I have an 07 durango with the 4.7 engine. a couple of days ago I began to notice a slight roughness at idle. yesterday it started to surge when you put it in drive,and missed noticeably when you went to accelerate. I stopped at the bank,and when I came out it started fine,but spit,and sputtered badly leaving the parkinglot. it finally started gain speed, and the cel came on. I drove it to my next stop,and is was running but missing during acceleration. when I came out from this stop it started fine,and the cel was still on, but it ran perfect. like nothing ever happened. I called my dealer and scheduled to bring it in this morning. it started ok,and ran ok,cel still on. it suddenly started to mis again,once so badly I thought the front wheels were going to fall off, but then it stopped,and ran perfect. i got to the dealer cel still on but running normal. any way tech pulls code,and it is for misfire no.8 cylinder. he said he pulled the wires,and the plug,and they checked ok. he replaced everything cleared the code,and test drove twice for a total of 20 miles,ran great no cel reset. my question. has anyone else had this occur, and what could have caused it. dealer tech can't explain it except for possibly a wire came loose or bad fuel went thru it for a certain length of time. any help is greatly appreciated.

 

The 4.7 motors sometimes drop the valve seats, valve springs and camshaft lobs. You may need to remove the cylinder head and inspect.

 

Thanks for the reply. what you describe sounds serious. if a valve seat had dropped wouldn't the piston be damaged. my problem just seems to come and go,and runs great most of the time. but you are a tech,and if this is a possibility i want to be able to suggest to my dealer techs that this is something that does happen,and could be the problem.

 

Yes, the valve could hit the piston, Have the dealer ck for stored codes. and maybe have them hook up co pilot.

 

Thanks again master tech. if it does it again I will ask about the co-pilot. but can I ask you a question since you are very knowledgeable about the dodge. is the 4.7 motor reliable. I tow a small trailer several times a year. weighs around 2500lbs. the durango pulls it with ease. just wish the towing mileage was better. we could have gotten a hemi,but this vehicle had everything we wanted,and is very comfortable in handling,and ride. we had in the past a ram 2500 with the cummins. we pulled a lot of weight then, but no longer need that much power,and the ride was starting to take its toll. we like the durango very much,and chose it over a chevy suburban. we tought it was too big,and boxy, and the durango seemed to have as much power. sorry to bother you with all the small talk,but we just hope we made the right decision to stay with dodge,based on our experience with the ram.

 

I'm having a #8 cylinder misfire problem on my 2006 Durango with just over 28K miles. Brought it into the dealer at 25K miles for the same problem and they replaced the spark plug. It has been doing it on and off since with a noticeable sputter only at idle. Brought it in today and they are ordering a new head. I just went past 3 years so I was told the factory warranty is up but they decided to cover it since I brought it in for the same problem once before. I'm seriously worried about needing a head replaced on a vehicle with 28K miles. They said that it was due to too much build up on that valve but would learn more when they take it off. What would cause this and should I be looking for a new vehicle?

 

by build up they mean carbon. do you use cheap gas? what is the detergent level of the gas you use? do you do short trips? do you use top tier gas? mike

 

Find another dealer DurangoJ. There aren't "plug wires."

Sounds like you may have a faulty coil pack. When you have a problem, and have the ability to diagnose the cylinder in question... then move the pack and see if the problem moves cylinders with the pack. If so... tada.

IndyDurango

 

I use 87 octane mostly sold on the military base. I drive it back and forth from work, which is about 2 miles away, everyday. I also use it to tow my bass boat about every other week. I know it would help to use something higher and I may start. I also read that the car should adjust to prevent pre-ignition though. Regardless is the lower octane gas enough to cause this problem at such a low mileage?

 

it can be if you short trip the vehicle! all gas has minimum detergency levels mandated by the epa. but when you go up in octane the "good" stuff has more detergency. for example shell v-power (93) has 5 times the detergency mandated by the epa. it has so much it actually cleans carbon over time. it is something to think about .