Pentastar Engine

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Last Chrysler I owned was a 1988 Plymouth, and the last Jeep was a '78 CJ5 with a straight 6. Been Chrysler-free since 2007. Have been looking at the newer Jeeps since the advent of 4-dr versions. Still partial to the 2-dr ones. In spite of Fiat's involvement with Chrysler, does anyone have issues with their Pentastar engine used in the new Jeeps ??

Reading about all the techno wonders is one thing - real life is another. What's the good, the bad, and the ugly on this new engine, and on the 2-dr vs 4-dr Wrangler/Rubicon ?

Thanx in advance.
 
I love my jeep. Pentastar has lots of power in a 2 door sport. I heard its kinda "blah" in the loaded 4 doors with bigger wheels. Putting giant tires on is a popular mod and I wonder how many are re-gearing.

wranglerforum.com is a high traffic site and there are tons of posts that may be worth reading. Just use the search function. There are a few hundred "thinking about buying a jeep" posts already with the good and bad well covered.

IIRC its the last year for the mature JK platform and 2018 starts the all new JL platform. I would never buy version 1.0 of anything.
 
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We have had 2 Pentastars recently in leased jeeps.

First was a 2014 Cherokee Trailhawk with the 3.2L. Turned it in with 38,000 trouble free miles.
Currently have a 3.6L in a 2016 Grand Cherokee with 7800 miles.

Both are silky smooth with more than adequate power for their applications. Both Jeeps have also been trouble free so far. Can't comment on long term high mileage durability though.
 
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There was an INCREDIBLE amount of hoopla about the Pentastar engine and how it was going to be all that, and even bring peace to Bosnia. Anyhow, it turned out to be an ordinary 3.6ish liter engine with the ordinary 290ish horsepower with the ordinary flaws that any motor has.
edited to update horsepower from 260ish to 290ish, which is really quite nice, and a note to clarify flaws; the left cylinder head has issues which caused ChryCo to issue an extended warranty for that motor for that problem
 
I have only seen the left cylinder head issue come up in vans, and it does not apply to new vehicles. The 3.6 is a dog in a Wrangler compared to anything else it is put in. Some of that may be the transmission used in Wranglers but the engine is severely detuned.

Coil spring equipped Wranglers drive like poop. I can't stand them, even brand new ones drive terrible.
 
Test drove a Chrysler 300 last weekend. I find the Pentastar to be quite refined, powerful and aurally intoxicating when pushed.
 
Originally Posted By: AVB
The 3.6 is a dog in a Wrangler compared to anything else it is put in. Some of that may be the transmission used in Wranglers but the engine is severely detuned.


I test drove a 2017 6 speed 2dr and I can attest to this..... the 'oomph' wasnt there. My buddies stock 98 wrangler felt faster to me.
 
A Ram 1500 with the 3.6 pulls harder.

They soften up the Wranglers for offroad use. It makes them easier to finesse over obstacles.
 
Co worker has a 2014 Grand Cherokee with the 3.6 Pentastar - he likes it and has had no issues with it.

My brother has a 2015 4 dr Wrangler with the 3.6 as well and has had no issues with it either.

Currently in our work fleet of vans we have three 2014 Caravan Cargo Vans with the 3.6 and all them have over 100k miles.
Engines have been great and get decent mileage . Only hiccup we've had is that a trans torque converter gave out at 59k miles on one.
Covered under warranty, thank goodness.

I'm not much of a Mopar guy , but if I were to buy a FCA vehicle, I'd buy one with a 3.6 Pentastar.
 
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We have a Chrysler Town & Country at work with the 3.6 and it pulls mid range quite strong. Take off is not so great but not too terrible. Fuel economy is pretty awesome on flat ground. Ohio trip from Cincy to Cleveland at 80mph with avg around 28-29 mpg. Put it in the hills in KY and it drops a few mpg though. Very poorly maintained with long OCI's and no real maintenance program. Oil gets changed whenever someone is taking a trip and notices it is a few thousand miles past due maybe.
 
We put ~70K miles on our pentastar equipped 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan before we traded it for the 2016 Nissan Quest. The Dodge was a great van. No trouble at all from the pentastar aside from the weird cold start moan/groan that resonated from the engine oil pan. I found our Grand Caravan to be very powerful. It would light the tires up from a standstill if you weren't careful on takeoff. Even with 6 people in it!
 
I should have added the van we have at work seems to idle quite rough and has since it was new. Not sure if they are all like that but never stalls and once moving is real smooth. My limited use and knowledge of it is that I would consider buying one even though I am not a Chrysler fan due to their history of problems
 
Girlfriend has a 2011 GC 4x4 with the pentastar (first year released I think). She has 90k miles on it now and no issues. We drove it 500 miles to key west, great mpg and adaquate power. It's no race car but never feels underpowered, I have the hemi in my ram so I'm biased. I think it's a great engine, if you add big tires then yeah, it's gonna bog down without a gear change.
 
I had some doucher in a grand cherokee passed me on the right did a couple lane changes then back.. then fast lane again... noticed mist on window...

Next time he stepped on the gas it was BILLOWING black funky smoke from the undercarriage.

appears to have been motor oil from looking at my vehicle *grr*


any idea what happened? He kept driving along with a rolling coal type fogbank coming intermittently when he stepped on the gas... it would diminish to barely visible when he was not on the gas hard.

Had to scrub my window 3x... Hopefully I can get a full car wash in ASAP.

I was trying not to follow him be he kept lane changing like a maniac.

Thinking about it I need to grab some dawn and scrub my wiper blades too.. I hit them once and yep.. smeared all over the window.

I had had 0 trouble with my 3.2 pentastar since december. Engine is great.
The 9speed zf kinda... not so great... the 8speed ZF in the grand cherokee MUCH better.

My 9 speed has eco mode (auto) and sport mode.. but no regular mode.

Eco mode puts you into 7th at 40mph 1200rpm or so.

Sport mode is 3000rpm.. would be nice to have something in the middle.

You can manually lock out higher gears which I do when I know I will have extended drive at lower speeds.. example I select 5th which allows 1-2-3-4-5 so it wont go into 7th then be chuggling 1000rpm@35mph.

Gas mileage isnt so great but it is not aerodynamic and has the Worst MPG drivetrain..
Trailhawk.. which has bigger more aggressive tires (Firestone destination AT)
and the least efficient best offroad drivetrain.

I got 23.5mpg on a high speed trip to columbus and back. The forester under similar conditions would have gotten 25.5-27mpg.(did a couple trips last year)
 
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Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
There was an INCREDIBLE amount of hoopla about the Pentastar engine and how it was going to be all that, and even bring peace to Bosnia. Anyhow, it turned out to be an ordinary 3.6ish liter engine with the ordinary 290ish horsepower with the ordinary flaws that any motor has.
edited to update horsepower from 260ish to 290ish, which is really quite nice, and a note to clarify flaws; the left cylinder head has issues which caused ChryCo to issue an extended warranty for that motor for that problem


You consider around 290hp on regular gas and no DI ordinary? Tough crowd.
 
Originally Posted By: KrisZ


You consider around 290hp on regular gas and no DI ordinary? Tough crowd.

From 3.6 liters, DEFINITELY. Look at what Nissan has been doing for years with their non-DI 3.5 & 3.7, they have been pushing well over 300 for years.

The pentastar is a solid engine. Its reliable, but boring. The Wrangler though, I think it's mostly the gearing that holds back the pentastar. I test drove a Sahara, felt gutless. I bet if I would have test drove a Rubicon, I would be telling a different story. The only one with better stock gears. I remember the salesman telling me that swapping rear end gears is easy to do. Not a big fan of modifying a brand new truck, nor do I think I should need to.

Disclaimer: When I test drove the Sahara I was driving a Scat Pack Challenger, so maybe my judgement was a bit skewed at the time.
 
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
There was an INCREDIBLE amount of hoopla about the Pentastar engine and how it was going to be all that, and even bring peace to Bosnia. Anyhow, it turned out to be an ordinary 3.6ish liter engine with the ordinary 290ish horsepower with the ordinary flaws that any motor has.
edited to update horsepower from 260ish to 290ish, which is really quite nice, and a note to clarify flaws; the left cylinder head has issues which caused ChryCo to issue an extended warranty for that motor for that problem


You consider around 290hp on regular gas and no DI ordinary? Tough crowd.
Among modern peer engines it is fairly ordinary output. However, in engineering terms, compared to the horribly gutless 3.8 V6 it replaced, it is outstanding.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Among modern peer engines it is fairly ordinary output. However, in engineering terms, compared to the horribly gutless 3.8 V6 it replaced, it is outstanding.


Aside from VQ, which ones are they from the likes of Honda, Toyota or Ford? Once you move to the premium segment, I agree, they are all similar, but in the economy segment where regular unleaded is a requirement, it's pretty much on top as far as HP and TQ goes.
 
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