2019 2500 6.4L engine blown up at 95K miles?

[ramffml]

Okey dokey, finally heard from the dealer. Timing chain broke with catastrophic damage to the engine. Have to replace the engine. Total labor and materials with a remanufactured engine is $13,897.00. As noted before, the extended warranty I purchased ran out at 88,000 miles. Mileage at breakdown: 94,326 miles. This sucks. I'm calling Ram Customer Care as we speak. Any suggestions? Thanks

PS: Would the little/no oil in the engine make the timing chain break?

Don't go remanufactured, you can get a brand new 5.7 hemi from mopar.com for $7500 + installation.

 

[Jeff Ward]

Don't go remanufactured, you can get a brand new 5.7 hemi from mopar.com for $7500 + installation.

It's a 2500 so I have the 6.4 Hemi. I am considering going that route, but am concerned about trade in/selling it and it not being fixed by a Ram dealer?

 

[retired]

Don't go remanufactured, you can get a brand new 5.7 hemi from mopar.com for $7500 + installation.

he has a 6.4 which has a different tranny so not going to be able to put a 5.7 in.

 

[ramffml]

he has a 6.4 which has a different tranny so not going to be able to put a 5.7 in.

Yep I missed that part, my bad. Still, if I was in that position I would spring for the mopar 6.4 rather than a reman, they don't seem to have that good of a reputation these days and I would think an offical 6.4 should be better for resale than a reman. If the intent is to get rid of the truck, I'd try and find used.

 

[Jeff Ward]

Correction: I just found out my extended warranty (through Autoguard, a Hendricks company) ran out at 93,443 miles. At breakdown the truck had 94,326 miles. Only 883 miles out of warranty...

 

[retired]

Correction: I just found out my extended warranty (through Autoguard, a Hendricks company) ran out at 93,443 miles. At breakdown the truck had 94,326 miles. Only 883 miles out of warranty...

contact @RamCares I bet you will get a good will warranty to at least cover parts....

 

[RamCares]

Hey!

We appreciate being tagged here! Yes, please send us DM. We'd love to look into this with you.

Callie
Ram Cares

 

[mtofell]

The 6.4 in my 2014 failed at 120K generally easy miles (<5% towing). I was told it was some bearing deep in the engine sending metal shavings throughout the engine. First sign of a problem was a flashing CEL indicating a misfire.

I was covered under my Maxcare Lifetime Warranty but they put me through the ringer as far as checking all service history and verifying ownership of the vehicle. I can't imagine Ram is going to do anything with you being 35K past your power train warranty. Extended warranty company definitely will be no help. Failure a day after the oil change? Could just be a coincidence or could be something to it. The failed timing chain makes me think coincidence.

 

[troverman]

Lack of oil could destroy a timing chain, but its going to seize the pistons into the cylinders a lot quicker. However, a suddenly seizing piston could potentially break a timing chain, but it would be really easy for the dealership to determine if the engine had oil in it or not. Presumably it did or they would have listed that as the cause of failure.

I'm still pretty suspicious. Far as I know, the timing chain on this engine has no tensioner and is simply slid on to the camshaft and crankshafts with the chain already on the sprockets. These chains are so short that any stretch of the chains takes a lot of miles to become a problem (like over 200k). Consider that if the pins start to elongate on a link, the total stretch will be the amount of elongation multiplied by the number of links. If a pushrod engine with a short chain has 100 links, for example, but a DOHC V8 like a Ford Coyote has 500 links, and the chains stretch at exactly the same rate, the Ford chain will have vastly more stretch in it. Furthermore, these Hemi engines are not high compression nor do they run at very high RPMs, so the valve springs are not super stiff. The timing chain doesn't have to work that hard, in other words. So while it is possible you just had a defective chain, I think something else might be at play here.

Had a buddy with a 2012 Ford F-550 diesel. When the vehicle was 6 years old and had 65k miles on it, the crankshaft broke. The Ford warranty on the engine was 5 years / 100k miles. Presumably the crankshaft had some defect in it from new, but it didn't manifest itself until it was out of warranty by age. After lots of back and forth with Ford, they gave him $1500 in "goodwill" despite needing a new engine or full rebuild, at a massive cost. Pretty despicable behavior by a manufacturer, I guess, but then again if they make one exception they will need to make a million exceptions. It should not have happened but it was in fact out of warranty. Guy ended up buying a new F-550 with the gas engine at the time because he needed a truck in that class and the Ford dealer had one in stock.

 

[Alweeja]

Sux either way….Warranty?,,

 

[Daily Driver44]

so just putting this out there
i don't know about the 6.4 but my 2012 5.7 had a plastic timing chain guide. they make a aluminum one which i replaced when i did a cam swap in mine. i have heard about the plastic ones breaking which would cause a slap sure but not a break. sounds like a freak incident.
just food for thought - any body please chime in!

 

[fritotec]

idler pully is there to make sure that the serpentine belt goes around the pullies of the accessories like air, alternator, etc... more than half way. between that and the tensioner pulley those two bearing are probably the weakest part of the pully system. the timing chain is internal so if you blow a belt the worst than can happen is you overheat and the engine shuts down to save itself.

 

[Dusty]

If I make 500,000 timing chains a year and the failure rate is 0.00001, how many timing chains will fail?

Regards,
Dusty
2019 Ram 1500 Billet Silver Quad Cab 2WD, 5.7 Hemi, 8HP75, 3.21 axle, 33-gallon fuel tank, factory dual exhaust, 18” wheels. Build date: 3 June 2018. Now at 83202 miles

 

[jimrobert]

So I'm driving down I40 eastbound from Raleigh to Wilmington and my truck shuts completely down with the cruise set at 71 mph. I manhandled it off the road. It would not restart. Had it towed to the nearest Ram dealer which luckily was only about 15 miles away. That was last Wednesday afternoon. Just got a call today saying it looks like best case the timing chain is broken but they won't know for sure until they get the entire engine broken down. Three year old heavy duty truck with 95,000 mostly highway miles with catastrophic engine failure? What gives? The only thing is the day before I had the oil changed and truck inspected. Thoughts? And of course my extended warranty ran out at 88K miles...

Oh boy that really sucks. Do you know what you had for oil pressure before it let go? What weight oil have you been using in your truck. Timing chain failures are not common on any vehicle. I've heard of wear guides letting go but very few chain failures.

 

[Tom6363]

Okey dokey, finally heard from the dealer. Timing chain broke with catastrophic damage to the engine. Have to replace the engine. Total labor and materials with a remanufactured engine is $13,897.00. As noted before, the extended warranty I purchased ran out at 88,000 miles. Mileage at breakdown: 94,326 miles. This sucks. I'm calling Ram Customer Care as we speak. Any suggestions? Thanks

PS: Would the little/no oil in the engine make the timing chain break?

Check another dealer. My 2018 6.4 with 120k just lost oil pressure and internally failed. I "only" had to pay 11.5k for a factory rebuild. 3yr/100k full warranty. My third engine! The first only lasted 6k, because it had the wrong wrist pins and it blew itself up. At least the first engine was warrantied.

 

[Tom6363]

Don't go remanufactured, you can get a brand new 5.7 hemi from mopar.com for $7500 + installation.

The 6.4 is unavailable from Mopar, unless you are willing to wait over 3 months and the reman is still 2-4 weeks wait. The warranty is the same, new or reman. I just went thru this nightmare.

 

[Tom6363]

The 6.4 in my 2014 failed at 120K generally easy miles (<5% towing). I was told it was some bearing deep in the engine sending metal shavings throughout the engine. First sign of a problem was a flashing CEL indicating a misfire.

I was covered under my Maxcare Lifetime Warranty but they put me through the ringer as far as checking all service history and verifying ownership of the vehicle. I can't imagine Ram is going to do anything with you being 35K past your power train warranty. Extended warranty company definitely will be no help. Failure a day after the oil change? Could just be a coincidence or could be something to it. The failed timing chain makes me think coincidence.

Wow, almost identical to me, except mine was low oil pressure. Was running great even when I drove it to the dealer for the reman engine.

 

[Jeff Ward]

The 6.4 is unavailable from Mopar, unless you are willing to wait over 3 months and the reman is still 2-4 weeks wait. The warranty is the same, new or reman. I just went thru this nightmare.

Hey Tom, what kind of warranty did they give you on that reman? Thanks

 

[sam darakjy]

So I'm driving down I40 eastbound from Raleigh to Wilmington and my truck shuts completely down with the cruise set at 71 mph. I manhandled it off the road. It would not restart. Had it towed to the nearest Ram dealer which luckily was only about 15 miles away. That was last Wednesday afternoon. Just got a call today saying it looks like best case the timing chain is broken but they won't know for sure until they get the entire engine broken down. Three year old heavy duty truck with 95,000 mostly highway miles with catastrophic engine failure? What gives? The only thing is the day before I had the oil changed and truck inspected. Thoughts? And of course my extended warranty ran out at 88K miles...

Man sorry to hear that. I do the same run every week. Had a 2018 2500 6.4 but traded it with about 32k miles on it. Did you buy in Wilmington. I have purchased 2 Rams from them and their service department has neen pretty decent.

 

[Jeff Ward]

Hey Sam, I bought it from Hendrick in Cary. The work is being done at Performance Ram in Clinton. I kind of didn't have a choice since it blew up 10 miles down the road from them. I felt kind of lucky in that regard... Just curious, why did you trade it with only 32K miles?