Transcription
The company's saying that the V8 engines can fail without warning, raising the risk of a crash.
Recently, General Motors recalled roughly 600,000 of its full-size trucks and SUVs because the V8 under the hood can throw a connecting rod straight through the side of the engine block. Around the same time, Toyota recalled nearly 270,000 trucks and Lexus SUVs because the engines were grinding themselves apart on metal shavings left inside at the factory. And Nissan recalled more than 760,000 vehicles because the bearings deep inside the engine seized up without warning.
And if you think this is a story about old, worn-out, high-mileage cars or about owners who skipped an oil change, you are not even close. Every engine on this list shares one thing. Not one of them died because of how it was driven. They were broken before they ever left the assembly lines. So, which seven engines are still failing in 2026? And why is the worst one of all sitting under the hood of America's best-selling truck? Subscribe because I track every engine that grenades, every recall, and every lawsuit, and this list is only getting longer.
Before this video's over, you are going to want to walk out to your own driveway, pull the dipstick on your engine, >> [music] >> and take a hard look at what is on the end of it. I will tell you exactly what to look for at the end. Here are the rules for this list. Seven engines ranked by one thing only, what it costs you when it lets go. We start at the bottom with the engine that nickel-and-dimes you to death. We end at the top with the one that hands you a tow truck and a five-figure bill. Every number you're about to hear comes from a federal recall, a court filing, or a repair invoice. None of it is invented because this audience checks. And look, I am not saying every car with a turbo is junk. Plenty of these engines run fine for years, but the receipts on these seven are the receipts.
Let us start the countdown. Number seven, the Honda 1.5 L turbo, the little four-cylinder Honda dropped into almost everything that mattered. It is the optional engine in the 2016 through 2022 Civic. It is the [music] only engine you could get in the 2017 through 2022 CRV. And it became the base engine in the 2018 through 2022 Accord. Honda sold this engine on three promises, power, efficiency, and reliability. Two out of three is not a great score. Here's what goes wrong in plain terms. This is a direct injection engine, and on short trips in cold weather, raw gasoline washes past the piston rings and drips down into the oil pan. The gasoline thins the oil, and thin oil does not protect metal. So, the bearings and the rings start wearing faster than they should. That is the first problem. The second problem is worse. On a growing number of these engines, the head gasket, the seal between the top of the engine and the block, fails. When it goes, coolant leaks into the cylinders and mixes with the oil, and the engine misfires, overheats, and in the worst cases dies completely. This is not a rumor on a forum. There is an active class action in the United States covering the CRV, the Civic, and the Accord alleging Honda about the oil dilution defect and hid it. There are now class actions in Canada, too, in Quebec and British Columbia, specifically over head gasket failures in those same models. One owner's Civic failed at 111,000 km. She asked Honda for help, and Honda said no. So, she paid. The bill to replace that head gasket was over $5,400. In the United [music] States, that same job runs around $3,000 at a dealer, and that is before they find whatever else the thin oil chewed up. This is not a good engine that got unlucky. This is a design that quietly asks you to keep paying for a flaw Honda built in and never recalled. But, at least the Honda gives you warning signs. The next engine just quietly drinks itself [music] dry.
Number six. The Volkswagen and Audi 2.0 L turbo. The engine they call the EA88. This thing is everywhere. It is in the Jetta, the Tiguan, [music] the Atlas, the Passat, and the Arteon. It is in the Audi A3, A4, A5, Q3, and Q5. One engine, a dozen badges, sold by the millions. And to be fair, when this one runs right, it runs a long time. Well past 200,000 mi. This is not the engine that explodes. This is the engine that bleeds. It has two slow leaks. The first is oil. There is an active class action alleging the piston rings on this engine are defective and let it burn through oil between services, so owners are constantly topping it off, >> [music] >> and if they miss it, the engine starves. The second leak is coolant. For years, Volkswagen built this engine with a plastic water pump, and plastic that lives next to a hot engine gets brittle and cracks. When it cracks, coolant drips out, the engine runs hot, and now you have overheating damage. There is a long-running settlement covering water pump failures on these engines from the 2014 through 2021 model years, and a fresh class action filed in 2024 arguing the redesigned pump is made of the same cracking plastic. The fire risk is on the record. Audi recalled roughly 343,000 vehicles in the United States because the electric coolant pump on this exact engine could short out or clog and catch fire. Volkswagen separately recalled a batch of Atlas SUVs over contaminated engine bearings that could leak oil and start a fire. On its own, a water pump failure is not a catastrophe. Call it $600 to $1,200 at a shop. But the oil burning never really gets fixed because there is no updated part that solves it, and one ignored coolant leak that cooks the engine turns a $1,200 job into a new motor. This is not the engine that kills you in one shot. This is the engine that taxes you for as long as you own it.
Now we leave the slow bleeds behind. From here down, every engine on this list can leave you stranded on the side of the road. And this one has been doing it for over a decade. Number five. The Hyundai and Kia 2.4 and 2.0 Theta II. One of the longest-running disasters in modern car history. It powered the Sonata, the Santa Fe, the Tucson, the Optima, the Sorento, the Sportage, and the across more than 10 years of model years. The defect is almost the same one you will hear again before this list is over. >> [music] >> When these engines were machined at the factory, metal debris got left behind inside the crankshaft in the oil passages. Over time, that debris blocks oil from reaching the connecting rod bearings. Starved of oil, the bearings overheat and wear [music] down, and you start to hear a knocking sound from deep in the engine. Keep driving and the connecting rod can snap and punch a hole straight through the side of the block. When it does, hot oil sprays onto a hot engine, >> [music] >> and that is how these cars caught fire. This is not speculation. It started with a recall of 470,000 Sonatas back in 2015, and it never really stopped. Hyundai and Kia eventually settled the engine lawsuits for $1.3 billion. >> [music] >> As part of that settlement, they had to extend the engine warranty to 15 years or 150,000 miles specifically for connecting rod bearing failure. Federal regulators hit them with a record civil penalty. More than 4 million vehicles were swept into the settlements. If your car is still inside that 15-year warranty window, >> [music] >> the engine replacement is covered. If it is not, you are buying a new engine out of pocket, >> [music] >> and on these models that is commonly $6 to $8,000. But the real cost is the one nobody prints on an invoice, the risk of a fire in your driveway. This is not a warning about a brand new Hyundai. This is a warning about the used lot. If you are looking at a cheap older Sonata or Sportage with this engine, >> [music] >> you are not buying a bargain. You are buying somebody else's lawsuit.
And if you think a problem like that could never happen to a brand built on being bulletproof, the next name on this list is going to change your mind. Number four. The Toyota 3.4 L twin turbo V6 engine code V35A. And this one stings because of what it replaced. For the 2022 Tundra, Toyota pulled out the old 5.7 L V8, an engine famous for running forever, and dropped in this turbocharged six. >> [music] >> You will also find it in the Lexus LX and the Lexus GX. Here's the problem, and it should sound familiar. When these engines were built, tiny metal shavings, what machinists call swarf, got left inside. That debris works its way to the number one main bearing, the bearing that carries the heaviest load in the entire engine. With a sliver of metal grinding against it, that bearing fails. And when it fails, the engine knocks, runs rough, refuses to start, or simply shuts off while you are driving. Toyota has now recalled this engine three separate times. The first recall, in May of 2024, covered about 102,000 trucks and SUVs. A second, in November of 2025, added roughly 127,000 more. And a third recall landed in 2026. All told, close to 270,000 vehicles. Through October of 2025, Toyota had logged more than 2,600 warranty claims and 300 field reports of these engines failing. Quick thing, because this is exactly the kind of story this channel exists for. If you want to know which engine grenades next, before you buy it, subscribe. I cover every one of these recalls the week it drops. Now, back to the Toyota. For the trucks in that first recall, the fix was the big one, a full engine replacement. But, here's the part that should bother you. Instead of replacing every affected engine, >> [music] >> Toyota rolled out an inspection in 2026 using software to decide whether your engine is sick enough to swap, and a lot of owners are furious about it. Worse, Toyota is still building new Tundras with a version of this engine, admitting debris can still happen, and only promising the new bearing is tougher. This is not a 30-year-old design that aged badly. This is a brand new engine >> [music] >> in a truck that sells on reliability eating itself alive on metal that should never have been inside it.
Toyota at least caught it. The next company had to recall 3/4 of a million vehicles for almost the same failure. Number three, the Nissan VC Turbo, the variable compression turbo engine, in both its 1.5 L three-cylinder and 2.0 L four-cylinder forms. It is in the Nissan Rogue, the Altima, and the Infiniti QX50 and QX55. Nissan sold this as cutting-edge engineering. The cutting edge turned out to be the problem. This engine runs on a complicated set of bearings and links that let it change its own compression on the fly, and on these engines, those bearings were defective from the factory. As they wear, they shed metal into the oil. The metal circulates, scores everything it touches, and eventually the bearing seizes. When a bearing seizes, that engine locks up, and if that happens at speed, you lose power right there in traffic. The numbers on this one are staggering. It started in June of 2025 when Nissan recalled about 444,000 vehicles. Then, in February of 2026, it got far bigger. Nissan issued two more recalls covering another 642,000 Rogues. Add it up and more than 760,000 Nissan and Infiniti vehicles have been called back over this engine. Nissan has fielded more than 1,000 warranty claims and at least four of these vehicles have reportedly caught fire. If debris is found in your engine, Nissan replaces the whole thing and the company itself says that job takes up to 15 hours. Outside of a recall, replacing the engine in a Rogue runs around $8,000 once you add the engine and the labor together. For a compact sport utility vehicle that might be worth $20,000 on a good day, that is a check most people will never write. This is not innovation that hit a small snag. This is a company that bet on a clever engine, could not build it right, and recalled 3/4 of a million vehicles to prove it.
And yet, as bad as that is, at least those are last year's models. The next engine is failing in cars that are brand new and you cannot even get them fixed yet. Number two, the Ford 2.3 L EcoBoost four-cylinder. This is the turbo engine in the new Bronco, the Ranger, the Explorer, and a version of it lives in the Mustang. 300 horsepower in some of them. And in the 2025 and 2026 model years, some of these engines came off the line already broken. The defect is almost hard to believe because it is so basic. Inside every engine, a small ring called a circlip uh snap ring holds the piston pin in place. That pin connects the piston to the connecting rod. It is one of the most fundamental parts of an engine >> [music] >> and on a batch of these, the machine that installs the circlip was misaligned. So, the ring was simply missing. With nothing holding it, the pin can walk sideways and gouge the cylinder wall. On other engines in this family, a different part, the camshaft roller finger follower, was installed wrong and can pop [music] loose. Either way, the result is the same. Knocking, a sudden loss of power, >> [music] >> and an engine that has to come apart. Ford issued a recall in early 2026 for 2026 Mustang and Explorer models over the missing piston circlips. Then, just weeks ago, Ford recalled another 1,536 Broncos, Explorers, and Rangers over that camshaft part. All of them 2025 and 2026 vehicles. And here is the part that makes this number two. The fix is not a gasket or a sensor. Ford's remedy is to replace the entire engine long block, the whole bottom end of the motor, on a vehicle you bought brand new. >> [music] >> And the fix is not even ready. Ford has said a remedy will not be available for months, into late 2026. So, owners are sitting in their driveways with a brand new truck, a known engine defect, and no part to fix it. This is not an old engine wearing out. This is a brand new engine that was assembled wrong, and the only cure is to tear out the motor and start over.
Which brings us to number one. Everything you just heard, the metal in the oil, the seized bearing, the engine pulled and replaced. Now, put all of it under the hood of the best-selling truck in America. Number one. The General Motors 6.2 L V8 engine code L87. This is the big V8 in the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra, the two best-selling full-size trucks in the country, and it is also in the Tahoe, the Suburban, the Yukon, and the Cadillac Escalade. This engine sits in the single most important vehicle segment in America, and it can fail in the most violent way on this entire list. The problem is in the bottom end, in the connecting rods and the crankshaft. According to General Motors, in its own words, this came down to supplier manufacturing and quality issues. >> [music] >> Translated out of corporate speak, a supplier sent them crankshafts that were not finished to spec, >> [music] >> and they bolted them into your truck anyway. Those out of spec parts wear the rod bearings down, and when a rod bearing lets go in an engine this size, the connecting rod can snap and throw itself straight through the side of the block, often with no warning at all. The truck just loses power, sometimes on the highway. In 2025, GM recalled roughly 597,000 of these trucks and SUVs in the United States, and over 700,000 worldwide. GM's own filings estimated that around 3% of them, close to 18,000 engines, would need to be completely replaced, and class action lawsuits are stacking up. And here is the part that should stop you cold. GM's first fix for many of these trucks was not a new engine. It was an inspection and a switch to thicker oil. Then the failures kept coming. By early 2026, federal safety regulators opened a brand new investigation into whether that fix even works. After dozens of owners reported their engines failed again after the dealer serviced them. Regulators are now also looking at 2019 and 2020 trucks that were never part of the recall at all. On a recalled truck, the replacement is covered and the job runs 18 hours or more. But out of warranty, dropping a new 6.2 L V8 into one of these trucks can run 12 to 15,000 dollars once the engine and the labor are paid for. This is not a fluke in some niche model. This is the engine in America's best-selling truck. It can throw a rod through the block without warning [music] and the people who already got it fixed are the ones the government is now worried about.
So, go back to that dipstick. >> [music] >> Whatever you drive, pull it, wipe it, and pull it again. If the oil smells like gasoline >> [music] >> or if it glitters with the tiniest specs of metal when you tilt it in the light, >> [music] >> that is not normal. And on the engines we just covered, that is the first sign of exactly what put them on this list because that is the thread running through all seven. Not one of these engines failed because of how it was driven. Every single one was broken at the factory on the assembly line before the first owner ever [music] turned the key. That is not a maintenance problem. That is a manufacturing problem and you are the one left holding the bill. So, before you sign for any of these, new or used, check the engine code, check the recall, and smell the oil. Toyota's third recall just landed. Ford's fix is not coming until late this year and the government is still digging into that GM V8. I will be here with the numbers on every one of them. Subscribe because this list is not finished and neither are they.