This car is great except….

[Gordon Freeman]

Found this forum while looking for answers. I went to change the oil at 15,000 miles and after taking off the sound panel, I saw this. The last place to change the oil was the dealer when I bought it last year. It had 5000 miles on it. What I can understand is why I’m looking at all these reports of a plastic pan failing, but this is aluminum and that’s a crack. Obviously I didn’t try to loosen it. What oil pan is this? It almost looks like part of the block to me…a big expensive broken piece of aluminum. Speaking of which, today was my first time crawling around under it. Now I know why it’s such a rocket. Everything is lightweight including the aluminum control arms. I’m hoping the dealership dies the right thing, but I’m curious if anyone else has seen this. It’s hard to believe that the drain plug cracked it kind that unless someone went at it with an impact wrench. Others than that, this is one nice car. Is that a good intro lol any input is appreciated.

 

[UNBROKEN]

Get a pic from further away for reference. That’s awful straight for a crack…are you sure it’s not a casting mark?

 

[Mustang5L5]

Looks like a casting mark to me as well.

 

[2020FordRaptor]

Found this forum while looking for answers. I went to change the oil at 15,000 miles and after taking off the sound panel, I saw this. The last place to change the oil was the dealer when I bought it last year. It had 5000 miles on it. What I can understand is why I’m looking at all these reports of a plastic pan failing, but this is aluminum and that’s a crack. Obviously I didn’t try to loosen it. What oil pan is this? It almost looks like part of the block to me…a big expensive broken piece of aluminum. Speaking of which, today was my first time crawling around under it. Now I know why it’s such a rocket. Everything is lightweight including the aluminum control arms. I’m hoping the dealership dies the right thing, but I’m curious if anyone else has seen this. It’s hard to believe that the drain plug cracked it kind that unless someone went at it with an impact wrench. Others than that, this is one nice car. Is that a good intro lol any input is appreciated.

Fenfab is the only one that makes aftermarket aluminum pans for these cars, and that doesn’t look like it. Like the others said, better pics would help. Also, that’s way too long between oil changes. You should be doing it every 5k miles or 6 months.

 

[Gordon Freeman]

It's hard to get a decent angle. It starts right at the drain plug, and is discolored. It looks like someone painted glue or something along the line as well.
I bought the car with 5000 miles on it and the dealership changed the oil at that time. It's now got 10,000 on it and its time to change again. I'm just going to bring it to the dealership and have them fix it or say that its fine...either way it's still under the power train warranty....

 

[UNBROKEN]

What are you posting pics of? It’s not the oil pan.

 

[BuckStrickland]

What are you posting pics of? It’s not the oil pan.

Not the oil pan, and not a crack, either. I'm confused, lol.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Can you zoom back a bit and take some photos to show location? I'm having trouble getting my bearings here.

That's not the oil pan. I was thinking it was the differential drain but not 100% sure. Too close to tell.

 

[UNBROKEN]

I’m thinking doesn’t have an ST…maybe not even an Explorer. lol

 

[Mustang5L5]

I’m thinking doesn’t have an ST…maybe not even an Explorer. lol

Oh. This explains it. It's a 2.3L




Hopped on youtube, pulled up a vid of a '23 2.3L getting an oil change and even this doesn't look like that plug. Not sure if 25+ changed.




I've spent too much effort on this.