DeKALB, Ill. (WLS) — A car manufacturer is changing its tune and will replace a woman’s car engine under a recall—something that wasn’t the case almost two years ago.
In March 2024, Ford told the I-Team that the engine troubles experienced by Tanya Washington were likely due to an issue with an oil change. At the time, the automaker said Washington’s 2017 Ford Focus did not qualify for the engine recall, citing findings of metal flakes and paper debris from a non-Ford oil filter that appeared to have come apart and released debris into the engine oil system.
“They could’ve done this in the first place, saved me a whole lot of money that I did not have, for them to turn around and fix it. You know, that’s just crazy,” Washington shared.
Washington, a resident of DeKalb, Illinois, says her granddaughter now happily drives the car in Alabama. Initially, Tanya paid $3,800 to have the debris cleaned to keep the vehicle running. However, about a month after the repair, the check engine light came on again.
Washington and her granddaughter returned to the dealership, where the mechanics diagnosed the issue and reached out to Ford. “They diagnosed it and said, ‘We reached out to Ford, and it was a recall on it, the same recall.’ And they said, ‘Ford agreed to replace the entire engine for the recall,’” Washington said.
Ford has now confirmed that the car will be covered under the same recall (23V905) that Washington had been trying to qualify for back in 2024. This is a huge relief, considering that a new engine replacement can cost anywhere between $6,000 and $15,000 on average.
Ford has not immediately responded to a request for an updated comment.
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https://abc7chicago.com/post/dekalb-woman-says-ford-replaced-cars-engine-recall-denying-claim-almost-2-years-earlier-alleging-oil-change-issue/18651254/