Blown Engine
Hello CarGuru Community,
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out here. I was driving home on the highway in my 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee (AWD, V8) around 11:30pm with two babies in the back--wife following in separate car. After about 20 miles the steering gets very stiff (unbeknownst to me the idler pulley had failed). I figured the Jeep was low on steering fluid as I can steer but it feels like it's gone to manual steering. I have another 20 miles before we're home. Figure I'll be fine and may need to pull over once we exit the freeway. I'll then transfer the babies to my wife's car and call a tow.
10 more miles and the Jeeps starts losing power. Now on bridge and check engine light goes on. Need to make it to exit as there's no shoulder. Before the exit the car seizes up and stalls on the bridge in a middle lane. Steam is coming from the hood. Tow pushes me off the 5 mile long bridge. Transfer kids and tow the Jeep to mechanic in the morning. Two mechanics inspect and determine the idler pulley broke causing the serpentine belt to fall off. Power steering goes out, alternator and radiator all fail--thus the overheating and eventual seizing.
Jeep was purchased in 1999 new. I'm the original owner. Babied and pampered this car. After 15 years looks like it did when I bought it. 155k miles on original engine. Had at least another 100k on it. Chassis and interior is in excellent condition. All trashed due to a $20 plastic POS part. If i was driving in the city the car would have stalled at a stop sign or light but because I was on the freeway, it just kept running until it overheated. By the time the the car started running rough and the check engine light came on it was too late.
It would cost roughly $1500 - $2000 for a refurbished engine. This doesn't include the cost of labor to drop it in--which would run roughly $5-6k. Rebuilding the original engine would make no sense as there's a ton of issues that you can't see without taking it apart, i.e. cracked/warped cylinders, rods, pistons, etc. Had coolant and oil mixing so who knows the extent of the damage. My mechanic replaced the head gasket for free. Engine started and car can move about 2 mph but the car shakes and sounds like hippos having orgasms.
Now for the $4000 question... do I have a case against Jeep Chrysler? Should this POS $20 plastic part be a part of a recall? Hard to believe they would engineer a car where the failure of such a small part would trash an entire car. I've already reached Chrysler's first line of customer service defense to no avail, i.e. "Not under warranty so your SOL. Have a nice day". Even after explaining the situation, the danger me and my kids were in and being a loyal customer of Jeep for so many years, all they could offer was "sorry... can't help you".
Am I wrong in thinking Chrysler should take some kind of responsibility here? Should they provide some kind of restitution given the danger they put my family in with such poor engineering? Even giving me the value of the car prior to the incident as a credit towards a new car purchase would be greatly appreciated.
Options that have come up include taking Chrysler to small claims court knowing they couldn't use an attorney and the cost of sending a representative would outweigh offering me a credit. Others include telling my story to local news TV stations. With GM and other automakers having issues in the media where people are either being hurt or killed due to faulty engineering could make for the kind of PR they don't need/want. And it's something everyone should be aware of. Apparently BMW and other manufacturers use plastic idler pulleys. Should these be metal of something that wouldn't fail thus causing such car ruining results? Even back in 1999?
Should I just give up and sell/donate what's left of my still beautiful baby? Btw, attached is a pic of the car after the incident.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Hi tennisshoes, Thanks for the response. The estimate was from a couple independent shops. That said we are in San Francisco where it's easy to see $90/hour for labor. Dealerships would be a lot more. This could also be the cost to rebuild and not buy a refurbished engine. it's been a while since this went down. How many hours would you estimate to drop a refurbished engine in?
You're the man! Thanks tennisshoes. Yeah, i saw some refurbished engines with 3 year warranties for about $2k. Based on the book time you're seeing it's not a bad alternative given the excellent condition of the car. I appreciate the help.
Where did you find a refurbished engine with a 3 yr warranty?
I'm having the same issue with a '96 XJ. Priced quality remanufactured engines for $1,400-$2,000 on eBay. Used engines are a good alternative since 200K is not unusual for the 4.0. Steer clear of those that can't tell you exact mileage. Say $600 for one just over 100K. Lots of them out there. I know my car and a used one with lots of unknowns and more miles would be about $3,500 and then all the fixes required. I'd rather put the same or less in a replacement engine and get the 250K I'd expected
I have a 2014 grand cherokee Summitt it has 78 k miles. when it hit around 60 thousand miles it was sitting in front of a gas pump. i went in paid for my gas and came bsck out. in about 10 min one of my air shocks exploded. My $4100 extented warrenty wouldnt pay a dime Mechanical protection plan. Ripoff. Then while that was being fixed jeep dealer calls tells me my radiator is leaking. Thats $650 fix that . Then it started cutting out barely run I thought it was out of gas. But it had about an 1/8th of tank. added more wouldnt start. I had it towed to Auto Nations jeep crysler Turns out a spring in the piston area broke and fell down into the engine Crysler agreed to pay 80% Which cost around $1800 i have a two year warrenty. then about 8 or 9 months later I have the oil changed and checked my power steering fluid its bone dry . So its filled up. No issues with steering. Then it starts over heating i take it to the same jeep dealer that repaired engine. The service manager that helped me last time was hired by toyota. The new guy is a sorry as they come. A know it all. Well i got jeep to the dealer and asked if they could look and see where the leak was. But the service writer said no way theres 85 people ahead of me. id have to make an appointment it will be about a week. well this know it all heard our conversation and came over he told the swriter to take truck back and have his tech stop what hes doing and pressure test the radiator for leak. but no leaks found. Then service manager tells me no leaks its probably the thermastat. So he said if my temp gauge in dash was jumping up and down i should put new thermastat in and a radiator cap. So do it that took about 15 mins. They test drove it brought it to me said running clean and cool. Then they gave me a bill for Ready $445.15 What? I had to pay it and truck ran fine stayed cool. Then latter that evening i look at temp and it was running hot. this time i pulled over turned off. bit later tried to start it cut and sputterd no power. I CALLED different jeep dealer few days later i was told that it had blown head gasket. And they found coolant in oil and crank case. cracked long block. It need new engine at a cost of $10,000 And they negotiated with Crysler and they agreed to pay 1/2 of total cost I called auto nation jeep dodge and asked for my $445 back and they refused. Im going to see an attorny about this lemon jeep.
