Leonard to Ford: Fix your trucks or face lawsuit

City Commissioner says automaker should pay for blown engines and other vehicle problems

By Nick Budnick

The Portland Tribune, Dec 9, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (34 Reader comments)

City Commissioner Randy Leonard says many of the heavy duty Ford pickups used by the water bureau have serious engine problems. He wants Ford to pay for the repairs or face a lawsuit from the city.

L.E. BASKOW / Portland Tribune

City Commissioner Randy Leonard is threatening Ford Motor Co. with a lawsuit over a dispute involving blown engines, poor-running trucks that are almost new, and the city’s biodiesel program.

In a crop of about 50 heavy duty 2008 Ford pickup trucks purchased starting last year, six engines have blown or had major problems while the rest have been put on a low-biodiesel diet.

The city blames Ford.

“The problem with the Ford pickups is exclusively a problem with the Ford pickups ... and it is not fuel related,” says Leonard, who spearheaded the city’s embrace of biodiesel.

Ford, however, blames the city, noting that the warranty on the trucks – which includes the F250 through F550 models – covers only 5 percent biodiesel while the city uses much higher levels.

“It’s not an engine issue, it’s a fuel issue,” says Wes Sherwood, a Ford spokesperson in Detroit.

In the vehicles Ford has inspected, the damage was caused by the city’s use of high-level blends of biodiesel, he said, adding, “That’s not covered under our warranties.”

Leonard’s Water Bureau uses a 99 percent blend of biodiesel in warm weather, and a 50 percent in winter. Other city bureaus go with 50 percent in summer, 20 percent in winter.

Whatever the cause, there is a cost. At least three engines have blown, and three other engines have needed major work, says city Fleet Services Manager John Hunt. The city has so far spent $60,000 to replace or do major repairs on just the four worst-hit engines.

That does not include the cost of staff time for a new practice of daily oil inspection for the new Ford pickups and a regime of extra-frequent oil changes.

In addition to the new beefed-up maintenance schedule for the Fords, the city has converted one of its pumps to dispense only a fuel blend that is only 5 percent biodiesel. Employees driving the new Fords have been directed to use only that pump.

That approach has solved some, but not all of the problem. But Leonard is not satisfied. He says that Portland and other cities who’ve had similar problems are considering “a class-action suit against Ford if they do not honor the warranty.”

In particular, city officials say that they have heard of similar problems from their counterparts in Olympia and Seattle.

Kick them when they’re down

At the heart of the legal dispute is Ford’s emissions system designed in response to new federal clean-diesel regulations adopted in 2007. In particular, it’s the system that Ford uses on the 6.4-liter engines in the city’s just-purchased trucks.

As Sherwood puts it, “There’s new technology in them which makes them more susceptible to issues with higher concentrations of biodiesel.”

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