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Updates on 6.4 ticking/clicking

So they have you driving it? They recognize it as a bad engine and let it go? You should be in a loaner until it’s resolved.


Sent from me
 
Yes. They wouldnt give me a loaner for the week they had it nor for the future. I am back in my truck until a new engine comes in. Assuming they send it.
Also i use this dealership because its the only one resonably close to me, and most of all they sold it to me.

I do have another vehicle i will daily. I wouldnt want my vehicle sitting at a shop for months rotting. I know how shops treat storage vehicles. Not what youd want.
This should really be normal protocol for backorder parts, release running vehicle and wait for parts and service date.
 
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I agree on the sitting: Here is what I do when my Vettes need service. I make sure I take care of the service manager, box of good cigars, good bottle of scotch, cash whatever. H e makes sure my cars are set off separate inside and stayed covered, with a stern wearing. Do not mess this one up. Never hurts to have a good man inside looking out.
 
I agree on the sitting: Here is what I do when my Vettes need service. I make sure I take care of the service manager, box of good cigars, good bottle of scotch, cash whatever. H e makes sure my cars are set off separate inside and stayed covered, with a stern wearing. Do not mess this one up. Never hurts to have a good man inside looking out.
When I had my 1946 Cadillac, my mechanic was OCD when he had my car. He would even tie up a lift so that nobody could touch it while it was in his posession
 
Got the truck back from the dealership.
Metal shavings were found in the oil control valve. Service bulletin says replace engine.
Metal shavings are found on oil control valve when lifters are scraping the cam lobe. Or flat spotting the cam as the mechanic said from lifters.

The cause is widely said to be bad metalurgy batches of the lifter roller bearings.
(Basically the rollers on the end of the lifter that roll on the oval cam lobe stop rolling). Or other hydraulic lifter failures. The failure causes scraping during rotation of the cam sending metal shavings thru your oil and into your cylinders damaging the entire engine block. It would be hard to believe its actually flawed design on an engine that has been in challengers, chargers, jeeps and rams since 2014.

So the dealership is sending pictures to Stellantis, requesting a new engine. I was warned that 6.4s are on back order so it may take weeks. Its been about a week and i am waiting aproval from Ram for the new engine request.

Honestly I am fine with all of that as long as warranty takes care of it and gets me a new engine in a reasonable amount of time. The ram has been great, tows well, still tight at 30k miles. I would buy again if they cover their uncommon manufacturer defects. I dont think anyone would buy a truck that has engine failures at 30k, so im sure they will fix it.

Also for the record i stood next to new challenger 6.4 idling, no ticking at all, pretty quiet.
As far as wait time, expect several weeks. My transmission went out at 26k miles - metal shavings in the pan, which is a fluke I'm told. My truck was at the dealers for two months before I drove it home. To be fair, most of that time was waiting for parts, which is out of the dealer's hands. Good luck!
 
3 weeks today. Dealer has not contacted me about resolving the bad engine. Im not sure how long a company is allowed to make people wait for warranty work. Im not sure if im even on the list for backordered engines yet.
A warranty isnt very useful if it takes 6 months to repair a car. Most people need their cars for work. The reason you purchase a new vehicle is to have reliability for the next 4-5 years at least. Trucks should be 10, years, 200k miles. Or i would buy a different truck.
 
I will wait for a decent response from the dealer i purchased the truck from but it does seem like they are close to being out of time legally. Id be ok waiting, but they should be bending over backwards as they fail to abide by warranty laws. This isnt a ferrari, Ram makes hundreds of thousands of these trucks. This should be basic stuff.
From what ive gathered on several websites
California Lemon Law states
"If the vehicle has been in the shop for over 30 days for any number of issues."
"This law states that if the manufacturer or its representative in this state, such as an authorized dealer, is unable to service or repair a new motor vehicle to meet the terms of an express written warranty after a reasonable number of attempts, the manufacturer is required promptly to replace the vehicle or return the purchase price to the buyer."
"Legal coverage also applies to a car warranty repair taking too long. A repair that takes more than a month qualifies, even if it isn’t consecutive. You can choose a new automobile or ask the carmaker to pay for a refund. Your claim can then be marked as complete, assuming the dealer and manufacturer comply with the law"
"In California, for example, the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act requires that if a manufacturer or its authorized dealer is unable to service or repair a new motor vehicle to meet the terms of an express written warranty after a reasonable number of attempts (as described above), the manufacturer must replace the vehicle or return the purchase price to the buyer."

Luckily i do have the truck in my posession, just waiting for service to call me about the work needed, or i would be pissed at 30 days with no work done.
 
Check out the running post on my transmission R&R. My dealer sent me frequent text msg updates including a parts list when they finally tracked down the parts. There's also a timeline from dropping off my truck to picking it up with the new tranny installed. Ask the same of your dealer. Their response to your issues will make or break whether you ever recommend them to anyone.
 
I will check it out. Thanks Jim. I was clear about what i expected as far as communication.
After a couple tries i got in contact with the service manager today. Im not sure exactly what happened in their department, but i was transfered to someone else and Ram has an engine for me, and scheduled a date for the repair in a couple weeks. Ramcares may have helped as i did message them. But we will see when the truck gets in and out of the shop. If all goes as they claim than the system works and id be happy with my perfect running 2500 again. So i will give updates and review at that time. Hopefully not too long from now.
 
UPDATE.
after contacting RAM cares about the delay in my dealerships repair request.
An engine magically appeared the next day at my dealership with my name on it.
The engine was installed in one week.
2 weeks ago i drove it home, and a check engine light came on. The code read p0330, meaning passenger side knock sensor circuit malfunction.
The following day I contacted the dealership that had done the repair and asked to bring it back in.
The manager responded saying he would try to schedule me an apointment. That was 2 weeks ago.
I contacted them last week, no response.
Yesterday i noticed my oil temps were climbing past 230 while my coolant was 215ish. I tried the heater, it blows cold, so i think there is air in the system. I started another thread on that.

My update and review as of now are, engine replacement was green lit by ram, whoever spent a week installing the engine didnt check his work . There is air in the cooling system, no heat, and CEL on, with no response from the dealership.
Im confused about my dealership because they have the nicest hellcat challengers ive ever seen in there.
Screenshot_20240413-154731_Gallery.jpg
 
Update 2 after new engine.
Engine is doing well.
I had my dealership bleed air from radiator.
Had an older mechanic foreman check it all out and re bleed the radiator, watched and talked to him the whole time.
Took him 10 minutes for that, 5 to check the codes and Heater.
We came to the conclusion that the Heater core must have be stuck due to obstruction or electronic door not opening. I said i could tackle that on my own instead of waiting all day for it.
Knock sensor cleared up and hasent come back.

So the truck should be good to go for another 200k miles.
The problems seem to lie at the service desks, the service reps cant do their only job of communicating with the customers what the mechanics diagnose, nor do they do it in a timely fasion and there is no excuse for that. By my math a service rep can talk to 96 people for 5 minutes each during an 8 hr shift.
Maybe they need to cut the reps in half and double the mechanics, and just have the mechanics tell you whats wrong with it.
Then the service vultures can try to gauge you with 'hourly' rates.
 
Got the truck back from the dealership.
Metal shavings were found in the oil control valve. Service bulletin says replace engine.
Metal shavings are found on oil control valve when lifters are scraping the cam lobe. Or flat spotting the cam as the mechanic said from lifters.

The cause is widely said to be bad metalurgy batches of the lifter roller bearings.
(Basically the rollers on the end of the lifter that roll on the oval cam lobe stop rolling). Or other hydraulic lifter failures. The failure causes scraping during rotation of the cam sending metal shavings thru your oil and into your cylinders damaging the entire engine block. It would be hard to believe its actually flawed design on an engine that has been in challengers, chargers, jeeps and rams since 2014.

So the dealership is sending pictures to Stellantis, requesting a new engine. I was warned that 6.4s are on back order so it may take weeks. Its been about a week and i am waiting aproval from Ram for the new engine request.

Honestly I am fine with all of that as long as warranty takes care of it and gets me a new engine in a reasonable amount of time. The ram has been great, tows well, still tight at 30k miles. I would buy again if they cover their uncommon manufacturer defects. I dont think anyone would buy a truck that has engine failures at 30k, so im sure they will fix it.

Also for the record i stood next to new challenger 6.4 idling, no ticking at all, pretty quiet.
2023 Power Wagon here, mine sounds pretty close to the same as yours truck has 39000kms. Took it in to the dealership to have a regular oil change done, needed new headlights as mine had condensation, as well as seatbelts were not retracting. While it was in I asked if they could listen to my truck and see if the tick is normal. Tick happens constantly and doesn't go away once the engine is warm. They had a look and said it was not normal, they found cylinder 4/6 intake lifters starting to fail. They ended up changing bank 2 lifters, push rods and rocker arms. All said and done between on waiting for parts and performing the work, they had my truck for 44 days until it was ready. They told me they went for a test drive and the motor is now quiet. I picked it up after hours due to work, and it pretty still sounds the same as before, no real improvement to me. As far as i know they inspected the camshaft with a borescope and deemed it good. I don't know if they ever looked at the oil control valve for metal shavings. I plan on going back and have them listen to it again and see what they say.
 
2023 Power Wagon here, mine sounds pretty close to the same as yours truck has 39000kms. Took it in to the dealership to have a regular oil change done, needed new headlights as mine had condensation, as well as seatbelts were not retracting. While it was in I asked if they could listen to my truck and see if the tick is normal. Tick happens constantly and doesn't go away once the engine is warm. They had a look and said it was not normal, they found cylinder 4/6 intake lifters starting to fail. They ended up changing bank 2 lifters, push rods and rocker arms. All said and done between on waiting for parts and performing the work, they had my truck for 44 days until it was ready. They told me they went for a test drive and the motor is now quiet. I picked it up after hours due to work, and it pretty still sounds the same as before, no real improvement to me. As far as i know they inspected the camshaft with a borescope and deemed it good. I don't know if they ever looked at the oil control valve for metal shavings. I plan on going back and have them listen to it again and see what they say.
What's the latest on this?
 
What's the latest on this?
Drove the truck around for a couple weeks after picking it up, it is definitely not fixed as it still sounds the same as the first time I dropped it off. It might actually be a little louder than it was, worse on the passenger side. This time I took the truck to a different, more local (small town) dealership, made the shop foreman listen to it and we both agreed that the ticking shouldn't be deemed normal. They couldn't look at the truck for a couple weeks as they have been busy. The truck has now been in the shop as of last friday. I haven't heard anything as of yet but will update as I get some news.

Luckily I have a second truck I can use for work, otherwise I'd be pretty upset on making payments for a truck that I can't drive.
 
It's very cut and dry. Pull the oil control valve. If there are metal shavings, then your lifter bearing has seized and is grinding and tapping on the cam. Thats the tick everyone dreads. But you cannot tell anything by sound, it just alerts you of an issue.
 
Drove the truck around for a couple weeks after picking it up, it is definitely not fixed as it still sounds the same as the first time I dropped it off. It might actually be a little louder than it was, worse on the passenger side. This time I took the truck to a different, more local (small town) dealership, made the shop foreman listen to it and we both agreed that the ticking shouldn't be deemed normal. They couldn't look at the truck for a couple weeks as they have been busy. The truck has now been in the shop as of last friday. I haven't heard anything as of yet but will update as I get some news.

Luckily I have a second truck I can use for work, otherwise I'd be pretty upset on making payments for a truck that I can't drive.
2024 Ram 2500 Laramie with the 6.4L. My engine was replaced at 4k miles. It started with a sound like a whining belt or a water pump bearing but on investigation it was coming from the oil pan. Long story short, metal shavings in the oil filter. I've had the new engine in for about 400 miles and it's starting to make noises again.
 
I suspect there may be something we are doing with this engine that ram won't disclose as a problem. For instance if I park on a steep slope nose down, the lifters tick hard for the first several seconds. I've noticed it 3/3 times I've parked like that. Now I don't park downhill. If the oil pump cant pump oil to the lifters fast enough on startup it will rattle, smack and eventually break the lifter bearing.

I usually try to give it some gas when I park to pump up the lifters for when I start it up again. But oil will eventually escape.

Are you guy by chance parking downhill?
 
I park my truck in a fashion that it’s nose low/tail high. It also sits a few or more days at a time. When I start it after a few days i definitely get some lifter tick. I hope it’s not a sign of bad things to come. Good luck to you guys dealing with these issues. We know the mothership won’t do anything about it.


Sent from me
 
As far as wait time, expect several weeks. My transmission went out at 26k miles - metal shavings in the pan, which is a fluke I'm told. My truck was at the dealers for two months before I drove it home. To be fair, most of that time was waiting for parts, which is out of the dealer's hands. Good luck!
Fluke you say, my pan after 5000km and looked better but still some glitter after the next 5000km and yes I have the whole alphabet.
 

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Fluke you say, my pan after 5000km and looked better but still some glitter after the next 5000km and yes I have the whole alphabet.
I don't know what truck or tranny you have, but the ZF-8HP75 is a proven rock-solid transmission. Sure, there are some bad ones as there are with anything, but in general it has been a great transmission. The problem with mine, and yours probably, is crappy inspection and not cleaning out metal shavings during manufacturing.

Are you working to get a new transmission installed?
 
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