Lifter Tick

[tehfrr]

At about 90k miles, heard a ticking noise coming from the engine. Called the dealer to get it in and looked at. Earliest they could do was a month out.
Finally brought it in and found out it needed almost $3,000 worth of work. I was told it didnt have anything to do with the way I drive, its just a Jeep thing with the 6 cylinder engines. Said he had one in a few days ago with the same issue at about 15k miles.

The best part was when he told me if I brought it in sooner the repair would have been easier. Uh, yeah, I was told to come back in a month.

Thankfully I got the extended warranty and it will be paid in full minus $100. Still though, from research this has been an issue since at least the JK line. WTF Jeep? I tell ya, the Jeep is fun but my Audis never had all these problems..

Pic of parts that need to be replaced (circled items they had in stock local)

Sponsored

 

[mwilk012]

Their prices are too high if one bank priced out at 3k. It’s an easy repair so long as they can get the block cleaned of all the metal debris.

you weren’t supposed to drive it for a month while you waited for an appointment by the way.

 

[tehfrr]

Well considering I explained the issue as detailed as I could to the person on the phone and they didn’t say anything other than soonest we can get you in is X day.. combined with the fact that I’ve never dealt with or seen this issue before, a ticking sound wasn’t an obvious sign to park it and take a rental to work for a month.

 

[OrneryBear]

Their prices are too high if one bank priced out at 3k. It’s an easy repair so long as they can get the block cleaned of all the metal debris.

you weren’t supposed to drive it for a month while you waited for an appointment by the way.

Just looking at the parts what do you think happened? I'm not familiar with these 3.6l engines.

 

[mwilk012]

Just looking at the parts what do you think happened? I'm not familiar with these 3.6l engines.

this is a gen 1 pentastar but the design is similar.

these roller bearings on the rocker arm fail:

then the cam lobe gets destroyed (sorry this one isn’t catastrophic)

if you catch it early, you just need to pull the valve cover, replace the rocker arm and lifter, and maybe do a little bit of cleaning. once the cam is damaged, I recommend engine replacement. It’s reparable but not guaranteed. If an oil passage gets blocked up with finely ground bits of camshaft, the VVT system wil stop functioning and you’ll end up in limp mode.

 

[OrneryBear]

this is a gen 1 pentastar but the design is similar.

these roller bearings on the rocker arm fail:

then the cam lobe gets destroyed (sorry this one isn’t catastrophic)

if you catch it early, you just need to pull the valve cover, replace the rocker arm and lifter, and maybe do a little bit of cleaning. once the cam is damaged, I recommend engine replacement. It’s reparable but not guaranteed. If an oil passage gets blocked up with finely ground bits of camshaft, the VVT system wil stop functioning and you’ll end up in limp mode.

Yup got, and it galls the hell out of the cam lobe. That's kinda what I suspected just looking at the parts list but not knowing these engines I wasn't about to say. I used to have an 02-05 gen civic si, and the early ones had a similar issue. On those it would actually wear a groove into the cam lobe if left alone. Those were less detectable by noise since they were pretty noisy valves to begin with. It was so bad that when I type in "cam galling" it's the first result on google ha! The metallurgy on those cams wasn't right and the 5w20 they suggested for cafe standards was deemed the primary cause since the engine was actually designed by honda to run 5w30.

 

[tehfrr]

Yeah they said the camshaft was scored. They then told me exactly that - if I would’ve got it in right away the repair would’ve been smaller. When I told them I called it in right away and was told to come back in a month, he said that must have been before I got hired, I’ve been here a month ??‍
The cost wasn’t right at 3, I rounded, it’s a little lower but not much, 2.8 maybe IDK. Still. Not cheap.

 

[JLR_AEV]

Sooooo are they fixing it or is it just a 'bandaid' fix? Are they just going to replace it with the same parts that were there initially? Meaning, you will be running into this issue again down the line or are they going to actually fix what the issue is? Hope its the latter

 

[The Last Cowboy]

This is one of the reasons I went with 5w30. You folks up north can use 0w30.

Also, my guess is many of these failures are on engines that are taken into a shop for oil changes and get whatever oil is on hand in the bulk barrels.

 

[Old Dogger]

It should not have happened, because it is a new design in the PUG 3.6. The original 3.6 engine, the top pic, had the roller bearings fail. That failure on some started in a 2011 Jeep model, and then 2012 wrangler through 2018 Jk's. Jasper engine came out with a new design, for the JK's. It has a rocker pin that will turn with the bearings. Did that help...don't know...

 

[tehfrr]

Sooooo are they fixing it or is it just a 'bandaid' fix? Are they just going to replace it with the same parts that were there initially? Meaning, you will be running into this issue again down the line or are they going to actually fix what the issue is? Hope its latter

It’s at the dealership and they’re using all OEM parts. The thing is if they told me this is an issue that pops up and they have seen one with it at 15,000 miles a few days ago I have zero confidence that it won’t happen again

 

[mwilk012]

It should not have happened, because it is a new design in the PUG 3.6. The original 3.6 engine, the top pic, had the roller bearings fail. That failure on some started in a 2011 Jeep model, and then 2012 wrangler through 2018 Jk's. Jasper engine came out with a new design, for the JK's. It has a rocker pin that will turn with the bearings. Did that help...don't know...

The new rollers are only on the intake cam, and they still have small roller bearings in them.

 

[mwilk012]

It’s at the dealership and they’re using all OEM parts. The thing is if they told me this is an issue that pops up and they have seen one with it at 15,000 miles a few days ago I have zero confidence that it won’t happen again

The 3.6 is very likely to be the single most common engine on the road. Of course they see a lot of these. The 3.6 is also the engine that we replace the most often. That doesn't mean that other engines aren't failing as well. This past month our shop has installed a Nissan 2.5L, a ford 5.4L, a honda 2.0L, A chevrolet 5.3L and a 6.0L vortec, chevy's 1.5L ecotec, and 3 pentastar 3.6's.

We also happened to have 3 sets of 3.5L ford timing chains (between duratec and ecoboost), and cylinder heads on a 2.0L ecoboost (ford recommends against repair) and a head on a GM 2.4L.

Every engine has a common mode of failure.
The roller bearings on the rocker arms are what gets the 3.6.
The one common thing among nearly all engine damage I see on a regular basis is that the operator continued to push it way past the first signs of a problem.

 

[tehfrr]

The one common thing among nearly all engine damage I see on a regular basis is that the operator continued to push it way past the first signs of a problem.

And that would be me, 100%. Called it in soon as I heard it. When they say they can’t get you in for a month, it would be nice to hear how to triage it. Is this just a nuisance noise? Or should it be parked and stay parked?

 

[tehfrr]

Pics

Sponsored