NHTSA Complaint #11460806 — 2016 FORD MUSTANG

Failure of Driver side Valve cover- leaking oil and valve cover bolts were completely loose. Both valve covers are prone to failure according to tsb 19-2309. Note: The engine block is designed to have 13 bolts to secure and seal valve covers to engine. Instead of using a 13 bolt valve cover, ford used 9 bolt valve covers for 3 consecutive years which deviates from the engine design. Safety concern- the discharge of combustible oil in and around engine bay and other engine components. engine components which are flammable and or susceptible to damage as a result from contact of leaking oil from failed valve covers and bolts. This failure could also result in catastrophic engine failure depending on when this failure occurs, if it goes unnoticed, and how bad it is. This problem has been confirmed by ford via tsb 19-2309 which instructs the removal of both valve covers, drilling 4 holes in each valve cover, replacing valve cover gasket’s, and adding 4 additional bolts to each valve cover upon complete re-assembly. This problem has been reproduced sufficient amounts for a TSB to be in place. An important NOTE with TSB 19-2309 is that it does not instruct the need to drill threaded holes into the engine block for 8 additional valve cover bolts because they are already present. The holes are simply covered up by the 9 bolt valve covers and go unused. Vehicle has been inspected by a Certified mechanic/ business outside of Ford dealership/company. No warning lights of any kind appeared. The issue was noticed on 4/9/2022 during a routine oil change and inspection. Car currently has 35,000 miles and is not being driven or started. Why is ford not willing to do the right thing by proactively recalling for this issue?