Hi! I just bought a Charger and so far I love it. However, it now has a check engine light and I'm trying to diagnose it. My scanner shows cylinder 3 misfire and displays no freeze data.
The car has a sound that sounds like a cross between an exhaust leak and a lifter tick that is pronounced on a cold start and fades on warmup. I started by putting a few ounces of Seafoam in the oil, running about 100 miles on the highway, then changing it (just to make sure the crankcase was as clean as possible). I also dumped a bottle of Seafoam in the fuel tank. No noticeable difference in sound or oil pressure. Oil pressure stays a near constant 50 to 60 psi whether idling or stretched out. The sound itself doesn't bother me too much.
I then swapped the #3 and #2 coil packs, to see if the problem followed the coil pack ( also noticed that the #3 coil was the only BlueStreak coil - someone's tried to fix it before). Cleared the code, and the misfire stayed with cylinder 3. I then pulled the spark plugs, and they looked ok. I replaced them anyway and the light came back on.
The code will clear, and takes several drive cycles to come back. I have not been able to determine if it is idle, throttle or MDS related. I have noticed that when the light is on, my remote start doesn't work. The car will start, run several seconds, then shut down.
As someone new to Hemi's, the car seems to run fine. It accelerates well and seems to work like it should. Live data from my scanner shows nothing alarming, as far as I can tell. The biggest problem is the light being on triggers my OCD, disables the remote start and may warn of more costly future damage.
I hope it's not the cam, as I've read a lot of them fail. While I can definitely replace a cam, I work and go to school full time and have a baby on the way, so money and time are tight.
The car is a 2015 Charger R/T Road and Track. The car has about 98,000 miles on it.
My current plan is to pull the intake and check the seal, and pull the other spark plugs for possible replacement. I read somewhere that a neighboring cylinder on the firing order can trigger the light. I want this fixed, but don't want to simply sling parts at it when I also want other upgrades
What would be your diagnosis flow to get to the bottom of this? Thanks for reading!

 

Need to figger out just what the noise really is. Could be either at this point. An exhaust leak is a lot less expensive to fix though.

 

Okay, here's an update. I'm chasing the P0303 code, and hope that it happens to fix the tick. I did pull the intake. The previous owner used RTV sealant instead of new gaskets. I inspected the intake, everything looked fine. Put in a fresh set of gaskets and put it back together. Still doing the same thing.

I then swapped banks of all the fuel injectors, to see if that would move the problem to the other bank. No change. After replacement, I found the misfire check on my scanner. All cylinders showed a misfire or two when I revved it, with cylinder three having the most before the misfire test failed. I don't know if that's normal of a bit of air still in the fuel rail, or something else. So yesterday, I started a dive into the engine.

I performed a compression test. All cylinders looked good, with the low being 190 on cylinder 4 and high on cylinder 8 being 205. I pulled the driver's valve cover off and found more RTV. Spun the motor over and everything looks to be moving correctly. I am about to but an indicator gauge on the valve train to check for amount of lift across all cylinders, then pull the rocker arms and check the pushrods. My gut tells me the lifters have something to do with this.

Is there anything I missed that you recommend I check?

My local AutoZone has aftermarket Encore lifters, part number VL-D20001, in stock. Does anyone have any info on these? I need the car back together by tomorrow, and I will have to wait two weeks to get another window to look at it again. So if I need Mopar lifters, I will need to button her up and tear her back down then.

 

Have you shuffled the coils, to see if the miss follows the number 3 coil?

 

Yes, I did. I swapped number 2 and 3, and the misfire stayed on 3. New plugs also didn't fix it.

 

Verify the PCM is firing the coil/injector reliable. Should be able to 'rent' noid lights at your local parts store.

 

Okay, I'm buttoning her back up for now. I tried to check valve lift, but could only get to the intake valves with the lack of clearance under the hood. All lifts were the same, once the lifter bled down.When I spun it over with the starter, I did notice that #3 did not seem to be oiling through the pushrods on either intake or exhaust like the other three cylinders. They were oiling, just not as much.

I'm gonna order the lifters for cylinders 1 and 3. Summit Racing has the OEM lifters for about $150. I have a noid light set, and will check the coil and injector if possible during shipping. During my next couple of days off, I'm gonna pull that head and replace the lifters. I've inspected the wiring harness and everything looks fine.

 

When it comes to lifters, if you have one bad, replace one, if you have two bad, replace them ALL. They all live in the same environment. If more than one have failed, you can bet the rest are not far behind.

 

How do I check them? Right now, I know how to replace them, that's it. I agree with you, but can't afford to replace parts for convenience.

 

If you are going to be replacing some anyway, the questions becomes, how often do you want to do this job?? Don't the heads have to come off to change 'em??