3 Blown Engines This year
- Thread starter Mathew_Boss
- Start date
- Status
3 blown engines in one year by a single person is what I'm calling BS on
I'm sorry to hear of your troubles Mathew. Thank you for your service Sir. Don't let a few jerks in the crowd get you down. Unfortunately there are more than a few members here who are all about starting trouble with comments that are nothing but trolling.
Good on you for doing an oil change at 500 miles. I'm thinking you are just having some bad luck. I hope the dealer gets your Highlander sorted for you. Any good synthetic oil is going to be fine for your vehicle.
A google search shows videos about the pentastar common failure problem. The rockers fail and destroy the cam. One thing pointed out is to be sure to change the oil AND FILTER when putting in the new parts.
Better yet is to drop the oil pan and clean it out well. The problem is that the shavings from the destroyed cam have to go somewhere. So the questions to ask are, when the new parts were put on the pentastar, did they:
1) Drop the oil pan and clean it out? This would be doing it the best way, but a warranty repair may not require them to do this.
2) Change the oil AND FILTER? This is probably the minimum work they should do along with adding the new parts, to get rid of shavings in the oil and in the filter.
Better yet is to drop the oil pan and clean it out well. The problem is that the shavings from the destroyed cam have to go somewhere. So the questions to ask are, when the new parts were put on the pentastar, did they:
1) Drop the oil pan and clean it out? This would be doing it the best way, but a warranty repair may not require them to do this.
2) Change the oil AND FILTER? This is probably the minimum work they should do along with adding the new parts, to get rid of shavings in the oil and in the filter.
That just sounds like c$ap luck. Although 10k sounds way long to me I don't know your driving habits. The camshaft could have failed because of a bad lifter (has been an occasional problem on Hemi and gm ls engines in the past - just a parts quality problem). The highlander was a bad part from the factory obviously and then sounds like bad installation caused the rest of the issues. Unless I'm missing something that's 2 blown engines, not 3.
They did another short block after the head gasket blew.
I’m trading the Charger tonight on new Honda Insight. Dealer is offering lifetime Powertrain. Our 2020 Highlander that the Dealer hooked us up with because of all the trouble we had with the 19 has been great. It’s two weeks old now and our MPG started at 30 and they have now worked its way up to 33. I’m excited to experiment with the Insight to learn the most fuel efficient practices.
If three separate vehicles, I'd buy it. But two were in the same vehicle and likely due to the first repair being botched and/or an early failure of the repair.
If the long block replacement or the gasket kit replacement were done poorly, that could lead to the subsequent HG failure. Early in engine life failures are probably not operator error or BS.
If the long block replacement or the gasket kit replacement were done poorly, that could lead to the subsequent HG failure. Early in engine life failures are probably not operator error or BS.
Really?
A head gasket is definitely a major failure, but it sounds like they caused it and did the short block to prevent a repeat issue like that happening. Glad to hear they lemon lawed it and you don't have to worry about further issues with it. Hopefully 2 or 3 engines is enough for you for a long time.
Yes, that’s true. There seems to be quite a discussion about oil viscosity and oil quality affecting the life of the cam components. Is it just delaying the inevitable?
$390 to use a "warranty" is total ripoff. You sure the CPO won't cover diagnosis $120 if they find the issue is covered? Or is this some dealer scam CPO?
I thought if they found something covered I wasn’t on the hook for it. Traded it in now someone else can enjoy it
A friend of my wife is looking at used Toyota Hylanders and is looking in the 2016 to 2019. Are any of those years have that head issue and what issue is that> What should tell her to look out for?
Thing about the bad rockers is if you pay attention to the sound of your engine at the first sign of valve train noise, you can then easily change the rocker before it eats the camshaft. You then drive it back to FCA as a trade in and listen to the new engine carefully until its time to trade again.
What’s your driving style? In my opinion street vehicles that are driven like race cars eventually will have issues. The Dodge isn’t surprising but the Toyota failure too makes me ask...
Our 2019 Highlander was leased brand new. My wife drove it 99% of the time. She’s a nanny for 10 kids so just to and from school and dr. Appointments with a few interstate road trips added in for family vacation. My Charger did get a few Italian Tune Ups but it’s not like I tracked it or exceeded the speed limit by 5MPH.
I'm 37 now and I was that teenager 20 years ago. I acted like the throttle was an on off switch and still didn't blow up an 83 grand prix that was on its last legs (major rust) and a 98 Plymouth breeze. The breeze had 90k miles and the grand prix an unknown number of hundreds (no 3rd digit on the odometer - but it had no fabric left on the seats as a hint).
These were both before the days of torque management that backs the throttle off during shifts and off the line helping to protect the drivetrain.
I recently drove my family's old 2010 Taurus that my mechanic friend bought and replaced the water pump and timing chains. He convinced me to wind it out, I never had before because it's 258hp and I was afraid of blowing up the transmission. Once I wound it out once I realized it would take a lot to kill it with abuse because it backed the throttle off a major amount during every shift. My 2005 truck does this but nowhere near as much. All my other vehicles have been old carbureted so I'm used to feeling all the power hit the driveline during shifts.
Everyone seems to be searching for a reason, but I think it's basically 2 unlucky failures, one a relatively common problem on the Pentastar and the other just a fluke, then a bad repair (not uncommon at all - most techs these days don't want to do engine repairs to modern vehicles, it's not like the old days where engines were reasonably simple).
This is either exceptionally bad luck or there is a common denominator. I have never blown a engine in my life and I am well past 60. That includes lawnmowers and other powered equipment. I can think of only a handful of instances when it happened to friends or acquaintances. Three blown motors in one year makes me wonder.
- Status
