I will never buy a Gladiator again ?

[ShadowsPapa]

Sometime piston and rings can still be good after lightly hits the valve, depending on compression ratio of course.

depends on a lot of factors - interference design, and so on.
But if a piston smacked a valve - it's got serious issues to even allow that to happen.
Something would have to stick that valve open farther than normal, and then it has to be an interference type design for the valve to hit.
many engines can lose a timing chain and not bend a valve because there are built-in clearances or due to other design considerations.


If a valve hit a piston - it's got problems beyond a bent valve - like the problem that could allow that to begin with. I'd never just fix the valve and move on. Find the cause.

(Iv'e built my share of engines since the early 70s - no, not a Pentastar)

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[Wheelin98TJ]

I am not sure any vehicle is reliable anymore. I am ready to start leasing vehicles for 24 months instead of buying since I trade that often anyway

I hope you can find a cheaper fix and hope it gets fixed correctly

It sure seems that way.

Things that were once reliable, no guarantee anymore. Like the GM 5.3L having lifter problems.

 

[Lunentucker]

There's something about this whole thread. Can't quite put my finger on it.
Anyway, good luck!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

There's something about this whole thread. Can't quite put my finger on it.
Anyway, good luck!

O

 

[clarkhogan]

Agree w everyone here. Go aftermarket for an engine from rubi or go big w hemi swap. Dealers don't have capable wrenches anymore.

For everyone's consideration: I intend to have my gladiator for a long time, I bought an extended warranty from agws.com. Bumper to bumper 300k miles over stated milage and 10 years was ~$2.3k. Warranty transfers w vehicle so becomes valuable at resale. Even if agws turns out to be like pet insurance and covers 30-70% of the total bill, it's an offset that makes these nasties a lil softer. YMMV

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

100% True there is no Jeep Engine Techs that have any clue on what they are doing. That is from experience with dealing with multiple shops. I believe all dealerships and Jeep Shops are good for is oil changes and lift/tires.

This is a problem labor force wide, economy-wide. Trades education was forsaken decades ago. Everyone was told they needed to go into massive debt to go to college and get a degree. And we stopped repairing things, and making things. Even for the college bound, this is a disaster. We’ve now got generation of aspiring surgeons with no hand-eye coordination. I’ve experienced first-hand, people expected to install and refuel nuclear reactor systems walking in with no mechanical ability and a social media habit in their pocket distracting them. I’m terrified at the prospect that we actually have to utilize that $13 billion floating pile of junk we just sent to the eastern Mediterranean that’s full of unproven designs and half-working kludges.

Believe me, this makes the issues in the auto repair sector downright quaint. Essentially it’s the same root problems: you have a cohort of retiring experienced folks taking their KSAs with them and a new cohort of green labor that didn’t grow up working on things and for which formal trades or technical education was underfunded and deprioritized if existing at all. It was happening when I was in school. The beginning of the “everyone needs to go to college” nonsense. Vo-tech was where behavior problems were warehoused. There was zero consideration for building a future labor force. No one thought beyond the idea of a whole society of people with math and science degrees. We’ve now got a generation of people who don’t know history and can’t write because liberal arts was also forsaken, but are also coming out of school without the skills required to do a job within their major and they’re massively underemployed based on their degrees.

This combines with paradigm shifts across industry stemming from constant downward pressure on the cost side of the profit equation. It’s lead to the adoption of just in time manufacturing, kitting of parts and a faulty assumption on the part of bean counters that you can simply supply any idiot with a bag of parts and some instructions from a online OEM portal and they can do any repair or diagnose any problem. The art of mechanical ability has been stripped out and devalued. Knowledge has been stripped out. Workers are seen as interchangeable resources.

But that’s not how reality works. Auto technicians need a base of hand-eye coordination; general technical knowledge, which in the case of modern vehicles is basically an associates degree equivalent in mechatronics; and formal experience or training in troubleshooting as a specific discipline. Almost no one walks into a dealership with these requisites and no one wants to invest in the formal apprenticeships needed to build good auto techs in-house. The people I know who work in the industry say that they churn through techs and many of the ones they have aren't any good. But it’s only a crisis to those who care if the customer’s issue is actually resolved which the industry in large part doesn’t care about.

This is a slow moving disaster across not only the entire manufacturing and trades sectors. It’s bigger than that. It’s come for all those degree requiring jobs everyone was supposed to go out and get. As a software engineering lead and manager, in all my years of experience I can identify only a single person who I encountered who was actually good at debugging code, internalizing and applying design patterns and designing and creating for future repairability and extendibility. Now as an exec in the IT sector, it is the same exact way. People universally don’t know how to troubleshoot and fix anything. This, and the constant downward pressure on cost (time) is why everything is so damn buggy and constantly being comprised by bad actors. I spend my time wading through and attempting to mitigate the failures from the gross incompetence of people that make six figures or from the outsourced labor that was sold as the solution to America’s skills deficit. Another lie to reduce costs, because most of those folks are actually worse.

I’m terrified to take my truck to the dealership for the same reason I refused to go on submarine sea trials and dread calling tech support for anything. People don’t have the skills, they’re distracted, they’re under immense pressure, and many of them don’t care anymore.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Have you checked your insurance policy? It’s easy to forget, like how Visa cards sometimes provide warranty services, but you may have mechanical breakdown insurance. Depending on the carrier (if you have State Farm, then you don’t actually have insurance at all), you may have this issue covered through your policy. My MBI through GEICO covers stuff like this like an extended warranty out to 100k miles and I believe is extendable. I would check your policy.

 

[Hasemano]

Hey, sorry to hear this is happening to you. I noted that you’re local (to me) and the shop that I use, and my buddies use, is not too far away from you in Centennial. PM or reply here and I’ll share their info, if you’d like it. They might give you the same opinion but it is worth checking into.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This is a problem labor force wide, economy-wide. Trades education was forsaken decades ago. Everyone was told they needed to go into massive debt to go to college and get a degree. And we stopped repairing things, and making things. Even for the college bound, this is a disaster. We’ve now got generation of aspiring surgeons with no hand-eye coordination. I’ve experienced first-hand, people expected to install and refuel nuclear reactor systems walking in with no mechanical ability and a social media habit in their pocket distracting them. I’m terrified at the prospect that we actually have to utilize that $13 billion floating pile of junk we just sent to the eastern Mediterranean that’s full of unproven designs and half-working kludges.

A friend and co-worker decided to expand his non-IT skills and took welding and machine shop classes in the evenings. The instructor flat out told him they were closing down the tool and die programs as no one wanted them, they had no takers, and the other trades classes may have to follow soon. Sit at desk, tell people what to do, play on phone all day, make big bucks - never get your hands dirty or go home with a sore back or other owie or boo-boo.
We are falling behind because other places saw this coming and concentrated on training in those same trades.

Does no one take pride in building, fixing, restoring or making something using their own brain and HANDS these days?

It's too bad that Chrysler was having financial troubles back in the day as we need more programs like the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest of years ago where people actually competed to solve problems the right ways. Parts swappers failed bigly, only those who thought it through and used troubleshooting techniques and brains could possibly make it.

 

[Tartu]

Hey, sorry to hear this is happening to you. I noted that you’re local (to me) and the shop that I use, and my buddies use, is not too far away from you in Centennial. PM or reply here and I’ll share their info, if you’d like it. They might give you the same opinion but it is worth checking into.

Thank you for the information. I dropped in the Dealership because back on January we fix the camshaft and rocker there.

 

[RacerAV]

Thank you all for the help, the reality is that I always did the oil changes and I bought the Jeep because it was my dream. I will seem ridiculous but I do feel bad.And yes I bought all the guarantees but the dealership changed owners. I don't answer many things because I'm a woman and the truth is I'm sorry for the women who know a lot about mechanics, I don't understand anything

A DEALER changing ownership won't matter. You bought it new? Factory warranty is there regardless of dealer or who owns it when. Definitely don't spend that $12k just yet. Rough situation but I think you've still got great options.

 

[Tartu]

A DEALER changing ownership won't matter. You bought it new? Factory warranty is there regardless of dealer or who owns it when. Definitely don't spend that $12k just yet. Rough situation but I think you've still got great options.

Yes ?I bought it in August 2019 after waiting for delivery for 5 months

 

[Chunky White]

It sure seems that way.

Things that were once reliable, no guarantee anymore. Like the GM 5.3L having lifter problems.

Ford Ecoboost F150 are having the same issues supposedly caused by bad cam positioning sensors. I had issues with a 2018 that sounded like a diesel at cold start and then the performance started getting worse. The local Ford dealers just blew me off so I traded it to them

 

[Bearmanpig]

I’m trying to donate my engine/transmission to my sons school but if they don’t take it you’re more than welcome to have it. It’s at 85k and on its way out but just an idea to get out of your troubles.

 

[Koolcarguy]

Thank you all for the help, the reality is that I always did the oil changes and I bought the Jeep because it was my dream. I will seem ridiculous but I do feel bad.And yes I bought all the guarantees but the dealership changed owners. I don't answer many things because I'm a woman and the truth is I'm sorry for the women who know a lot about mechanics, I don't understand anything

Find the cause of the low compression before dumping 12k. I've done heades and cams on these motirs for $3000 I'm a dealer and get a great deal but i think you coukd fix that motor for less then half 12k. My son has a 18 we did cam and heads on at 71k miles it has 143k miles still runs like a champ

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