JeepAustinWeird
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Steve
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2020
- Threads
- 7
- Messages
- 192
- Reaction score
- 318
- Location
- Austin, Texas
- Vehicle(s)
- 2018 JLU Rubicon
- Thread starter
- #1
I'm trying to decide if I should take this as a warning and jump ship or just take it in stride and chalk it up to it being a Jeep....
I like many here have dealt with the nuisances of getting messages like Aux Switches Unavailable, Battery Charging.......Start/Stop not working, Service Start/Stop system......and these have been temporary setbacks requiring new batteries in the first and then for the second shutting off engine and restart to "reboot", a few diagnosis of cylinder 6 misfires which required a PCM flash the one time and the next time resulted in needing new spark plugs b/c the ones installed from the factory were incorrect ones (according to service advisor). This spark plug change was in May 2021 at 35K miles check engine light came on for this and OBD code was cylinder 6 misfire. Well fast forward....
At the end of June (2021) I had an incidence where I lost all my engine coolant on my drive to work.....and what it turned out to be was I was in need of replacing my EGR valve. Ok I can deal with that....it is a vehicle and with 36K miles now and warranty expired things will go wrong. [I did buy the extended through Tom, thank God]. That got replaced, but since then I periodically continued to visually inspect my coolant level. A few times starting in Aug 2021, I stopped by the dealer b/c I felt the level had dropped from where they filled my overflow tank after fixing my EGR valve and was worried (ie paranoid) that I still have a leak and don't want to run out of coolant and damage my engine, especially in the nice TX summer. It got to the point where the coolant level was barely above the aluminum bracket that holds in place.
So I did what any prudent person would do.....I topped off and went about my days.....all the while keeping an eye on it. It continued to drop and so I took it back to the dealer 10/12 to see what is the problem.....
No signs of coolant leaking anywhere in engine, on ground, or mixing into my oil (head gasket). But Crap its going somewhere. I'm thinking maybe I have another prob with my EGR valve. I've kept a photo archive of different levels during all this to show my advisor at the dealer and he agrees something isn't right.
They did an overnight pressure test on the system at 60psi and he said it only dropped maybe 1/2 psi so basically held pressure, but running diagnostics on things (not entirely sure what all that means) that some numbers didn't look right so digging deeper found one of my spark plugs was "wet". I think he said the numbers were indicating a problem with cylinder 6 AGAIN. He was thinking at this point maybe I do have a bad head gasket. Well, doing more digging, that wasn't the problem. He said that by doing some measurements my cylinder 6 head sizing was not within the tolerance levels, and basically they were going to have to replace cylinder 6....which translates into him saying
"WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO REPLACE YOUR ENGINE"........ I'M LIKE WTF!!!!!
He did admit that by applying the pressure overnight that may have expedited worsening the problem...but that having a bad or mis-sized cylinder was the culprit for losing my coolant.
I don't know why the cylinder sizing would have deteriorated or if it's normal for this kind of engine deterioration at 39k miles.
Is this essentially like a death sentence? Should I be thinking "Cool, I'm getting a new engine" so it'll be like having a new jeep (mechanically) or should I be thinking this is the beginning of the end for this vehicle? I truly love my JL, but don't want to be caught in a perpetuating cycle of now that I've reached the point of having to replace my engine, it is just going to cascade to subsequent issues. I've seen another post where someone had to replace their engine and then in short order had problems with their A/C, Electronic throttle control, etc.
Jeep is covering the cost of all this, but of course the biggest problem is dealers don't have loaners so I am without a vehicle, dealers don't have vehicles on their lots should I decide to run from this, and lastly no timeframe as to how long this is going to take. I'll hopefully know in the a.m., if and when an engine is available, but was told best case scenario is I'm looking at a week+ till done. Needless to say this kind of situation is not one I'd wish on anyone.
Should I be ok with the dealer replacing my engine????
Anyone have any words of encouragement or been through having to replace their engine and things worked out fine?
Thanks
I like many here have dealt with the nuisances of getting messages like Aux Switches Unavailable, Battery Charging.......Start/Stop not working, Service Start/Stop system......and these have been temporary setbacks requiring new batteries in the first and then for the second shutting off engine and restart to "reboot", a few diagnosis of cylinder 6 misfires which required a PCM flash the one time and the next time resulted in needing new spark plugs b/c the ones installed from the factory were incorrect ones (according to service advisor). This spark plug change was in May 2021 at 35K miles check engine light came on for this and OBD code was cylinder 6 misfire. Well fast forward....
At the end of June (2021) I had an incidence where I lost all my engine coolant on my drive to work.....and what it turned out to be was I was in need of replacing my EGR valve. Ok I can deal with that....it is a vehicle and with 36K miles now and warranty expired things will go wrong. [I did buy the extended through Tom, thank God]. That got replaced, but since then I periodically continued to visually inspect my coolant level. A few times starting in Aug 2021, I stopped by the dealer b/c I felt the level had dropped from where they filled my overflow tank after fixing my EGR valve and was worried (ie paranoid) that I still have a leak and don't want to run out of coolant and damage my engine, especially in the nice TX summer. It got to the point where the coolant level was barely above the aluminum bracket that holds in place.
So I did what any prudent person would do.....I topped off and went about my days.....all the while keeping an eye on it. It continued to drop and so I took it back to the dealer 10/12 to see what is the problem.....
No signs of coolant leaking anywhere in engine, on ground, or mixing into my oil (head gasket). But Crap its going somewhere. I'm thinking maybe I have another prob with my EGR valve. I've kept a photo archive of different levels during all this to show my advisor at the dealer and he agrees something isn't right.
They did an overnight pressure test on the system at 60psi and he said it only dropped maybe 1/2 psi so basically held pressure, but running diagnostics on things (not entirely sure what all that means) that some numbers didn't look right so digging deeper found one of my spark plugs was "wet". I think he said the numbers were indicating a problem with cylinder 6 AGAIN. He was thinking at this point maybe I do have a bad head gasket. Well, doing more digging, that wasn't the problem. He said that by doing some measurements my cylinder 6 head sizing was not within the tolerance levels, and basically they were going to have to replace cylinder 6....which translates into him saying
"WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO REPLACE YOUR ENGINE"........ I'M LIKE WTF!!!!!
He did admit that by applying the pressure overnight that may have expedited worsening the problem...but that having a bad or mis-sized cylinder was the culprit for losing my coolant.
I don't know why the cylinder sizing would have deteriorated or if it's normal for this kind of engine deterioration at 39k miles.
Is this essentially like a death sentence? Should I be thinking "Cool, I'm getting a new engine" so it'll be like having a new jeep (mechanically) or should I be thinking this is the beginning of the end for this vehicle? I truly love my JL, but don't want to be caught in a perpetuating cycle of now that I've reached the point of having to replace my engine, it is just going to cascade to subsequent issues. I've seen another post where someone had to replace their engine and then in short order had problems with their A/C, Electronic throttle control, etc.
Jeep is covering the cost of all this, but of course the biggest problem is dealers don't have loaners so I am without a vehicle, dealers don't have vehicles on their lots should I decide to run from this, and lastly no timeframe as to how long this is going to take. I'll hopefully know in the a.m., if and when an engine is available, but was told best case scenario is I'm looking at a week+ till done. Needless to say this kind of situation is not one I'd wish on anyone.
Should I be ok with the dealer replacing my engine????
Anyone have any words of encouragement or been through having to replace their engine and things worked out fine?
Thanks
Sponsored