Ford F-150 Oil Consumption Lawsuit, Your 2026 Legal Options Explained

TL;DR

• Two class actions, Lyman v. Ford (filed 2021) and Bryan v. Ford (filed 2025), allege that 2018 to 2020 Ford F-150 trucks with the 5.0L Coyote V8 burn oil at excessive rates Ford knew about and did not disclose (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025).
•  Owners report adding a quart of oil every 500 to 1,500 miles, and an out-of-warranty engine replacement runs about $10,000 to $12,000 (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025).
• Ford never issued a safety recall. Its 2019 service bulletin (TSB 19-2365) reflashed the engine computer and installed a wider dipstick that plaintiffs say hides the problem instead of fixing it (Ford TSB 19-2365, 2019).
•  A class action is not your only path. Many owners recover faster and for more money through an individual lemon law or Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act claim, often with attorney fees paid by Ford.
• Bottom line, document every quart you add, ask the dealer for a written oil consumption test, and have a lemon law attorney review your truck before you rely on the class or accept any offer.

What Is the Ford F-150 Oil Consumption Lawsuit

The Ford F-150 oil consumption lawsuit is a pair of class action cases claiming that 2018 to 2020 F-150 pickups with the 5.0L Coyote V8 engine consume engine oil far faster than a normal engine should, and that Ford hid the problem from buyers. Both cases sit in the same court, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

The original case is Lyman, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, Case No. 2:21-cv-10024, filed January 8, 2021. The newer case is Bryan, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, Case No. 2:25-cv-12714, filed August 28, 2025, by 12 named owners from nine states, with lead plaintiff Daniel Bryan of Kansas (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025). Several of the same firms litigate both.

The “Coyote” is Ford’s name for its 5.0-liter V8. The version in these trucks is the third generation of that engine, which launched in the F-150 for the 2018 model year. Plaintiffs say the engine cannot hold the oil level promised in the owner’s manual, so owners must check and top off the oil far more often than any reasonable buyer would expect (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021).

If you also have shifting or harsh-gear-change complaints, you are not alone. Many of the same trucks carry the 10-speed automatic at the center of the Ford 10R80 transmission lawsuit, and owners often report both problems on one vehicle.

Which F-150 Trucks and Engines Are Affected

The lawsuits cover 2018 to 2020 Ford F-150 trucks built with the 5.0L Coyote V8. The transmission, cab style, and trim do not matter for the class definition. What matters is the model year range and that specific engine.

A note on 2021 and newer trucks. The third-generation Coyote continued after 2020, and some 2021 owners report the same oil loss, but the current class definitions stop at the 2020 model year. If you own a 2021 or newer F-150 with this symptom, you may still have an individual claim even though you do not fit the class. That distinction is exactly why a one-on-one case review matters.

If you are weighing a different Ford engine for your next truck, our guides on the 3.5 EcoBoost years to avoid and the Ford EcoBoost engine recall walk through the trade-offs.

What Owners Say the 5.0 Coyote Does

Owners describe a truck that drains oil between changes with no puddle on the driveway. The clearest sign is a dipstick that drops fast even though the engine is not leaking. Many report adding a quart every 500 to 1,500 miles, and some describe being two to three quarts low between standard oil changes (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025).

These are the symptoms owners and complaints most often report:

1. Fast oil loss with no leak. The level falls well below the safe mark within a few thousand miles, sometimes within 1,000.
2. Blue exhaust smoke. A puff of blue or grey smoke on cold start or hard acceleration is a sign oil is burning in the cylinders.
3.  A rattle when you lift off the gas. Owners call it the decel rattle, a metallic clicking heard when easing off the accelerator.
4. Check engine lights for the catalytic converters. Burned oil can foul the converters and trigger P0420 or P0430 codes.
5. Low oil pressure warnings. If the level drops far enough, the truck can throw a P0521 oil pressure code, and in severe cases the engine stalls or knocks.

Left unwatched, low oil can lead to engine wear, stalling, and in the worst cases full engine failure, which is the safety concern at the heart of both lawsuits (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021).

What F-150 Owners Actually Report

Complaints filed with federal regulators and posted publicly paint a consistent picture, and the volume is not small. More than 4,000 F-150 oil consumption complaints reached the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration between 2015 and 2025, with the count climbing sharply after the 2018 redesign (NHTSA complaint data, 2025). You can read owner complaints or file your own at nhtsa.gov. A few recurring stories from those records:

• A 2019 F-150 owner had the dealer install the updated dipstick, yet still added a quart about every 500 highway miles and started checking the oil every morning, expecting eventual engine failure.
• An owner with a higher-mileage 2018 truck completed the reprogram and the longer dipstick, replaced the catalytic converters twice, and still could not slow the loss.
• A retired Ford employee found a nearly new 2019 5.0 running two quarts low at just 2,400 miles, even after the dipstick swap.
• Several owners said their dealer called the consumption “normal” and advised ignoring the owner’s manual, changing the oil every 5,000 miles instead.
• A repeated pattern across reports is fouled catalytic converters, a burnt-oil smell, and check engine lights after months of topping off.

Many of these owners report the same truck also slams and hunts through the 10-speed automatic, the problem behind the Ford F-150 transmission lawsuit, so one F-150 often carries two defects at once.

One detail stands out for anyone weighing their options. Many owners describe reaching for the lemon law after repeated dealer visits led nowhere, which is exactly the path the next sections map out.

Why the Engine Burns Oil, the Alleged Defect Explained

Plaintiffs blame two things. First, they say the piston rings and the cylinder wall coating do not seal properly, so oil slips past the rings into the combustion chamber and burns (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021). The third-generation Coyote that launched in the 2018 F-150 moved away from traditional iron cylinder liners to a sprayed-on coating called Plasma Transfer Wire Arc, or PTWA, a lighter design. Plaintiffs argue this coating and the low-tension rings paired with it let oil bypass the seal. Second, Ford’s own service bulletin points to high vacuum inside the intake when you lift off the gas, which pulls oil into the cylinders.

Here is the plain-English version. Every engine has rings that act like a squeegee, wiping oil off the cylinder walls so it does not get burned. If those rings do not seal, oil sneaks past and goes up in smoke. On top of that, when you let off the throttle, the engine creates strong suction, and that suction can draw extra oil into the cylinders through the crankcase ventilation system. Ford calls this deceleration fuel shut-off, or DFSO. The result is a truck that quietly drinks oil between fill-ups.

Ford described this DFSO mechanism in its 2019 service bulletin and tried to soften the vacuum with a software update, which is covered in the next section (Ford TSB 19-2365, 2019).

What Ford Did About It, TSB 19-2365 and the Dipstick Allegation

Ford never recalled these trucks. Instead, it issued a string of technical service bulletins, internal repair instructions sent to dealers. The last and most cited is TSB 19-2365, released in December 2019, which superseded an earlier version (Ford TSB 19-2365, 2019). You can read the bulletin itself on the NHTSA bulletin archive (a government source).

The PCM reflash does seem to slow the loss on many trucks, but plaintiffs argue it manages the symptom rather than fixing the defect. The sharper allegation is about the dipstick. According to the complaint, the replacement dipstick uses a wider operating range of about 1.9 liters, roughly two quarts, between the full and add marks (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021).

In practical terms, a reading that used to sit below the minimum line, the kind that once prompted an engine replacement, now reads as “normal” on the new stick. Plaintiffs say this lowered the bar so the same oil loss no longer looks like a problem on paper. That is the masking claim, and it is the most damaging fact in the case because it speaks to intent.

There is one more number worth knowing. In the Lyman litigation, Ford acknowledged an internal development target of one quart of oil per 10,000 miles, a figure it does not print in the owner’s manual (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021). Yet the service bulletin treats one quart per 3,000 miles as the threshold for action. The gap between those two numbers is a large part of why owners feel misled.

Is Excessive Oil Consumption Actually Normal?

Some oil consumption is normal, but the rates many F-150 owners report are not. It is true that every piston engine burns a small amount of oil, and a few mechanics argue the 5.0 falls within a wide design range. That argument has a point at the low end. A truck that uses a quart over 8,000 to 10,000 miles is not a lemon.

The dispute is about the high end. A near-new truck that needs a quart every 1,000 miles, smokes on startup, or runs low enough to throw an oil pressure code is well past any reasonable design margin. Ford’s own internal target of one quart per 10,000 miles makes that clear. The owner’s manual admits some consumption can happen but does not print a per-mile rate, which leaves owners without a clear line and gives dealers room to call almost any amount acceptable (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025). So when a dealer tells you the loss is “normal,” the fair question is: normal by which standard? The owner’s manual, the service bulletin, or the number Ford uses to test engines in the lab? Documenting your actual rate is how you answer that question with evidence rather than opinion.

Class Action vs Individual Lemon Law Claim, Which Is Better for You

A class action and an individual lemon law claim are two different roads, and for many F-150 owners the individual road pays more and moves faster. A class action groups thousands of owners into one case. It can take years, and any eventual payout is split widely, often a modest sum per truck. The Lyman case has run for more than five years and is still working through the court (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021).

An individual claim under your state lemon law or the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is built around your truck, your repair history, and your losses. It usually resolves in months, not years, and the remedy can be a buyback, a replacement, or a cash settlement. Just as important, both the state lemon laws and Magnuson-Moss shift attorney fees to the manufacturer when you win, which is why most owners pay nothing up front. Our guide on how a lemon law claim works walks through the full process.

One trap to watch. Many F-150 purchase contracts contain an arbitration clause. In Lyman, the court sent several plaintiffs to arbitration because their agreements required it (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021). Arbitration can actually help an individual claim move quickly, but it changes strategy, so it is worth reviewing your paperwork early. If you want to see how owners weigh joining a class against filing alone, our walkthrough on how to join a class action lawsuit lays out the steps.

Do You Qualify Under Your State’s Lemon Law?

You may qualify if your F-150 had a substantial defect that the dealer could not fix within a reasonable number of attempts while under warranty. Lemon My Vehicle works with attorneys in all 50 states, and the details differ by state, but the core test is similar across the country.

• A substantial defect: Excessive oil consumption that affects the engine’s reliability or safety generally counts.
• Repair attempts on the record: You gave Ford or its dealer a fair chance to fix it, usually shown by repeat repair orders or a documented oil consumption test.
•  Within the warranty or law’s window: The problem appeared and was reported while the truck was under warranty or within your state’s lemon law period.

Knowing what your manufacturer warranty covers helps you see whether your repair visits fall inside the protected window. Even an out-of-warranty truck can have a claim if you reported the issue while still covered.

How to Protect Your Claim, Step by Step

Whether you join the class or file your own case, the strength of your claim comes down to documentation. Follow these steps in order.

1.  Log every quart you add: Note the date, mileage, and amount each time you top off. A simple phone note works. This log is your single best piece of evidence.
2. Ask the dealer for a written oil consumption test: Ford has a formal test that measures loss over about 1,000 miles. Insist the result is printed and added to your file.
3.  Keep every repair order: Save all paperwork that mentions oil, the PCM reflash, the dipstick swap, or TSB 19-2365. Get a copy before you leave the service desk.
4. Check whether the TSB was performed: Confirm whether your PCM was reflashed and your dipstick replaced. If the new dipstick now reads “normal” while you are still adding oil, that supports the masking claim.
5. File a complaint with NHTSA: Reporting your truck at nhtsa.gov (a government site) adds to the public record that regulators and attorneys rely on.
6. Have a lemon law attorney review your case: Before you settle or assume the class is your only option, get a free case review so you can compare an individual claim against the class.

What Your Case Could Be Worth

The value depends on your truck’s price, your mileage, and how the claim resolves. An individual lemon law win typically delivers one of three outcomes, and a buyback is the most common.

1. Buyback: Ford repurchases the truck, refunding your payments and down payment, minus a mileage offset for the use you got before the defect appeared.
2.  Replacement: Ford provides a comparable new F-150 in place of your defective one.
3. Cash and keep: You keep the truck and receive a cash settlement for the diminished value and your trouble.

Under Magnuson-Moss and most state lemon laws, Ford also covers your attorney fees when you prevail, so the recovery stays in your pocket. To estimate a buyback figure for your own truck, try our lemon law buyback calculator. And because most lemon law attorneys work on a fee-shifting basis, you can confirm what a lemon law attorney costs before you commit, which for most owners is nothing up front.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Ford F-150 Oil Consumption Lawsuit

What is the Ford F-150 oil consumption lawsuit about?

It is two class actions, Lyman v. Ford (2021) and Bryan v. Ford (2025), filed in Michigan federal court. They claim 2018 to 2020 F-150 trucks with the 5.0L Coyote V8 burn oil at excessive rates and that Ford concealed the defect instead of recalling the trucks (Bryan v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2025).

Which Ford F-150 trucks are included?

The class covers 2018, 2019, and 2020 F-150 pickups equipped with the 5.0L Coyote V8. Trucks with the EcoBoost or 3.3L V6 are not part of these oil-consumption cases. Owners of 2021 and newer trucks with the same symptom may still have an individual claim even though they fall outside the class.

Is there a recall for the F-150 oil consumption problem?

No. Ford has not issued a safety recall for the 5.0 oil consumption issue, and there is no NHTSA recall for it. Ford addressed it through service bulletins, including TSB 19-2365, which reflashed the engine computer and installed a wider dipstick (Ford TSB 19-2365, 2019). You can check current recalls anytime at nhtsa.gov.

How much oil consumption is considered normal?

A small amount is normal, but the rates in these cases are not. Ford’s internal development target is about one quart per 10,000 miles, while its own bulletin treats one quart per 3,000 miles as the point for action (Lyman v. Ford, E.D. Mich., 2021). Many owners report a quart every 500 to 1,500 miles, which is well beyond either standard.

Can I file my own claim instead of joining the class action?

Yes. You can pursue an individual claim under your state lemon law or the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. An individual claim is built around your truck and usually resolves faster, with a buyback, replacement, or cash settlement, and the manufacturer typically pays your attorney fees when you win.

How much does a lemon law attorney cost for an F-150 case?

For most owners, nothing up front. State lemon laws and Magnuson-Moss shift attorney fees to the manufacturer when you prevail, so reputable lemon law firms work on that basis. You can read more about how lemon law attorney fees work before you start.

Key Takeaways

1. Two Michigan class actions target 2018 to 2020 F-150 trucks with the 5.0L Coyote V8 over excessive oil consumption Ford allegedly concealed.
2. Ford never recalled the trucks. TSB 19-2365 reflashed the PCM and added a wider dipstick that plaintiffs say masks the loss.
3.  Ford’s internal target of one quart per 10,000 miles is far below what owners actually experience, which undercuts the “it’s normal” defense.
4. A class action is slow and pays little per truck. An individual lemon law or Magnuson-Moss claim is often faster and larger, with fees paid by Ford.
5. More than 4,000 F-150 oil consumption complaints reached NHTSA between 2015 and 2025, and owners report the TSB dipstick and reprogram often fail to stop the loss.
6.  Document every quart, get a written oil consumption test, and have a lemon law attorney review your truck before you settle or rely on the class.

Think your F-150 is a lemon? Lemon My Vehicle connects owners across all 50 states with experienced lemon law attorneys, and most cases cost you nothing up front. Get a free case review and find out whether a buyback, replacement, or cash settlement is within reach.