[Quiet Lunatic]

Was driving today and pulled in to my shop, left the Nitro idle for about 3 minutes. Came out and it wasn't running. Thought that was odd. Tried to start it and all hell broke loose. ran rough, starter wouldn't disengage and noise. Had it towed to the chrysler dealer and they put it on a lift. Said, if I remember correctly, a pushrod broke and valve dropped in to piston, crushed it and scored everything in that cylinder. There maybe more but they're still tearing it apart. They say it needs a new motor. Anyone else had problems with the 3.7? Mechanic said it was the 3rd one he's seen!
Grrrr....

 

[dk1677]

Wow sorry to hear that! I have not had any problems or heard of that with a Nitro! Keep us posted! :shakehead:

 

[nitro6816]

They would certainly know exactly what happened....

but it does sound strange that a push rod would break first and not that a valve keeper failed first and then the valve itself collided with the piston. Those push rods are tuff little buggers. To break one you gotta have some kind of major resistance somewhere - or it would have to seize up somehow in the valvetrain., eg. lack of lubrication, doubtful though.

My hunch on what really happened is that the valve (keeper assy) failed first, then dropped down into the cylinder subsequently jamming up the piston, and then the push rod bent/broke as a result.

Was there ever any unusual 'lifter' kind of noise before this happened?

I guess the good news if you could call it that is that you're gonna get a new motor out of the deal.

Nitro6816

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

i'll know more tomorrow. I'm concerned that he's seen 3 of these on the nitros. One had 2 miles on it. I've had mine since april and logged almost 20K and can't afford to have something unreliable. Thought the 3.7 was pretty bulletproof.

To answer your question, I didn't hear anything out of the question. A few weird things did happen recently but they were the result of a bad steering sensor. I have had it buck once or twice though...

 

[nitro6816]

Did it seem like it was losing power by any chance? Also, is there any way...

that at one time or another the motor overheated?

Nitro6816

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

Sorry to hear that vanstee.

 

[ponchonutty]

That's the same motor that's in the Liberty. I had a 2002 Liberty and had about 70k on it with no problems at all and I ran it pretty hard too.

 

[KenCary]

Sorry to hear of this.

Better that this should happen while under warranty.

The 3.7L engine has been giving faithful service in a number of Mopar vehicles for several years. I think that your situation is an unfortunate fluke.

I did however remember a TSB on the valvetrain for the 4.0L. Perhaps your mechanic was confusing your issue with the 4.0L valvetrain issue.

All things considered, both the 3.7 and the 4.0 are on par with other engines for reliable service.

Ken

 

[2B7387]

Was your Nitro built before or after the " contract talks " ?

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

Was a valve keeper that failed. The mechanic said that there is a newer style valve keeper that he's installing on all the valves. Should be good as new. It happened on the cylinder closest to the rear on the drivers side. I saw the valve (mechanic let me watch them operate some) and it was bent pretty good. They're replacing the head on that side, piston, valves, keepers and spark plug to my knowledge. He said he's seen it on engines with as few as 2 miles on them. I'm really disheartened this happened and have lost a significant amount of confidence in the Nitro. I'm thinking of trading it off but i'm going to get screwed due to mileage. May try to push a buyback from Chrysler.

Also, it was built before the talks...

 

[IMWhisper]

Well crapandahalf Vanstee! I am so sorry about that!

"Contact talks"?

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

union negotiations.
Interestingly enough, Chrysler was thinking of using my Nitro as a promo vehicle for fleet use for law enforcement. I still had a few lights to put on it and they wanted to see pictures and possibly use it a the police fleet expo... May have to pull a few cards from that deck to get this straightened around to my liking. Maybe i'll at least be able to get grandfathered in to the lifetime warranty?

 

[nitro6816]

Yeah, I figured as much. New engine basically coming out of it. Regardiing....

why the valve keeper failed it doesn't mean that all Nitros are running around with defecto ready to drop a valve motors. This is essentially an 'old' but proven motor design. Most likely your motor was a little 'tighter' than most in that the particular valve stem covering that cylinder was binding a bit in the valve guide causing undue strain on the keeper or it just could've been a plain defective keeper (ie., had a crack/weak spot/void in it right from the assembly line). Even the newer designed keeper would've likely had a hard time with the strain assuming the former.

The upgraded part is probably no leap and bound improvement over the keeper design that came with the car but may have a degree of difference in the metallurgical makeup of the steel., eg., slightly tougher stuff, better shock resistance, etc. Standard run of the mill keepers can go for multi-hundreds of thousand miles as evidenced by umpteen cars out there. They are not a real common fail-point per se. Valve springs tend to break before they do.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's no reason for current Nitro owners to think their motors are a time bomb ready to seize up with any or all valve keepers at the ready to fail.

Hope it all works out to your total satisfaction.

Nitro6816

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

With my level of uneasyness, i'm going to contact chrysler and see if at the very least I can get upgraded to the unlimited power train warranty.

 

[blkpylut]

I hate hearing ANY bad news about the nitro. I just hit 15K yesterday and after my oil change, I was driving home (I had put about 120 miles of driving the entire day), all of a sudden, the panel lights went on for a brief second, then nothing. I was driving at the time but didn't lose any steering or control, but when I shouted, " What the HELL???", I woke my wife up!!!

I'd heard about all the stalling issues with the SXT and SLT but not so much on the RT, so I was kinda baffled. Again, to reiterate, the car did NOT stall, but that was the very first time something weird like that happened!! Am I experiencing the quiet before the storm????

Blkpylut

 

[Quiet Lunatic]

got it back. Seems to be running ok. Time will tell

 

[dk1677]

got it back. Seems to be running ok. Time will tell

I hope its done now! and you can enjoy it :Racing: