As Some 2021 Ford Bronco V-6 Engines Fail, NHTSA Gets Involved

Here's some potential bad news for reservation holders (and owners) of 2021 Ford Broncos equipped with the turbocharged 2.7-liter V-6 engine. A thread on Bronco6G documents numerous failures allegedly traced to issues with the valvetrain, resulting in dead motors. Is there trouble ahead for the Bronco's EcoBoost V-6, or is this issue limited to a bad batch of parts? And what should owners do? We're going to try and answer those questions and more.

A Common String

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It appears that some owners of 2.7-liter Broncos have been experiencing engine failures. Some have happened with as little as three miles on the odometer, but the average of those who have reported failures has been 2,491 miles and happening as early as July of 2021. The Bronco6g forum members have a hunch that the failures might be related to the engine build date (indicated by serial numbers between 21133-21281), manufactured from May 13 to October 8, 2021.

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So far, only two reports of failures have been posted on the NHTSA website, but both are for the 2.7 V-6.

Weak Valves Are The Alleged Problem

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According to a Bronco6G member—who claimed to be a worker at the Lima engine plant and whose account has since been deleted—the issue is due to the valves used in the 2.7-liter V-6 supplied by an outside vendor to Ford's Lima plant. The deleted member said that the "valves were (the) same as other months and are always tested out of a new batch before install" but a defect caused them to become brittle from the heat of combustion over time. It appears that the only bad batch made was in April.

We cannot verify the source of this claim nor its veracity, but Bronco6G forum members have spoken out with proof of dealer repairs and engine replacements. We attempted to contact Ford for a quote and to see if this could spread further than just a warranty repair on failures. They have not responded at the time of this writing. We also don't know if this supposed bad batch of valves affects any other Ford product equipped with the 2.7-liter EcoBoost V-6.

NHTSA Is Now Involved

As of May of 2022, the NHTSA has gotten involved and thirty failures have been reported. For now, it's just an investigation and no official recall has been demanded. This means it's a waiting game to see if NHTSA will force Ford to make the necessary repairs to the Bronco's 2.7-liter V-6. The only notice that Ford has given to this issue is an acknowledgement of it to The Drive, saying, "We are aware of a select number of engines with this concern and we are investigating. If any customers are experiencing issues, they will be covered under the vehicle's five-year, 60,000-mile powertrain warranty." We have contacted Ford for a response to this new NHTSA investigation and are awaiting their response.

How Do You Know If Your Engine Might Be Affected?

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If you're unsure what to look out for, you can check the build date on your engine. You'll find it on a square decal, usually located around the oil fill tube. Under the QR code, you'll see a string of numbers—the engine's serial number. The date code is a set of five numbers after the very first five characters. Once you've located the date code, you can decode it with the first two numbers being the year of manufacture and the last three numbers being the Julian date number.

For example, if your serial number reads EA02Z21002990990, the number you're looking for is 21002 in our example. "21" is 2021 and "002" would be the second day of the year or January 2. The Julian date is 001 to 365, but if you need help, a Google search of Julian Date and your number will tell you the day you're looking for and, so far, the dates range from May 13 to October 8, 2021. If that is a bit of a stretch or you can't locate your engine build decal, you will want to reach out to your Ford dealer. They should be able to confirm this date for you.

What To Do If You Experience A Failure

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However, if you have experienced a failure on your 2.7-liter V-6 Bronco, you should first report it to Ford. You should especially do this if you experience problems with it being covered under warranty, but we have yet to see a complaint on that. Once you've done that, be sure to report it to the NHTSA's website and submit it through their "Report A Safety Problem" link on the top of their website.

Finally, we need to stress that, at the time of this writing, we're not aware of any recall or technical service bulletin (TSB) related to this issue. While we don't have any reason to doubt the reports of these passionate forum members, we can't independently verify the issue (or its cause). It's best to check with your dealer before going in for a repair that might not be needed. If Ford issues a response, we'll update this article with it once they do.

This story was originally published February 4, 2022, and has since been updated to reflect NHTSA's growing involvement.