Fuel in oil

[Scott C]

Started my frustration claim with Ford.

2020 XLT Ranger. Engine build date 02/20. Purchased in 08/20.

First oil change 1/11/21.
Ordered Blackstone Report on 2/1 for kicks and giggles. Checked oil one month after oil change (2/11/21) at fuel fill up. Dipstick was 1-2 inches above max fuel line. At twist.

Blackstone report yielded 3.5% fuel.

Dropped off at Ford this morning with complaint of oil being high, and smelling like gas. Will keep you all updated.

I wish you the best. I've had no luck with my dealer. My Blackstone report came back at 4% with 5000 miles on oil and my dealer said they could find nothing wrong with it. Said Ford hasn't determined how much fuel is too much. I put 6 quarts in last oil change, level was just below the full line. 2000 miles later and the level is 3/4 inch above full line. Probably moving on from my Ranger.

Sponsored

 

[Rickfar]

I wish you the best. I've had no luck with my dealer. My Blackstone report came back at 4% with 5000 miles on oil and my dealer said they could find nothing wrong with it. Said Ford hasn't determined how much fuel is too much. I put 6 quarts in last oil change, level was just below the full line. 2000 miles later and the level is 3/4 inch above full line. Probably moving on from my Ranger.

Trust me Ford will not do anything i had my vehicle in the shop 3x oil has been changed 5 times in 2200 miles. Blackstone said I was at 3.9% dilution. Dealer Called Blackstone and a guy by the name of Brian told the dealer that he did not think this was an issue So for all you that thing Blackstone is in your corner you better think again. They can find nothing wrong. I tried to get them to buy the vehicle back it was denied the best I could do with getting extended warranty for 84 months on the power train. And that starts on your delivery date not from when you get it from them.
According to Ford nobody else is having this problem they don't know they've never heard of this issue which is totally bullshit. According to dealer there are no other cases when they send a blast to their trouble guru. it is sad that every other time I drive my truck I have to check my oil level.
So I guess I'll drive it like I stole it and hope the engine blows Not really but you're gonna get nowhere with Ford.
In fact I think this issue ruined my relationship with my local Ford dealer As the woman that was handling my case talk to the service manager and basically he told her they could find nothing wrong so therefore they denied my case to buy the vehicle back. They tried to blame it on short traps warming the car up which I don't do and believe me I have owned many new cars in my 45 years of driving I've never had a vehicle that had this situation.

 

[N. J. Jim]

Trust me Ford will not do anything i had my vehicle in the shop 3x oil has been changed 5 times in 2200 miles. Blackstone said I was at 3.9% dilution. Dealer Called Blackstone and a guy by the name of Brian told the dealer that he did not think this was an issue So for all you that thing Blackstone is in your corner you better think again. They can find nothing wrong. I tried to get them to buy the vehicle back it was denied the best I could do with getting extended warranty for 84 months on the power train. And that starts on your delivery date not from when you get it from them.
According to Ford nobody else is having this problem they don't know they've never heard of this issue which is totally bullshit. According to dealer there are no other cases when they send a blast to their trouble guru. it is sad that every other time I drive my truck I have to check my oil level.
So I guess I'll drive it like I stole it and hope the engine blows Not really but you're gonna get nowhere with Ford.
In fact I think this issue ruined my relationship with my local Ford dealer As the woman that was handling my case talk to the service manager and basically he told her they could find nothing wrong so therefore they denied my case to buy the vehicle back. They tried to blame it on short traps warming the car up which I don't do and believe me I have owned many new cars in my 45 years of driving I've never had a vehicle that had this situation.

The dealers are doing the same thing to everybody having this problem. They do their checks and then they tell you they can't find anything wrong. How long can this denial go on, their definitely is a problem. Is anybody going to step forward and help the consumer out here or are we going to continue getting screwed by a big corporation. Sad way to treat your customers who spend hard earned money for these trucks! And as far as Blackstone is concerned I had the level to the top hole and my sample came back 1% . What the hell , 1% to the top hole from the hash full mark were I had it!

 

[Ranger_RH]

Just wanted to update you all on my situation. After discovering last month that my Ranger’s oil was suddenly becoming diluted with fuel, I took it to the dealership. As many of you have experienced they were very unhelpful, even claiming to have accidentally overfilled it the last time it was in for an oil change. Their solution, remove a quart. Obviously I knew this was not the case and after 500 miles I checked the level again to find it had risen.

At this point I decided it was time to look at my options in getting rid of the truck. Right now the used inventory is so low that I was actually able to sell it to a local Chevy dealer (go figure) for $1,000 more than I had purchased it for! I ended up taking that money straight to the Toyota dealership and putting it down on a ‘21 4Runner TRD.

I wanted to share my experience so if any of you are looking to get out you’ll know that now may be a good time. I sincerely hope that Ford will fix this issues for the owners who hold on and hope to see you all on the trail!

 

[Metalshift]

83 pages long and not 1 reported problem from fuel in the oil. Pretty well built motor if you ask me.

Now the PCV system might be another issue. With a proper amount of fresh air turnover in the crankcase, the fuel vapor should be adequately removed. Could a restriction or improper valve switching be the cause ?

Or is it a liquid fuel plumbing leak that is the cause ?

My guess is it is the latter. A proper fuel pressure monitoring setup during cool down and rest could shed light on this issue. If the injectors are dribbling over time, a bore scope setup in each cylinder will show the fuel drops.

Monitoring the vacuum / boost overall time with an app like torque or car scanner can also shed some light on on the PCV system. Or better yet, installing a mechanical vacuum/boost gauge.
Sharing this info on this forum might help as well as making a poll with approximate times.

My engine runs under vacuum about 80% of the time and doesn't have any noticable oil level increases.

I always warm it up for 10-15 minutes and after any long or strenuous drive I will let it idle down for a while to vent off the crankcase. Just a good way to promote longevity in a turbo charged engine.

 

[MotoWojo]

83 pages long and not 1 reported problem from fuel in the oil. Pretty well built motor if you ask me.

Now the PCV system might be another issue. With a proper amount of fresh air turnover in the crankcase, the fuel vapor should be adequately removed. Could a restriction or improper valve switching be the cause ?

Or is it a liquid fuel plumbing leak that is the cause ?

My guess is it is the latter. A proper fuel pressure monitoring setup during cool down and rest could shed light on this issue. If the injectors are dribbling over time, a bore scope setup in each cylinder will show the fuel drops.

Monitoring the vacuum / boost overall time with an app like torque or car scanner can also shed some light on on the PCV system. Or better yet, installing a mechanical vacuum/boost gauge.
Sharing this info on this forum might help as well as making a poll with approximate times.

My engine runs under vacuum about 80% of the time and doesn't have any noticable oil level increases.

I always warm it up for 10-15 minutes and after any long or strenuous drive I will let it idle down for a while to vent off the crankcase. Just a good way to promote longevity in a turbo charged engine.

For my situation, the PCV system was the first thing Ford had them check. Your right about no reported problems, except for the issue itself. I believe that it is probably because no one with the issue, has enough miles yet? It seems I have the issue worse than most, with 3 oil samples in the double digit fuel % range, yet, except for some bad start up knocking, that only happened once, the truck has ran fine. Also, I've had the issue for the last 13,000 miles, I have 23,000 miles now, and my fuel economy has taken a nose dive. Since September, my best tank was 18.1 mpg and before that my lowest tank was 19.4 mpg. The 19.4 mpg low includes a full winters driving with no other changes to the truck or my commute. I suspect people with this issue will not be getting the longevity out of the engine that those without will get?

I think the hardest thing to get past, for a lifelong gear head, is checking your oil, and knowing you are probably a quart over full, and the viscosity seems way below spec, and it's been less than 500 miles since you changed the oil with a quality synthetic. In your head, you feel you have to change the oil again, but that gets expensive and bothersome every 2 weeks. So Ford just tells you it's OK, it may be the nature of the engine, don't even check the oil level (exactly what I was told by the Field Service Engineer, not directly, but thru the dealer). There is so much wrong with that for a car guy, it takes the fun out of ownership. If you do not have the issue, I believe it would be hard to imagine how aggravating it is. I take the truck back in on Tuesday, for the 10th time, for the same issue.

I do have a boost gauge, using an ODB BT device and the torque app. My truck is probably in boost more than it is not. Traffic on the highway is 75+ mph and at that speed and any wind at all, boost is usually 2-6psi with the cruise set. I did try an experiment thru one of the oil change cycles, where I manually down shifted and tried very diligently to stay out of boost, but the oil rise was just as fast as "normal", about an 1/8" every 50 miles. I also tried a cycle in Sport mode with a heavy foot and all that did was kill mpg. My truck will get it's 9th oil change, in the past 13,000 miles, on Tuesday and that is counting the 5,000 miles I have on this cycle, as Ford wants to see how bad the fuel dilution gets at higher mileage. The level did seem to stabilize just above the twist, as that has been where it has been at the past 3,000 miles.

 

[N. J. Jim]

For my situation, the PCV system was the first thing Ford had them check. Your right about no reported problems, except for the issue itself. I believe that it is probably because no one with the issue, has enough miles yet? It seems I have the issue worse than most, with 3 oil samples in the double digit fuel % range, yet, except for some bad start up knocking, that only happened once, the truck has ran fine. Also, I've had the issue for the last 13,000 miles, I have 23,000 miles now, and my fuel economy has taken a nose dive. Since September, my best tank was 18.1 mpg and before that my lowest tank was 19.4 mpg. The 19.4 mpg low includes a full winters driving with no other changes to the truck or my commute. I suspect people with this issue will not be getting the longevity out of the engine that those without will get?

I think the hardest thing to get past, for a lifelong gear head, is checking your oil, and knowing you are probably a quart over full, and the viscosity seems way below spec, and it's been less than 500 miles since you changed the oil with a quality synthetic. In your head, you feel you have to change the oil again, but that gets expensive and bothersome every 2 weeks. So Ford just tells you it's OK, it may be the nature of the engine, don't even check the oil level (exactly what I was told by the Field Service Engineer, not directly, but thru the dealer). There is so much wrong with that for a car guy, it takes the fun out of ownership. If you do not have the issue, I believe it would be hard to imagine how aggravating it is. I take the truck back in on Tuesday, for the 10th time, for the same issue.

I do have a boost gauge, using an ODB BT device and the torque app. My truck is probably in boost more than it is not. Traffic on the highway is 75+ mph and at that speed and any wind at all, boost is usually 2-6psi with the cruise set. I did try an experiment thru one of the oil change cycles, where I manually down shifted and tried very diligently to stay out of boost, but the oil rise was just as fast as "normal", about an 1/8" every 50 miles. I also tried a cycle in Sport mode with a heavy foot and all that did was kill mpg. My truck will get it's 9th oil change, in the past 13,000 miles, on Tuesday and that is counting the 5,000 miles I have on this cycle, as Ford wants to see how bad the fuel dilution gets at higher mileage. The level did seem to stabilize just above the twist, as that has been where it has been at the past 3,000 miles.

Please let us know what the outcome of your (10th) visit is, and if their finally going to actually try and do something to find and fix the problem! Good Luck!!

 

[Rickfar]

For my situation, the PCV system was the first thing Ford had them check. Your right about no reported problems, except for the issue itself. I believe that it is probably because no one with the issue, has enough miles yet? It seems I have the issue worse than most, with 3 oil samples in the double digit fuel % range, yet, except for some bad start up knocking, that only happened once, the truck has ran fine. Also, I've had the issue for the last 13,000 miles, I have 23,000 miles now, and my fuel economy has taken a nose dive. Since September, my best tank was 18.1 mpg and before that my lowest tank was 19.4 mpg. The 19.4 mpg low includes a full winters driving with no other changes to the truck or my commute. I suspect people with this issue will not be getting the longevity out of the engine that those without will get?

I think the hardest thing to get past, for a lifelong gear head, is checking your oil, and knowing you are probably a quart over full, and the viscosity seems way below spec, and it's been less than 500 miles since you changed the oil with a quality synthetic. In your head, you feel you have to change the oil again, but that gets expensive and bothersome every 2 weeks. So Ford just tells you it's OK, it may be the nature of the engine, don't even check the oil level (exactly what I was told by the Field Service Engineer, not directly, but thru the dealer). There is so much wrong with that for a car guy, it takes the fun out of ownership. If you do not have the issue, I believe it would be hard to imagine how aggravating it is. I take the truck back in on Tuesday, for the 10th time, for the same issue.

I do have a boost gauge, using an ODB BT device and the torque app. My truck is probably in boost more than it is not. Traffic on the highway is 75+ mph and at that speed and any wind at all, boost is usually 2-6psi with the cruise set. I did try an experiment thru one of the oil change cycles, where I manually down shifted and tried very diligently to stay out of boost, but the oil rise was just as fast as "normal", about an 1/8" every 50 miles. I also tried a cycle in Sport mode with a heavy foot and all that did was kill mpg. My truck will get it's 9th oil change, in the past 13,000 miles, on Tuesday and that is counting the 5,000 miles I have on this cycle, as Ford wants to see how bad the fuel dilution gets at higher mileage. The level did seem to stabilize just above the twist, as that has been where it has been at the past 3,000 miles.

I don't know why ford just doesn't buy one of these vehicles back like yours, take it to their super duper tech engineers and find out what's really causing it. I think that they don't want to do that because there going to open up a can of worms. I just don't understand when you get fuel in your oil it lowers your Flash point so low that it almost seems to me like it could cause a fire. I'm just waiting till summer when everything's all nice and warm And see what the dilution is then.

 

[Ranger_RH]

I don't know why ford just doesn't buy one of these vehicles back like yours, take it to their super duper tech engineers and find out what's really causing it. I think that they don't want to do that because there going to open up a can of worms. I just don't understand when you get fuel in your oil it lowers your Flash point so low that it almost seems to me like it could cause a fire. I'm just waiting till summer when everything's all nice and warm And see what the dilution is then.

It is crazy. I think Ford is reluctant to admit there is a problem because it could end in a costly recall / warranty extension. I also think Ford is worried about the timing considering their not yet released Bronco uses the same engine. Could cause a lot of pre-order cancellations if this issue became amplified. Or maybe Ford is thinking like the above member that this just proves how Ford tough their engines are! They can run on diluted oil for 18,000 miles! ?

 

[Blue Streak]

I see a new version of an old movie coming. UP IN SMOKE not the sequel .

 

[2ford]

For my situation, the PCV system was the first thing Ford had them check. Your right about no reported problems, except for the issue itself. I believe that it is probably because no one with the issue, has enough miles yet? It seems I have the issue worse than most, with 3 oil samples in the double digit fuel % range, yet, except for some bad start up knocking, that only happened once, the truck has ran fine. Also, I've had the issue for the last 13,000 miles, I have 23,000 miles now, and my fuel economy has taken a nose dive. Since September, my best tank was 18.1 mpg and before that my lowest tank was 19.4 mpg. The 19.4 mpg low includes a full winters driving with no other changes to the truck or my commute. I suspect people with this issue will not be getting the longevity out of the engine that those without will get?

I think the hardest thing to get past, for a lifelong gear head, is checking your oil, and knowing you are probably a quart over full, and the viscosity seems way below spec, and it's been less than 500 miles since you changed the oil with a quality synthetic. In your head, you feel you have to change the oil again, but that gets expensive and bothersome every 2 weeks. So Ford just tells you it's OK, it may be the nature of the engine, don't even check the oil level (exactly what I was told by the Field Service Engineer, not directly, but thru the dealer). There is so much wrong with that for a car guy, it takes the fun out of ownership. If you do not have the issue, I believe it would be hard to imagine how aggravating it is. I take the truck back in on Tuesday, for the 10th time, for the same issue.

I do have a boost gauge, using an ODB BT device and the torque app. My truck is probably in boost more than it is not. Traffic on the highway is 75+ mph and at that speed and any wind at all, boost is usually 2-6psi with the cruise set. I did try an experiment thru one of the oil change cycles, where I manually down shifted and tried very diligently to stay out of boost, but the oil rise was just as fast as "normal", about an 1/8" every 50 miles. I also tried a cycle in Sport mode with a heavy foot and all that did was kill mpg. My truck will get it's 9th oil change, in the past 13,000 miles, on Tuesday and that is counting the 5,000 miles I have on this cycle, as Ford wants to see how bad the fuel dilution gets at higher mileage. The level did seem to stabilize just above the twist, as that has been where it has been at the past 3,000 miles.

Have they ever run a compression check?

 

[MotoWojo]

Please let us know what the outcome of your (10th) visit is, and if their finally going to actually try and do something to find and fix the problem! Good Luck!!

I don't expect to get an answer on Tuesday as they are just changing the oil and sending out a another sample for testing. The Field Service Engineer wanted a sample with 5000 miles on it to see how bad it would get, and then they will make a decision if it needs a short block or a long block or if double digit fuel contamination is acceptable. I will be leaving the truck though as they still haven't been able to fix the AC, which hasn't worked since last April.

 

[MotoWojo]

Have they ever run a compression check?

Yes, one of the service reports I got, stated both a compression check and leak down test were within spec.

 

[Metalshift]

For my situation, the PCV system was the first thing Ford had them check. Your right about no reported problems, except for the issue itself. I believe that it is probably because no one with the issue, has enough miles yet? It seems I have the issue worse than most, with 3 oil samples in the double digit fuel % range, yet, except for some bad start up knocking, that only happened once, the truck has ran fine. Also, I've had the issue for the last 13,000 miles, I have 23,000 miles now, and my fuel economy has taken a nose dive. Since September, my best tank was 18.1 mpg and before that my lowest tank was 19.4 mpg. The 19.4 mpg low includes a full winters driving with no other changes to the truck or my commute. I suspect people with this issue will not be getting the longevity out of the engine that those without will get?

I think the hardest thing to get past, for a lifelong gear head, is checking your oil, and knowing you are probably a quart over full, and the viscosity seems way below spec, and it's been less than 500 miles since you changed the oil with a quality synthetic. In your head, you feel you have to change the oil again, but that gets expensive and bothersome every 2 weeks. So Ford just tells you it's OK, it may be the nature of the engine, don't even check the oil level (exactly what I was told by the Field Service Engineer, not directly, but thru the dealer). There is so much wrong with that for a car guy, it takes the fun out of ownership. If you do not have the issue, I believe it would be hard to imagine how aggravating it is. I take the truck back in on Tuesday, for the 10th time, for the same issue.

I do have a boost gauge, using an ODB BT device and the torque app. My truck is probably in boost more than it is not. Traffic on the highway is 75+ mph and at that speed and any wind at all, boost is usually 2-6psi with the cruise set. I did try an experiment thru one of the oil change cycles, where I manually down shifted and tried very diligently to stay out of boost, but the oil rise was just as fast as "normal", about an 1/8" every 50 miles. I also tried a cycle in Sport mode with a heavy foot and all that did was kill mpg. My truck will get it's 9th oil change, in the past 13,000 miles, on Tuesday and that is counting the 5,000 miles I have on this cycle, as Ford wants to see how bad the fuel dilution gets at higher mileage. The level did seem to stabilize just above the twist, as that has been where it has been at the past 3,000 miles.

With your experiment of staying out of boost you definitely have a plumbing leak. If your oil is rising that fast and your PCV is working well, the rising oil level is only showing a little of the leakage as most of it will be burning off, as is shown by your low mpg. Having a way to monitor fuel pressure bleed off overnight would be a helpful tool to determine if this happening when both hot and cold. Is it a running or resting occurrence ?
Unlocking or opening the doors charges the fuel rail so tests could be done both hot and cold, timing the psi drop in the system.

 

[Dinglehead]

Has anyone experienced any adverse effects from this? I mean, have any failures or check lights or error codes or anything happened as result of the fuel in the oil?

Sponsored