Thread: Broken Crankshaft - a possible contributing reason?

Originally Posted by veebs

Lots of views and theories, without anything definitive,

I think it’s a combination of manufacturing and the duty cycle on these engines. In other cars the same engine doesn’t work half as hard - in a disco, it’s a heavy chassis, can be loaded or towing etc.

Suddenly, the manufacturing tolerances aren’t good enough, and you get random snaps from cranks that sit towards the edge, but not outside that tolerance range.

So one would think all the "tuned" engines would be failing,but that seems not to be the case.Exhaust manifolds can crack,but the engines don't seem to fail.
And the ones that tow would be failing.

There is no difinitive reason why some fail,it is probably a combination of factors as i said in me previous post.Poor QC,poor design and engineering

Although LR and Ford would know exactly what the problem is,but they won't be telling anyone.

I am surprised the manufacturer has got away with the issue,surely at least a class action would be appropriate.

Continuing to sell vehicles for decades with known problematic engines, one would think could line the pockets of those in the legal fraternity.

I don't think QC is a problem - lots of these cars are running just fine, and this engine works well in other vehicles too

QC will have a tolerance to work within. For example, the crank may have X amount of graphite in it, +/- a permitted variance. In these cars, where the crank sits too close to one end, it might be at higher risk, but still needs environmental conditions to actually snap. (Like towing, tuning, heavy foot, light foot, hilly roads, fast roads, hot climate, cold climate, etc etc etc)

Ultimately, I'm guessing as much as any keyboard warrior. As you say, only Ford / LR will be in a position to know more, though given their silence around this whole thing, I wonder if they are guessing as much as we are?

Or, they know that inaction plus risk of a class action is still cheaper than a global recall...