Ford dealership, in Clarksville, TN, and asked them to look at it to ensure that the maintenance was performed properly. When I picked my truck up, the service department ensured me that the maintenance was done correctly. This past Sunday, November 30, 2003, I started up my truck and it sounded as though the engine was coming apart.

I had it towed to my mechanic who checked it out and informed me that the engine was a total loss. He stated that I had no compression on two of the cylinders and that one of them only had 40% compression. He also stated that a valve was knocking severely. Upon finding out this news, I did some research, (www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov), to find out that I was not the only Ford truck owner to experience this exact same problem with this particular engine (1997 4.2L V-6).

Over 100 complaints on this web site, and all incidents were related to the failure of the gasket, which the Ford dealership had supposedly replaced. After contacting Ford, in reference to this problem, they told me that they had no knowledge of such a problem with this particular engine. My truck only has 81,000 miles on it, and since I had taken such good care of it, I had expected it to last me many more years without major repair issues.

Thank You,

Darrell K

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