3.6 Cracked head

AJK

AJK

New member
Just got my Jeep back from the shop from having the head replaced. 49k miles and the infamous 3.6L cracked head problem got me. Came back from vacation started up the Jeep and it started idling rough and the check engine light came on. Then it smoothed out. Ran to the store at idle it had a little hesitation but seemed to run fine once above idle. I got back home hooked my scanner up and a P0306 code (#6 misfire code). Did some inter web searching to find that any misfire code on a left side cylinder could be evidence of the 3.6L cracked head problem. Took it down to my local dealership told them what I had come up with they did a leak down check and sure enough #6 cylinder wouldn't hold compression. Seems this may be more of a problem then Chrysler is letting on. My local dealer took real good care of me taking it right in and fixing it in three days. Just giving you guys a heads up if you have a 2012-2013 and the left side of the motor ticks a little louder then normal or you start getting misfire codes you better get it checked out.
 
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I have a 2011 and have had the tick since well forever. I got 98,000 on it. I am close and should get mine looked at.
 
It's only the 3.6L I believe it mainly effects the 12 and 13 model years. Your 11 has the 3.8L in it.
 
Mines been ticking for awhile and I have 56k miles. Did you get yours replaced under warranty or pay for it? Mine has a rebuilt title so no warranty. Just wondering if it's something to save up for in case it happens or if it's not to far priced
 
My '13 is about to hit 32000 with no tick, thankfully. It's a "late build" and if I understand correctly, Chrysler remedied (mostly) this issue late in the '13 run. At least, I hope that's true.

Glad the dealer treated you well! [emoji106]
 
toxicwaste29 said:
Mines been ticking for awhile and I have 56k miles. Did you get yours replaced under warranty or pay for it? Mine has a rebuilt title so no warranty. Just wondering if it's something to save up for in case it happens or if it's not to far priced
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Yeah, Chrysler extended the warranties on those heads for the 2012 model year and some 13's to I think 10yr 150k miles. This was done instead of doing a recall. If you pay for it out of pocket you better save your pennies. My repair sheet showed 31.5 hours labor plus a nice little list of parts. I'm sure a local garage can do it cheaper.
 
Had my head fixed for a week jeep has been running fine got in it this morning and noticed a big plum of blue smoke when I started it up. Not sure what's up now. It has me a little concerned.
 
AJK said:
Yeah, Chrysler extended the warranties on those heads for the 2012 model year and some 13's to I think 10yr 150k miles. This was done instead of doing a recall. If you pay for it out of pocket you better save your pennies. My repair sheet showed 31.5 hours labor plus a nice little list of parts. I'm sure a local garage can do it cheaper.
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It's not uncommon for a technician that is paid flat rate to add repairs and parts to a work order so they can get more time on a job. Unfortunately those added repairs and parts never make it to your Jeep. Warranty work doesn't pay very well, it's almost impossible to beat the factory warranty time without cutting corners, so a technician that is savvy with the warranty time manual can flag time on a bunch of bogus repairs that don't actually get done. So that cylinder head job that only pays five hours now has core plugs, an oil pan reseal, time for extracting broken exhaust bolts, a timing chain tensioner, and what ever he can flag and get away with. So he flags thirty hours of warranty labor, but only spent eight hours on the actual repair. If a dealership mechanic has a lot of new parts that are still in boxes stashed under his workbench, chances are good he's cheating warranty.
 
Bustedback said:
It's not uncommon for a technician that is paid flat rate to add repairs and parts to a work order so they can get more time on a job. Unfortunately those added repairs and parts never make it to your Jeep. Warranty work doesn't pay very well, it's almost impossible to beat the factory warranty time without cutting corners, so a technician that is savvy with the warranty time manual can flag time on a bunch of bogus repairs that don't actually get done. So that cylinder head job that only pays five hours now has core plugs, an oil pan reseal, time for extracting broken exhaust bolts, a timing chain tensioner, and what ever he can flag and get away with. So he flags thirty hours of warranty labor, but only spent eight hours on the actual repair. If a dealership mechanic has a lot of new parts that are still in boxes stashed under his workbench, chances are good he's cheating warranty.
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Don't know what it's like over there but over here they audit warranty repairs pretty regularly and start asking a lot of questions if you don't have the faulty parts tagged and locked away.

Some really common stuff you could get away with but not much. I remember doing piston rings on a Hyundai Getz years ago and they wouldn't pay to pull the motor and the hours were really low so it suddenly developed a leak from the auto trans pump seal [emoji6]
 
2nd.gunman said:
Don't know what it's like over there but over here they audit warranty repairs pretty regularly and start asking a lot of questions if you don't have the faulty parts tagged and locked away.

Some really common stuff you could get away with but not much. I remember doing piston rings on a Hyundai Getz years ago and they wouldn't pay to pull the motor and the hours were really low so it suddenly developed a leak from the auto trans pump seal [emoji6]
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It's been 20 years since I've worked at a dealership, the factory wasn't as strict back then unless the dealer had a substantial amount of high dollar warranty claims. Then the dealer would be put on "plan X" and all of the "failed" parts would have to be sent back. Some guys would hang onto old customer pay parts and turn them in. Some service contracts were treated like gold mines. The customer would pay a hundred dollar deductible for their service contract for a high dollar repair...and the tech and service advisor would add bogus repairs without the worry of having to send parts back. I was guilty of doing it, I'm ashamed of it, but it's hard for a general line tech to make a living chasing dash rattles and only getting two tenths of an hour for a repair that takes a half hour. Flat rate is the reason why techs just shotgun parts at vehicles, there's no time to properly diagnose a problem.
 
Glad it was fixed. Just another reason why one should wait for 1-2 years before buying a new model, model with new engine, etc. Wait until all the bugs are worked out.
 
Bustedback said:
It's been 20 years since I've worked at a dealership, the factory wasn't as strict back then unless the dealer had a substantial amount of high dollar warranty claims. Then the dealer would be put on "plan X" and all of the "failed" parts would have to be sent back. Some guys would hang onto old customer pay parts and turn them in. Some service contracts were treated like gold mines. The customer would pay a hundred dollar deductible for their service contract for a high dollar repair...and the tech and service advisor would add bogus repairs without the worry of having to send parts back. I was guilty of doing it, I'm ashamed of it, but it's hard for a general line tech to make a living chasing dash rattles and only getting two tenths of an hour for a repair that takes a half hour. Flat rate is the reason why techs just shotgun parts at vehicles, there's no time to properly diagnose a problem.
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I hear ya, this is the main reason dealership techs get a bad name. The system rewards speed not results. Replace 20 parts, not fix the problem and you still get paid. Spend 6 hours diagnosing the problem, fix it right and you might only get paid for 3 of them.

Part of the reason I haven't been at a dealer in nearly 10 years and off the tools for the last 5.
 
Hey guys. So I have a '12 JKU with 49k. Haven't noticed anything like what has been Talked about in this thread. What specifically do I need to be mindful of?
 
I had the same problem with the left head in my 2012JKR. At the time I only had it about a year and it had very low miles on it. I took it to the dealer, they said it was something to do with the location of the exhaust (who knows), either way they fixed it under the warranty. Did not cost me anything and I had no hassles getting it fixed. The dealer told me this was a problem they were seeing with the 2012's. Since the repair I have had no issues, Knock on wood!
 
BdugJK said:
Hey guys. So I have a '12 JKU with 49k. Haven't noticed anything like what has been Talked about in this thread. What specifically do I need to be mindful of?
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An abnormally louder ticking is a sign of things to come. Then from what I've experienced and read a misfire code is usually the indication it's cracked.
 
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