I'm going to preface this by saying I'm not a gear-head so I don't fully understand all of what the service techs are telling me but I do have an issue and am looking for some advice...

I have a 2012 V6 Durango, I picked it up in December and it has approx. 13,000 miles on it. About a week ago I noticed the check engine light came on, then next day it was off.. 2 days later It came back on again so I made an appointment at the dealership I purchased it from. I dropped it off Wednesday night, they had it all day THursday. They called to tell me it was fixed and I could pick it up.

Here's a summary of the notes they provided: "Checked and found p0302 for cylinder 2 misfire. code was stored, code set at approximately 12,1000 miles. vehicle drove normally through test drive, no misfiring, running through or drivability issues at any time. Checked and found flash that addresses many condos including p0302, flash updated pcm"

So the next morning I'm driving to work, the light came back on. I called my service advisor and asked if they could provide me a loaner if I brought the car back in. That dealership is not very convenient to my house. I like the salesman there (I've bought 4 cars from him over the years and referred a handful more), so I asked for a loaner as its not convenient for me to get a car dropped off there, unfortunately they couldn't offer it without seeing the car again.. Not a big deal (at the time) so I took it to a dealer which is much closer to my house. I left it there last night, this afternoon hey called and said that the problem is a bad header gasket, and they found oil inside of the headers. They need to replace the header and gasket but unfortunately its on backorder so theres no ETA on when they'll have them.

I'd be in a rough spot without a car, I have 3 kids I tote around to/from school (which ends this week) and activities, and work, etc.. The dealership said they don't have any loaners available to me right now and had me call Chrysler to see if they'll pay for it - I did that, I'm just waiting for a call back. The dealership did say that I could take my car and use it while we wait for parts.

So my first question is: Is it bad to drive a car with oil in the headers? In my limited experience I would think so, but he said its fine.

My second question is, What causes this? I've heard about it before but it seems like something with older cars - should this be happening with a 6 month old vehicle? Once its fixed should I be concerned?

My 3rd question - How ticked should I be at the initial dealership for missing this when it was in for service? The Advisor from the dealership that has it now made a comment like "I don't know how they missed something like this, its pretty obvious".. I don't know if thats just the competitiveness between dealerships or theres truth to it that

 

Is it oil or unburnt greasy sooty crap? If it's really engine oil, you don't want it to catch fire driving down the road and it is a possibility since the headers get very hot and if the oil reaches it's flash point you will have a fire,depending how much oil is leaking into your headers. A few drops you should be fine. That's info you need to ask before you start toting your kids around. I would not drive it. The oil in the headers is caused my a faulty gasket, which can happen time to time not common for a new vehicle. As far as being upset with the initial dealer, I wouldn't be, he fixed what the diagnostic told him to fix. They did half *** trouble shooting and should of looked into more, but it's no reason to lose your mind on them.

 

I'm not.. I ended up leaving it at the dealership, they were able to get me a loaner car while the parts are backordered. I just didn't want to take any chances.

I was telling a friend of mine about this, he has a brother that works in the garage of another Dodge dealership and said its not an uncommon problem with the V6 and apparenly Dodge is currently producing a new header. Unfortunately its not available yet so I won't get it...

 

Glad to hear you got a loaner.

To the mechanics: I am not up on modern engines, but I can not imagine how a bad header gasket would allow oil into the header. . . Is this the exhaust header we are talking about?
A bad head gasket would allow oil into places it should not be.
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That may be my mistake - I'm not sure.. (Like I said, I'm not that mechanically inclined, especially with motors). . I don't know that the oil is in the headers - its in the Sparkplug well opening (which led to the misfire, which caused my check engine light to come on). The dealer originally made it sound like it was the head gasket, but it turns out they are replacing the heads as dell as thats where the damage is.

 

That makes more sense . . . maybe a valve cover gasket. That could definitely leak oil into a sparkplug well, depending on layout of engine.

Good luck . . sounds like it was a good thing that you did not drive it.