Pentastar V6 Question

Recently got a 2011 Journey with 60,000 miles. On 2 occasions when starting the vehicle I heard what seemed to be an engine noise for a second or 2. Check engine light can on and gave a P0340. code. Research suggests a cam phaser, which would cause the cam sensor bank 1 code. Sound right? Is this a high price repair. Is the engine a time bomb?

Thanks
nd65

The warranty was extended out by FCA on these to I believe 150,000 miles/10 years. I'd get it to dealership immediately. See if you might get a replacement head/cam on that side at least. They have replaced MANY under warranty. '11 wasn't a good year for that otherwise good engine.

I will look into that Larry. Thanks,

You're welcome. Here's an early article on the extension. There are plenty more. I'd get it documented right now, even if they don't agree to fix it now. At least you'll have a time stamp.

First it was thought to have been isolated to 11-13 model years but that was found to be false. I'm disappointed in how many fleet cars with the 3.6 that I'm around and hear ticking away. The 3.5's just keep on going for the most part, as do the 5.7's. High mileage and high engine hours and all.

https://leftlanenews.com/2014/06/16...-v6-warranty-over-cylinder-head-failure/

Agree, my '14 Grand Caravan it showed a code for cylinder 6 mis-fire.
I told the service writer this, she said bring it in!
They replaced the cylinder head on that side, no charge!
Car had over 50k miles on it. FCA seems to be trying to keep me a happy customer!

I've heard nothing but good things (GREAT things!) on the 3.6L Pentastar motors, but not sure if there were early teething problems with them. My first one was on a 2012 300, then a 2014 300, & my current driver is a 2016 300. ONLY problem I had was the oil filter housing cracking & leaking on my 2014 - this was a VERY common problem. You'll start smelling a strong oil burning smell - smelled to me like I cooked a belt or something rubber burning. Chrysler did that repair - that was a TSB I'm pretty sure.

I recently read an article about the 3.6L engine being rated a world-class engine. They talked about fleets running these with over 600,000 miles on them, & Chrysler tore-down the motors & said there were virtually no signs of wear internally - the cylinder walls even still had the cross-hatch pattern still.

Otherwise a very good engine. FCA really screwed up not correcting the issue quicker! A silky smooth, powerful engine, and had they made a quick correction, they would have kept from damaging the reputation. There's now a class action suit with the van owners because FCA not honoring this warranty for them and they aren't happy

https://www.classaction.org/news/fc...-for-pentastar-v-6-engine-ticking-defect

It was my understanding the cyl head replacement era was due to the errant “cyl misfire” codes due to the coolant jacket design which caused the valve seats to shift on some heads which has been corrected (discussion at the engine plant actually) More times than not you wouldn’t have even noticed if the CEL didn’t aluminate. Now the “ticking noise”.... rocker arms. Still see this and if you catch it in time you can even get away without changing out the cam. One other point of interest I’ve noted. Light use excessive idle time vehicles seem to come in at earlier mileage with rocker issues. No solid scientific data on this.... just a pattern I’ve noted at work.

Personally it sounds like Mr Class Action is trying to find a loophole to get his s**t for free.

As to the "ticking" - my 300's have ALL experienced this when cold, but the ticking goes away after the engine warms up - typically 4-5 miles of driving. Is this not normal?

My Hemi Rams have all done this when cold. My current Ram (2017 Hemi) does this when cold also, plus there was one time this year where the engine was knocking on a cold start. Never did it again however. Hell, it sounded like a rod knock & it lasted for a good 5 minutes. I've got 10 years, 100k on that drivetrain. (I don't even have 20,000 miles on it yet.)

NO, it's not. My '13 had that in late 2017, thought it might be an exhaust leak since it quieted when warmed up. Was under the 5/100,000 so took it in. 5 bad rockers, all 24 replaced under warranty with an "updated" rocker arm, I have no idea what's updated about it. Not long afterwards, April 2018, I found my '16 300 with Hemi and just had to have it, so traded the '13 on the '16. Now I get the crazy noisy lifters, REALLY bad after sitting for a month, just plain bad on cold starts.

Thank you - I'll have to haul it in to have it looked at. I've had 100% BAD experiences with dealer engine repairs though - they usually come out of the dealer in worse condition than they went in with. I'm leery.

I agree, they do seem to be really trying to keep customers happy on this 3.6 issue. They do not seem to be doing the normal "I don't hear anything" or "that's completely normal" or any other bs that dealership service departments have perfected.

Jeeps were having problems in 2015 on the 3.6 heads

Hmm my experience differs - the 3.5 in my 2010 Charger tics all the time when its cold - it really sounds like lifters (small as they are in that engine) - does not quiet while idling but goes away most of the time after a couple miles. When we were in Florida with the car some years ago - just before the drivetrain warranty expired the car was ticking all the time - would not stop - by the time we got home I had a misfire code. I diagnosed it as a leaking intake valve - took it to the dealer and they replaced the head under warranty after their own diagnosis. Still ticked after that so I pulled the valve cover to see for myself. I was shocked to find the one rocker had warn into the boss next to it (warn enough to inhibit oil flow so I bet the valve seized into the head) ... that was the root cause which they had not fixed it. They gave me some story about the head being bad with carbon deposits - BS the other original head was clean as a whistle when I opened it up.
I got a rocker shaft assembly from a wrecker and replaced it - it still tics sometimes when cold but goes away after short drive. Ever since that issue I have been suspicious about the top end oiling on that 3.5 engine and always listening for the tick to stop. Last month or so it has been better - keeping my fingers crossed.

On the other hand the 3.6 in my wife's 2013 T&C runs quiet as a mouse - and with the 6 speed auto it gets better mileage than my Charger. I really wish I had waited for 2011 and gotten the 3.6 in the Charger.

Ticking and a misfire detected can be two different things..... personally I’ve never seen a 3.5 with a misfire code that was lifter related, and we changed quite a few lifters in that era. The roller rockers on the Pentastar CAN cause a misfire detected code.

I’ve been changing the oil on our 3.2 Pentastar every 5k.... it’s a very “busy” engine inside and it makes me feel better keeping it clean.