[Pbio1]

Posting this here in case it helps anyone else out. But I also want to check whether I was ripped off. We have an extended warranty but are required to take the car to our non-preferred mechanic.

Our CEL came on with the P0305 code that cylinder 5 was misfiring. The mechanic wanted to change out two bad ignition coils and replace all spark plugs. In addition they recommended a fuel induction service to clean out the engine. I figured at 74,000 miles that wouldn't be a bad idea. Here was the cost:

DIAG $145
Ignition coils - Parts $170, Labor $319
Spark plugs - Parts $155.94, Labor $145
Fuel Induction service - Parts - $90 (fuel system cleaner), Labor $99

Total parts and labor was $1337. Thankfully warranty covered $471 of it. But that seems awfully high.

 

[Pbio1]

Just hope you do not have the issue seen in this thread. At 70,000 miles Dealer says new engine One of the first signs that the head gasket is gone, or engine block might be cracked is the code P030X indicating a misfire in cylinder X.

Yes, I've seen various posts about this. My coolent reservoir was also empty but I had no evidence of a leak. I'm very concerned that this is related to what others are complaining about. Very happy we got the extended warranty to 125K miles. Put in a new engine as long as someone else pays for it! Or maybe they'll just buy the car from me. Honestly, over the past two years of ownership we've had other issues that combined aren't major but for a relatively young car make me worried. Thinking of just trading it in.

 

[Pbio1]

I was able to get genuine Mopar ignition coils at my local Advance Auto for $36 each. (I believe the brand on the box was "Standard", so I was surprised when they seemed to OEM parts). Original on the right, replacement on the left. It's too late to help you, but if anybody else needs to replace their coils, you can save a lot of money that way.

Also, it's a shame they went through the trouble of replacing the rear spark plugs without changing out the coils while they had the manifold off. It seems to be a pretty common failure. I had two fail within about a month of each other. Luckily for me, mine were both on the front bank of cylinders so I could change them myself without much trouble. I went ahead and bought replacements for the three rear packs, and when one fails I'll replace all three.

View attachment 51141

Thanks, yes it's a shame and I didn't think about how involved it was to change these. At least they did all of the plugs.

 

[Pbio1]

Update: Two weeks after this $800+ repair the exact same engine code came on from the exact same cylinder. I am also still losing coolent. I took it to the same mechanic because it's the only shop covered by our Maxcare warranty. It's been there for 3 days and still no word on what's going on. Hopefully it doesn't require a new engine.

 

[Pbio1]

Not sure what to do now, mechanic has been sitting on my car for 12 days! I've called repeatedly and they say they're backlogged. This morning had another phone call and said he has to do a road test and that the last repair (where they replaced two of the coils) they recommended replacing all of the coils. Would other coils cause a misfire in only one cylinder? I'm about to just take the car back home and try another shop or the dealer.

 

[Pbio1]

So I've had three ignition packs fail at different times, and each time I received a code for a misfire on the effected cylinder. So when the pack on cylinder 1 died, I got a code for misfire on cylinder 1. Same for cylinders 5 and then 6. I also experienced identical symptoms each time: Running rough, especially under acceleration, check engine light flashing, and an occasional ding.

Thanks Edgar, based on your experience then would it make sense to just replace the remaining ignition coils?

 

[Pbio1]

Update:

Car shop did some extensive testing. When they went to check out the car the code disappeared. They couldn't get the code back on. They did fuel pressure testing while driving, they took apart the intake manifold and looked at the plugs and coils for any signs of coolant leaking and didn't see any. They rearranged a few of the coils and the suggestion will be to continue to put some miles on the car and see if the code comes back on and whether or not the same cylinder code is shown or it moves with a bad coil.

Thanks to Edgar I actually think I could do this work myself next time it happens. Looks like taking the manifold apart is the hardest part.

 

[Pbio1]

I wanted to post a follow up. Because this previous shop did "extensive testing" we thought we were in the clear. We still threw an engine misfire code but it quickly went away. We were having rough start ups but only intermittently. This past two weeks our car has started weirdly overheating. Like temp gauge would go up based on speed and we would periodically lose heat. Instead of taking it to this shop, that last sat on my car for two weeks, I took it to my trusty neighborhood mechanic who quickly diagnosed that there is coolant in cylinder 5 and we have a cracked head gasket. Why this previous shop couldn't diagnose that is beyond me. I feel like I've been taken advantage of and completely lied to. Thankfully I have an extended warranty so hopefully they will cover it. Otherwise I'm going to the dealer and demanding they give me a new engine.

 

[Pbio1]

Dropped the car off at the dealership this morning. The lady at the desk sighed the second I told her there was coolant in cylinder 5. She said this was the second one this month. I live in a pretty small rural town. I chuckled and said, well that's good since at least you'll know how to diagnose and fix it!

 

[Pbio1]

@jimbodude44 No update yet. I dropped the car off last week and they called me this past Monday to confirm who my extended warranty was through. I assume they were going to call them but I haven't heard anything yet.

 

[Pbio1]

They started our teardown the week before last, and I still haven't heard anything. Thankfully we have a second car that we can use, but even it has its problems. We had to rent a car for a few days because that car needed to be in the shop. Not having the best of luck in cars today, but here's hoping this week we find out some progress.

 

[Pbio1]

Warranty company is now asking for all the records of my oil changes. I have a sickening feeling they are trying to get out this repair!

 

[Pbio1]

Thanks @mikepacificasandiego . We got the records and had oil changes every 9K miles except the last time. This past summer we changed the oil but went to 11K. We change the oil based on built in car indicator. I asked my wife (primary driver) if she remembers this indicator being on for weeks and neither of us think so. I know this means we went past our 10K rule but we do not think we would have ignored the change oil message for a month. No way. I know the oil monitoring system is based on duty cycle and we did take a trip during this past summer. Not sure if that has any bearing. Other oil changes were to spec though. Still waiting to see what happens.

 

[Pbio1]

Well, all's well that ends well, I guess. My Carmax Maxcare extended warranty agreed to cover the engine. They installed a brand new engine that now comes with a 3-year 100,000mi warranty. Ultimate diagnosis was a cracked engine block but they couldn't tell me what caused it or whether it was the same defect others have experienced. The car was officially in the shop for 54 days. Picked it up this afternoon.

 

[Pbio1]

Well it's not over yet! We went to get the car, and no less than a mile from the dealership the check engine light started flickering and then came on. I pulled over and read the code and it was a P0300 random multiple cylinder misfires. Drove it right back to the dealer and told them it's not fixed. A brand new engine should not be misfiring. Did they even test drive the car?