Modern Mopar Issues

[Bruzilla]

My daughter and her husband inherited a 2005 Dodge Charger that was pretty lightly used from an aunt who passed away. It was a great car, ran fine, no problems, then it hit 100,000 miles last week. My son-in-law went to his grandfather's house, and when he went to leave and started the car, it sounded like the engine had turned into a rock tumbler. I listened to it on the phone, and it was obviously a bad rod or piston.

After doing about one minute of checking on line, I was able to find hundreds of reports of Chargers suffering from piston failure once they get above 90k-100k in mileage. Until yesterday, I had never heard about there being any issues with Dodge engines, but just as with the head failures in the Omni/PT Cruiser engines, this piston failure seems to be a well-known trend with Chargers and I suspect the same is happening to the Challengers as well.

I was thinking about getting a used Challenger as my next car, but now... no way.

 

[NOSTRT980]

what engine is at issue?

 

[Cranky]

My daughter has a 2003 PT GT with the 2.4 turbo and so far, the engine has been good. It has around 120k on it. Yeah, what engine is in the Charger?

 

[Bruzilla]

3.5L I believe.

 

[super-bee_ski]

My problem on this topic is:

Unknown history of said Charger.
Unknown maintenance records

So, typical Bruzilla.....

ALL CHARGERS ARE NOW BAD!

Uh, call the CEO of Chrysler Bru,
Maybe he'll give you a refund like Tony D'agastino did! (Tony Mopar)

 

[72Fourspeed]

Another reason to get the HEMI.

 

[super-bee_ski]

I performed a "search"

Couldn't find as many as Bruzilla


I did find: Some blame the design of the engine itself for all the ills it has suffered, while *others blame consumers for not maintaining their engines properly.

More: Oil Sludging Problem
One of the most common problems with these engines is that the oil tends to sludge and break down — especially if the oil is not changed every 3,000 miles

 

[MarPar]

 

[dieseldazzle]

Depends on what engine.

Most of the real problem is the morons that listen to the morons that tell them to switch to a thicker oil just because they have higher mileage.

I can tell you both my little pentastar 3.6s are amazing power plants. 315k on one and 40k on the other. NO issues.

 

[satman72]

I know some of the early '04 Hemi's were known to grenade.

 

[Budnicks]

I wasn't aware they had all the issues...

Where a car is from was it kept in a garage always,
usually makes for a better car & says something about the care/ownership too...

Not knowing the former owners, driving style, upkeep habits or vehicles actual history,
IMO it's hard to make actually knowledgeable or a honest assessment...

I've seen some cars that were alleged "great cars", turn out to be total trash
& some that got a bad rap too, because of a bad owner, no upkeep or
just severe "hard" usage, lack of any real maintenance too...

Overheated, old anti-freeze, not paid attention to properly, who knows really...

Some cars are great cars sometimes & the exact same make/model for someone else,
is a freaken' LEMON too...

 

[mopwrd340]

I believe those motors have a timing belt that also drive the water pump that might be the reason for the no start .

 

[383man]

I cant understand how you found out about the piston problems yet your not even sure what size the eng is ? ? I would want to be sure on the eng in it before I did a search for a knocking problem to be sure it even effects the eng in your Charger. Ron

 

[Dennis H]

3.5 bad rep. New V6 3.6 good rep. I don't think there is an 05 Charger. New Charger came out in 06. Maybe Magnum?

 

[Runner 68]

I cant understand how you found out about the piston problems yet your not even sure what size the eng is ? ? I would want to be sure on the eng in it before I did a search for a knocking problem to be sure it even effects the eng in your Charger. Ron

That's easy Ron, Bruz listened to it over the phone, he knew everything about that engine right off the bat.

 

[SlinktRR]

That's easy Ron, Bruz listened to it over the phone, he knew everything about that engine right off the bat.

FCA has improved a lot even in the past 5 years. I wouldn't hesitate to buy Chrysler these days. I have a wk2 grand Cherokee, just bought a few months back as a kid hauler. It is amazingly well built. I get 28mpg on the highway with the pentastar v6 and 8 spd torqueflite. 300bhp. Fits 5 adults comfortably for my car pool to work. The window sticker says made in Detroit I like it.

 

[Bb70charger500]

All cars/ motors have problems ,especially when there the first of there kind there's bugs to be worked out. Everyone wants high hp out of these poor little motors then expect them to get 30 mpg and be Bullitt proof sorry not going to happen you get two your choice pick two from the 3 I gave

Hp- Bullitt proof. Old cars
Mpg Bullitt proof hybrid cars
Hp mpg . Today's junk

This is what we did to our selves we need to find a happy medium between the 3
(2001 satern s100) for instance was one of the best cars ever made it was quick in its own right gets 32-35 mpg and I've seen most of them get over 300000 miles on the org parts ,with just regular services. The car industry pulled these cars quick and has been getting rid of them as they could really do a number if most people figured this out . But being ignorant people we want cool looking cars that can go 0 to holly crap in a few seconds but really how often do you fo that ? Sounds kinda stupid you traded reliably for performance since you don't use it that much right?
I had a 2014 charger and I was not in love it was quick but who cares my 72 charger is faster if I want to go fast I'll drive the real charger so as a daily driver I wanted something that would last so I didn't need to put my old car on the road why I'm fixing to new junk . I found another home run the 2003 5.7 hemi truck 2wd . Not a fabulous truck it's a striper with a hemi and that's about it it gets ok mpg it has decent h.p. and it's reliable so instead of going toward two it's sitting right in the middle . I can't believe the cars people are buying it's all junk ,the ones people are ignoring are the decent ones . Like the Mazda cx9 I just bought it isn't no where near as smart as the rest of the suv's in the big boy class nor I'd it as fast or gets as good mpg ! So why buy it? Well it gets 25mpg avg it has a v6 only producing 275hp and it has a timeing chain driven motor. All of its technology isn't new and dance but it's tride and true we know it works I have a purityed up Tom Tom in the dash but guess what it never fails me . My new charger s nav was so cool and seemed to be the best ever well it sucked compared to the mazdas "stupid" system and you can't remotely control my Mazda like you could with the new mopars . I guess my point us we all want and want and we need to realize it's all junk and wait till something comes out and is tested properly not just grab it because it's the next cool thing ! Who really cares you won't when you new car blows up in a year stop buying junk people demand better cars that last they can make them they chose not to because of people's stupidity for gadgets
God help us all if we keep this cycle up

- - - Updated - - -

By the way late 2005 you could order your chargers I am under the impression that the first batch were 2005's ,because If you remember correctly they keep pushing back the new chargers , the org release date I believe was around Christmas 2004 them it got bumped to Aug then may then I believe October was the first batch but there wasn't anything good just v6 cars no hemi or Daytonas yet that came along shortly after
As I really wanted a orange Daytona chargera nd stayed on top of things I finly gave up after my last attempt and I was told maybe in a month or two so I went out and bought a car as I sold my other car the day I went to get a charger so I was without a newer car for about 4-5 months
Glad I didn't buy one now

 

[69SportSatellite]

2006 300C, Hemi -- 165K on it, bought it used in 2009 with 28K miles on it. It has been the most reliable, solid well-built car I have ever owned, bar none. And, at 56 I've owned dozens, both new and old. I love the Hemi. Average 20+ MPG. I'd buy another one in a heartbeat.

 

[Dennis H]

Someone anyone was a Charger made in 05? Maybe it's a super rare preview car.

 

[SlinktRR]

I guess my point us we all want and want and we need to realize it's all junk and wait till something comes out and is tested properly not just grab it because it's the next cool thing ! Who really cares you won't when you new car blows up in a year stop buying junk people demand better cars that last they can make them they chose not to because of people's stupidity for gadgets
God help us all if we keep this cycle up
Glad I didn't buy one now

I agree with you. Too many gadgets. The salesman was pushing hard for me to buy the upgraded version with backup camera, nav, leather, panoramic sunroof, auto lift gate, more crap. I ended up getting the stripped version, bare bones. I don't want gadgets. Just more stuff to break later. My first modern mopar, so far so good.