2.3L 4-cyl Ecoboost engine needs replaced due to coolant leaking into cylinder 4. 85,000 miles. Cost to replace is $8,389. Long block engines on backorder indefinitely…Do you think there is a major issue? Yes!!! Out of all Ford models, the Ford Explorer has 13,259 complaints more than double any other model complaints. Ford F150 is the next highest with complaints at 5,830. Stay away from the ecoboost engines! So disappointed in Ford for not doing anything to fix this problem!!
“Double the number of complaints” doesn’t take into account the number of vehicles sold. Have to expect more complaints when selling a lot of vehicles. Is this a turbo-charged engine? If so, pretty much have to expect more reported issues than a NA engine. More moving parts, larger forces, etc.
2 Likes
Ford sold just shy of 220k Explorers in 2021 vs. 726k F150’s, more than a 1:3 margin. If anything I’d expect more problems from F150’s but that doesn’t appear to be the case. There may well be a problem specific to the 2.3 liter ecoboost turbo Ford puts in Explorers.
That’s total complaints, Explorer has been made since 1991, 31 years.
Not many current car models have had a run of 31 years.
But since 2016, when they came with the 2.3 Ecoboost, they have had a total of 627 complaints.
Of those 627 complaints only 165 have been for the engine, and less than half of those are for the 2.3.
60 engine complaints in 6 years isn’t to bad at all.
And it looks like only 19 of those are related to coolant leaks into cylinders, most of those caused by customer neglect and abuse by overheating the engine.
1 Like
This engine really cannot be repaired or rebuilt? It really has to be replaced? Did the dealer/shop give a reason why?
A new long block is $3588. A new engine is preferred over replacing the cylinder head and repairing the block. With the labor involved in repairing late model engines, I would go with new.
Motor was fine when you had warranty. Fails after warranty expires? Statistics say it’s acceptable and probably to be expected.