Pentastar issues

[regfootball]

Not off to a good start..........

Apparently the new pentastar is not a trouble free motor.........

been trying to read up on it. boss man bought a T/C off auc had about 20m on it, engine needs major work. according to a source at a C/J dealer, a lot of the new 3.6 have had expensive issues.

sure hope chrysler can nip this in the bud......

[SAmadei]

How can this be!?! There were at least 4-5 C&G members fawning over this engine! At least two talking about how great the reliability of the engine would be.

Yeah, Chrysler needs to fix this ASAP, but there are few all-new engine designs that don't have some problems, so I wouldn't hold this against them yet.

[Drew Dowdell]

I would think more than an example of one T&C with a bad motor need to come up before we call this a trend.

[daves87rs]

I've heard of a few issues as well, but these were abused cases.

Nothing but minor on my radar....

[A Horse With No Name]

So far it seems to be pretty reliable from what I ahve heard...

[riviera74]

I wonder if anyone has had issues with the new 8AT in Chrysler vehicles. I do hope that the Pentastar issues you ran into is not a trend.

[PONTIAC06]

I can vouch that you never want to see or hear something bad about your products, but at the same time, how many thousands of vehicles have been sold with this engine since it debuted? It's been put in basically everything since the 4th gen Grand Cherokee debuted, and I haven't seen anything overwhelmingly negative about the engine itself...

[regfootball]

So far it seems to be pretty reliable from what I ahve heard...

according to a person at one C/J shop, at least a half a dozen recently.......

google 'chrysler pentastar 3.6 issues' or something like that...... more than a few threads to read......

i would probably guess they had some initial quality launch items they are working through.

Edited May 15, 2012 by regfootball

[G. David Felt]

WOW, the amount of threads and dealer issues with the Pentastar 3.6 breaking and blowing up is very disturbing. Both internal issues and supplier issues with the lack of quality components:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=pentastar+v6+problems&qs=AS&form=QBLH&pq=pentastar&sc=8-9&sp=6&sk=AS5

I would have to say this could be a black eye for Chrysler. I do agree with one thread of problems with this engine. Chrysler pushed it out across so many auto lines. They should have gone with one for the first year to work out bugs or maybe two, not the wide amount they went with and the problems they have had.

[Drew Dowdell]

uh, I don't think that link is proof of anything.

[regfootball]

manufacturing defects apparently, which possibly have been corrected...... still.........

[G. David Felt]

uh, I don't think that link is proof of anything.

Did you spend any time following the threads to read what people have dealt with or what dealers are posting and dealing with. After going through the first 20 or so, that right there shows a large issue for me does exist in the quality of the 3.6 pentastar.

As regfootball says, the only thing left is to find out if these issues have been fixed and what he official chrysler stance is for these issues.

[regfootball]

http://www.cheersandgears.com/_/articles/chrysler-news/chrysler-dealers-repair-a-certain-number-of-pen-r895

[Guest [email protected]]

I purchased a new 2012 Chrysler 300 Limited with 8 speed transmission. The car currently has 27,000 miles and I haven't had any issues with the new 4.6 L V6 Pentastar engine or 8 speed transmission. For a 4200 pound car it gets between 25 to 35 MPG. Better than the EPA 19 -31 advertised. So far, my wife and I are very pleased with the car.

[regfootball]

Odd but now we have a Chrysler van with pentastar. Nice motor, but we leased. . Part of the reason I became enthusiastic about it despite early teething problems was that a company car, Dodge Journey, had the engine. I put many miles on it. It had great power and very good mpg. GM's 3.6 v6 has had its share of reliability issues too.

[cp-the-nerd]

I purchased a new 2012 Chrysler 300 Limited with 8 speed transmission. The car currently has 27,000 miles and I haven't had any issues with the new 4.6 L V6 Pentastar engine or 8 speed transmission. For a 4200 pound car it gets between 25 to 35 MPG. Better than the EPA 19 -31 advertised. So far, my wife and I are very pleased with the car.

 

Wow a "4.6L" pentastar that gets 25-35 mpg in a heavy-ass brick of a full-size sedan?? It's crazy because Fiat-Chrysler can barely manage that with their 4-cylinder cars.

[G. David Felt]

 

I purchased a new 2012 Chrysler 300 Limited with 8 speed transmission. The car currently has 27,000 miles and I haven't had any issues with the new 4.6 L V6 Pentastar engine or 8 speed transmission. For a 4200 pound car it gets between 25 to 35 MPG. Better than the EPA 19 -31 advertised. So far, my wife and I are very pleased with the car.

 

Wow a "4.6L" pentastar that gets 25-35 mpg in a heavy-ass brick of a full-size sedan?? It's crazy because Fiat-Chrysler can barely manage that with their 4-cylinder cars.

 

Torque NOT Horsepower is where it is at for moving heavy auto's and getting good gas mileage.

[Drew Dowdell]

 

I purchased a new 2012 Chrysler 300 Limited with 8 speed transmission. The car currently has 27,000 miles and I haven't had any issues with the new 4.6 L V6 Pentastar engine or 8 speed transmission. For a 4200 pound car it gets between 25 to 35 MPG. Better than the EPA 19 -31 advertised. So far, my wife and I are very pleased with the car.

 

Wow a "4.6L" pentastar that gets 25-35 mpg in a heavy-ass brick of a full-size sedan?? It's crazy because Fiat-Chrysler can barely manage that with their 4-cylinder cars.

 

 

I always get good fuel economy from the LX cars with the 3.6. Highway is usually in the low to mid 30s.

[FordCosworth]

I purchased a new 2012 Chrysler 300 Limited with 8 speed transmission. The car currently has 27,000 miles and I haven't had any issues with the new 4.6 L V6 Pentastar engine or 8 speed transmission. For a 4200 pound car it gets between 25 to 35 MPG. Better than the EPA 19 -31 advertised. So far, my wife and I are very pleased with the car.

Wow a "4.6L" pentastar that gets 25-35 mpg in a heavy-ass brick of a full-size sedan?? It's crazy because Fiat-Chrysler can barely manage that with their 4-cylinder cars.

Wow is right...One can easily tell " 4.6L Pentastar " was a typo. Edited February 5, 2016 by FordCosworth

[cp-the-nerd]

Sorry, a 300 isn't getting 25 city/35 highway. Not even in realm of possibility without excessive hypermiling tricks. I rarely even hear about it matching the epa estimates, much less exceeding them by 4-6 miles per gallon. I love dubious claims from people digging up dead threads.

[regfootball]

that company dodge journey i used a lot was capable of 28-30 mpg on long trips at times.  that was more at 65mph and below, but 25 mpg quite doable.  We have exceeded 25 mpg in our town and country with the right conditions and 10% ethanol or less.

[2QuickZ's]

Sorry, a 300 isn't getting 25 city/35 highway. Not even in realm of possibility without excessive hypermiling tricks. I rarely even hear about it matching the epa estimates, much less exceeding them by 4-6 miles per gallon. I love dubious claims from people digging up dead threads.

 

Well, my Dad is old and isn't the fastest driver but he definitely is not a hypermiler.  His 2012 T&C got 29.9 MPG on a trip back from Florida.  Keep in mind this was indicated, not calculated but that is a safe 29 MPG calculated.  Not bad for a huge brick.  When his lease was up he replaced it with a 4 cyl. Equinox and is always bitching that it gets worse mileage than his T&C did.  To be fair, he had a Terrain before he got the T&C and it got much better mileage than his Equinox did.  He has had his Equinox in several times to get it checked and they keep telling him there is nothing wrong with it.

 

As for first hand Pentastar experience, we took our 2014 300 on a trip from Michigan to Tennessee and we got a calculated 31 MPG on our only full highway tank on the trip and IIRC we averaged 28 MPG for the whole trip.  We also borrowed a 2013 Durango AWD (still had the 5 spd) from my inlaws for a trip from Michigan to Virginia and we got 25 MPG round trip in that.  My driving is biased more toward aggressive withacceleration and I typically set the cruise control at 9 mph over whatever the highway speed limit is so I definitely am not going to get the best fuel economy possible.

[regfootball]

Pentastars do get great highway Mileage.  One decision i looked at before we got our T&C was possibly an Equinox, but i had heard about the actual mileage they got, and then we rented a Grand Caravan one weekend and got killer mpg on a trip and I determined 'why would i get a small 2 row equinox when it gets worse mpg than the Grand Caravan or Journey'.