3.5L Death Rattle

Not classic Mopar, but for those that run the venerable 3.5L or 4.0L V6, sooner or later the "Death Rattle" will come your way. It's a ticking sound coming out of your engine. The cause is the rocker arms and it's a well documented problem that the dealer SHOULD have fixed. In my case, the dealer did not fix it and in my 2010 Challenger, the 3.5l Death Rattle started at 100,000 miles (out of warranty) and I let it go. Now at 215,000 miles I got the upgraded rocker arms and dug into the problem. Simple fix it should have been. It now is not. See pic for what happens when the Death Rattle is allowed to go on. Need a new passengers side cam now.

Greg

Had a low mile 70k, 3.2 flake a lobe or two back in 2008 or so. Was a pricey cam too.

Well you did get another 115k after the rattle started, so can't be to pissed on the extra money and work to get it corrected, right??

That is true. A new cam runs almost $500. I think I've got a good used one located for $65. At this point, I don't want to put big money into the motor. But the car still looks GREAT!!!

JB weld

Sorry couldn't resist

Sorry to hear of your problems but why would you think the Dealer should fix it at 100,000 miles ? Not trying to be smart just asking because many drivetrain warranty's wont cover anything at 100k. Ron

It started to "click" at 98,000 miles and I took it to the dealer. They told me it was injector noise. By 110,000 it had gotten louder but the power train warranty had expired at 100,000.

Man, that is one ugly cam lobe.....

The actual problem is not the rocker arms, but the rocker arm shaft locating pins shearing off. This allows the shaft to rotate and cause a non oiling situation to the rocker arm. The lash adjusters then collapse. This causes the rocker to "bounce" on the cam lobe and then eventually takes out the cam.

Oh then thats different as I did not realize it had a 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. If you have it on record at 98,000 miles that you complained about the noise then they should honer it since you brought it in for that noise while still under warranty. Did you call Mopars cust help line ? If not you should and tell them what happened and they may cover it for you as they should. And if you have your receit from the dealer that says you complained about this at 98,000 then you have ammo to go to Mopar cust service with and try and get it covered as they should since you complained about it before the warranty was up. Good luck , Ron

On a cold startup our 3.5 has just a touch of what I'll call 'lifter tick' for maybe 1-2 seconds and then its fine. Is this the 'death rattle' occuring ?

Yes.

http://www.chargerforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152670

Seems easy enough to replace. I just ordered a set to do our Concorde.

It starts as a "tick, tick, tick" then goes to a "click, clack, click" or if you let it go long enough, it progresses to a "RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE!". At that point, as you can see, when you tear it down, things get real ugly... and more expensive. Catch it early and you're golden.

I really can't complain. The engine has 215,000 miles on it and it still runs great and uses no oil. I had to put the new rocker arm assembly on the bad cam because the car is my daily driver. No more ticking but I know the cam will chew up the roller tip on the rocker eventually. So, I'm hunting up another cam and will tear it down again at a later date. Right now though, the engine runs great! Gas mileage went back up to about 25 mpg. Go figure....

Oh, and change the plugs while you're in there.

Spark plugs and coils were done not long ago. I like the 3.5, would like to put one in my Shadow but they are sensitive to the spark plug quality and the coils seem to be good for maybe 50-60k before they are arcing again.

I have a 2006 Magnum with the 3.5HO. It has 192,000 on it. I really haven't noticed any engine noise - but it uses about a quart of oil between changes. It has used the oil since it was new.

I'm getting a new vehicle at the end of the year - so it only needs to last another 15,000 miles.