Hi oharag,

I received your PM and will be responding shortly but I wanted to address your inquiry here as well. If you decide to revisit a certified dealership regarding this concern feel free to bring this thread during your appointment; however, please note that our dealerships generally do need to duplicate a concern and perform additional diagnostics before performing repairs. They usually will not solely go off of a similar case from the Internet or another source.

Andrea
Dodge Social Care Specialist

 

I am sad to say that the problem is back. I am brining the D back to the dealership next and hope it finally gets fixed. I will give an update once I get the D back.

 

fledda, I'll re-styate my advice. Have the dealer park the car on an incline, then have them pull the exhaust pipes at the headers before they start it up. When they do, they'll know what bank of cylinders has the problem. This is actually quite a common problem as Dodge has had issues with their head gasket install and they know it. If the dealer would just elevate this, they'd get the warranty approved fix for it. I know the symptoms are different than what I've experienced with a head gasket problem, but it fixed my buddies Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 5.7. He had to get pretty belligerent with the local dealer before they fixed it and they had his car for a week when they finally got around to engaging Chrysler of America for the recommended fix.

 

 

 

fledda, I absolutely agree with you. Every head gasket issue I've ever been associated with results in white smoke (steam actually) that smells like coolant, not blue smoke that smells like burning oil. My buddies traveling for the next week and a half, but when he gets back, I'll see if I can post a copy of his receipt from the dealer that describes the symptoms, and what the dealer did to fix it.

In the meantime, you might have to elevate this problem higher than the local dealership to get action.

Keep us informed.

 

fledda, I contacted my friend and he sent me the following e-mail. They did more work than I knew:

"They told me that they were in contact with Chrysler the whole time but I don’t have any record of who they talked to. Part of the reason it took so long is that they initially went down the wrong path and ordered a new oil pan, on Chryslers recommendation. Apparently there was a change in the oil pan design at some point, I believe to correct an oil overfill issue. Anyway, that answer didn’t make sense to me. Why would you continue to deliver new vehicles with a part that is known to have an issue like that. Also, as you said they had determined that the smoke was coming from the right hand side only by removing the exhaust pipes and elevating the front overnight. Chrysler then changed their recommendation to replace the right cylinder head (not just the gasket). That’s when I went down and talked directly to the mechanic since this was turning into a bigger deal and I wanted to know what their plan was. He said that the recommendation came from Chrysler and that he wouldn’t be able to speculate on what was going on with the head until he pulled it off. I gave them the go ahead and they ordered up a new right cylinder head and replaced it. I talked to him afterwards and he said that there was evidence of oil leakage at cylinder #8 (aft RH). He said it was likely through a faulty valve guide or guide seal but Chrysler would have to tear it down to determine that. He said he also replaced the PCV valve just as a precaution. There's another theory out there that oil passing through the PCV valve can accumulate in the baffle in the intake manifold, then pour into the after cylinders when the car sits on an incline. The mechanic said they had made design changes to prevent this, and that it's not an issue now, but he replaced the valve anyway."

Hope this helps.

 

Red Rhino, thanks for the update. I too have been doing more research on this and from what I read, there are 3 possible causes or all 3 for that matter. The possible causes are PCV Valve, Valve Seal/ Gasket and Valve Guides. When I brought the D the first time around they replace the PCV Valve and the PCV Valve gasket. So I guess the first time around they tried to do an easy fix hoping it would solve the problem. I guess this time around that have to do the "Full Fix" otherwise if the second try fails, they have only 1 more chance to fix it and the Lemon Law starts.