Hey all,
I have a 2011 explorer limited that I bought brand new. First new Ford and I was thrilled. The new design was beautiful, including that triple-coat white, the ride was good, power, myfordtouch... Loved it. It has been a great car for six years. This was a big investment for us so we opted for the extended 6yr/100k warranty through our dealer ($1,650) and we were set. Until a few weeks ago. With $95k on the car and five weeks past the warranty time period the check engine light came on with my wife out of town. Brought it to a local dealer and was told it was a crank/cam sensor problem resultant from a stretched timing chain. Authorized the work and once they got the engine out (yes, engine needed to be removed for this) they found it was full of metal because the water pump disintegrated. Temp gauge never went up, car didn't overheat. Now we need a new engine for $7500 (actually $7,342.75). Again, just a few weeks out of warranty and under on miles. With the car out of town, we don't have a lot of options, so we authorized the replacement. It will take three weeks to get an engine.
I tried everything to get Ford to consider honoring the extended warranty. Before you say boo-hoo too bad your warranty is expired - you lose, when faced with a $7500 bill you would be an idiot not to do everything you can to find some relief, to appeal to Ford's appreciation of loyalty and support of their vehicles. We did everything right, had it serviced at the dealer, in fact, it was at the dealer for servicing just a couple months before this happened and received a clean bill of health.
Anyway, the two reasons I am posting are 1) if you have a 2011 explorer with 90k plus miles I would urge you to consider either selling/trading it or purchasing an extended-extended warranty. 2) If anyone has had this particular catastrophic failure, please respond and let me know how it was resolved or if Ford was of any assistance in covering the cost.
thanks,
-matt