Originally Posted By: otis24
http://www.motortrend.com/news/chrysler-extends-pentastar-v-6-warranties/
This appears to be an issue that was resolved in 2012. Mine is a 2016. Have there been reports of cylinder head problems in vehicles produced in the past couple of years?
from the linked article: "A design modification in late 2012 has reportedly fixed the issue in newer vehicles."
Yeah, that's the official stance I'm sure, but the reality of it is way more nuanced than that (read: no Pentastar engine is immune, even the new ones).
The lack of information from Dodge about what's going on is astonishingly scarce. They pretty much only admit to it happening when it happens to
you, at which point they fall all over themselves trying to make good on the situation, and get you back on the road as soon as possible. They still won't provide you with any information worth a darn about what happened or how to avoid it, but you get a new cylinder head installed free of charge, so I'm sure they're hoping you'll be thrilled with that and just move on.
There are some who believe they have not resolved it yet because they don't actually know what's causing it. All they know is some heads are going bad (bad valve guide due to casting issue), and none seem to be immune. The fact that they've gone through a couple of iterations of heads in an attempt to resolve this issue, yet it remains a thorn in their side, leads me to agree with those who believe they don't actually have a known cause identified. But that's neither here nor there.
It's
not common by any means, but it's still there, and if you've got a Pentastar, there's a chance you could have it happen to you. Personally, I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless you operate the vehicle outside of the normal range the average driver would subject it to, e.g. running e85 and doing a lot of WOT driving like I mentioned previously.
If you suddenly get a CEL and have a misfire code set behind it (I forget the specific DTC),
then you just won the cylinder head lottery. WOOHOO!! To claim your prize, all you have to do is take it to your nearest Dodge dealership and let them diagnose the CEL. At first they'll try something useless as mandated by the TSB, and after it doesn't work (it won't, it never does), then they will make the decision it needs a new cylinder head. All in all, you can expect a week or so of downtime on the vehicle, but it's all done under the car's powertrain warranty, so that's good.
Again, I would NOT let this keep you up at night, as you're likely never going to have to worry about it. But it has
not been officially resolved as far as I know, so keep that in mind when you hear the newer versions of the engine & heads are supposedly safe.
Nuke
P.S. There are a couple of threads I know of for sure (because I participated in them) on BITOG that have been created in the last 12 months (approximately) where this issue is discussed. You might do a search for those and do a little light reading if you want more info. I'm sure there are more threads talking about this on this forum, and I know for a fact there are some in the Jeep-specific forums as well as the LX-specific forums like ChallengerTalk DOT com. So some creative searching around on the Dodge/Chrysler related websites will definitely yield more details, but all of them will be filled with speculation, guesses, and assertions unfortunately, so keep that in mind as well. I wish there were was something more concrete available out there on this issue, but there just isn't. That's how Dodge has chosen to play this particular hand up to this point, so we've just got to deal with it.