egl1962

chrysler claims that only like 1.5 percent are experiancing problems with the heads on these 3.6 pentastar motors and it is due to bad gas and certain driving habits? sounds like a load of you know what to me. they know whats causing it. is 1.5 percent about the amount of people that buy jeeps and acually use them like a jeep is intended to be used. i wonder how much the over heating can be attributed to people changing their tire size and offroading with that rediculous 3.21 gear they are throwing in alot of these jeeps? that would be an intresting stat i would like to see. they are gearing to many of them for soccer moms and not offroading. i don't care how much more power the 3.6 makes, that is a crazy steap gear for a 4x4.

Gort

I'd be curious, too, as to whether the majority of the problems seem to be with modified or stock vehicles. While reading the now-shut-down thread, that wasn't something that I was looking for and I'm too lazy right now to go back and read through all of the posts again.

Having said that, I've got over 1000 miles on mine and it sounds just fine (5/30/12 build). Mine is stock as far as the drivetrain and suspension goes, but I do like to get into it from time to time (without redlining it) and I run 87 octane unleaded w/10% methanol. I also downshift the hell out of it (love that new shifter for 12). Combination of city and highway driving.

Haven't had the chance to take it off road yet, although given the question about the head in the Pentastar, I may refrain from that until I reach a point where I'm confident that my engine does or does not have the issue -- the last thing that I want to do is have Chrysler tell me that off-roading my off road vehicle somehow voided the warranty.

desync0

How the vehicle's used has nothing to do with it, I've got 2 friends with minivans, one with a charger and one with a JK that have had at least one head repleaced. Doesn't matter which vehicle it's in, and doesn't seem limited to "early production 2012 jk's only".

wrh3

Best explanation I have read so far:

Dodge Charger Forums - View Single Post - 3.6L Pentastar V6 cylinder 2 failures

Gort

I'm just addressing it from the point of view of Chrysler's "statement". I think I'm pretty easy on mine (compared to other vehicles I've owned, which have held up just fine -- thank you Ford and GM), so if it were actually the nebulous combination of un-named conditions that Chrysler posited, it'd point to a design flaw -- because I do not beat the snot out of it.

EDIT: If it's just a particular run of heads for a particular time period, then I would think that Chrysler could easily recall the affected vehicles due to the high-tech tracking used during build/assembly. Also, I wouldn't think that there'd be a need to redesign a beefier head (as I heard it referred to). Nor would they make a hazy press release. Just my 2 cents, but I'm done speculating on the issue and I'll wait for official word (either via recall or CEL/Misfire code) on mine and trust Chrysler to honor the warranty (but have a lawyer handy just in case).

BigSteve

I can tell you that VW also has the same issue with the Routans that have the 3.6l motor. misfires on cylinder 2 due to bad head. For those that don't know the Routan is just a rebadged town and county.

Gort

I was aware of VW buying T&Cs -- so I'm not surprised to see the issue crop up there.

I don't doubt that there's an issue with some of the Pentastars -- there are entirely too many people posting about ticking and a variety of service issues leading ultimately to head replacement. Even Chrysler has admitted that there are some issues, although they didn't go far enough to say what the actual problem was other that issuing a vague statement concerning a certain combination of conditions.

My point is that I've seen a ton of postings on various forums and lots of speculation as to what the issue is, however none of them claim to be official Chrysler spokespeople -- ergo, I treat those forum postings as just another opinion or speculation thread.

My concern is solely for MY particular Pentastar and trying to gather as much statistical evidence as possible to make an educated guess as to the odds of my engine developing issues as well as to ensure that there are no warranty issues should a problem arise.

I'm very happy overall with my 12 Rubi and the Pentastar. I've blown engines in the past (and how) but it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed or replaced. And since I have a kick-a** warranty on the Pentastar, I'm going to drive it like I drive anything else that I value while avoiding things that will void the warranty. If it has problems, it has problems -- if not, I'm still happy.

I don't expect ANY vehicle to be perfect, however I do expect the manufacturer to stand behind their product within the terms of the warranty. And so far, Chrysler has done that with all the other vehicles I've purchased from them. I know people with Fords, Chevys, Hondas, Nissans and Toyotas that have all had issues. I just wish that folks would kick those other manufacturers in the 'nads when they're not perfect like the seem to like to do with Chrysler.

There are going to be people that will slam the Pentastar even if it turned out to be 100% reliable and delivered 1600 HP at 50 MPG. There are also people that will defend it even if it turns out to be a cosmic piece of crap. I am neither of those types of people, so I'm not going to speculate as to a cause -- I'm simply going to concern myself with my own vehicle's engine and respectfully challenge logic that doesn't make sense to me.

If it's a manufacturing defect, then so be it. The problem will crop up and be corrected by Chrysler and the engine will go on. I think that most people are reasonable enough to overlook a manufacturing defect so long as it's corrected and the bad units replaced.

If it's a design issue, I believe that the same process would apply but hurt Chrysler more -- or at least ding the resale value of the affected vehicles.

I'm not sure what'll happen if it's actually a combination of conditions as Chrysler's recent statement alluded to -- that'd probably be the worst for Chrysler, but I would think, at some point, they would specifically address the issue in a way that they could save face and still correct any bad units in circulation. After all, they did warrant the engine for 5 years or 100,000 miles and they can't just change their mind after the vehicle is sold.

Having rambled on long enough, I'll say that my only purpose here is trying to separate fact from opinion and try to gather objective statistics to help me determine whether I should be legitimately concerned or not. But I'm not losing any sleep over my Pentasar.

Just my humble 2 cents.

egl1962

i wonder if there is a point where you can say you have a good one a more than likely will not have any of these issues. (miles wise) i have been having my 12' freedom edition for about 2 1/2 weeks now an already have 2,500 miles on the clock. yea i have been doing some driving. but i have not had any issues so far. it runs great.

Gort

That's what I'm trying to figure out. Chrysler seems to be keeping as mum as possible on the issue, so I can only work with the objective information at hand and make some guesses. WendyJeepchick made a great start with a Google Docs spreadsheet that she's compiled based on all the postings in the closed thread (and maybe more).

If there seems to be a clustering of problems around certain dates with incidences of issues falling off the farther one gets from those dates (i.e. it forms a nice curve) then it's likely, at least to me, that the farther one falls from the peak, the less likely you are to experience an issue. But that's just my thinking absent any official information. I could be totally wrong, too. I'm just trying to work with what I can get.

Regardless, I do like my Pentastar -- it's the missing piece of the puzzle that made the JK complete, IMO. It's not like I'm drag racing it, but interstate on-ramps are no longer a mash-the-skinny-pedal-and-hope proposition.

TAT2DFREAK

We are told its a cooloing issuse with that head, but everyone seems to have there own idea.