smoke from engine and flapping sound 2018 3.5L ecoboost turbo

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dherr2012

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Good morning all! I have a 2018 Expedition Max with the 3.5L ecoboost turbo with only about 41,500 miles. Saturday when we went to turn it on the engine wouldnt turn over and quit. the ingition wouldn't shut for several minutes though. Smoke started coming out from the grill and wheel wells in front and through the vents. The doors were unlocked at this time. Front doors stayed unlocked but the rear doors locked and wouldn't open. This made it so no one in the back seat could get out of the car. MAJOR PROBLEM! half hour later the battery was dead. I jumped the battery and it started right away. A little sluggish on the start up but started. Engine is making a flapping noise (best way to describe it) noise. all the belts appear good. Nothing noticeable. drove it to the dealer and they said they've never heard of anything like this on this engine. They thought it was the battery that died, but that wouldn't cause all these other issues to happen. They are looking into it today they said. I am thinking the alternator burnt up, but what would cause the rear doors only to lock and not release?
 

Deadman

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Thats a huge issue with these stupid push button starts. My wifes car wouldn't start one day, but after the start button was pushed, it cranked and cranked and cranked and wouldn't stop cranking forever and I was sure the starter was going to overheat. It finally quit after a full minute of cranking. After we let it sit for a half hour, we tried to restart it again, but that stupid button cranked it for another full minute. It never ruined the starter, but it didn't do it any favors.....

Hopefully your fix is easy.
 

AKentPhoto

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Could be a battery issue... Low voltage can cause WEIRD things to happen. When you jumped it the car was able to rely on the alternator.

Hope it's just a battery!

Pro tip. If smoke comes out from under the hood, unless you are dead sure what it is... Please on't drive it. Or I would never let my family do such things... Glad it made it to the dealer ok!
 

Soliyou

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In my vehicle, even if the doors are locked, you can still open them from inside.

In fact, this is a safety hazard as my kid opened the door while going 70 mph. Now the child lock is on for both rear doors.
 
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dherr2012

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soliyou
That what we were expecting as well. Although the doors wouldn't open from inside either. The car was still in park since it wouldn't start.

AkentPhoto,
Would low votlage cause all these other issues? including the flapping noise coming from the front of the engine too? This noise is what mostly concerns me at this point besides the fact that the rear doors were locked and couldn't be open. I made sure I drove it to the shop and didn't let anyone else in the vehicle.

I was hoping someone would have come across this issue to shed some light on it, (not wanting it to happen to anyone else though)
 

AAOO

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The flapping sounds like your cam phasers failed.
 

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