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Cracked Engine Block

briandmiles

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So, I picked up my JTR Ecodiesel in November of 2020. Had the dealer do some major work on the suspension before I even picked it up. Drove it home from Boise to Salt Lake City area with no problems at all. It has run and performed beautifully all along. I am slightly ashamed to say that I simply haven't found time to take it off-road since I got it and brought it home and was hoping to make it up to her by going to Easter Jeep Safari next week.
When I got it home my wife asked if it was leaking oil. I told her it was just from vehicle that had been parked there prior to me getting the JT and that it was no big deal. I've just put on an RSI Smartcap and was starting to set up the ceiling in the garage to have a hoist for taking it off. I parked in the garage backwards and that is when I noticed that the Gladiator is leaking oil. So I crawl underneath and this is what I see.
Jeep Gladiator Cracked Engine Block Jeep 1


I don't do a ton of my own maintainence, just oil changes and other little things like that so I'm not super familiar with the underside of an ICE. The first place I looked was the plug for the oil pan, nope clean as could be but the passenger side (bottom of the picture) looks a little grimey.
Jeep Gladiator Cracked Engine Block jeep 3

Looks like there may have been some leaking from there but it's not conclusive.
Then I looked on the driver side and could see that there was oil dripping off of something well above the oil pan.
Jeep Gladiator Cracked Engine Block jeep 2

You can see the two drops of oil just waiting to fall to the ground on the white rectangular piece. I figured that had to be bad and so I brought it in to the dealer on Thursday the 18th of March, 2021.

Today is the 25th of March and the Jeep is still in the shop and they haven't done anything with it. I was told the back plate was cracked and that it would require either a complete tear down and rebuild or a completely new engine installation. The worst part about it is that FCA (Stellantis) won't give the approval to do it under warranty yet. They haven't said no but they haven't said yes either. I've gotten Jeep Cares involved and while they are very nice it is clear they can't actually do anything to expedite the process in any way. The other frustrating thing is that the dealer is really bad at communicating. I had to call every single time for an update. They haven't reached out to me a single time. I gave them until Friday at 5pm before I called to check and see what the problem was. I waited until Monday at 5 to check again. I waited until Tuesday at 5 to check the last time and never received a call yesterday either. It's now been a week and it sounds like engines and engine blocks are pretty scarce so I may have a chance to lemon law this if they don't get it done fast enough. Problem is with all the suspension mods it's probably not worth it regardless of how long it takes.

Just blowing off some steam.

Brian

Jeep Gladiator Cracked Engine Block jeep 2
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Mac

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Bummer, I used the lemon law years ago on my Camaro 1LE, when it was all said and done they reimbursed me for the stereo and alarm work I had done to it, only had to pay for the mileage.
What suspension work did you have done?
 

cecaa850

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So it's been there over a year????

Edit, looks like a typo on your part, nevermind.
 

cecaa850

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First and foremost, they won't tear it down and rebuild it. Those are swap out units. They may be on back order and they won't remove yours till they have a new one there. That would tie up a rack indefinitely.
 

Caraholic

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Holy cow! Wtf! Iā€™d expect some dealer input without having to hassle them. That is Not acceptable and is controllable! thatā€™s different and unlike a one off manufacturing defect, which likely, cannot be detected. That dealer would be deeply engrained on my shit list. Iā€™d already be powering my mind up for a fight...... at least Iā€™d be fighting that primal emotional process. Unfortunately; They get what they give.
good luck
be well
m
 

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wvuviv30

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Have you contacted Jeep Customer Service to start a Case? From then on you'll work with a Jeep (corporate) case manager.
 
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briandmiles

briandmiles

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Wow, lots of replies. Yes that was a typo on my part. Dropped off in 2021 not 2020. I agree, this is a one off manufacturer defect, not indicative of an overall problem with the product. The customer service on the other hand is dismal at best. Still haven't heard from them today so that is 2 days without any communication regarding the very expensive paper weight that they are holding onto. As far as uprades the biggest thing was the full Evo Coilover system.

Brian
 
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briandmiles

briandmiles

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Update:

Ok, so it's been over two weeks since the dealer got my Gladiator and... nothing has happened. They are, apparently, going back and forth with Stellantis trying to figure out the best way to manage this. Today is day 17 of the Gladiator being in their shop and my state says after 30 it's a lemon. I guess the clock is ticking. Last week my trip to Easter Jeep Safari was obviously much less fun than I had originally planned as I had to take down the GMC Yukon XL. It did pretty well on Chicken Corners but that was the hardest trail I could even consider taking it on. To me the really frustrating part is still how little the dealer is communicating with me. I have had to call them every single time for an update. They claim to have called me while I was out on Chicken Corners but my phone doesn't show a missed call. They were supposed to call me back last Thursday but I still haven't heard from them. I'll update again if I ever get any new information.

Brian
 

Sorbs

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One thing you might try to get the dealer to communicate better is to email the general manager and letā€™m know youā€™re going to give zeros across the board on the service survey if they donā€™t step it up. Also, when you go to arbitration on your lemon law, keep every record and note every conversation.
 

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Orange01z28

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My wife's Explorer had cylinder wall scoring at like 12k miles. It started with a "wrench" light and a small miss so we took it in. It took over 5 weeks total. They even flew out an Engineer from Michigan before they swapped the new engine in.

Be prepared, this might take awhile
 

WXman

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To me, that looks like the extremely common timing cover leak. It's been hitting the Gen 3 EcoDiesel engine in every vehicle you can find it in (Ram, Wrangler, Gladiator).

All they need to do is over a new timing cover. Tear down to access it is done with the engine in the vehicle. They need to remove the injectors, fuel rail, valve cover, etc. Then they get enough access to remove the timing cover and replace.

Mine was done at roughly 5,000ish miles. I'm at 15,000 miles now and NO further leaks at all so far. Total time mine was in the shop was 2 weeks. First week to get parts, second week to complete the repair.

It is safe to drive until they get you set up for the replacement. Just keep an eye on your oil level via the dipstick until they have the parts and are ready for you.

Don't sweat it too much because like I said it's been very common. If your dealer sucks, go to a better dealer.
 
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briandmiles

briandmiles

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To me, that looks like the extremely common timing cover leak. It's been hitting the Gen 3 EcoDiesel engine in every vehicle you can find it in (Ram, Wrangler, Gladiator).

All they need to do is over a new timing cover. Tear down to access it is done with the engine in the vehicle. They need to remove the injectors, fuel rail, valve cover, etc. Then they get enough access to remove the timing cover and replace.

Mine was done at roughly 5,000ish miles. I'm at 15,000 miles now and NO further leaks at all so far. Total time mine was in the shop was 2 weeks. First week to get parts, second week to complete the repair.

It is safe to drive until they get you set up for the replacement. Just keep an eye on your oil level via the dipstick until they have the parts and are ready for you.

Don't sweat it too much because like I said it's been very common. If your dealer sucks, go to a better dealer.
I wish you were right but they have verified that the engine block is cracked. I suspect that is the reason that it is taking so long to decide whether they want to do a tear down/rebuild or replace the entire engine. It sounds like they are leaning toward entire engine.
 

Josh00333

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Eng replacements are usually either complete or long blocks. My guess would be the real issue is getting jeep autho to do it and finding an actual engine as a part.
 

cecaa850

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Update:

Ok, so it's been over two weeks since the dealer got my Gladiator and... nothing has happened. They are, apparently, going back and forth with Stellantis trying to figure out the best way to manage this. Today is day 17 of the Gladiator being in their shop and my state says after 30 it's a lemon. I guess the clock is ticking. Last week my trip to Easter Jeep Safari was obviously much less fun than I had originally planned as I had to take down the GMC Yukon XL. It did pretty well on Chicken Corners but that was the hardest trail I could even consider taking it on. To me the really frustrating part is still how little the dealer is communicating with me. I have had to call them every single time for an update. They claim to have called me while I was out on Chicken Corners but my phone doesn't show a missed call. They were supposed to call me back last Thursday but I still haven't heard from them. I'll update again if I ever get any new information.

Brian
As long as you have transportation, quit calling them. Let the calendar run out on the lemon law timer and get another vehicle.
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