I purchase a used Ford Flex Limited 2009 from my local dealership. I had kept up with all my high payments, maintenance and etc. when all of a sudden the car died on the highway.

I contacted my local AAA and had it towed to the dealership for repair. I was told I blew my motor and it would cost $7000 to repair. I was also told my warranty ran up the month before this happened. I am so sick to my stomach. I told great car of my car and I love it. It has been sitting at the dealership for a full month not being fixed until I can figure out how to purchase another vehicle without being upside down.

I bought American made because Ford did not take a bailout and I wanted to support them. I am now going to look outside American made because this was to horrible for me. I have never had a vehicle get a blown engine in all my life. I have seen my kids blow engines and etc, but for me I was devastated. Sad for Ford because I will never buy again from them:(

Car started running rough but then smoothed out after traveling about mile the 2009 Ford Flex engine dies. Costed to side of the road to get out of traffic. Tried to restart the car temperature light came on. Opened hood no fluids on the ground or on the engine. Looked at coolant level and it was all gone. Pulled dipstick engine full of coolant.

Hauled the Flex on a trailer to Ford dealer, Swell Ford in Odessa, TX. They said needed new engine no explanation on what had happened. First thoughts is the same dealer had worked on it about year ago messed something up. They replaced ignition chain advancement guides that Ford knows are bad as they a have tech notes on the issue (cost over $4000 no help from Ford) However, further investigation shows with this engine when the water pump fails instead of dumping coolant to the outside of the engine it dumps it into the oil which damages the engine. Sure enough after bring the car home because cannot afford the $9000 quote from the dealer to repair found the water pump has failed and prematurely ended the engine's life.

Ford's design is costing customers thousands of dollars in repairs that should not be happening as it is well known water pumps often once or twice in a vehicles life. Normally these failures can be detected through normal maintenance checks. However Ford's design by hiding the water pump behind the timing chain cover does not allow for the detection. It appears the failure of this $100 part is designed in a way that it on purposely damages the engine when it fails without warning.

No one should expect a car to last forever and parts on engines are expected to fail however designs should consider this. There are common parts that have been know to fail for the history of the automobile and the water pump is one of these. In most cases the failure of a water pump is an inconvenience to the owner but does not shorten the life of the automobile's engine. Ford's design does just the opposite as Ford makes no attempt to warn the customer that the water pump can no longer be visually inspected is about to fail and destroy thousands of dollars of investments in a matter of seconds.

This issue appears to be on the 3.5L and 3.7L engines. Ford should step up and fix this issue with cars are made with a poor design that causes undue hardships on it's customers.