Suge94

Was that at 43000 miles it died?

Suge94

There's another thread on here about needing piston rings and blow by causing the consumption, but it sounds like the motors that grenade are from rod bearings going. I'm starting to think these motors are experiencing cooling issues which develop heat spots and warping.

My brother in law just informed me at 40,000 miles he was missing 5 quarts at his last oil change.

FlyinSquirre1

yes @ 43k miles she started knocking nasty. cant even start it

Suge94

Burke-FL,
Did you happen to have a tear down done on the motor to really see what happened. Bearings just don't fail on their own I would be curious to find out what the motor looks like. Some guys are finding their motors were assembled wrong by manufacturing plant and getting some help from Chrysler on replacement.

JKlad

Yeah, check the placement of the rings on the pistons if you get a chance. Pistons have been discovered on these oil burners with the compression rings installed with all the gaps lined up (=BAD) and oil expander rings fitted upside down (=VERY BAD). In other words, blatant manufacturing faults occurring at the assembly stage of production that lead directly to oil burning and premature engine failure.

Where I am the most commonly used V6 (found in GM sedans here for 20 years) is the GM 3.8L V6, which is very similar in vintage and design (ie: single cam, pushrods, iron block/alloy heads, etc) and performance to the Chrysler 3.8L V6 used in the JK. These GM motors have a legendary record here for longevity and the ability to take abuse and keep running, with many at well over 200K miles without any issues and never even having had the heads off. I just find it hard to accept that a growing number of perfectly maintained, lightly-worked Chrysler 3.8L V6s fitted to JK Wranglers bite the dust at the magic 40K mile mark, all due to oil burning and eventual bearing failure, and Chrysler continues to bury it head in the sand and deny there is a problem; particularly since this same motor in its 3.3L/3.8L variants previously had a good record for reliability and longevity in its minivan applications.

Sure, I've spun a bearing in a motor and sent a rod flying out the side of the block before but it was an old carburetor 202ci GM I6 with 200K miles on it & I abused the thing for years skipping oil changes, towing huge boats thousands of miles on mountainous highways, and redlining the crap out of it in every gear. I just find it inconceivable that the motor in my JK, which I maintain perfectly, change the high-grade, full-synthetic oil and filter every 3000 miles, may suddenly fail in another 5 or 10K miles (I'm at 35K at the moment) when I would expect to be seeing well over 100K miles on it before doing any major repairs on it.

Mine doesn't consume any oil, however I noticed an ever-so-slight tappet tick on it the other day for the first time that persisted for about 7 or 8 seconds after cold start-up that now has me worried.

Suge94

I hate to be a negative Nancy, but your probably just putting a bandade and some ductape on it. If one bearing is failing at 40,000 then it's usually because of something bigger going on in the motor. $1000 isn't bad at all I would ask him how much to tear down the motor and really check everything. I've heard quotes of 250 in labor to pull it and inspect. $1250 isn't that bad to pay for piece of mind. You could spend $4000 to have a used block put in just to sell the jeep at a used market price.

JKlad

[QUOTE=Suge94;2016731]I hate to be a negative Nancy, but your probably just putting a bandade and some ductape on it. QUOTE]

Yeah, unfortunately X2 on that. Small shards of metal from the failed bearing have been circulating around your motor in the oil (unfortunately the filter doesn't catch all of these straight away), causing damage to rings, bearings, valvetrain, etc eventually causing another component to fail. The better (but way more expensive option) is to re-build the motor with new bearings, rings, valve rollers, etc and completely clean the block and heads and all the other components such as crankshaft, camshaft, oil pump, pistons, conrods, pushrods, valves & rockers, etc to get all traces of those metal particles out.

You have bought yourself time though and if you change the oil & filter every 500 miles or so for 3 or 4 changes you should get most of the remaining loose shavings from the failed bearing out of the motor and ruduce further damage to components.

bigf350sd

Mines a 07 Rubi Unlimited, 85,500 miles. Ticks in the mornings with cold start up also, and with only 1,550 miles since last oil change at the JEEP DEALER...had to add 4 quarts! I also bought mine used, so no warranty either. Has anyone heard of Chrysler finally saying OK...warranty or not, this engine doesn't have enough mileage on it to be drinking oil like this, and doing something, ANYTHING to help with it?? I mean, sure, I know a warranty is in place for a set number of miles, and then its supposed to be the owners responsibility after that, but dang...you'd think they had heard of something called standing behind their products, and helping customers, etc...

JKlad

Some owners have reported here that Chrysler will come to the party after the warranty period has expired in cases where a manufacturing defect is clearly evident (ie: gaps all lined up on piston rings, oil expander rings installed upside down, etc). The only catch is in some cases owners have had to pay upfront first to have the motor removed and pulled down in order to prove these faults and be reimbursed by Chrysler later when they have admitted liability (so a bit of an expensive gamble, but worth it if it pays off).

I'm not sure what the law is in the 'States but where I am, all goods sold must be of "merchandisable quality". This legal term means basically that regardless of the statutory warranty in place (which is repair/replacement for a minimum of 12 months from purchase here in Australia) a product must have a reasonable likelihood of lasting well past the minimum 12 months or whatever longer warranty period is stated by the manufacturer (the expected life expectancy of particular items depending on a number of things set down in past legal precedents).

So for example a Chrysler motor which has been maintained flawlessly as per the owners manual's maintenance schedule but still burns excessive amounts of oil early in its life and suffers catastrophic failure 10 or 20K miles after the warranty expired would not be considered to be of merchandisable quality and Chrysler would be very likely to be found liable if the case went to mediation or court, which is why Chrysler likes to take care of things quietly and avoid the courtroom if they can (one member on my local forum had Chrysler's offer of a 50/50 split in the repair costs of his blown out-of-warranty motor withdrawn after he went public on the forum about it and expressed his dissatisfaction that Chrysler didn't offer to pay the full cost).

This law has led to many recalls (and refunds to consumers) recently here of cheap Chinese consumer goods such as microwave ovens, toasters, plasma TVs, etc that started failing in great numbers 2 or 3 months outside the 12 month warranty period. You wouldn't need to be Perry Mason to successfully argue in a courtroom that a modern internal combustion motor, flawlessly maintained with modern synthetic lubricants in a brand new vehicle, should be expected to last more than 40 or 50K miles.

jeep2007

I have an 07 Unlimited..60000. Replaced water pump and thermo...no oil consumption, BUT I have a coolant leak behind the lower radiator hose at the front seam and runs done and drips off the oil filter. It is at Jeep right now. I'll let you know what the outcome is...