NHTSA Complaint #11489398 — 2016 FORD EXPLORER

The water pump failed and is available for inspection. i was driving and my engine began smoking to the point of visibility loss and suffocating air fumes. I was forced onto an edge of the highway with a drastic drop into the road and had to evacuate my 5 and 2 year old daughters from their car seats. Had i not noticed the smoke im sure a fire would have put me and my kids at fatal risks. i had it taken to the dealer to check into the highspeed cooling fan. the service technician told me that he knew without checking that it was the water pump because ford knows that they have been faulty with issues up to catastrophic engine failure since their 2011 series ford explorer up to the current 2019 with the duratech 3.5 engine. it was inspected by the ford dealership. and i saw no warning or even problems prior that indicated an oncoming failure that could have endangered my kids or myself. After doign research, almost every ford explorer owner has had these issues and ford made a laughable fix to update our owners manual about the water pump. this disclosure should have been mentioned during the sale of the vehicle and had it been i would have chosen a different vehicle and manufacturing company all together. This has shown ford's negligence and complacency towards driver and consumer safety and they should have had the entire engine recalled. but thats appearantly to expensive. now i have a useless vehicle on my credit that i cant afford to fix because of their design issue and like many consumers i feel like ford owes it to us to fix these and offer a lifetime warranty for the water pumps. do your job correctly and with integrity and you wont have to fix so many problems.