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So I hear this Rod Knock..........

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On Saturday I decide to take the Boss out for a spin with my son and his friend to go ride go karts at the track.

I notice that as I stand on the brakes, especially in a turn (enjoying the car) I hear a rod knock and the engine light comes on.

I immediatly take it easy and the rod knock goes away, but the light stays on. As there are no temp issues and the engine seems to be running ok in "normal" driving, I reroute and go directly to the dealer that I have been using. I ordered the car from California, and live in Louisiana. I chose a local dealer and brought my Boss to them for the Track Key update, and mentioned that they could be my "local" warranty dealer if they wished and they said of course.

So, back to the story, I bring the Boss in, call the wife and have her meet me at the dealer to pick up the boys.

Yesterday, they call me back and say that there ARE ONLY TWO QUARTS OF OIL IN THE ENGINE ! No leaks, no sign of burning oil, just short 7 quarts. I am stunned. Then they say that they will have to do an oil change, to the tune of $129.00, my cost!

Now I'm starting to get angry. Obviously, the Boss was short from the factory and should still have about 1,000+ miles before needing an oil change anyway. It has never been on a track, and driven only moderatly hard on the street.

Since they are not the sellling dealer, i can't fault them for bad prep work, but should'nt this be a Ford warranty issue? I mean, for $43K (before ADM) I would expect the full 9 quarts of oil in a HiPo vehicle!

So, after some banter they say that Ford will not cover it.

I leave the dealership before I pop a vein, stating that I'd be back later. I go and call Ford, give them my VIN and explain. The guy on the phone was VERY professional to my surprise and asked if I could hold while he called the dealership.

In about 4 mins he came back on the line and asked if he could call me back within 30 mins after speaking with the dealer. Dubiously, I said yes not expecting a callback. 15 mins later he calls back and says that of course Ford will eat the oil change, apologizes(sp) for the oversight and states that he is making some notes on my vin in my file even though the dealership mechanic says the engine is fine (2000 miles with only 2 quarts of oil?) just in case I have any issues down the road.

Bummed that it left the factory with only 2 of the 9 quarts, but could not be more pleased with the way Ford handled it. The dealership could have fought a little harder for me, but at $129 for an oil change I guess they were more concerned with my money than long term business.

Also wondering why the idiot light did not show such low oil until the knocking, or why the dealership did not catch the low oil when they enabled the track key? I would imagine that there should have been some codes thrown?


Rich
 
You need to hang out here more often. There's been numerous posts about the cars drinking 1-2 quarts of oil in the first 1,000 miles. I'm glad nothing major is wrong.
 
Your right there....
I have been reading some. 7 quarts is a bit much to burn through for 2000 miles.

I gotta give it to Ford, they were easy to get ahold of and totally diffused what started as a bad call. I have even been on my chevy classic car sites bragging about the customer service :)

Rich
 
69LM1 said:
Your right there....
I have been reading some. 7 quarts is a bit much to burn through for 2000 miles.

I gotta give it to Ford, they were easy to get ahold of and totally diffused what started as a bad call. I have even been on my chevy classic car sites bragging about the customer service :)

Rich
Yeah you better hope it was short from the factory. ;D I'm glad Ford resolved the issue to your satisfaction.
 
Mine ate almost a quart in 300 miles, it was full when I picked it up. 150 of that was highway getting it home from the dealer and most of the rest was not too rough. 7 seems high in 2k miles but not ridiculous, from my experience with other hi performance cars. My bro was putting a quart in his M5 almost every other oil change if he drove it hard at all. I have had similar experience with other cars using synthetic. Keep an eye on it from now on and see what happens.

I read in a post here somewhere that the oil light doesn't really work like expected, if it gets oil at all over the sensor it won't go on or something like that. 5.0 or one of the other more knowledgeable guys probably knows exactly how it works, I only saw a mention of it in a post that may have been hogwash to begin with.

I agree about Ford customer service being good, I had an issue with my paint and the customer service people set up an appointment for me to drop it off at the local dealer and get the fender repainted. Ended up being able to buff out the issues, so didn't repaint, but they were very helpful.
 
I don't care what anyone says, if a car eats anywhere near 7 quarts of oil in 2000 miles there is a serios problem. To me, a quart in 500 miles is ridiculous. This is 2012, not the 60s. If a car uses that much oil where is it going?? Being burnt?? I've driven cars with 150,000 miles on them and if they burnt any oil you knew it. I don't know, just seems a little ridiculous to accept a car using as much as people are discussing here, even during break in. I would consider a quart every 5000 miles barely acceptable for street driving.
 
I'm not saying it is normal for this car, just that I have seen similar with other cars. I had an X5 that ate a quart every 500 miles and BMW would not do anything, as that was within spec. (I will NEVER own another modern BMW, the oil was just a small part of why) I would keep an eye on it and try to figure out how fast it is consuming the oil, and if it continues to do it then there is probably an issue. If my Boss keeps consuming oil at the same rate, it will be about 7 quarts in the first 2000 miles if my math is right. Do I like having to keep adding oil in my cars? No. But I also understand that hi performance motors do tend to consume oil. Remember how older forged pistons used to just drink oil at start up?

There are a lot of theories on why cars running synthetic oil, especially European ones, consume so much oil. I don't know if any of them are true, but I have noticed they do tend to consume oil. If other people here say that it should not consume that much oil then their specific knowledge is better than my general knowledge and I will have to figure out why mine is consuming so much too. But as much as it sucks, lots of modern cars consume a lot of oil especially when new.
 
Anything is possible I guess but I highly doubt the car left the factory with two quarts. There are systems in place and markings made for every type of fluid fill. If anything there would be a better chance of having no oil then just two quarts. You are not the first to report that amount of oil being burnt but it is rare. I will burn a quart in one track day, less on the street. I have seen others burning quite a bit on and off track and some that do not use much at all.

You state you are driving it hard and I mean no disrespect but it is a high performance car and you need to be checking it at least once a week. Do that and keep a log of what it uses, if the very high consumption continues I would recommend following up with Ford to find out the reason.
 
I'm just wondering when exactly DOES the idiot light come on to let you know the oil level is low. It should come on before you start hearing engine noises or else why bother having it? Maybe the idiot light needs an idiot light.
 
You will rarely see oil smoke out the tailpaipe of newer cars as they are driving down the road. The catalytic converters will burn up the excessive oil being used. That also then shortens the life of the converter though. My Boss has not burned any oil in 5,000 + miles, which included a couple track days and some drag racing.
 
Man, that doesn't sound right!

How did they know it only had 2 quarts of oil if they didn't do the oil change yet?

I checked my oil before I left the dealer, and when I got home.

Being on here as soon as I got the Boss made me aware of the oil issues but either way, when breaking in a new engine I always check it before I drive it.
 
After alot of checking on why and how this can happen with no oil idiot light or low oil pressure warning a Ford engineer told the tech that will be replacing the engine that the low level indicator on the oilpan is not there to actually report a low oil level, its there to report back to the dash cluster that the "oil change interval" timer needs to be rapidly advanced for a sooner service interval.

He was told that they are trying to change the programming so that the sensor will prompt a warning as well, something it does not do at the moment. The car never showed low oil pressure, it just started making noise.

That is the post I referenced earlier, it isn't from this forum and it was the only reference to how the oil sensor works though I found a couple other people who stated it did not come on when they were very low on oil. So even if your car hasn't burned oil, don't count on the light to warn you if it does. It takes like 30 seconds to check oil when you fill up, that is what I call cheap insurance.



I just thought of something, the people who have oil consumption, do you drive a lot in the hills? I have noticed my cars used more oil when I lived in the hills than they do now. Also if I make a lot of short trips. I always suspected it was because of all the low rpm high load driving going up the hills.
 
hotrodnut said:
Man, that doesn't sound right!

How did they know it only had 2 quarts of oil if they didn't do the oil change yet?

I checked my oil before I left the dealer, and when I got home.

Being on here as soon as I got the Boss made me aware of the oil issues but either way, when breaking in a new engine I always check it before I drive it.

That was the other problem, they actually CHANGED the oil before calling me, and then called me and said I had a $100+ bill and come pick the car up!

I do tend to drive the car like it should be driven, but not crazy.

In the end, I will take everyones advice here and check the oil more often. I do agree that 7 qts in 2,000 miles does seem excessive even if it is a HiPo car.

I am just worried about any long term life of the engine issues with the oil being so low for who knows how long.


Rich
 
5 year drivetrain warranty, and they have it in their system now that there was an issue. I wouldn't worry about it, just check the oil often for a while. Remember the oil light won't come on when it is low. If it continues to consume oil, make them fix it. She should be fairly broken in now. Also Ford has always been good to me, but keeping a log of your oil levels will be good not just for convincing them there is a problem but also to help diagnose it.


But I'm not a mechanic, so feel free to ignore me. It is your car, do what you feel is right. Maybe you can get them to do a compression check for free.
 
The other thing that come to mind here is, was there really only two quarts? If it was two low it would be on the verge of not showing anything on the dip stick. Maybe you were down three and he did not see anything on the stick and went over to the manager and just said something like "I bet that car only has two quarts in it". Then somewhere down the line that statement becomes fact.

I would guess (but do not know for sure) that the pickup would stop working with only two quarts and you would have had no pressure at all sending the car to limp mode. Just my 2 cents but I think it was not as bad as they made it sound.

I trust my dealer here and that is new for me but I still ask them to show me what is going on if they tell me there is a problem and before they continue working.
 
I have read about a lot of people on the site having oil useage issues, and have checked frequently through paranoia! I have not had even a 1/2 quart used, before my first change at ~3100 miles, and now at 4300. I don't drive light.... Not sure why some do and some don't. Strange.
 
06mach1 said:
You will rarely see oil smoke out the tailpaipe of newer cars as they are driving down the road. The catalytic converters will burn up the excessive oil being used. That also then shortens the life of the converter though.

Interesting. I wonder how long cats could last before melting from burning that amount of oil? Furthermore, I would think that the guys running cattless full exhaust might be able to shed some info about smoke out the tail pipes.
 
I actually drive my Boss. I didn't buy it to collect dust and commute in a Civic or Prius. I drive aggressively and my Boss burned 2 quarts in the first 2k miles, but only another 2qt in the next 15k. 7qt in 2k is highly improbable and has not been claimed by any other owners of a 2012 Boss. It was obviously low from the factory.
 

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