2017 Lincoln MKZ
This year drew an ordinary 248 complaints for a Lincoln MKZ — the model's median is 169. What they were about is the unusual part: 34.3% of them mention coolant, against 0.5% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 248 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 169 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 4 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 23 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- coolant — 34.3% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the model's other years (70.1×).
- engine — 52.8% of this year's complaints, against 5.7% across the model's other years (9.2×).
- cylinder — 44.8% of this year's complaints, against 11.7% across the model's other years (3.8×). Owners wrote it as: cylinder, misfire, intrusion, white.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
September 2023, 2017 MKZ showed misfire cylinder 3. Had a rough idle started back up and got a puff of white smoke from tailpipe. Towed to dealer who told me I needed new engine. 10k. Car has 64k miles. Dealer says I missed power train warranty by 1 month and…
2017 lincoln mkz 2.0L ecoboost engine Coolant intrusion into cylinder due to cracked engine block from factory defects in water jacket design. This will cause engine to fail, over heat, potential fire risk. Issue identified by certified dealer and lincoln refu…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V390000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V167000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.
- 17V427000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 23V162000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Lincoln MKZ was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2017 Lincoln MKZ? What happened to yours?
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