More 3.6 carnage

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Woodys_Cuda

Woodys_Cuda

Ontario, Canada
Joined
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My wife just got bad news her 2016 Caravan that she uses for work has 2 wiped camshafts. It has 105,000 km (65,00 miles) on it. It did not even have the usual loud ticking. It's not going to be cheap. She'll need to bend over for this repair. lol.
 
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Is that a common thing with the 3.6? I would not think at 65K you would have such problems!
 
Yep same thing happened to my wife's 2014 300c....luckily we had spent the money on Mopar's Bumper to Bumper unlimited mileage warranty (they don't offer it anymore) also got it on my daughters 2015 Jeep Renegade ... I NEVER want to work on the new stuff.
 
RhinoMan68 said:
Yep same thing happened to my wife's 2014 300c....luckily we had spent the money on Mopar's Bumper to Bumper unlimited mileage warranty (they don't offer it anymore) also got it on my daughters 2015 Jeep Renegade ... I NEVER want to work on the new stuff.
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Yeah an extended warranty would've helped for sure!

I wouldn't even attempt a repair on the new stuff either. The best part was even with all of their high tech equipment in the shop all they got was an error code for cylinder 5 misfire. They still had to use troubleshooting and a compression test to rule out a bad coilpack, injector, etc. That helped them find the camshafts as the culprit.
 
Once you get past that you got to use a code reader and that there's a bunch of sensors.. which is like a middleman mechanic... working on new stuff isn't that bad. The oils these days are ****. Who knows where the camshafts are forged anymore or cast. It's all up in the air.
 
Chrysler made quite a few Motors around this time that looked kind of cool on paper but ultimately did not fare well in real life
 
Have that engine in my '14 300 too. My friend is well versed on that engine and recommended the car that I have. He actually talked me out of getting a 5.7l car! I bought an aftermarket warranty and have been lucky so far. I did buy a lot of the Dorman offerings to retrofit when the time comes. Dave the Motor City Mechanic on YouTube has pretty informative videos on the 3.6.
 
I just went to dealership and added 3 more years of FCA warranty as Ram had 98kms pricey, but bumper-bumper 3/60kms. Any kind of failure is gonna be $$$.
If your the orig owner you should be able to get them to cover some??
 
4spdragtop said:
I just went to dealership and added 3 more years of FCA warranty as Ram had 98kms pricey, but bumper-bumper 3/60kms. Any kind of failure is gonna be $$$.
If your the orig owner you should be able to get them to cover some??
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Good move on the extended warranty. My wife's warranty was over and oil changes were not done at the dealer. She has no recourse.
 
Woodys_Cuda said:
Me too. This is her own mess, she wanted that darn van. I'm an innocent bystander. lol.
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I had an 08 Wrangler with the 3.8. At 18K it started knocking and had to have an engine. Took the dealer almost four months to do an engine job. It was never the same so I traded it.
 
Was it 100k warranty? You probably.know but dealership doesnt have to do oil changes.
I found out I can replace my own plugs...16 of the pricks. I get a deal at $20, and HAVE to buy from them.
Hyundai replaced wifes motor in her Elantra. Brand new short block due to Class Action. Had 300 though on it.
Good luck
Woodys_Cuda said:
Good move on the extended warranty. My wife's warranty was over and oil changes were not done at the dealer. She has no recourse.
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4spdragtop said:
Was it 100k warranty? You probably.know but dealership doesnt have to do oil changes.
I found out I can replace my own plugs...16 each for the pricks. I get a deal at $20, and HAVE to buy from them.
Hyundai replaced wifes motor in her Elantra. Brand new short block due to Class Action. Had 300 though on it.
Good luck
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It's pathetic that it TAKES a class action suit......or any suit at all to make them do the right thing.
 
4spdragtop said:
Was it 100k warranty? You probably.know but dealership doesnt have to do oil changes.
I found out I can replace my own plugs...16 each for the pricks. I get a deal at $20, and HAVE to buy from them.
Hyundai replaced wifes motor in her Elantra. Brand new short block due to Class Action. Had 300 though on it.
Good luck
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They look for any way out. Yes, it was 5 years or 100K that she just went over. **** class action on Hyundai too, yours turned out well in the end. So far class action for Chrysler is USA only.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I love my old stuff. lol
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Preaching to the choir! So much unnecessary over application of electronics and no real emphasis on mechanical reliability. It's starting to look like that there are twenty-some computer science engineering graduates for every mechanical engineering graduate.
 
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My Grand Caravan started ticking around 140K and noticed some sparkle in the oil when I changed it. Bought used with 109K and a stack of synthetic oil change reciepts. Late last summer with almost 170K it broke a valve spring! Replaced the spring and the loose cam follower (which was on a different lobe). Cam was pretty chewed up, but still had most of its lobe, and I wasn't going to buy a cam if the valve wasn't going to seal. Still running, but ticking from the front bank.
 
Sorry to hear of your misfortunes. All those motors look great on paper, more hp and mileage. And yet all I’ve heard is “if” they can get past 100k now, trade it in and pass it off to someone else. My 03 dakota with a 3.9 v6, bought it brand new, now has 395,000 miles. Uses oil so I have to keep an eye on that, but proven to be very reliable. They never should have cancelled that motor and put it in the fwd’s as well
 
Those arethe same engines with the oil cooler leaks, right? Seems like a good time to swap in a new one.
 
blind bat said:
Those arethe same engines with the oil cooler leaks, right? Seems like a good time to swap in a new one.
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Yep.. she's already fixed the oil cooler as well as the thermostat issue they are known for. That engine is a POS in my opinion. Very poor engineering and/or components.
 
I'm glad I changed the oil in my mom's 2014 300C all the years I lived with my parents although as I can see that doesn't make much difference. Tried to do it early every 3k-4k miles and used Valvoline "premium" synthetic instead of the spec'd Mobil 1 which I'm not a fan of. Now she has to take it somewhere for oil changes. Regardless my parents got an extended warranty for it so we'll see how it goes. It passed 60k miles some time last year iirc.

FWIW they've made tens of millions of those engines so even if less than 0.1% of them fail that's still a shitload.
 
Love my 2015 3.6! 240000. Guess I’m lucky no problems except for oil cooler leak, and trans at 180. Wheel bearings all the time. Had a 12 grand c that the motor let go at 1700 mi. Hopefully this one makes 300000. Kids love trashing it and the sons getting close to 16. At this point I’m gonna keep reviving it so it can be his first car lol. He hates it! How bad are cams to do? How noisy are the when they go?
 
mopardrew said:
Love my 2015 3.6! 240000. Guess I’m lucky no problems except for oil cooler leak, and trans at 180. Wheel bearings all the time. Had a 12 grand c that the motor let go at 1700 mi. Hopefully this one makes 300000. Kids love trashing it and the sons getting close to 16. At this point I’m gonna keep reviving it so it can be his first car lol. He hates it! How bad are cams to do? How noisy are the when they go?
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I haven't done cams but I did the oil cooler, they're pretty easy to work on compared to most other modern engines. They are more complex but they were also designed with a focus on easy serviceability. In a vehicle with longitudinal (north-south) configuration there's more space to work with. I was surprised how straightforward it was to work on the 3.6 in my mom's 300C especially compared to the nightmare of my brother's 2005 VW Passat. F that car lol.

I like watching engine teardowns on the YouTube channel "I Do Cars", pretty sure he did a Mopar 3.6. That would give you an idea at least of how the engine itself comes apart.
 
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