Well it looks like I may be getting a new engine under warranty. Kinda upset about my weekend plans... but this will be a very good thing if it happens.
So... Here's the deal lol.
2012, JKUR, auto, 4.10s, 35s
For the last 2+ years I've been bitching to my dealer about my engine overheating. I would rarely hit the red line, but the engine temps would fluctuate wildly whenever the engine was under load. When talking to others with the same spec's (33s, 4.10s, auto, 3.6L), none of them would have an issue anything close to mine. My dealer up here has been amazing, and everytime I **************, they'd look into it. Never once did they find anything. Eventually, they charged me $100 or so CND, and said it's "normal", and that anything under the red line is fine and not to complain about it again in the future. Okay, well that sucks, but whatever. I had at the time another 3+ years and around 80,000 km left (50k miles) of warranty.
They've gone above and beyond almost every time I've had an issue, replacing far more under warranty then required. About 5 mths ago they replaced a bunch of the phasers and the timing chain under warranty. While they were in there because I was around 80,000 KM, I had them do the PCV valve and the spark plugs (they did it labor free).
About 2 weeks ago I had an error code P066D (I think that was it). They said that error code didn't come up in their scanner and asked that I look into it and get back to them (if it came back - they cleared it). Needless to say it came back the next day or so. When I looked into it, it said it was an Oil Pump issue, and that those that replaced the oil pump didn't have another issue. I sent them the info I found online and we booked an apt for a few weeks out (yesterday) to replace the oil pump under warranty.
On Tuesday the dealer phoned me and said they were crazy busy and asked if they could bump my apt for another week. I explained that I had a camping trip up into the mountains planed for this weekend an not being able to go over 3500 RMP blew ***. They said they'd start it Wednesday and finish it on Thursday (today) and give me a loaner for the night - which I was more than fine with (I don't care if I drive a grocery getter for a day when I'm at work for most of it). Well today at 5pm I call them and said I was on my way down there... except I didn't hear the usual "Yeah it's ready" - instead I got "you should come down and talk to the tech". It's like oh ****... I'm suppose to be leaving on a camping trip in the next 2-3 hours.
Anyway I go down there and they take me into the back to talk to the tech that's working on my jeep (same tech that had a bunch of extra work done on it last time under warranty). Well the first thing he says is that when draining the oil, he saw what he thought was a lot of metal in my oil (and there wasn't nearly enough oil in the engine). So he pulled the oil pan and found a whole bunch of metal filings in the oil pan - and not little ones. And that when he looked into it a little me, he can't find out where they're coming from. What he did find was this:
- My engine only had ~2.5-3L of oil in it (last oil change done by that dealer was 3,000 km ago). I've never once burnt oil or needed to top off oil in between oil changes.
- My PCV valve (that they replaced at said oil change) was sucking oil into my engine
- A LOT of metal filings in the oil pan and the oil that came out looked a very shiny metallic. Yeah, I'm no mechanic, but it looked very wrong. And when he showed me the oil pan, there were a ton of filings in the bottom of it.
Anyway, he figured that if he jumped through the hoops that he could get me a new engine under warranty. He just needed a little time to jump through the hoops. So meanwhile a big part of me is jumping for joy. **** yes, a new engine after 90,000 km. I've sworn up and down that there was something wrong with that engine for the past 40/50,000 km. The other part of me is whining that I won't have my jeep for this weekend (one of the few remaining weekends left of our summer) to go camping. I'll find out in the morning if I can get something from them with a hitch so I can tow my little m101 (around 1300 lbs). Otherwise I'll just say **** it and unpack my m101 and toss my camping gear in the journey and sleep in that. Not nearly as good... but better than wasting one of the few weekends we have left.
Meanwhile I'm praying like hell that Dodge will call me tomorrow and say that I'm getting a new engine, and will just have to suck up using their loaner for a while.