Cam Phaser issue scaring me from buying

We researched extensively before purchasing our 2018 expedition max platinum two months ago.

We Came from a “tried and true” 2014 Escalade that had tons of issues, we avoided the 2015-2020 GMs with lifter issues, buffeting sounds, trans issues……every make and model has some issue, other than perhaps a Toyota Land Cruiser (won’t fit our family + stuff).

Yeah, the 2018+ Expedition has a few issues but we found a clean 60k mile example, it’s CPO and for $2k we put a 140k mile bumper to bumper Ford warranty on it……if we run into cam phazer problems, we’ll have it addressed under warranty.

Ours has a bit of waste gate rattle, I had the “preventative” phaser TSB software update done, and it seems to run fine afterwards. I will run synthetic oil and hope for the best. If it blows up before 140k it’s warranty, and I have awhile to decide if I decide to keep it past then…

Overall, we love ours so far and would def buy another. My vote is to find one that you like and buy an extended warranty and enjoy the car.

Carl A Warner said:

Definitely disagree with this one. We have a 2019 exp and a 2020 armada and the armada is way better in terms of build quality, no rattles where the exp sounds like it falling apart, and warranty issues. Bad cam phasors, leaky struts, air went out. The exp has 28k and the armada has 16k. armada has only been in the shop for oil changes.
That being said, yes, gas mileage stinks on the armada, but ill take that any day over arguing with the ferd dealer on why they cant fix the cam phasors...

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I'll agree the build quality on the armada is better, but the expy is a better product. My expy never had any engine rattles and nothing had to be replaced, though it did have annoying issues. I just bought an 18 armada with 15k miles and less than 2k miles in, the rear air shock needed to be replaced.

dlcorbett said:

I'll agree the build quality on the armada is better, but the expy is a better product. My expy never had any engine rattles and nothing had to be replaced, though it did have annoying issues. I just bought an 18 armada with 15k miles and less than 2k miles in, the rear air shock needed to be replaced.

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This is a case in point. All auto manufacturers have problems: the parts they buy are from all the same sort of companies - they don’t make them themselves. Assembly is probably the only thing they have control of, but that can be hit or miss depending on the model. Same with design. They can design things that look like they would be brilliant, but in practice, just doesn’t scale.

There are plenty of these vehicles that have no problems. A lot that do are self induced problems. And then you have some which have the cam phaser and leaky shock issues.