Oil cooler failure - first hand experiences?

[FM GT]

My car isn't tracked but I'm a sometimes aggressive driver, can't help it with the exhaust sound. I'm more often aggressive now since it's more a weekend car. Half my mileage is start stop driving. The other half was reasonable cross country driving. The temperatures climb very noticeably while waiting at traffic lights with this car. To give you an idea, when it was my daily, I was using 20 to 26 l per 100km so it's not often working in its efficient range. My long term consumption is about 18 l per 100km.

That's pretty crazy. My fuel consumption in the last 1200km has been about 10.8-11l/100km and most of that done in sports+ mode with manual paddle shifts. Long term consumption has been about 11~11.2l/km. A/c always on, never have thought about saving fuel etc. I only use BP 98/Shell V Power 98 if that makes a difference. Hope everything goes well for you. Just to add my 2c, I'd probably like to check out the oil myself to decide if it would need a new engine or not, or at least get it in writing if the engine fails due to the dealer not replacing the engine, that they'll rectify it in the future. I'm not sure about consumer laws in South Africa but I'd check that out if I was you

In other news, does anyone in Perth know of a good local installer of the Harrop kits? The ones from the Harrop website seem to have fairly low ratings on Google. There's a local shop that does the Streetfighter/KPM kit for $1.7k installed and I wanted to compare prices. If anyone knows which one is better it'd be great too. For now I bought some butchers paper to do that ghetto trick that Ben James posted on page 30

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[plasmid]

I followed the strategy (on some Australian forums) of replacing the Oil Cooler Assembly (from -'B' to ‘-D’), which apparently was the only crucial difference in the area from the 2016/17 models to 2018 onwards. All good so far, after 28k miles (and my car was an April 2016 build - right in the centre of the batch that was hit frequently by these failures)

I am located in Australia and have an early 2017 GT build. Decided to purchase the 'revised' oil cooler; GR3Z-6A642-D.

When the box arrived it had the 'new' part number on it but the actual cooler had a different part number on it. The part number is GR3E-6A642-GA. Suprisingly this part number is exactly the same as what is on the current cooler that is on the car! Even identical dates on it; 27/9/16...

When I asked the parts guy what was happening he wasn't too confident and said that should be ok!

So who knows....

 

[v8hgt]

It would appear that the 10 speed auto uses this same part as it’s cooler. Maybe the D
Suffix is related to its use on the trans

 

[GT 550]

Good thinking to check. Mismatching part # no less, awesome. I hope you asked parts guy to get one with the right number or please explain. 'Should be ok' = 'I can't be stuffed thinking about it'. Clowns.

I just had the Harrop put on, reluctantly. The oem bit was stamped 2/9/2018 so probably 9 Feb and had an A suffix.

If only Ford Australia would stop being such muppets about this.

 

[Madstang]

I am located in Australia and have an early 2017 GT build. Decided to purchase the 'revised' oil cooler; GR3Z-6A642-D.

When the box arrived it had the 'new' part number on it but the actual cooler had a different part number on it. The part number is GR3E-6A642-GA. Suprisingly this part number is exactly the same as what is on the current cooler that is on the car! Even identical dates on it; 27/9/16...

When I asked the parts guy what was happening he wasn't too confident and said that should be ok!

So who knows....

I believe that GR3E-6A642-GA is the engineering number, which will stay the same when a part is upgraded, except that the 'GA' changes (it would have been 'FA'). The GR3Z-6A642-D is the serial number, and the 'D' would change (from 'B'). This all suggests a changed oil cooler (hopefully for the better !). If you bought a boxed 'GA' and that was the same as the original on your car, then I think your car had the latest cooler on it originally. (one of the first on the early builds).
Also, if oil and water is mixed on failure, the TSB tells the dealer to change the engine (that TSB is on this forum). If the failure is just an external oil leak, then only the cooler is changed.
Hope this helps.

 

[Since-64]

That's pretty crazy. My fuel consumption in the last 1200km has been about 10.8-11l/100km and most of that done in sports+ mode with manual paddle shifts. Long term consumption has been about 11~11.2l/km. A/c always on, never have thought about saving fuel etc. I only use BP 98/Shell V Power 98 if that makes a difference. Hope everything goes well for you. Just to add my 2c, I'd probably like to check out the oil myself to decide if it would need a new engine or not, or at least get it in writing if the engine fails due to the dealer not replacing the engine, that they'll rectify it in the future. I'm not sure about consumer laws in South Africa but I'd check that out if I was you

In other news, does anyone in Perth know of a good local installer of the Harrop kits? The ones from the Harrop website seem to have fairly low ratings on Google. There's a local shop that does the Streetfighter/KPM kit for $1.7k installed and I wanted to compare prices. If anyone knows which one is better it'd be great too. For now I bought some butchers paper to do that ghetto trick that Ben James posted on page 30

Have been running the streetfighter oil cooler now for two years, paid $1500.00 at streetfighter in SA. Arranged to have it fitted while I was there on holiday. My car was a December 2015 build so had it changed for peace of mind. If you have any questions talk to David Roscio at KPM streetfighter very helpful person.

 

[plasmid]

I'm in Aus (RHD). I was looking at the Mishimoto oil cooler. Mainly to overcome the possibility of the failure.

The Mishimoto kit is advertised as RHD and a LHD kit. As far as I can tell the only difference is the 'block off plate'.

However there are slight differences in price. However the difference doesn't quiet add up.

Does anyone know if there are other differences?

Cheers.

 

[GT_86]

That's pretty crazy. My fuel consumption in the last 1200km has been about 10.8-11l/100km and most of that done in sports+ mode with manual paddle shifts. Long term consumption has been about 11~11.2l/km. A/c always on, never have thought about saving fuel etc. I only use BP 98/Shell V Power 98 if that makes a difference. Hope everything goes well for you. Just to add my 2c, I'd probably like to check out the oil myself to decide if it would need a new engine or not, or at least get it in writing if the engine fails due to the dealer not replacing the engine, that they'll rectify it in the future. I'm not sure about consumer laws in South Africa but I'd check that out if I was you

In other news, does anyone in Perth know of a good local installer of the Harrop kits? The ones from the Harrop website seem to have fairly low ratings on Google. There's a local shop that does the Streetfighter/KPM kit for $1.7k installed and I wanted to compare prices. If anyone knows which one is better it'd be great too. For now I bought some butchers paper to do that ghetto trick that Ben James posted on page 30

Update on my situation

Got the car back after a couple weeks with just the oil cooler, radiator, hoses etc. replaced. I continued to push them for something in writing stating my car is safe, as reliable as before the issue and that they were comfortable to go against the TSB. Ford SA is probably nervous with the Kuga fires situation we had here. On one of the drives soon after I collected my car, I lost all my coolant again. Did notice a few strange smells leading up to it so it was a slower leak initially. Turns out one of the new clip on type hoses near the bottom of the radiator broke. Had to take the car back after being stranded yet again. Turns out this was the second hose that failed at this dealer when doing the oil cooler replacement. They suspect it was a bad batch. During this time, Ford decided that they will now replace the engine. They have now had my car for 3 weeks while waiting for delivery of engine etc. but promised I would have had my car back within 2 weeks. Decided to take it back today and only return when everything is ready to install.

Will be a pain to run in a new engine again, especially with the much lower lockdown mileages and restriction on movement. Might take me months just to hit 1000 kms.

Hoping my fuel consumption miraculously goes down with the new engine. I use 95 fuel, we don't get 98 here anymore even at sea level. 95 is probably enough at this altitude (1500-1800m). The car might also need to work a bit harder hence the higher fuel consumption. We usually guesstimate around 10-20% power loss at this altitude. When I am at the coast my fuel consumption does drop by a couple litres. The Roush breathing mods definitely improved my consumption on the freeway but may have made it worse in traffic. Also, the consumption shown by the ECU is consistently 10% or more understated compared to my own measurements.

 

[v8hgt]

We usually guesstimate around 10-20% power loss at this altitude.

I remember many yrs ago going to Joburg with work for a week. Was stuck with a Toyota Camry hire car and couldn’t believe how much the altitude killed the performance.

 

[NZ GT mustang]

We are from NZ and our oil cooler has let go(our mustang is pre July 2016 with 17,000KM on the clock) and we have oil contamination in the header tank. I Have read all three TBS's 16-0140, 16-0153 and 16=2092. From the later we are up for a new Motor. Did Ford ever come to the party in AU? Did they pay for the ones out of their warranty? I have been turned away by the Ford dealer , he said it's out of warranty. I am in the process off writing a letter to Ford AU. My argument is that I was in warranty when they did all of the TSB's. With no recall. I would appreciate your input, before I send this letter.

 

[NZ GT mustang]

Update on my situation

Got the car back after a couple weeks with just the oil cooler, radiator, hoses etc. replaced. I continued to push them for something in writing stating my car is safe, as reliable as before the issue and that they were comfortable to go against the TSB. Ford SA is probably nervous with the Kuga fires situation we had here. On one of the drives soon after I collected my car, I lost all my coolant again. Did notice a few strange smells leading up to it so it was a slower leak initially. Turns out one of the new clip on type hoses near the bottom of the radiator broke. Had to take the car back after being stranded yet again. Turns out this was the second hose that failed at this dealer when doing the oil cooler replacement. They suspect it was a bad batch. During this time, Ford decided that they will now replace the engine. They have now had my car for 3 weeks while waiting for delivery of engine etc. but promised I would have had my car back within 2 weeks. Decided to take it back today and only return when everything is ready to install.

Will be a pain to run in a new engine again, especially with the much lower lockdown mileages and restriction on movement. Might take me months just to hit 1000 kms.

Hoping my fuel consumption miraculously goes down with the new engine. I use 95 fuel, we don't get 98 here anymore even at sea level. 95 is probably enough at this altitude (1500-1800m). The car might also need to work a bit harder hence the higher fuel consumption. We usually guesstimate around 10-20% power loss at this altitude. When I am at the coast my fuel consumption does drop by a couple litres. The Roush breathing mods definitely improved my consumption on the freeway but may have made it worse in traffic. Also, the consumption shown by the ECU is consistently 10% or more understated compared to my own measurements.

I am from New Zealand and our 2016 GT 17,000km on the clock (pre July 2016) oil cooler let go the other day. I have red the TSB's (three of them) The Ford dealer said sorry out off warranty.We are up for a new motor, total cost of $25K NZ(218K Rand) My question are 1) was your Mustang out of Warranty? 2) Did Ford SA pay for it ? 3) was it hard to get them to pay?
The sad thing is our car was in warranty when they put out the first TSB 12/10/2016. They should have recalled them.
I have sent my letter off to Ford AU and Ford NZ acknowledged the letter. I will update as I get a full response. I have added photos, the oil was leaking for a while and went from one end of the car to the other, including all over the exhaust. (Burnt)

Cheers Andy

 

[trumpeteer_au]

We are from NZ and our oil cooler has let go(our mustang is pre July 2016 with 17,000KM on the clock) and we have oil contamination in the header tank. I Have read all three TBS's 16-0140, 16-0153 and 16=2092. From the later we are up for a new Motor. Did Ford ever come to the party in AU? Did they pay for the ones out of their warranty? I have been turned away by the Ford dealer , he said it's out of warranty. I am in the process off writing a letter to Ford AU. My argument is that I was in warranty when they did all of the TSB's. With no recall. I would appreciate your input, before I send this letter.

Send it, Fast!
We could all be in this situation at some time in the future, for a known fault that Ford has decided not to bother fixing under a recall.

 

[GT_86]

I am from New Zealand and our 2016 GT 17,000km on the clock (pre July 2016) oil cooler let go the other day. I have red the TSB's (three of them) The Ford dealer said sorry out off warranty.We are up for a new motor, total cost of $20K NZ(218K Rand) My question are 1) was you Mustang out of Warranty? 2) Fid Ford SA pay for it ? 3) was it hard to get them to pay?
The sad thing is our car was in warranty when they put out the first TSB 12/10/2016. They should have recalled them.
I would appreciate your response before I send my letter Of to Head Office Ford AU

Cheers Andy

Hi Andy,

Sorry to hear about your Mustang.

1) It's still under warranty. We get a 4 year/120000kms warranty here so most are still under warranty. Only really went on sale here in 2016.
2) They haven't fitted it yet but it seems like Ford SA will pay for it. No reason to believe otherwise just yet.
3) I did have to keep insisting that they provide info in writing that they confident the engine is not damaged. They strongly believe the engine is fine as I had no contamination in the oil from inspection. They believed an engine flush would be enough. I asked questions about whether this incident has knocked a lot of life off my motor. Just because it's not broken now, it could break in 10 000 kms time when I am just out of warranty but related to this issue/temporary fix. I think the fact the first fix had issues and may have caused the car to run without coolant again may have helped them change their mind as I couldn't obtain a simple email from them after a month.

In informal discussions with the dealer, they did say if the car failed a few years later that I could still have proof of this incident on my records so could push them for a repair. I tried to get them to give me a warranty extension to guarantee that. I still wasn't happy though as I plan on keeping this car as long as I can not just for as long as there is a warranty.

There is a bit of a fire hazard with these failures so it's poor form that there isn't a recall. Also, engine failure while on the road can obviously lead to serious injury. I had a early build Toyota GT86 with the engine issues of the first batch and, in 2013, had my engine seize on the freeway (after reporting several known faults to them) which caused a big crash and massive fights with Toyota SA. They eventually covered the engine but I was lucky to not have major injuries. They also covered a second engine within another few 1000kms that failed again.

I honestly can't see how Ford NZ will get away with not fixing your car even out of warranty given it's a pre-existing condition. It's just bad publicity for them if this gets out. You only didn't experience it earlier because of your low mileage.

 

[Bushranger]

We are from NZ and our oil cooler has let go(our mustang is pre July 2016 with 17,000KM on the clock) and we have oil contamination in the header tank.

Hello NZ GT mustang,
You are the first "out of warranty" mustang owner to have this failure as far as I am aware. Letters to Ford Australia and Ford NZ were written and if you go to post 109 in this thread you will see how the attempt to get a written reply from either Ford OZ or NZ ended in no response. Please read a few pages of this thread from that point onward and you will get the background. I am not sure of your NZ laws but in OZ the department of fair trading was to be the next organisation to refer an incident to. But there had to be an actual failure of the oil cooler out of warranty to kick off a formal complaint to "Fair Trading" and so far that has not happened (until now). So you are the unfortunate guinea pig and ALL eyes are watching you. As you can read in this thread there have been "verbal" quotes from people that Ford will not abandon anyone who experiences this failure. I too had verbal assurance from Ford Australia's customer service department that I would not be abandoned if such a failure occurred. If you experience difficulty on resolving this matter I can look up my notes and give you times and dates of the conversations, but I am not sure that these recorded conversations (at the Ford end) would still exist.
Please keep the forum updated on your success or otherwise. In my opinion, It is the most concerning issue that RHD GT mustang owners have. I guess that makes you famous.

 

[NZ GT mustang]

Hello NZ GT mustang,
You are the first "out of warranty" mustang owner to have this failure as far as I am aware. Letters to Ford Australia and Ford NZ were written and if you go to post 109 in this thread you will see how the attempt to get a written reply from either Ford OZ or NZ ended in no response. Please read a few pages of this thread from that point onward and you will get the background. I am not sure of your NZ laws but in OZ the department of fair trading was to be the next organisation to refer an incident to. But there had to be an actual failure of the oil cooler out of warranty to kick off a formal complaint to "Fair Trading" and so far that has not happened (until now). So you are the unfortunate guinea pig and ALL eyes are watching you. As you can read in this thread there have been "verbal" quotes from people that Ford will not abandon anyone who experiences this failure. I too had verbal assurance from Ford Australia's customer service department that I would not be abandoned if such a failure occurred. If you experience difficulty on resolving this matter I can look up my notes and give you times and dates of the conversations, but I am not sure that these recorded conversations (at the Ford end) would still exist.
Please keep the forum updated on your success or otherwise. In my opinion, It is the most concerning issue that RHD GT mustang owners have. I guess that makes you famous.

In New Zealand we have the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act...makes good reading
Under the New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act, the act provides considerable protection with or without warranty. Products that are not fit for purpose or with minor faults and could cause injury are covered also. Even when you purchase a second hand car without a warranty. https://www.consumerprotection.govt.nz/general-help/consumer-laws/consumer-guarantees-act/
I'll let you know the outcome

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