Original engine blew a rod out the block, first used replacement was full of gas and seized, second used replacement had no rod bearing on #5. I guess junkyards don't pull the pan anymore... or... do anything before they freight it out.
Insurance won't cover a reman engine.
Insurance won't cover a reman engine but they'll keep buying junkyard ones all day long, even if the price exceeds the cost of a reman engine. Gotta love insurance companies.
Lol yes this!! We have one in the shop that would rather pay a $10,000 for 54 days rental bill on a used engine they are trying to find and send one that isn’t bad than to buy a new short block from Toyota and be done in a day. But hey at least “you’re in good hands”
Aftermarket warranties almost always suck.
Our writer lady somehow managed to bully one warranty company into paying what they would have for a used transmission and all of the labor if the customer paid the difference for a manufacturer reman unit. I have no idea how she did it.
Truck got fixed, we all got paid, everyone was happy.
Poor writer was on the phone for quite a while though. She was quite pissed the first 3 times that the 'warranty' people tried to shut her down though.
I work with a writer who is an absolute master at milking insurance companies for labor. I worked on a curb hit car (snow and dumb drivers) which ended up needing a front subframe, steering rack, etc. Took me a full day to finish the work, but he got something like 22 labor hours for it.
Somebody asked him if he felt bad about doing that. His response was 'you win some, you lose some'. Which is exactly the game we constantly play in this industry.
The best I got was 30 labour hours for a full body harness and other misc stuff on a Kona EV that had rodents in it. Took the tech something like 12h, around a day and a half. The bossman was happy lol
I got 3 harnesses on order due to corrosion damage in a vehicle caused by poor aftermarket windshield sealing. Insurance got me 43 hrs and change for it. Still don't think it's enough lol
I'm on the warranty end and I love a split the difference call. Customer gets OEM and I don't have to fill anything out for a supplier and get follow ups if it's late or anything else.
Read and request your contract. Where I'm at it's 100% follow the contract. Also most companies use 3rd party inspectors so the inspector just documents they are not the approve or deny.
We need more writers like that, funny enough my best writer I had was a woman and she’s get anything sold to any client but she ultimately left for a luxury brand that paid her well her worth and good for her. She asked me to go but I didn’t want to start back from ground zero since it’s a brand I’m not familiar with.
Honestly it was a heartbreaking moment for me, for like 3 years she’s made me a consistent 65 hour flag a week and I made over $8200 a month avg and it was a good run, nowadays I’m lucky to sit on $5-6k at best a month. 😞 good writers that see everything and sell what I recommend without the bullshit not needed flushes are the best, I always made the relay to her send pictures and videos to show the customer the issues so she can explain it better and not make the customer feel like they are taken for a ride, she does the rest.
Our lady is like that too. She was a tech for a while, but from what I know, a bunch of assholes set her toolbox on fire because they didn't want to work with a woman. She ended up on the desk and is really good at it.
She'll come out in the shop and school the lube techs when they do something stupid. (Our lube techs are young and stupid. She caught them racing the floor cleaning zambonis last Saturday.) It's kind of comical. She's taught me a bunch of complicated electrical diagnostics too.
I'm actually pretty pissed that she got run out of the shop, but I honestly don't know if she'd make more as a master tech than she does on the desk. I just can't deal with customers, and I don't know how she puts up with stupidity on the regular.
She also restores antique tractors for fun. She can deal with weird shit like 6v positive ground systems and set points like an old timer.
In my experience, part of it is that you may not have the kind of natural inclination for trade tasks if you’re not raised as a tomboy/manly-man.
Raised to associate being dirty with a drop in your value to society = never learning or practicing skills where you get dirty = never having a chance to develop the various hand-eye coordination skills and mechanical understanding that mechanics and other trades absolutely need.
Just watch what happens when someone lets a career manager who pays people to clean his house hold a wrench. It’s bloody embarrassing.
For what it’s worth, the worst sexism I’ve seen and heard of is in residential trades and automotive, industrial mostly stopped giving a shit about what’s in your pants unless there’s a good joke involved.
> and I don't know how she puts up with stupidity on the regular.
Her other choice apparently was putting up with stupidity with her peers setting her toolbox on fire. She's communicated which one she sees is the lesser of the two evils.
I'm glad you're different and treat her with respect.
We had one really good female tech here years ago, she wound up as a parts counter person at another dealership and the best one at that too because she knows the cars inside and out. They didn’t even have ladies lockers here so she had to clean and change in the women restrooms instead, none of the other techs wanted her around like she was ultimately like the sexual harassment threat when they go ranting sexist jokes or making comments about the pretty girls in the office.
I wish I had techs like you when I was a writer... Techs in the garage were only paid by the hour, no bonuses on efficiency or anything (they were really well paid nonetheless). But they don't really have any incentive to find stuff that is wrong on the cars.
I had to sell bullshit flushes and whatever to earn my pay. I hated it. I want to sell actual jobs, not fairy dust.
I wish I could remember the name of the warranty company I had on my pervious vehicle. They were good about doing the best possible on replacement parts. They even sprung for a reman transmission when the '14 accord coupe v6 at6 decided it wanted to miss shifts from 2nd to 3rd, and started to believe there was a 7th gear. I had to pay $123 to get it shipped, but that was better than having to pay for it myself.
> Lol yes this!! We have one in the shop that would rather pay a $10,000 for **54 days rental bill** on a used engine they are trying to find and send one that isn’t bad than to buy a new short block from Toyota and be done in a day. But hey at least “you’re in good hands”
Someone I knew picked an insurance coverage that didn't include rental bill.
Oh boy they absolutely got screwed when their vehicle was in the shop for over two months.
Looking at my auto insurance policy, the max available option it has is $50 per day, up to $1500. Even with $35 per day, that $1500 will run out in 42 days.
Yea we had a customer who had a cat stolen on a 2012 Prius and I think her rental was a shocking 103 days it wasn’t pretty, I had no idea who paid but that’s how long her car sat here before we got one in to fix her car, it was a insurance deal…
While this is a reasonable solution, the EPA will fine you regardless if you do it as a temporary solution. Most larger shops won't touch this because the (unlikely) fines are insane.
You also can't weld up a pipe on a 2012 Prius, as it runs coolant through the pipe they steal. You'd need to reroute the entire system somehow. Pedantic, I know. I looked into it at my shop.
Did not know about the coolant.
I know it's "illegal" but a guy is absolutely getting screwed with no car for months because of some scumbag chronic. This is the thing there needs to be a carve out for.
Yup, it’s seemingly hard for them to find a used Scion xB 2AZ engine as they are different than the Camry engines, they keep sending us the wrong motor and refuse to pay us if we swap the appropriate parts to “make it work”. They also constantly send us used janky parts from keystone or lkq when factory new is only a few bucks more, so annoying and fucks up our whole shop workflow.
I've actually done that in the past when helping a friend. She bought a Chevy Traverse with a "bad starter" for cheap, and then had some crackhead try to fix it.
When it still wouldn't run following a starter replacement, he blamed it on the security system and vanished. Having quite a bit of experience with these pieces of shit, the first thing I did was try to rotate the crankshaft with a bar. Unsurprisingly, it was locked solid (due to a snapped timing chain), so it was new engine time.
Good used GM 3.6l LLT v6s are hard to find and quite expensive though. A local junkyard claimed to have a good engine, and at 1/3 of the typical cost, we jumped on the deal. The first engine I was sent was full of sludge, had bent valves on the rear cylinders, and a cracked oil pan, but everything timing related was brand new. The second (and their last) engine had bad timing chains, as well as collision damage to the front head and oil pan.
I wound up having to take parts off of all three in order to make one good engine. The shortblock and rear cylinder head from the 2nd junkyard engine were used in conjunction with the timing set and front head from the 1st, as well as the oil pan from the original.
In the end, the junkyard reimbursed us for the additional parts cost (head gasket, head bolts, timing cover gasket/front seal, etc.) and the total cost with labor was still less than if I had purchased an engine from another yard, but I'll never do that again.
Salvage yard guys pull multiple engines per day and don't really give a shit what condition they're in. You'd have to buy an engine from a company which specifically inspects and sells engines (with a $1000-2000 markup) in order to get a guaranteed working one.
Check the bid history (or carfax if it's not available) on the VIN of the car it was pulled from until you find one which was crashed and given a salvage title. Never buy an engine which came out of a car without a record of body damage.
If they don't give you the VIN, don't buy it from them. Ideally you'd go to a salvage yard yourself, check the VIN, and look at the state of the car before you watch them pull the engine. If you're really desparate, buy a crashed car directly from an insurance company at your local car auction.
It depends where you go. If you get an engine from a specialist breaker - or even just someone who cares about what they're doing - it'll be fine.
I bought an engine for one of my Range Rovers for £500 from a specialist breaker. Now, while I don't entirely agree that it had 80,000 miles on it (I think it was well north of 100) it started and ran just fine once it was fitted.
The head gaskets went about 100,000 miles later, and then about 30,000 miles after that (a little less than a year! Scotland's a big place) I had to pull the engine out to replace the core plugs and the flex plate which I should have done before I put it all in a few years earlier, but didn't have the time.
I once put three used AG4 transmissions into a MKIV Golf. After the third one, the service contract finally agreed to put a reman transmission in. Also by that point, I had the job down to about 2 hours total, so I was happy to do it as many times as they wanted.
My grandmother bought a used Accord from a used car dealer that I'm friends with the owner with. The trans started slipping the week after she got it. They put in 5 used transmissions before finally giving up and having the 5th one rebuilt. FIVE!
My favorite part of junkyard engines is figuring out how much shit is broken and if it's fixable. Whoops the threads for that oil line into the block are gone. Wonderful.
There was a guy who posted on here awhile back who put a junkyard engine in and then realized it was seized up. My brother in Christ the first thing you do is grab your breaker bar and spin that thing over about 16 times to verify 'smooth operation'.
What insurance pays for an engine replacement at all when it throws a rod? Was it in an accident when a rod was thrown? Is this a 3rd party extended warranty company?
3rd party extended warranty companies, and even some auto insurance companies have special plans for used vehicles to cover trashed drivetrains. Pay an extra $20/month only for them to require the replacement be a $300 junkyard core.
Fine print is a bitch.
Perhaps their other customers aren't quite so picky. Hell, they were even nice enough to throw in some free gas. /s
On the second engine, they are just REALLY taking the old "must swap parts over from the old engine" to the extreme.
At least by me, junkyards never did pull pans. If the engine doesn't have known problems on it's way in, send it. Most yards have a disclaimer on the sales slip that says something to the effect of "engines are sold as a rebuildable core and are not warranted for any other purpose". Some of the pricier yards give a 90-day warranty against rod knock, liability limited to refund of purchase cost.
We've been through 2 n55 engines so far on a 335. One was blowing oil out of a cylinder and the second has an awful piston slap. Fighting to get our money back, customer is fed up and just wants to spring for a crate motor now
> I guess junkyards don't pull the pan anymore... or... do anything before they freight it out.
No, they don't. They aren't engine re-manufacturers. They deal in junked car parts.
Ye Olde 41TE. I will never, ever own another one.
My parents had a 3.3 powered Grand Voyager back in the day. Was Okay-Ish until about 125k miles. To its credit, it drove itself to its trade-in appointment.
62,000 Till Explosion
Worked at the dealer for 7 years and was proven right on many occasions. 60k miles and they'd come in absolutely smoked. You can prolong your suffering by servicing every 30k. Owners manual says service every 120k. When it won't reach 60 without a service, I don't see that happening.
I somehow have one in a '98 T&C with the 3.8, that is at ~180k and running perfectly.
Even shifts quickly without noticeable hunting. Everyone in the household is terrified of doing anything to it.
That's hilarious that you said that. We had a '95 Caravan with the 3.3L. Head gasket, THEN a transmission. Then another transmission because the housing cracked wide open, then my dad hydrolocked the engine cuz he was an idiot.
I used to drive by the local transmission shop daily. My buddy worked there so I was always being nosey - mostly because they worked on vetts on the side.
It was sort of a funny mental note to myself to constantly see 3 out of 4 bays with Dodge/Chrysler products.
I look at Chrysler products the same way I look at harbor freight tools. Sorry if I offend anyone...
\#JustCaravanthings
Edit: I thought about it, and caravans are also heavily abused. Painters put like 87 buckets of paint in it, and wonder why the trans grenaded.
I have a 3.8L from '98 T&C that is over 180k miles and running just fine.
All original, non-rebuilt engine and transmission. Not sure how that thing still works, but it works faultlessly.
I think highway miles are better for engine longevity. Due to the fact that the metal doesn't go through as many heat cycles as it would for shorter in-town or localized trips. There was a Tacoma that got more than 800k doing almost all highway miles.
I see so many of those early 2000s shitboxes on the road with the clear coat peeling off like a candy wrapper, and the paint literally washing off of them that I assumed the engine and transmission must be the only good things about them.
Well there’s you problem! It’s a Chrysler!
I kid. Yeah I deal with the same exact shit with Silver-Rock. Except what they will do is say sure, send a P.O.S on purpose so when we call back they politely tell us to fuck off.
N+1, N being the current inventory that can be *reasonably* shipped to you.
Fun fact, that's the formula my dad uses for "how many cars do I need", but N is the number he has room for lol
Are the 2005 3.8 diferent? Mine is running very good after like 400k kilometres, trans is original too, the fluids were maintained and the engine has lpg, maybe that helped?
You're even luckier than I am, given that Chrysler's quality went down over time thanks to the wonderful people at Daimler and Cerberus' attempts at "managing" them.
The 3.3/3.8 back in the '90s was at least pretty well made if not a fancy engine. Great case in point is that in '01 they moved to a plastic intake plenum. My '98 is cast aluminum.
At least you’re finding out before installing it!
Once upon a time I put 3, yes 3! Fucking Northstars in the same Deville before we got a good one.
No way to know with those things, wouldn’t even show blown HG until you’d driven it 30+ minutes and then it went from fine to pegged temp gauge and boiling over in 5 minutes.
That was the last Northstar I ever or will ever install.
Bought a Chrysler/Jeep vehicle in 2008, despite pouring thousands into it over the years it ***still*** ended up breaking down despite just being used as a gently-driven "grocery getter". The last time I drove it (final breakdown) it just suddenly stalled out and left me stranded at an intersection during 12 PM lunch-hour 🙄
Finally parted ways with it July of last year, only reason I kept it for so long is it was paid-off ages ago/no car payment/cheap insurance rates
Chrysler, never again
I mean they are looking for a used minivan engine that stopped being produced thirteen years ago, it's also a Chrysler engine... The odds are heavily stacked against finding one in operable condition.
Sorry man. We're a small 3 bay shop (father & son) Just went through a rough parts-service January. We worked like dogs and lost 9 days. Still made 15k clear, could have been a lot better.
That why I scraped mine. I blame the wife and chrylser. The wife doesn't check fluids and blows the headgaskets and chrysler for cheap parts. Now im looking for a decent affordable family car
This lol, 4th gen chrysler vans were the peak of those transmissions, I've had 2 last well over 200k. But before that my mom had two or three from the 1st and 2nd gens last under 100k.
What actually killed our first 4th gen was the engine knocking, @230k miles, 3.3L (oil starved). My other van is still **technically** running and driving, but doesn't move in reverse, @225k miles, 3.8L.
About $3k and 4 weeks out to build, so insurance doesn't want to cover the higher cost and the rental vehicle. They'd rather fill my shop with trash and waste everybody's time
I don't know the NADA guide value of the Grand Caravan, but the original estimate was something like $3 or 4k. Used engines were sourced from yards at about $1.5 to $1.8k delivered.
Let me guess, the lot that sold it to them is one of those places that caters to people who have bad credit and jacks the price up then adds a “warranty” while making three or four times what they paid for it at auction. In the real world it’s a $2,500 vehicle, on a good day, and it’s not even worth repairing.
Hello customer your engine requires replacement.
Due the poor quality and unreliability of the Chrysler 3.3 engine in your vehicle,
we will not install a used engine.
We at XYZ automotive recommend a remanufactured engine as we cannot guarantee the reliability a used engine.
Sorry insurance doesn’t want to cover the cost of a remanufactured engine.
Insurance will not dictate our recommendations or repair costs.
You can approve the cost of a remanufactured engine replacement, and seek reimbursement from your insurance on your own.
If not pay the diagnostic/tear down estimate
and tow this shit box out of my shop.
Your shit box is tying up my rack and costing me money.
The moral is don’t let insurance companies dictate the quality of your repair. Quote the reman with a parts and labor warranty. Then you get paid something for your labor if the engine takes a shit. Right now your swapping engines for free.
This is exactly why my shop won't deal with insurance companies. We tell the client to pay us in full and fight with their insurance to reimburse them. We haven't done an insurance job in years!
The 3.3 in the 94 Eagle Vision my wife had never had a problem. It was the transmission, subframe, tie rod ends, air conditioning, that caused problems.
I drive for a company that uses Caravans for their fleet vehicles. Isn't a week going by when one of them is in the shop getting a new engine. And these are the 3.6's
Sad part is, they're a decently reliable engine. The problem is the vehicles they were equipped in, were exactly the kind of vehicle that gets horrible neglected until it dies a slow death.
No, the newer 3.6 had some issues during 2012-13 and some 14 of valve seat failure on left head and all runs have issues with rocker arm failure, but are dramatically better than the preceding 3.3L
Yeah, I was always more of an iron block guy, but the pentastar legit has proven itself. Aside from the aforementioned valve seat/rocker issues. The oil cooler gaskets are a given to leak, but it’s not a hard job and I think Fel-Pro even makes the gasket kit at this point to eliminate replacing the whole cooler.
The problem with the cooler is the plastic-welded plugs on the assembly tend to blow out. We just had a customer with a 2017 Grand Caravan provide a brand new OEM filter housing with a production stamp of October 2022, but two weeks after replacement its stupid little plugs blew out too. Dorman does make this cool aluminum body replacement dealy, but it's nearly impossible to find as it is and has been in great demand
Grab a toyota corolla engine for $500 and do some redneck science to get it all matched up. Will be cheaper and more reliable in the long run. If you want more power grab their v6 2gr
The cost of sourcing, welding and heat-treating custom length CV axles would probably be $1,500 alone.
But I'll be sure to pass along the sentiment to not buy Chrysler to my customer, who has bought a Chrysler.
The 3.3 motors were built by Mitsubishi, and also used in the Mitsubishi Spyder. The engine is notorious for starting to burn oil and blow blue smoke at around 65K miles. You saw it also on Mitsubishi cars with the same mileage.
Source? I've noticed no similiarities between the 3.3L and Mitsu engines... all research seems like the 3.3L was developed in-house to replace costly imports on the Mitsu 3.0L.
There was never a 3.3L variant of the Eclipse Spyder.
Yeah I was gonna say, 3.3L was in house, but you’re correct on the 3.0L.
You really wanna go down the Chrysler rabbit hole, the 2.0L & 2.4L were based on the older 2.5L, which was designed in part by Lamborghini. And that’s because Chrysler & Lamborghini [of all people] teamed up to build an Formula 1 V12 engine.
I've gotten remans that are like that. I've gotten small-equipment factory new engines that are like that, most notably Kawasakis, but 2020 and 2021 I went 3 for 17 on Honda GXs and GCVs turning over fresh out of the box.
If you can find my 1995 Grand Caravan I drove in high school, it's still driving around in Virginia with probably close to 380k by now. It's baby blue and super rusted on top.
Original engine blew a rod out the block, first used replacement was full of gas and seized, second used replacement had no rod bearing on #5. I guess junkyards don't pull the pan anymore... or... do anything before they freight it out. Insurance won't cover a reman engine.
Ah yes , the good ole disconnecting rod
bluetooth rod... just a weak signal after a few rotations.
I drove one of these with a terrible knock for almost a year… it sounded like I was running a hit or miss engine towards the end
Mine sounded like two coke cans grinding together, and you could hear it blocks away. 77 Monte Carlo.
Insurance won't cover a reman engine but they'll keep buying junkyard ones all day long, even if the price exceeds the cost of a reman engine. Gotta love insurance companies.
Lol yes this!! We have one in the shop that would rather pay a $10,000 for 54 days rental bill on a used engine they are trying to find and send one that isn’t bad than to buy a new short block from Toyota and be done in a day. But hey at least “you’re in good hands”
Aftermarket warranties almost always suck. Our writer lady somehow managed to bully one warranty company into paying what they would have for a used transmission and all of the labor if the customer paid the difference for a manufacturer reman unit. I have no idea how she did it. Truck got fixed, we all got paid, everyone was happy. Poor writer was on the phone for quite a while though. She was quite pissed the first 3 times that the 'warranty' people tried to shut her down though.
I work with a writer who is an absolute master at milking insurance companies for labor. I worked on a curb hit car (snow and dumb drivers) which ended up needing a front subframe, steering rack, etc. Took me a full day to finish the work, but he got something like 22 labor hours for it. Somebody asked him if he felt bad about doing that. His response was 'you win some, you lose some'. Which is exactly the game we constantly play in this industry.
The best I got was 30 labour hours for a full body harness and other misc stuff on a Kona EV that had rodents in it. Took the tech something like 12h, around a day and a half. The bossman was happy lol
I got 3 harnesses on order due to corrosion damage in a vehicle caused by poor aftermarket windshield sealing. Insurance got me 43 hrs and change for it. Still don't think it's enough lol
Just curious, do you get to put those 43hrs on your time sheet or something . I am a tool builder so I don't really know how you mechanics get paid.
Yeah, once the repair is complete, the 43 hours will be added to my total for the pay period.
Very cool, thanks for the explanation.
Happy cake day 🥳
I'm on the warranty end and I love a split the difference call. Customer gets OEM and I don't have to fill anything out for a supplier and get follow ups if it's late or anything else.
Right now I’m praying the warranty guy sent out too see my engine approves the work for my car. I’m beyond anxious and stressing too the limit.
Read and request your contract. Where I'm at it's 100% follow the contract. Also most companies use 3rd party inspectors so the inspector just documents they are not the approve or deny.
We need more writers like that, funny enough my best writer I had was a woman and she’s get anything sold to any client but she ultimately left for a luxury brand that paid her well her worth and good for her. She asked me to go but I didn’t want to start back from ground zero since it’s a brand I’m not familiar with.
She's awesome. I hope she's around for a while. We all make a good living when she's out front.
Honestly it was a heartbreaking moment for me, for like 3 years she’s made me a consistent 65 hour flag a week and I made over $8200 a month avg and it was a good run, nowadays I’m lucky to sit on $5-6k at best a month. 😞 good writers that see everything and sell what I recommend without the bullshit not needed flushes are the best, I always made the relay to her send pictures and videos to show the customer the issues so she can explain it better and not make the customer feel like they are taken for a ride, she does the rest.
Our lady is like that too. She was a tech for a while, but from what I know, a bunch of assholes set her toolbox on fire because they didn't want to work with a woman. She ended up on the desk and is really good at it. She'll come out in the shop and school the lube techs when they do something stupid. (Our lube techs are young and stupid. She caught them racing the floor cleaning zambonis last Saturday.) It's kind of comical. She's taught me a bunch of complicated electrical diagnostics too. I'm actually pretty pissed that she got run out of the shop, but I honestly don't know if she'd make more as a master tech than she does on the desk. I just can't deal with customers, and I don't know how she puts up with stupidity on the regular. She also restores antique tractors for fun. She can deal with weird shit like 6v positive ground systems and set points like an old timer.
fucks sakes, and they wonder why there are so few women in trades. why are there so many bloody meatheads?
Fragile egos.
In my experience, part of it is that you may not have the kind of natural inclination for trade tasks if you’re not raised as a tomboy/manly-man. Raised to associate being dirty with a drop in your value to society = never learning or practicing skills where you get dirty = never having a chance to develop the various hand-eye coordination skills and mechanical understanding that mechanics and other trades absolutely need. Just watch what happens when someone lets a career manager who pays people to clean his house hold a wrench. It’s bloody embarrassing. For what it’s worth, the worst sexism I’ve seen and heard of is in residential trades and automotive, industrial mostly stopped giving a shit about what’s in your pants unless there’s a good joke involved.
> and I don't know how she puts up with stupidity on the regular. Her other choice apparently was putting up with stupidity with her peers setting her toolbox on fire. She's communicated which one she sees is the lesser of the two evils. I'm glad you're different and treat her with respect.
We had one really good female tech here years ago, she wound up as a parts counter person at another dealership and the best one at that too because she knows the cars inside and out. They didn’t even have ladies lockers here so she had to clean and change in the women restrooms instead, none of the other techs wanted her around like she was ultimately like the sexual harassment threat when they go ranting sexist jokes or making comments about the pretty girls in the office.
I wish I had techs like you when I was a writer... Techs in the garage were only paid by the hour, no bonuses on efficiency or anything (they were really well paid nonetheless). But they don't really have any incentive to find stuff that is wrong on the cars. I had to sell bullshit flushes and whatever to earn my pay. I hated it. I want to sell actual jobs, not fairy dust.
I wish I could remember the name of the warranty company I had on my pervious vehicle. They were good about doing the best possible on replacement parts. They even sprung for a reman transmission when the '14 accord coupe v6 at6 decided it wanted to miss shifts from 2nd to 3rd, and started to believe there was a 7th gear. I had to pay $123 to get it shipped, but that was better than having to pay for it myself.
> Lol yes this!! We have one in the shop that would rather pay a $10,000 for **54 days rental bill** on a used engine they are trying to find and send one that isn’t bad than to buy a new short block from Toyota and be done in a day. But hey at least “you’re in good hands” Someone I knew picked an insurance coverage that didn't include rental bill. Oh boy they absolutely got screwed when their vehicle was in the shop for over two months.
This customer had a rental coverage up to 35$ a day but it is unknown the length it covers, we’ll see once we get the car done lol
Looking at my auto insurance policy, the max available option it has is $50 per day, up to $1500. Even with $35 per day, that $1500 will run out in 42 days.
Yea we had a customer who had a cat stolen on a 2012 Prius and I think her rental was a shocking 103 days it wasn’t pretty, I had no idea who paid but that’s how long her car sat here before we got one in to fix her car, it was a insurance deal…
Goddamn. Slap a test pipe in it and call me when the part's in.
While this is a reasonable solution, the EPA will fine you regardless if you do it as a temporary solution. Most larger shops won't touch this because the (unlikely) fines are insane. You also can't weld up a pipe on a 2012 Prius, as it runs coolant through the pipe they steal. You'd need to reroute the entire system somehow. Pedantic, I know. I looked into it at my shop.
Did not know about the coolant. I know it's "illegal" but a guy is absolutely getting screwed with no car for months because of some scumbag chronic. This is the thing there needs to be a carve out for.
all state eh
Yup, it’s seemingly hard for them to find a used Scion xB 2AZ engine as they are different than the Camry engines, they keep sending us the wrong motor and refuse to pay us if we swap the appropriate parts to “make it work”. They also constantly send us used janky parts from keystone or lkq when factory new is only a few bucks more, so annoying and fucks up our whole shop workflow.
I worked in collision repair and Allstate was hands down the shadiest company.
In your experience is any insurance company not shady?
So you're saying they have direct experience with creating Mayhem?
1. Be a junkyard 2. Keep reselling insurance company the same engine 3. Profit!
Step 1.5. Be Insurance company Ceo's cousin
There's no way insurance is paying for this. This costs way more than the value of an old mini van
Get a few more, then build one out of the parts from all of them
I've actually done that in the past when helping a friend. She bought a Chevy Traverse with a "bad starter" for cheap, and then had some crackhead try to fix it. When it still wouldn't run following a starter replacement, he blamed it on the security system and vanished. Having quite a bit of experience with these pieces of shit, the first thing I did was try to rotate the crankshaft with a bar. Unsurprisingly, it was locked solid (due to a snapped timing chain), so it was new engine time. Good used GM 3.6l LLT v6s are hard to find and quite expensive though. A local junkyard claimed to have a good engine, and at 1/3 of the typical cost, we jumped on the deal. The first engine I was sent was full of sludge, had bent valves on the rear cylinders, and a cracked oil pan, but everything timing related was brand new. The second (and their last) engine had bad timing chains, as well as collision damage to the front head and oil pan. I wound up having to take parts off of all three in order to make one good engine. The shortblock and rear cylinder head from the 2nd junkyard engine were used in conjunction with the timing set and front head from the 1st, as well as the oil pan from the original. In the end, the junkyard reimbursed us for the additional parts cost (head gasket, head bolts, timing cover gasket/front seal, etc.) and the total cost with labor was still less than if I had purchased an engine from another yard, but I'll never do that again.
If time was free that would be my choice too.
Salvage yard guys pull multiple engines per day and don't really give a shit what condition they're in. You'd have to buy an engine from a company which specifically inspects and sells engines (with a $1000-2000 markup) in order to get a guaranteed working one. Check the bid history (or carfax if it's not available) on the VIN of the car it was pulled from until you find one which was crashed and given a salvage title. Never buy an engine which came out of a car without a record of body damage. If they don't give you the VIN, don't buy it from them. Ideally you'd go to a salvage yard yourself, check the VIN, and look at the state of the car before you watch them pull the engine. If you're really desparate, buy a crashed car directly from an insurance company at your local car auction.
It depends where you go. If you get an engine from a specialist breaker - or even just someone who cares about what they're doing - it'll be fine. I bought an engine for one of my Range Rovers for £500 from a specialist breaker. Now, while I don't entirely agree that it had 80,000 miles on it (I think it was well north of 100) it started and ran just fine once it was fitted. The head gaskets went about 100,000 miles later, and then about 30,000 miles after that (a little less than a year! Scotland's a big place) I had to pull the engine out to replace the core plugs and the flex plate which I should have done before I put it all in a few years earlier, but didn't have the time.
I once put three used AG4 transmissions into a MKIV Golf. After the third one, the service contract finally agreed to put a reman transmission in. Also by that point, I had the job down to about 2 hours total, so I was happy to do it as many times as they wanted.
My grandmother bought a used Accord from a used car dealer that I'm friends with the owner with. The trans started slipping the week after she got it. They put in 5 used transmissions before finally giving up and having the 5th one rebuilt. FIVE!
There's usually a reason a Chrysler car is in the junkyard, and it's not for being crashed into.
My favorite part of junkyard engines is figuring out how much shit is broken and if it's fixable. Whoops the threads for that oil line into the block are gone. Wonderful. There was a guy who posted on here awhile back who put a junkyard engine in and then realized it was seized up. My brother in Christ the first thing you do is grab your breaker bar and spin that thing over about 16 times to verify 'smooth operation'.
What insurance pays for an engine replacement at all when it throws a rod? Was it in an accident when a rod was thrown? Is this a 3rd party extended warranty company?
3rd party extended warranty companies, and even some auto insurance companies have special plans for used vehicles to cover trashed drivetrains. Pay an extra $20/month only for them to require the replacement be a $300 junkyard core. Fine print is a bitch.
Perhaps their other customers aren't quite so picky. Hell, they were even nice enough to throw in some free gas. /s On the second engine, they are just REALLY taking the old "must swap parts over from the old engine" to the extreme.
At least by me, junkyards never did pull pans. If the engine doesn't have known problems on it's way in, send it. Most yards have a disclaimer on the sales slip that says something to the effect of "engines are sold as a rebuildable core and are not warranted for any other purpose". Some of the pricier yards give a 90-day warranty against rod knock, liability limited to refund of purchase cost.
Sounds like the difference between more and enough isn't closing yet...
It is a Chrysler after all. 5th time is the charm!
Correct! We cut em out and fing send it. Sometimes we'll spin the crank if its not shitty weather and we're not busy
We've been through 2 n55 engines so far on a 335. One was blowing oil out of a cylinder and the second has an awful piston slap. Fighting to get our money back, customer is fed up and just wants to spring for a crate motor now
> I guess junkyards don't pull the pan anymore... or... do anything before they freight it out. No, they don't. They aren't engine re-manufacturers. They deal in junked car parts.
careful, a properly running engine will blow the transmission.
This. Yes. The van i had with a 3.3 way back when, I swear the tranny was made of glass. Totally malfunctioning junk.
Ye Olde 41TE. I will never, ever own another one. My parents had a 3.3 powered Grand Voyager back in the day. Was Okay-Ish until about 125k miles. To its credit, it drove itself to its trade-in appointment.
The 62TE isn't much better. Persistent P0868 for no reason, and the absolute Grand Canyon of a gap between 3rd and 4th gears.
62,000 Till Explosion Worked at the dealer for 7 years and was proven right on many occasions. 60k miles and they'd come in absolutely smoked. You can prolong your suffering by servicing every 30k. Owners manual says service every 120k. When it won't reach 60 without a service, I don't see that happening.
Mine had 88k miles when I serviced it. Bought it with 19k on the clock. Was a former rental. Gave it to my ex in the divorce at like 95k.
I somehow have one in a '98 T&C with the 3.8, that is at ~180k and running perfectly. Even shifts quickly without noticeable hunting. Everyone in the household is terrified of doing anything to it.
Ouch....
That's hilarious that you said that. We had a '95 Caravan with the 3.3L. Head gasket, THEN a transmission. Then another transmission because the housing cracked wide open, then my dad hydrolocked the engine cuz he was an idiot.
I used to drive by the local transmission shop daily. My buddy worked there so I was always being nosey - mostly because they worked on vetts on the side. It was sort of a funny mental note to myself to constantly see 3 out of 4 bays with Dodge/Chrysler products. I look at Chrysler products the same way I look at harbor freight tools. Sorry if I offend anyone...
\#JustCaravanthings Edit: I thought about it, and caravans are also heavily abused. Painters put like 87 buckets of paint in it, and wonder why the trans grenaded.
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That's the secret, Cap. They're all scrap
Time for an LS swap!
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I have a 3.8L from '98 T&C that is over 180k miles and running just fine. All original, non-rebuilt engine and transmission. Not sure how that thing still works, but it works faultlessly.
I think highway miles are better for engine longevity. Due to the fact that the metal doesn't go through as many heat cycles as it would for shorter in-town or localized trips. There was a Tacoma that got more than 800k doing almost all highway miles.
I see so many of those early 2000s shitboxes on the road with the clear coat peeling off like a candy wrapper, and the paint literally washing off of them that I assumed the engine and transmission must be the only good things about them.
Be glad it’s not a 2.7. My record was 5 before we got one that lasted more than a week in the same car.
Right fuckin' sisyphean, m8.
First engine was wrong ECM. #2 and 3 had rod knock. #4 ran for about a week and came back with rod knock. The 2.7 was garbage from day one. 🤦♂️🤦♂️
Yeah... the only 2.7s that get miles are the ones that the owners changed the water pumps every 60,000 miles, so maybe 2 of them.
Well there’s you problem! It’s a Chrysler! I kid. Yeah I deal with the same exact shit with Silver-Rock. Except what they will do is say sure, send a P.O.S on purpose so when we call back they politely tell us to fuck off.
So sick of being the bearer of bad news to the customer with the "internally lubricated engine parts" line with those jobs
Exactly why I finally got out of it entirely my man.
Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?
Don’t rub another man’s rhubarb
N+1, N being the current inventory that can be *reasonably* shipped to you. Fun fact, that's the formula my dad uses for "how many cars do I need", but N is the number he has room for lol
It's Chrysler they aren't know for quality products.
Trick question, they’re all garbage.
I’ve seen quite a few 3.3s hit over 300k. I think that they’re driven by minivan drivers so they r just not taken care of or maintained.
I worked on a couple in taxi service, 3.8s too. They all got meticulous care and rarely had major issues.
Are the 2005 3.8 diferent? Mine is running very good after like 400k kilometres, trans is original too, the fluids were maintained and the engine has lpg, maybe that helped?
You're even luckier than I am, given that Chrysler's quality went down over time thanks to the wonderful people at Daimler and Cerberus' attempts at "managing" them. The 3.3/3.8 back in the '90s was at least pretty well made if not a fancy engine. Great case in point is that in '01 they moved to a plastic intake plenum. My '98 is cast aluminum.
All of them.
That's... yeah, that's the truth.
Free boat anchors
How many miles? I’ve known a few to be well over 250k without serious issue
All these engines are 130k or less
Jesus, 3.3’s with less than 130k? Just imagine how long they’ve been sitting around, honestly surprised you got as many as you did.
The answer your looking for is … Yes
Happy reddit anniversary, I hope you are celebrating with friends and family
At least you’re finding out before installing it! Once upon a time I put 3, yes 3! Fucking Northstars in the same Deville before we got a good one. No way to know with those things, wouldn’t even show blown HG until you’d driven it 30+ minutes and then it went from fine to pegged temp gauge and boiling over in 5 minutes. That was the last Northstar I ever or will ever install.
Bought a Chrysler/Jeep vehicle in 2008, despite pouring thousands into it over the years it ***still*** ended up breaking down despite just being used as a gently-driven "grocery getter". The last time I drove it (final breakdown) it just suddenly stalled out and left me stranded at an intersection during 12 PM lunch-hour 🙄 Finally parted ways with it July of last year, only reason I kept it for so long is it was paid-off ages ago/no car payment/cheap insurance rates Chrysler, never again
Dude... It's a chrysler product... It's all shit
Good to know my engine’s doomed😁
I mean they are looking for a used minivan engine that stopped being produced thirteen years ago, it's also a Chrysler engine... The odds are heavily stacked against finding one in operable condition.
Chrysler= Garbage
I've seen a bunch of the 3.3 and 3.8 Caravans run north of 200k.
One more
Back in my day, Chrysler 3.3s were indestructible. Experience: owned and drove a 2001 Caravan for 18 years, no engine or transmission problems.
Sorry man. We're a small 3 bay shop (father & son) Just went through a rough parts-service January. We worked like dogs and lost 9 days. Still made 15k clear, could have been a lot better.
n + 1
All of them. Motor had great potential but certainly wasn't built like that
At least 3.3, but I think you'll see the full 4.
Chrysler makes the worst vehicles on the road today. Change my mind.
That why I scraped mine. I blame the wife and chrylser. The wife doesn't check fluids and blows the headgaskets and chrysler for cheap parts. Now im looking for a decent affordable family car
Do the owner a favor and set it on fire
God damn how does one blow a 3.3
You turn the engine on.
Bruh they're cockroaches The 41TE on the other hand isn't the best
This lol, 4th gen chrysler vans were the peak of those transmissions, I've had 2 last well over 200k. But before that my mom had two or three from the 1st and 2nd gens last under 100k. What actually killed our first 4th gen was the engine knocking, @230k miles, 3.3L (oil starved). My other van is still **technically** running and driving, but doesn't move in reverse, @225k miles, 3.8L.
How much more would a fresh rebuild from somebody like Jasper be?
About $3k and 4 weeks out to build, so insurance doesn't want to cover the higher cost and the rental vehicle. They'd rather fill my shop with trash and waste everybody's time
What was the original estimate with the salvaged engine? How much is that minivan worth? This type of thing makes me cringe.
I don't know the NADA guide value of the Grand Caravan, but the original estimate was something like $3 or 4k. Used engines were sourced from yards at about $1.5 to $1.8k delivered.
Let me guess, the lot that sold it to them is one of those places that caters to people who have bad credit and jacks the price up then adds a “warranty” while making three or four times what they paid for it at auction. In the real world it’s a $2,500 vehicle, on a good day, and it’s not even worth repairing.
Hello customer your engine requires replacement. Due the poor quality and unreliability of the Chrysler 3.3 engine in your vehicle, we will not install a used engine. We at XYZ automotive recommend a remanufactured engine as we cannot guarantee the reliability a used engine. Sorry insurance doesn’t want to cover the cost of a remanufactured engine. Insurance will not dictate our recommendations or repair costs. You can approve the cost of a remanufactured engine replacement, and seek reimbursement from your insurance on your own. If not pay the diagnostic/tear down estimate and tow this shit box out of my shop. Your shit box is tying up my rack and costing me money.
To be honest, a reman 3.3 is still a 3.3, just one that low-paid foreign labor has reringed. The real moral is don't ever marry a 3.3
The moral is don’t let insurance companies dictate the quality of your repair. Quote the reman with a parts and labor warranty. Then you get paid something for your labor if the engine takes a shit. Right now your swapping engines for free.
3.8 swap it. At least it's somewhat better.
This is exactly why my shop won't deal with insurance companies. We tell the client to pay us in full and fight with their insurance to reimburse them. We haven't done an insurance job in years!
They were scrap new, good luck!
Third times a charm usually
I'm kind of a novice with cars. But if you were able to put an engine from any other car off a junkyard or Ebay, what would fit in there?
Eight more to go
It might be something to with the fact that you're looking at the back of the car... Try the other end.
The 3.3 in the 94 Eagle Vision my wife had never had a problem. It was the transmission, subframe, tie rod ends, air conditioning, that caused problems.
They were scrap from the drawing board
I drive for a company that uses Caravans for their fleet vehicles. Isn't a week going by when one of them is in the shop getting a new engine. And these are the 3.6's
As many as it takes to get a Chevy by mistake.
People shit talk the 3.6 but it's a gem compared to the 3.3, the 3.7, the 2.7, the 4.7, the 2.4 turbo....... on and on and on.....
Let me fix your title for you How many Chryslers have to be sent to scrap? Nearly all of them, by the way
Each engine is $$$ you get paid to install it every time and remove it. They can send them all week. Fee money.
trick question. they are all scrap
There is a reason Ram is seporating itself from the Chrysler/Dodge name.
Sad part is, they're a decently reliable engine. The problem is the vehicles they were equipped in, were exactly the kind of vehicle that gets horrible neglected until it dies a slow death.
Go get Honda Odyssey drive line they are so much better than 3.3 engines.
>How many All of them. You are the now the person dedicated to rebuilding good used cores out of 10 dead blocks.
At least one more?
Chrysler is and always has been absolute shit.
1951 imperial was cool
I thought the 3.6 was significantly worse ?
No, the newer 3.6 had some issues during 2012-13 and some 14 of valve seat failure on left head and all runs have issues with rocker arm failure, but are dramatically better than the preceding 3.3L
Yeah, I was always more of an iron block guy, but the pentastar legit has proven itself. Aside from the aforementioned valve seat/rocker issues. The oil cooler gaskets are a given to leak, but it’s not a hard job and I think Fel-Pro even makes the gasket kit at this point to eliminate replacing the whole cooler.
The problem with the cooler is the plastic-welded plugs on the assembly tend to blow out. We just had a customer with a 2017 Grand Caravan provide a brand new OEM filter housing with a production stamp of October 2022, but two weeks after replacement its stupid little plugs blew out too. Dorman does make this cool aluminum body replacement dealy, but it's nearly impossible to find as it is and has been in great demand
Cool and Dorman, that just isn't the first thing that comes to my mind..
i give up how many?
just put an LS in it likely cost about the same
Grab a toyota corolla engine for $500 and do some redneck science to get it all matched up. Will be cheaper and more reliable in the long run. If you want more power grab their v6 2gr
The CNC'd adapter plate for the engine to transmission would probably be $1,500 alone.
Then buy a new transmission (and drivetrain) Or just don't by a Chrysler xD
The cost of sourcing, welding and heat-treating custom length CV axles would probably be $1,500 alone. But I'll be sure to pass along the sentiment to not buy Chrysler to my customer, who has bought a Chrysler.
The 3.3 motors were built by Mitsubishi, and also used in the Mitsubishi Spyder. The engine is notorious for starting to burn oil and blow blue smoke at around 65K miles. You saw it also on Mitsubishi cars with the same mileage.
Source? I've noticed no similiarities between the 3.3L and Mitsu engines... all research seems like the 3.3L was developed in-house to replace costly imports on the Mitsu 3.0L. There was never a 3.3L variant of the Eclipse Spyder.
Thank you. I got confused between the 3.0L and the 3.3L. Thank you for correcting me.
Yeah I was gonna say, 3.3L was in house, but you’re correct on the 3.0L. You really wanna go down the Chrysler rabbit hole, the 2.0L & 2.4L were based on the older 2.5L, which was designed in part by Lamborghini. And that’s because Chrysler & Lamborghini [of all people] teamed up to build an Formula 1 V12 engine.
All of them.
Yes.
Until you get a 4.0 slightly less junk
This many...... [This many?](https://tenor.com/wSUx.gif)
That's a trick question... there's no such thing
Answer: All of them
As many as it takes to cure cancer
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All of them, of course :)
My favorite are the customer supplied engines that don’t turn over off the pallet
I've gotten remans that are like that. I've gotten small-equipment factory new engines that are like that, most notably Kawasakis, but 2020 and 2021 I went 3 for 17 on Honda GXs and GCVs turning over fresh out of the box.
How many?!?!?! OVER 9000
Trick question. They're all shite.
Pretty sure 3 come with 1 purchase. Tsb states "just make one run out of them all"
Why not just throw a 3.8 in it?
It would be a lot of work climbing up that wall just to fall down into the same cesspool
What'd you expect? Your money's worth? That's rich.
Probably a few more. Those engines were junk when they were new.
The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind.
i mean I think you answered your own question
At least one more.
I'd say about 6-7 on a good month
If you can find my 1995 Grand Caravan I drove in high school, it's still driving around in Virginia with probably close to 380k by now. It's baby blue and super rusted on top.
Chrysler is owned by Fiat, and as we all know Fiat is actually an acronym.
Stellantis now
6
So are any of the Chrysler Caravans decent? Or are they all problematic? I know the 05 Caravan with 3.3L was bulletproof pretty much. What changed?
Wut
I find it usually 3rd times a charm. Including remaned engines.
67
What state are you in?