NHTSA Complaint #11422693 — 2015 FORD EDGE

On June 23rd, I turned on my 2015 Ford Edge and heard a knocking/rattling noise coming from the engine that I had never heard before. It got worse when the A/C was on and while idling. It somewhat subsided while accelerating but became very loud again when I came to a stop. I took it to my local mechanic that is Ford trained, and after putting the car up, he indicated that he thought it was a broken Flex Plate. He said it was good that I had come in because if I had ignored it and been driving on the freeway, my car could have just shut off - which I think we can agree is highly dangerous. There was never a warning light or any indication of a problem prior to hearing the rattling/knocking sound on June 23rd. My mechanic advised me to call Ford to see if there was anything they would be willing to do as the repair was costly. I called my local Ford dealership in Irvine, CA on Thursday, June 24th and the service manager said that since it went out of warranty in Oct 2020, that the repair would be out of pocket. My mechanic then advised me to call Ford Motor Company in Michigan to see if there was anything they could do or provide assistance with. I spoke with "[XXX]" at 11:30am, and she advised me that there were no programs available for my vehicle. I was in disbelief considering there is a recall on the very same part for 2016-2017 Ford Edges. She apologized and said there was nothing they could do. She provided a case number #[XXX] and said she would let her engineering department and the NHTSA. The total cost of the repair was $1,819.64 and the cost of my rental from Enterprise for the 5 days was $611.74. I have photos of the repair process as well as the actual cracked flexplate part. This should not happen on a vehicle with 44k miles on it and I certainly should not be footing the bill for it when Ford [XXX] well knows this is a manufacturing problem on their part. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).