Had a 2012 F-150 throw a rod on me yesterday at a red light

Was sitting at a light on my way to a job in Oak Park, engine was idling smooth, then BAM loud knock and the whole dash lit up. Oil pressure dropped to zero in seconds. I shut it down, got towed to my buddy's shop, and we pulled the pan this morning. Found a big chunk of rod bearing sitting in the bottom. 180k miles, never had a major issue with it before. Anyone else have the 5.0 let go like that with no warning?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelsanchez13d ago

Our 2013 had a similar thing happen but in a different way. My cousin was driving it back from Detroit last winter, said he heard a weird ticking at a gas station in Kalamazoo. He checked the oil, it was full, so he kept going. Made it home but the next morning it started knocking so bad I thought the engine was gonna fall out. Turned out a lifter had collapsed and sent metal through the whole oil system. Had to scrap the whole motor. We're both sitting here now with trucks that went out at 180k, maybe it's just that cursed mileage for the 5.0.

sarahsullivan13d ago

Man that "cursed mileage" thing really hits home. I had a buddy with a 2011 that went EXACTLY like that. Ticking turned into knocking overnight and he was done. It's wild how fast these things go from "weird noise" to "totaled the motor." You and your cousin both losing trucks at 180k is just ROUGH. Makes you wonder if Ford had a bad batch of lifters or something in those years. I feel for you both, that's a hard pill to swallow especially when you think you've got another 50k easy in the engine.