DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government’s auto safety regulator has ended a 2 1/2-year investigation into Ford engine failures after the company replaced engines or extended the warranty on some vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted Monday on its website that its analysis traced the problem to intake valves that can fracture inside some 2.7-liter and 3-liter turbocharged engines.

Documents say the probe opened in May of 2022 ended up covering more than 411,000 vehicles from the 2021 and 2022 model years including the Ford F-150 Bronco, Edge and Explorer as well as the Lincoln Aviator and Nautilus.

The agency was looking into catastrophic engine failures caused by intake valves fracturing, dropping into the cylinder and hitting the piston.

The documents say a forensic analysis of fractured valves found that when the they were made by a parts supplier, the temperature got too high, making them brittle and likely to fracture during normal engine use.

An analysis of failure report data found that the faulty valves were made from May through October of 2021, the agency said. Ford contended that not all valves produced during this period were faulty and that a vast majority of the failures happened before the vehicles were driven 20,000 miles.

An agency statistical analysis to predict the number of failures, and an analysis of failure reports “are generally consistent” with Ford’s determination that the valves would fail at low mileage, and the majority of vehicles with the faulty valves “have already experienced a failure,” the agency said.

Earlier this year Ford recalled about 91,000 vehicles with valves made during the suspect period. They’ll be tested and get a new engine if necessary. The company also extended the warranty on vehicles with valves made during the period to 10 years or 150,000 miles, the documents said.

During the investigation, the agency said it found 396 customer complaints, 825 warranty claims and 936 engine replacements. There were no reported crashes or injuries.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett is now sitting on more than $325 billion cash after continuing to unload billions of dollars worth of Apple and Bank of America shares this year and continuing to collect a steady stream of profits from all of Berkshire Hathaway’s assorted businesses without finding any major acquisitions.

Berkshire said it sold off about 100 million more Apple shares in the third quarter after halving its massive investment in the iPhone maker last quarter. The remaining stake of roughly 300 million shares was valued at $69.9 billion at the end of September remains Berkshire’s biggest single investment, but it has been cut drastically since the end of last year when it was worth $174.3 billion.

Investors will also be disappointed to learn that Berkshire didn’t repurchase any of its own shares in the quarter.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said shareholders will wonder why Buffett is continuing to accumulate so much cash. “Are they more pessimistic about the future economic and market picture than perhaps others are?” she said.

Buffett said at the annual meeting in May that part of why he started selling some of his Apple shares is that he expects tax rates to go higher in the future. But Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he wonders if part of the reason Buffett started selling Apple is tied to last year’s death of Vice Chairman Charlie Munger because the sales started shortly after Munger’s death. Shanahan said Buffett has never been as comfortable with technology businesses as his longtime partner was.

“If Charlie Munger were still alive, perhaps he wouldn’t have sold down the position quite as aggressively — maybe at all,” Shanahan said.

Berkshire said Saturday that investment gains again drove its third quarter profits skyward to $26.25 billion, or $18,272 per Class A share. A year ago, unrealized paper investment losses dragged the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s earnings down to a loss of $12.77 billion, or $8,824 per Class A share.

Buffett has long recommended that investors pay more attention to Berkshire’s operating earnings if they want to get a good sense of how the businesses it owns are doing because those numbers exclude investments. Berkshire’s bottom-line profit figures can vary widely from quarter to quarter along with the value of its investments regardless of whether the company bought or sold anything.

By that measure, Berkshire said its operating earnings were only down about 6% at $10.09 billion, or $7,023.01 per Class A share. That compares to last year’s $10.8 billion, or $7,437.15 per Class A share.

The four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research predicted that Berkshire would report operating earnings of $7,335.11 per Class A share.

Berkshire’s revenue didn’t change much at $92.995 billion. A year ago, it reported $93.21 billion revenue. That number was ahead of the $92.231 billion revenue that three analysts surveyed by FactSet predicted.

Berkshire owns an assortment of insurance businesses, including Geico, along with BNSF railroad, several major utilities and a varied collection of retail and manufacturing businesses, including brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.

One of Berkshire’s insurers, Guard, reported some additional losses on previous years after managers reassessed its policies.

Berkshire did resolve one mystery from the quarter by spelling out how much it paid to acquire the rest of the shares in its utility business from the estate of former Berkshire board member Walter Scott.

Berkshire said it paid $2.4 billion cash, issued $600 million in debt and gave the Scott family Class B Berkshire shares worth a little over $1 billion. So the total compensation was about $4 billion. That means the Scott family didn’t get nearly as good of a price for their 8% stake in the utilities as when Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel sold his 1% stake in the utility business two years ago for $870 million.

Abel is slated to succeed the 94-year-old Buffett as CEO in the event of his death.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Dodgers’ 7-6 victory over the Yankees in Game 5 for their eighth World Series title and second in five years averaged 18.6 million viewers on Fox, Fox Deportes and streaming, according to Nielsen.

That is the most-watched game in the Fall Classic since Game 7 in 2019 when the Washington Nationals’ victory over the Houston Astros averaged 23.22 million.

The series averaged 15.81 million, its best performance since 2017 when Houston’s victory over the Dodgers in seven games averaged 18.93 million.

Its also quite a turnaround from last year, when the Texas Rangers;’ title over the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games averaged a record-low 9.11 million.

The audience Wednesday peaked at 21.27 million from 11:15-11:30 p.m. EDT.

The game had a 21.1 rating and 55 share in Los Angeles and 14.8 rating and 39 share in New York.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.