We have a 2004 Dodge Durango, with the 5.7 Hemi, original owners, only 90k miles, have taken to dealer faithfully for each and every service. Woke up this week and it wouldn't start. Had it towed to the dealer. They said they believed it was dead, but could open her up (at the cost of $500) to see if maybe they could do something. Received the call an hour ago that NOTHING can be done. They acknowledged that it has low mileage, that we have taken GREAT CARE of her, but they said that water got on the heads... that we must have driven through a puddle. Please help. My wife has been laid off work for two months now, still out of work. This is our primary vehicle; our only other vehicle is a 16 year old small pickup truck. And now we are told we are out of a vehicle, have no trade in value, have no money to put down on a new vehicle. Not to mention that we still owe the dealer $500 for telling us that our vehicle that we not only purchased new from them, but that they've been servicing is now dead and worth nothing. IS THIS REAL??? Can this really happen?

 

Very sorry to hear about your Durango, and sorry about the dealership harassment. If you were near by id try help as best i could. It has been known that the 2004's had a couple of engine problems, one of them was a weak piston rod. Another was poor intake manifold gaskets, assuming the dealership is correct with water in the cylinders....Id be that water got on top of the engine and leaked into the engine until enough water was in the cylinder to trigger the weak piston rod to pop out the side. Best of luck!

 

Thanks, we need lots of luck with this one! I stopped by the dealership tonight to take a look and get a more detailed explanation. The service manager said as best they can tell, water went in the air intake and filled the #8 cylinder and when we tried to turn the engine over it caused it to seize. When I asked him WHY this would happen, he said we must have driven through a lot of standing water. I told him no, absolutely not. It had been parked in the driveway from Saturday afternoon (a sunny day) until Monday mid-morning when we tried to start it and got a "clunk" noise. I tried to explain to him that we didnt drive through any standing water, and he looked at me like I was lieing. He told me that a new Chrysler engine would be $9300 installed. Before leaving, I said again that I just couldn't understand exactly where the failure was, and he responded "we can only tell you what we see now; only you know what happened before you got here." He's still trying to convince me that the only way this can happen is from driving through standing water!!! So we have to pay 10k to keep this vehicle; Otherwise, this vehicle that only has 90k miles, has been serviced faithfully by and at the dealership where it was purchased, and was in excellent condition is a sudden and total loss. Very bad timing (if it's ever good) and this stinks. Makes me reconsider buying another Dodge.

 

First off, I am so sorry you have to go through all this mess. To help and better understand what went wrong I have a couple questions. When you attempted to start your durango did it turn over and not start? or did you try to start it and nothing happened? Did your durango happen to make any unusual sounds before all this?
Yes, the dealer is correct. Water entering into the engine can cause hydrolock and thus create a pressure onto the cheap chinese junk rods which will break. These were put into 04 hemis. If no one has driven your durango through any deep water then somehing else is obviously at fault. Did it rain before you attempted to start your durango..maybe water leaked past the cowl and onto the intake where it might have puddled and leaked in? Thats just a wild guess!
Hope you get it figured out. Good luck!

 

Hey, Thanks for responding. We loved this vehicle, totally. And had hoped to keep it another 3-4 years. Even the dealer acknowledges how great of shape it (was) in. To answer your question... As soon as we started it, turned the key, we heard a "clunking" noise, which is the same noise it's made from that point after. It never turned over, or attempted to start and then stop. It never made a different noise other than the one it's making now. Immediately upon turning the key, the "clunking" noise. Similar but not exactly like a dead starter.

Background: We drove it on a beautiful Saturday, got home Saturday night, still great weather. We had stopped at the gas station on way home to gas-up the Durango due to impending storm. Durango sat Saturday night, all day Sunday, and Sunday night. Then on Monday, Hurricaine Sandy had already started pounding us. H-Sandy was supposed to get much worse after noon, so we had to run out Monday morning to pick up a few important things. When we tried to take the Durango, it was windy and rainy from the first few bands of the storm coming through. But nothing that seemed much worse than a bad summer storm.

So no, the Durango never went through any deep water. BUT, the wind and rain from the "monster storm" had already started before we tried to start the engine on Monday. The dealer said IF we didn't drive it through deep water, then heavy wind/rain from the Hurricane is what they believe is at fault. They said it is a one in a million chance, and rarely if ever heard of, but entirely possible.

They said our Durango is worth about 8k, if running. And quoted us $9,900 to replace the engine. Their personal opinion is it wasn't worth it. They advised us to contact insurance, which we have done, but insurance hasn't inspected it yet.

SO it sounds like you may be right. If you have ANY further insight, please let me know. Thank you for your time.

 

My Durango is relegated to the driveway as my Coronet R/T sits in the garage until I move it to my warehouse for its winter nap. It rained hard and heavy here all last week and my CEL for a random misfire showed up almost every morning. Now, this happens every once in a while for me ever since I had the modifications done to my Durango five years ago even after sitting in my garage all weekend. I do think the rain entered your vehicle and caused the problem and there is a thread about the cowl being defective and more complaints from other owners. One person in that thread did have an engine failure as well if I remember correctly.
FF

 

What you describe is close to what has been happening with my Durango (2004 5.7l Limited). I just did some diagnosis on it today. I was able to get it started by rolling the engine backward by putting a 13/16" socket on the crank pulley. I rolled it back a revolution, and then tried to start it. It stopped at the same spot, but this time I was able to get it to roll past that spot by putting a socket on the engine again, and doing it manually. Then i was able to start it.

I've been having this problem with it randomly for a while now. It only happens after the vehicle has been sitting a few days.

Not sure if any of this info will help or not.... I just came here looking for answers for mine.

 

Miner:
As stated already, sorry to hear you are dealing with this. I strongly urge you to shop around and get more quotes on this repair!
While several folks have had to replace the engine in their 2nd Gen Durangos for various reasons, the amounts they have quoted are much lower than what you are getting.

Labor to R and R an engine has been running $1.8-$2.2K with the engine itself running anywhere from $2K to 5K depending on whether it is a rebuilt, salvage, etc.

One fellow on another forum reports a Hemi rebuild complete for less than $5K from a local independent shop with a 3yr unlimited mile warranty.

If you want to keep your D and put it back on the road, I am very confident you can do that for much less than $9K!

Don

 

I feel your pain here in New Jersey post Hurricane Sandy. I have a 2004 AWD 5.7 Durango Limited. My engine died after the same level of good maintenance at 68,000 miles just before the hurricane. It would not turn-over. Replaced the starter and it turned again and we hear the loud clanking that is not unique to owners like me and you. Clearly what seems to be going on is the engine bugs were not out of our engines by 2004 and failures take place all the time and those in the know... they know! While every Dodge dealer will tell you about reliability and quality and swear to it because their livelihoods depend on that good Dodge reliability image; the truth is as explained by many the engine was not designed as well as it could be and should be! My Dodge dealer is wonderful, they do a lot in the community, I respect the people who work there, however Chrysler is not going to help them make good on my blown engine and any dealer could go out-of-business if a dealers was to pitch-in to fix every blown HEMI out of warranty. We loyal Dodge customers, bite the bullet! My dealer would not even bother to drop the pan to look in my engine; clearly this issue is common-place and routine and involves quoting the price for a new engine. It sure seems to me a big part of the root cause problem is Chrysler's parts used in design and build in 2004. Never buy the first model years of a vehicle?

 

Mine died too. Replaced it with a jasper with all their updates. Comes with a 3 year 100,000 mile warranty. Total cost with install $6100.00 Would not buy anything with 5.7 hemi in it agian. LOW Miles and well maintained doesn't mean a thing to Dodge