My Dodge Ram Hemi 2006 engine exploded the other day on a short stop, I only have 78,000 miles on it, there was no warning and I took excellent care of my car that I purchased new from the dealership in Carlsbad. I stopped at the bank and when I got back into the truck and turned the ignition, with no warning I heard a horrible exploding noise, the whole car started to shake and the engine made terrible noise, someone ran out and told me to turn it off as it was likely to explode!
I had it towed to a mechanic who quoted me $15,000 dollars to replace the engine, I then towed it to the dealership where I purchased it at and they told me that it was most likely the valve seat that had dropped into the 2nd cylinder, the mechanics admitted that there were issues with the valve seat dropping on Hemi engines and told me that I needed to authorize a tear down ($1,000) of the engine to fully diagnose the problem. They finally completed it and they confirmed that in the 2nd cylinder the valve seat had broken off and dropped, and they recommended replacing the entire engine.
My extended warranty ran out last April 2012 and after looking up this issue on the internet and seeing so many other complaints about the exact same thing happening, I've now told the case manager that they have assigned to me that I expect them to take care of this completely, which as the consumer was no fault of mine, so I will check back in when I hear what they propose to do.
As of now I am an extremely dissatisfied customer, and would not recommend any Hemi Dodge vehicle and I would like to warn owners of this major safety problem. I am lucky it happened in the bank parking lot and not on the freeway, or with my little boy in the truck on our way back from his school.
Update from Jan 15, 2013: Okay the latest, should now be a class action law suit, Chrysler copleted the tear down and found a defective valve seat that even though I provided all maintenance records and wrote their Ceo, they refuse to respond in writing and their CA district manager Jason flat out denied my claim due to the fact that the truck was slightly out of extended warranty,even though their mechanics said it was a known problem in the hemi engines and not a lubrication issue, now they r trying to force me to pay the tear down even though they said if it was found to be their defective valve seat they would pay it and replace the engine. They refuse to respond in writing and the parts manager for Bob Baker dodge , Al Rodriguez, at the request of the district manager Jason is now holding my vechicle hostage and without any letter of reason of refusal expects me to pay for the tear down and or a 10 k rebuilt engine as well as 20 per day storage, I'm done going to court this is outwright fraud!!!! Never again will I trust Chrysler, peple who have the same issues please e mail me at megaarte@aol.com, I'm taking this all the way!!!!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
My Dodge Ram Hemi 2006 engine exploded the other day on a short stop, I only have 78,000 miles on it, there was no warning and I took excellent care of my car that I purchased new from the dealership in Carlsbad. I stopped at the bank and when I got back into the truck and turned the ignition, with no warning I heard a horrible exploding noise, the whole car started to shake and the engine made terrible noise, someone ran out and told me to turn it off as it was likely to explode!
I had it towed to a mechanic who quoted me $15,000 dollars to replace the engine, I then towed it to the dealership where I purchased it at and they told me that it was most likely the valve seat that had dropped into the 2nd cylinder, the mechanics admitted that there were issues with the valve seat dropping on Hemi engines and told me that I needed to authorize a tear down ($1,000) of the engine to fully diagnose the problem. They finally completed it and they confirmed that in the 2nd cylinder the valve seat had broken off and dropped, and they recommended replacing the entire engine.
My extended warranty ran out last April 2012 and after looking up this issue on the internet and seeing so many other complaints about the exact same thing happening, I've now told the case manager that they have assigned to me that I expect them to take care of this completely, which as the consumer was no fault of mine, so I will check back in when I hear what they propose to do.
As of now I am an extremely dissatisfied customer, and would not recommend any Hemi Dodge vehicle and I would like to warn owners of this major safety problem. I am lucky it happened in the bank parking lot and not on the freeway, or with my little boy in the truck on our way back from his school.
Update from Jan 15, 2013: Okay the latest, should now be a class action law suit, Chrysler copleted the tear down and found a defective valve seat that even though I provided all maintenance records and wrote their Ceo, they refuse to respond in writing and their CA district manager Jason flat out denied my claim due to the fact that the truck was slightly out of extended warranty,even though their mechanics said it was a known problem in the hemi engines and not a lubrication issue, now they r trying to force me to pay the tear down even though they said if it was found to be their defective valve seat they would pay it and replace the engine. They refuse to respond in writing and the parts manager for Bob Baker dodge , Al Rodriguez, at the request of the district manager Jason is now holding my vechicle hostage and without any letter of reason of refusal expects me to pay for the tear down and or a 10 k rebuilt engine as well as 20 per day storage, I'm done going to court this is outwright fraud!!!! Never again will I trust Chrysler, peple who have the same issues please e mail me at megaarte@aol.com, I'm taking this all the way!!!!
- Megan E., Escondido, CA, US