NHTSA Complaint #11496374 — 2018 FORD ESCAPE

Piston #2 failed in the engine. The piston head broke and pieces of metal traveled through the engine. It is available for inspection. This occurred at night while driving down a state route at speeds between 50-55mph. The engine immediately began to run extremely rough, check engine light came on and began blinking, the car began to sputter and shake, which caused the car to become unsafe to operate. We had the vehicle towed to avoid causing any damage to the engine. The Ford dealership that we buy our cars from did the diagnosis, performed an engine tear down, and was able to determine the piston was the route cause. The technician confirmed that it was the piston itself that failed, and was not due to any maintenance issues, other part, or driver neglect. It has not been inspected directly by Ford, police, or insurance. It has only been inspected by the Ford certified technicians at the Ford dealership. We contacted Ford Motor Company's customer affairs department, opened a case with them in regards to the faulty part being installed when the the car was originally built. They have the pictures and service departments notes about the piston. There were no warning lamps, notifications, or alerts. The check engine light appeared the moment the failure happened, and began to blink. We did notice that the exhaust would expel a large amount of black smoke when we would need to accelerate the vehicle in areas such as highway on-ramps. That recurring behavior has been documented prior to this incident. Dealer made efforts in the past to investigate that issue but was unable to find a route cause.