2013 Hemi Misfire Cylinder 2

[GlennB]

I'm the original owner of a 2013 Bighorn which currently has 108K miles on it. It's been used as a passenger car since Day 1 - never saw a load in it's bed beyond the annual Christmas tree. Documented oil changes every 3,500-4,000 miles, plugs changed at 50K miles, trans fluid changed every 50K miles, coolant flushed every 50K, differential serviced at 80K miles. Truck doesn't look much different than the day it rolled off the lot - I take as good a care of its looks as I do of its mechanical maintenance.

Developed a misfire in cylinder 2 a few weeks ago triggering the check engine light. My mechanic tells me its not the coil pack or plugs and needs cam/lifters.

I'm thinking of selling it as-is (as the condition alone will allow me to recoup some of my investment).

 

[Burla]

Well, if you keep the truck and replace the cam lifters, there are better ways to protect the new ones moving forward, not a short interval but scientific strategies proven to work. We are all in the same boat, this is the main weakness to rams, but thanks to hemi tick and analyzing used oils, and taking fca's lubrication to the next level, we have found better ways to protect that cam from failure. When you consider cost versus their competitors, there is still an argument to keep a ram even needing a new cam.lifters.

There are no guarantees, but knock wood those who us who despite having hemi tick have had not one fail in ten years thanks to these strategies. There is zero doubt this would not be the case had we just been using bulk oils, mind you these were trucks WITH hemi tick, including mine since 2010. 100's of rams, zero fails. The only ones that had a fail were ones showing the misfire code first, or a mechanic already said lifter/cams was needed.

Let us know if you keep it.

 

[2012RAM1500RT]

I'm the original owner of a 2013 Bighorn which currently has 108K miles on it. It's been used as a passenger car since Day 1 - never saw a load in it's bed beyond the annual Christmas tree. Documented oil changes every 3,500-4,000 miles, plugs changed at 50K miles, trans fluid changed every 50K miles, coolant flushed every 50K, differential serviced at 80K miles. Truck doesn't look much different than the day it rolled off the lot - I take as good a care of its looks as I do of its mechanical maintenance.

Developed a misfire in cylinder 2 a few weeks ago triggering the check engine light. My mechanic tells me its not the coil pack or plugs and needs cam/lifters. To say I'm really disappointed is an understatement. If it were a beat-up work truck that was abused on a daily basis - that MIGHT be one thing. But used as a passenger car and (arguably) over-maintained by dealers throughout its life and a "truck" can't make it to 200K miles without engine failure?

I'm thinking of selling it as-is (as the condition alone will allow me to recoup some of my investment) and exploring other truck options. RAM has really disappointed me and demonstrated to me that they are just a 36month lease truck - not something to be considered for longer-term, irrespective of maintenance/care given it.

I have been a Mopar guy my entire life and I understand and feel your frustration. I have a '12 Ram 1500 with 140,000 miles and a '12 Ram 2500 with 216,000 miles and I won't be the least bit happy if or when either one of them looses a cam or lifters. There is nothing cheap about the repair. I had a '98 2500 Ram that had 450,000 before it cracked a head and I had to replace the engine so I agree that 200,000 miles is way to soon for any major thing to happen to them. I also take very good care of my truck maintenance wise but I'm not the least bit afraid to take it to it's limits running wise. I will find it's weak link. I just have to hope the percentage rate is low and hoping it doesn't happen to me also. I know it doesn't help you one bit but I hope you don't give up on the brand because of it. It sounds like it's a nice truck and the cost of the repair versus a new truck of any brand may help you to make a decision to fix it and keep it and the odds of it happening again would be very slim. Good luck in what choice you make.

 

[GlennB]

I appreciate all your comments.

 

[RamRod37]

you s

I appreciate all your comments. I'm going to try and sell it locally and see what kind of number I can get for it as-is. I'll keep you guys posted. Again - appreciate your thoughts and replies to my ranting post - I needed to vent a little.

you said it's not coil or plug but how about a injector. I would swap 2 with 4 and see if it move to new cylinder first before jumping to cam & lifters as the cause because shortly after my cam and lifter build I had misfire on #4 since i had just replaced the cam and lifter's I was 99.9% sure it was not that so changed coil with #2 no change new plugs no change then moved injector over to cylinder 2 and guess what it move to #2 so new injector all good 4k miles later.

 

[Rlaf75]

Like mentioned above, an injector could also cause that misfire code. Before committing to selling the truck I'd start looking at those. Swap #2 injector with another cylinder, clear the codes and see if the code follows the injector or stays at #2. You still may have a cam and lifter issue but that will be something cheap to get it verified

 

[James OBrien]

Yeah, I think there are a lot of mis-diagnosed injector related issues with our trucks. The stock fuel filter setup is not adequate, doesn't take much crud to ruin or clog an injector! Swap them around, easy to do.

 

[rowemesp]

I'm the original owner of a 2013 Bighorn which currently has 108K miles on it. It's been used as a passenger car since Day 1 - never saw a load in it's bed beyond the annual Christmas tree. Documented oil changes every 3,500-4,000 miles, plugs changed at 50K miles, trans fluid changed every 50K miles, coolant flushed every 50K, differential serviced at 80K miles. Truck doesn't look much different than the day it rolled off the lot - I take as good a care of its looks as I do of its mechanical maintenance.

Developed a misfire in cylinder 2 a few weeks ago triggering the check engine light. My mechanic tells me its not the coil pack or plugs and needs cam/lifters.

I'm thinking of selling it as-is (as the condition alone will allow me to recoup some of my investment).

I had the same issue on my 2017 and it ended up being a bad fuel injector. Mention that to your mechanics as a possible source of the problem.