I wanted to write this article to help those with the Ford 3.2L motor found in the 2011-2020 BT-50/Ranger/Everest understand the common weak points and how we fix them here at Desta Automotive. After owning one of these motors for almost 8 years now and having spent some time in a dealership with warranty repairs, I figure this would be the best time to put my brain into words for all to see.
I will list the things that are common to fail and how I would go about fixing them. Then we can just go through the list and see what we can do for you.
– Injectors; These things are somewhat common for doing injectors close to the 200,000km area, but sometimes they will fail earlier. Common signs are increased fuel economy and a rough idle at times. Replacing these every 150,000km or when these symptoms start to show will keep these running in the best shape possible.
– Injector Pump; With the 2011-2016 models, they have an older-style injector pump that is common for snapping the return springs and sending metal through your injection system, which will kill the motor. Installing a 2016+ model injector pump in these is a great move to keep this happy for a long time. These are a direct bolt-on upgrade which makes life easy!
– Oil Pump; These engines run a rotary vane-style pump which can snap one of the veins off and drop oil pressure. There are generally no signs of this happening until it’s too late. Some people have got lucky and the motor was ok; others not so much. Upgrading this pump with a gear-driven oil pump is the fix for this, and you will never have to worry again. Forget about the dreaded “15-minute oil change issue”!
– Oil Cooler; The oil cooler in these is somewhat common to leak and pump oil into the cooling system. This can be caused by a couple things. The seal in the cooler can simply fail. An EGR cooler could fail and put excess pressure in your cooling system, which will cause the seal in the oil cooler to fail but only show the symptoms of a failed oil cooler. The failed EGR cooler will be the fault in the system, and if not correctly diagnosed, it will cause the new oil cooler to fail shortly after. Or the worst-case scenario is a cracked head/block or damaged head gasket, which will also cause raised cooling system pressures, but this is very rare! There is no known fix for these as far as the seals failing in the oil cooler. Just keep an eye on your overflow tank for any small black spots of oil. If you see these, have it booked in for an inspection immediately!
– EGR Cooler; These have a very high rate of failing EGR coolers. This will cause excess coolant pressure and most times, pump all of the coolant out through the overflow until she runs dry. This results in the engine overheating and, in the worst case, engine failure. Blanking this off and bypassing the cooling system is the only permanent fix. You can continue to replace the EGR cooler over the years, but it is costly and not worth it in my eyes. Also adding a low coolant alarm will give you another level of protection!
– Heater hose to EGR cooler; These are another common issue, as they had a batch where the hose would fail early right where it joins to the heater core on the firewall. You can either have the hose replaced if you keep the EGR system operating, or when we do the EGR cooler bypass, this hose is replaced with a new one which is far better than the original.
– Turbo (2012-2014); These years are the most common to have turbo issues, but they usually stem from other issues that cause this failure. Making sure your intercooler hoses are in good condition and the intercooler itself isn’t leaking/split is the most common cause of this. Also, tuning them with too much boost (22psi at most) can cause the turbo to over-boost and fail. A nice intercooler and hard pipe kit will fix one of these issues, and a nice clean and reliable tune will keep the boost levels in check.
– Intercooler Hoses; As mentioned earlier, these are a common weak point in these cars (probably the most common issue). The cold-side (passenger-side) pipe is common to split around the battery area or up the top under the rubber band. This will cause over-boosting issues and at times throw the car into limp mode but have no codes to clear. A nice hard pipe kit (and an upgraded intercooler if needed) will be the best fix for this.
– Coolant Expansion Tank; These are common to crack around the small plastic return line at the top and leak the coolant out until it’s dry. I haven’t seen any upgrades for these, but they generally last a long time anyway. A good mechanic should pick this up on regular services and note when it needs replacing. They are cheap and easy to replace, so this is quite a minor issue compared to the rest.
– Engine Loom Rubbing Through; Above the timing case at the front of the motor you will find a part of the main engine harness. They had poor support and sat down on top of the thin steel timing case cover. Over the years this would rub through the insulation and cause short/open circuits in the engine harness. A simple zip tie will fix this issue permanently if caught early!
– Auto Gearbox Issues; It is well documented for the auto models to have a few different issues. Most of this is due to the lack of servicing these because they are a “serviced for life” gearbox according to the dealerships. As the fluid gets old, it breaks down and no longer does what it needs, so this will cause excess heat and start to play a toll on the internal components of the gearbox. Getting a thermal bypass and external transmission cooler is one of the first things that should be considered with these. Pairing this with regular service intervals will keep the box cool and happy for many years to come! Other issues have come from the lead frame (basically the TCM) that lives inside the gearbox. Over time with heat, the lead frame will have debris from the gearbox stick to it and start to fail the sensors fixed into the lead frame. Again with keeping the gearbox cool and regular servicing, this can be prevented. One last thing to mention is the solenoids. These can cause odd symptoms such as hard shifting and torque converter slip. The same as the lead frame, these can last a long time with regular servicing and keeping the gearbox cool.
That pretty well covers all of the common issues in these utes, and once addressed, they are a very strong and reliable motor. Most of these fixes are permanent, so they only need to be done the once and then forgotten about. Also, a lot of these can be done with other jobs to save labour, and a few of them are quite affordable.
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us to have your 3.2L checked. Feel free to contact us, and we can see what we can do!
Cheers,
Mick.