3.6 V6 Valve Tick thread

Signing Spock

Signing Spock

Member
Howdy,

So if you don't know...the 3.6L Pentastar V6 used across all Chrysler/FCA vehicles since 2013 is notorious for valve tick, not unlike the 5.7L Hemi V8s.

Why is this? Likely due to cheap lifters but no one outside of the FCA/Stellantis acquisitions teams would be able to give a truthful answer regarding this.

I'm posting about it here because unfortunately our Glady has been struck with this unfortunate problem at only 5K miles on the ODO. I tried to get it fixed while we were overseas but unfortunately none of the European dealers know how to work on the 3.6 V6s...the European market only got the 3.0L diesel, if memory serves me right. Had to cautiously drive it for 5 more months until we could ship it back stateside, so it currently has 10K miles now.

Fast forward to now; we just picked our JT from the importer two Fridays ago, and I immediately got it scheduled to be looked at last week at the local dealership. They confirmed "yup that's lifter tick...at only 10K miles is crazy! Let's get it scheduled for work to be done!" so now I'm starting this no doubt extremely slow process but I'm hoping their supply issue is being managed correctly and we won't have to wait too long.

I'll use this thread to document progress and provide info to others who may be going through this too/might go through it in the future.

There's lots of threads and articles across the internet/forums about this subject...but most of them are just shitting on the brand, vehicle, or their respective dealership. I am completely unbiased at this point as I am aware of these issues and acknowledge they exist/are a recurring problem, but I've never had an issue with the prior Jeep products I've had (3 Wranglers) and have no prior affiliation with this dealership, good or bad. Completely blank slate. I will say, one bias I do have is we love this Jeep, and this is the only real problem we've had thus far so really hoping we get it sorted to continue to have a nice vehicle that we love.

I'll update this thread when I drop it off next week for the tear down to identify which side of the motor needs the new lifters...though, I'm hoping to convince them to just replace them all.

Stay tuned!
 
Update, I dropped the Glady off on Weds morning…they called today saying it’s the passenger side lifters that have damage. Who knows how/why these things fail so quickly. Our JT only had 5K miles on it when this started. Now at 11K miles (see above backstory to why it took so long to get it fixed at a stealership).

Anyway, the service manager dude who called said they’re ordering the parts today and should install it tomorrow and be done. I highly doubt that as the stories read all over the internet says they’re back ordered by 4+ months.

Sooo, this will either be the fastest that the valve tick has been fixed on a Jeep … or this guy is mistaken and they just ordered the parts, putting it back together tomorrow, and when the parts come in it’ll get fixed at that time.

I’d bet it’s the latter, which is what I had been expecting so that won’t bother me that much.

If it’s actually fixed I’d be ecstatic. As I said before, this is the only issue we’ve had with this Jeep…we love it. Can’t wait for this to be resolved.
 
I hope they fix it up quickly to your satisfaction.
My wife owned 3 jeep grand cherokees over the years with the pentastar. We never experienced the valve tick. We did have one fail due to a bad cast at the factory under warranty and they replaced the engine at that time (pre covid) no problem. She now owns a Cadillac XT5. The grand Cherokee was quieter and had a better ride than the caddy. The new model had too high a price when it first came out.
Once again, hang in there.
 
Thanks, James! Yeah like I said in my original post...this is the first hiccup I've ever had with any of our now four Jeeps (all of which were newer than 2012). So I've been blessed by the Jeep God's thus far lol

Fingers crossed that they got their supply shortage figured out or maybe there's a warehouse in Cali that I don't know of that this dealer gets their parts from 🤞 will update tonight with either great news or the expected news.
 
New call yesterday...they had to order more parts so hopefully it'll be ready for pickup on Weds.

Not sure if this means they swapped it out and it still has the tick...or they genuinely needed something else.

Fingers crossed it gets fixed for good.
 
Been quiet cause parts were delayed and delayed so we kept the Durango rental through the weekend for our Big Bear Lake trip (wasn’t great, wasn’t bad, it was just ‘OK’). Got the call on our drive home today that our Glady was all ready for pickup! Got to her and expected a light tick still but nope! Purs like a kitten again 🙌

All-in-all, the dealer had her for 13 days and replaced both sides intake cams, rocker arms, and lash adjusters. See invoice:

IMG_0077.jpeg

I’m very happy for now, just praying this tick never comes back again. I’ll keep a mental note for all future oil changes to listen closely for the return of that god awful noise lol

Thanks for coming along on this adventure. I’d like to re-iterate that this has been an ongoing issue with these Pentastar 3.6L V6 motors and most dealers do not have this kind of turn around. Idk if these guys have a parts hookup or what but most people describe waiting MONTHS for this warranty work to be completed, not two weeks.

I’m chalking this up as a win for this dealer and the MOPAR parts distributors as I’m assuming they’ve figured something out with these back ordered parts. Or…they replaced them with less superior parts in which case they’ll replace them again down the line under warranty 🤷‍♂️
 
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Signing Spock said:
Been quiet cause parts were delayed and delayed so we kept the Durango rental through the weekend for our Big Bear Lake trip (wasn’t great, wasn’t bad, it was just ‘OK’). Got the call on our drive home today that our Glady was all ready for pickup! Got to her and expected a light tick still but nope! Purs like a kitten again 🙌

All-in-all, the dealer had her for 13 days and replaced both sides intake cams, rocker arms, and lash adjusters. See invoice:

View attachment 1144

I’m very happy for now, just praying this tick never comes back again. I’ll keep a mental note for all future oil changes to listen closely for the return of that god awful noise lol

Thanks for coming along on this adventure. I’d like to re-iterate that this has been an ongoing issue with these Pentastar 3.6L V6 motors and most dealers do not have this kind of turn around. Idk if these guys have a parts hookup or what but most people describe waiting MONTHS for this warranty work to be completed, not two weeks.

I’m chalking this up as a win for this dealer and the MOPAR parts distributors as I’m assuming they’ve figured something out with these back ordered parts. Or…they replaced them with less superior parts in which case they’ll replace them again down the line under warranty 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. That was really interesting stuff to be honest. You never really hear much about the Pentastar!
 
Yeah sorry that I tend to ramble a bit 😬 but this would’ve been much more dull and short without extra [mostly] useless info!

The 3.6L was put in everything so that’s both good and bad.

Good cause they’re ridiculously abundant. Bad because they mass produced the hell out of them and apparently used less than ideal parts.

Same goes for the 5.7 Hemi…any big bodied vehicle got it for yearrrs. So same situation and same recurring issue (the valve tick). It’s actually nicknamed “the hemi tick” it happens so much with that motor.

*edit: this makes me think though…Toyota and Honda put their same 4 cylinder in every flipping model they sell. And sure, they have issues, but both brands are known for their mechanical reliability. I think FCA/Stellantis need to take notes on where to get more reliable parts from maybe 🤷‍♂️
 
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