Pentastar Engine Problem

[GHR]

Some problems noted with Pentastar engines. Chrysler/Jeep replacing cylinder heads on small percentage of engines.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120813/CARNEWS/120819959

 

[nwoods]

That was a surprisingly thorough and informative article (remember when that was to be expected?). What a bummer for Chysler to have that issue. I did have to laugh at the quote from the Senior VP of Quality:

He said: "The biggest mistake we made is taking our eye off the ball on service parts...."

um no... the biggest problem you have is faulty engine design and the labor costs under warranty to replace tens of thousands of cylinder heads!

 

[brianjwilson]

They still won't really say what the problem actually is or what conditions cause it. Seems a bit shady when you just spent nearly $40k on a brand new one, and they only say "it isn't a problem except when it is, due to certain conditions..." riiiight.

 

[Ryanmb21]

I became aware of the issue when helping a friend to research a new ride. Big problem and lots of people seem to be talking about it on the jeep forum. I am interested to see how this shakes down. Are there other threads here on this topic?

 

[ihatemybike]

misfires coming from cylinder No. 2.

Valve seat? The 4.7/3.7 were known to have this problem. Could the same thing be happening with the Pentastar?

 

[TexasTJ]

Humm Head Problems on an aluminum block motor, Image that! Maybe they should have talked to the Land Rover People or maybe Buick back in the 70 they sold Rover there old aluminum block design.

 

[GHR]

Haven't seen any other threads here, but if you google you will see fair amount of other media/social media commentary. Most of the information is similar to the article in the link.

 

[x32792]

Some problems noted with Pentastar engines. Chrysler/Jeep replacing cylinder heads on small percentage of engines.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20120813/CARNEWS/120819959

Interesting read. Thank you for posting.

 

[TreeTopFlyer]

Quite a bit of it over on JKF and JKO. It's supposed to be very loud when it happens and on the driver's side. 1800mi so far, no problems yet. Not really worried about it.

 

[reece146]

It's a Chrysler thing - you'd think we'd understand by now.

 

[JFarris]

"You have to have this fuel characteristic, you have to have this drive cycle--and all of these things have to line up in order to have this situation occur," Lee said. "That's why" the number of potentially affected engines "is so small. If it were a design defect, or if it affected [a basic component] like the integrated exhaust, we'd have issues on everything, which we don't."

This way, if it happens later outside of your warranty, it will not be covered? Why be so secretive...you would think that by law they would have to state exactly what the problem is, and how they're fixing it. My 12' JKUR has a ticking noise, I thought it was because of an exhaust leak from rubbing on rocks. Not a good sign considering the check engine light has came on multiple times, and also the traction control light comes on randomly for no reason.

 

[duneyeti9]

http://www.wranglerforum.com/f33/update-on-ticking-pentastar-new-head-137608-74.html
There's 75 pages of this on the wrangler Forum. I have been following this for some time as I have a JKS build 11-12 but no ticking yet. Funny how last week you could find a dozen threads on this and now most of them are "topic not found" RV.net, woodalls, Good Sam all gone, you can still find links to them doing a google search? ****** who made them shut it down? I posted what I read on a Charger forum that said it was a manufacturing problem and I was ridiculed and called a Chrysler hater (not entirely untrue) but I figured I post this guys repair sheet (pg 74 on the above link) and let people read for themselves what his dealer service dept said about elongated valve guide holes. happy trails everyone.

 

[Utah KJ]

Man. I was excited when they finally put a real engine in a JK and now, not so much.

 

[seand]

the problem shows up between 10 and 20k miles the valve guides fall down out of the cyl head eventually causing the valves to hang open. some cause lifter noise others set missfire codes. the problem is isolated to the left cyl. head. its a manufacturing defect that can only be fixed by replacing the cyl head.

 

[VanIsle_Greg]

the problem shows up between 10 and 20k miles the valve guides fall down out of the cyl head eventually causing the valves to hang open. some cause lifter noise others set missfire codes. the problem is isolated to the left cyl. head. its a manufacturing defect that can only be fixed by replacing the cyl head.

Sounds plausible. It also sounds like they have a remediated design and are shipping replacement parts. Sucks that this engine with such promise has an issue. It also sounds like it is an issue that (so far) is only affecting a small percentage of the already delivered engines? I wonder why only some are affected while others are not? I also wonder if they are getting these castings or the assembled complete heads or complete engines even from multiple suppliers and that one of them is delivering the defective product?

Sucks man, those new 2012 Wranglers are pretty nice!

Reminds me of the valve guide issues in my 1987 Mini Cargo Ram (caravan).