Problems with the 3.5L Turbo Engines 2015-17???

[Flight-ER-Doc]

No Responses in the General Section so thought I'd ask the 3rd Gen owners.

Hey all, I see used 2015-2017 Expeditions for sale all over the place in CA with 20k-30k miles... Is there a major problem with the twin turbo 3.5L engine that I haven't read about yet? Does it overheat while towing and warp the heads or something like the famous 6.0L did? (Personal experience with my 04 Excursion; turbo lag, turbo filling with carbon, leaky injectors, Ford buy back, etc) I have a '13 Taurus with the 3.5L n.a. and it seems it could use a motor balancing. I can feel the vibrations in my seat when it winds-up. I would have thought a better choice for the Expedition EL was the 3.7L w/turbos.

I drove a 2015 for a couple days and didn't notice any drive-train problems.

Any thoughts from current owners with a bunch of miles towing boats & trailers?
Any troubles directly associated with the 3.5 that wouldn't have happened with a V8?

Is the 3.5L better than a late model 5.4?

I have a 2008 Expedition EL King Ranch 4x4 and took it into a shop to get the A/C fixed. Long story short, they destroyed my transmission and AAA looking to total the truck out due to the amount of damage they did during their "repair". Oh ya, A/C still broken. UGH!

Thanks everyone,

Tom

I have 85k miles on mine, no engine problems at all, except the serpentine belt/tensioner, which was covered under warranty. Something from the cooling system leaked onto it, causing it to sound like it was slipping, under load.

I have had the steering wheel switches replaced, also under (extended) warranty.

 

[coolzzy]

52k on my 17 and I tow a travel trailer much of the summer time months. Plenty of power, decent unloaded mpg (better than the 5.3L envoy XL it replaced) tons of room inside, comfortable on road trips, but a little soft in the suspension department (feels like it will roll over all the time). I've owned a 5.4L max tow F150 with the same transmission and it was a more solid tow platform but that's cause of the suspension. The twin turbo beats any similiar size gas vehicle hands down in the towing department. You'd need a diesel to even compare....

 

[TDGFordGuy]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Ford copying the Suburban was kind of a surprise to the automotive world. Belt line, door lines, spoiler were all dead copies from GM lol. Unfortunately Ford doesn’t make an expy as bad*ss as the RST Suburban/ Denali despite all the copying going on.

Anyway the 3.5 is a good engine, however totaling a perfectly good truck over a trans? I don’t get the situation. The shop should pony up and fix under their own business insurance or fork out the cash to fix. A 6R75 their cost is like 2,500 bucks, sounds like you are doing business with crooks. shop should be fixing it if they broke it and not displacing the vehicle.

See my long answer here: https://www.expeditionforum.com/threads/problems-with-the-3-5l-turbo-engines-2015-17.40868/

Not just the tranny. Not totaled out yet, just doing my homework in case they do. Sounds like the 3.5 in a 2016 is going to be my goal IF it gets totaled out. got to note KBB says $9,500 Private party. But you find an EL King Ranch 4x4 with CA emissions. I can't.

 

[CaptOchs]

52k on my 17 and I tow a travel trailer much of the summer time months. Plenty of power, decent unloaded mpg (better than the 5.3L envoy XL it replaced) tons of room inside, comfortable on road trips, but a little soft in the suspension department (feels like it will roll over all the time). I've owned a 5.4L max tow F150 with the same transmission and it was a more solid tow platform but that's cause of the suspension. The twin turbo beats any similiar size gas vehicle hands down in the towing department. You'd need a diesel to even compare....

Interesting. I thought it was just me. I test drove a 17 last March too and thought the same thing. I went around a sharp curve and really felt it. I didn't buy it. When I left the dealership, I backtracked the same roads with my 2003 Expy and it felt far more stable going around the same curves.

OP: Ford Marketing has a decent video on Youtube called "Ecoboost torture test." It's pretty interesting to watch and it did resolve some of my doubts. . There was another member who was towing a 34 ft camper over 7000 lbs. He performed some upgrades to the truck to assist. With towing, a lot comes down to the axle and tow package. If you're looking, the market is flooded with Expeditions that won't tow 9400 lbs. You really have to pay attention to see if it includes the tow package and has a decent axle ratio. As a good rule of thumb, I try to keep the trailer at 70% of the max tow capacity. Unfortunately, for me that meant going with something other than an Expedition.

 

[Christopher Bryan]

I bought a 2017 Expedition EL in SoCal this spring, then took it on a 8000 mile road trip. Towed a 26’ travel trailer all around the US. No problems at all! Averaged just about 10 mpg when towing and 18 without all the gear.

 

[Ted Kramer]

I have a 2017 Explorer Platinum with that engine now. 45k miles. Been bulletproof.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mossback]

Ford Marketing has a decent video on Youtube called "Ecoboost torture test." It's pretty interesting to watch and it did resolve some of my doubts.

Had not seen that video. Very interesting. Thanks for posting that.

 

[Jamo]

I have the '14 EL Limited and my wife has a '16 Flex SEL. She leases and is getting her last Flex this Feb. Ford is discontinuing them. Damn...we really like the Flex and I'm happy with my EL. So I guess we can call the Flex a baby Expedition...we have had friends call it a baby Suburban or a giant Mini Cooper...

 

[chuck s]

Maximum towing capacity of the Expedition is not affected by axle ratios, only by HD Tow or not. HD Tow seems to be standard on trim lines above the XLT and common on them -- both my XLTs had/have it.

-- Chuck

 

[MidwestBoater]

I have a regular length 2016 XLT with tow package. I do a lot of boat towing, about 180 miles roundtrip every other summer weekend and 2 trips a year to lakes that are 250+ miles away. The Expedition has gobs of low end grunt, even towing my parachute (a tritoon), it hardly ever needs to downshift on hills (i lock out 6th). No big problems in the 3x,*** miles I've owned it (at 95,*** miles now). Some maintenance items need to be done sooner than the manual recommends, I do oil changes at 5k and spark plugs probably won't get you much past 60k. I replaced the electric blow off valve because the diaphragm had torn, most likely due to the higher boost pressure from my SCT tuner/5* tune. Still on the original brakes, the front pads have about 30% left, the rear are probably about 20% remaining. I'm 42 and it's the best vehicle I've ever owned.