Spun main bearing - any suggestions.
 

So, the usual story. Minor ticking suddenly got worse on the highway and then really bad, followed by loss of power and a Christmas tree of idiot lights. Outcome, spun main bearing.

57,000 mi, oil changed religiously. Only other issues - throw out bearing at 500 mi, new gas tank at 28,000 mi and new water pump at 55,500 mi. No oil consumption and oil looked fine (clean and good level) 100 mi before it failed. Dealer asks "did you maintain this vehicle? Oil looks like it hasn't been changed." WTF? It was changed at 55,500 with the water pump and it looked great 35 minutes before failure!

Anyway, its just before the lifetime window and obviously well beyond the 3/36. My question is this - every spun bearing poster who reports some progress with Chrysler service disappears never to post again. Has anyone had a success story and lived to tell the tale or do they have to accept a non-disclosure agreement in return? Is it worth the fight?

Right now, it's killing my family vacation...

im no help with dealing with Chrysler but I will say if you cant get anything from them for what ever reason and have to go out of pocket pep boys sells a 3yr/unlimited mileage warranty long block for $2300 but can normally be talked down, I bought mine for $1900 but mine was out of warranty and I bought it with the motor issues

If Chrysler does not assist you make a YouTube video documenting everything you just told us in this thread and post it on their Facebook website that usually gets the ball going and that's what happened in my case

Wow -- Not sure if the above is a sign of ignorance or deception, but an expectation of clean oil after a spun bearing is weird.

If you don't mind, just curious about why spun bearings in these engines seem more common than others. Maybe others that have had this happen could chime in as well, there might be some common facts that are more than coincidence.

Did you run 5w-20 oil? What oil brand, spec? What oil filter? Any full throttle prior to the event? Any regular low RPM lugging the engine (for example off-road)? Any prior overheating?

Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but in the back of my mind I wonder about whether 5w-20 is marginal in this application, especially if the oil shears down in viscosity.

Also, you might want to send an oil sample to Blackstone and check viscosity, TBN, and contaminants like coolant. The TBN gradually goes down over time, and would prove your recent oil change. The viscosity might help determine if the oil had sheared down, or perhaps it was contaminated with something like coolant.

If you had the oil filter carefully cut open, it might reveal something interesting as well -- Maybe the oil filter had a manufacturing failure that sent some metal particles into a bearing.

:beer:

just show them the proof of oil changes. even if you didnt go to the dealer for servicing or another place, aka did it yourself, show them reciets of when you bought oil and filter and disposed of the old oil you changed out, you know, since you arent just supposed to illegally dump if after changing it. its only circumstancial evidence if you do the changes yourself, but it beats nothing to show you change the oil often enough. and the main bearing is part of the power train imo, so thats under the 5 year 100k mile warrenty, not the 3 year 36k total coverage one.

Nio luck w/ Chrysler
 

Alas, my build was in the sad period between Chrysler's downward spiral and Fiat's purchase. I'm before the powertrain warranty add on by 3 months. I got no love from Chrysler customer service and of course, had few alternatives on vacation 4 hours from home. So, I traded in the old girl and some lucky fella will buy mine at auction, put in a short block and have a pretty sweet rig for $5 or 6k less than it's worth. Meanwhile, I have payments to make once again...:doh: