Some may have seen this on another thread, but I wanted to start my own in case others run into this issue.
Long Story
Love my truck and have been telling people it is the best vehicle I have ever owned. Zero problems up to this point. I also drive like a grandpa, but I love knowing I have the power in all my cars... even if I never use it. Never even tried the Launch Control yet.... I know.
On a 3 day trip from Portland, OR to central washington for a 3 day class with a buddy. Location is east of Yelm, WA and is in the middle of nowhere. We finish our first day of the course and we are driving back about 5:30pm. Dark, Getting cold (upper 20's), 2 lane highway with no shoulder. "whack, whack, whack whack.." sound and the "Service Throttle Control" lights up on the dash. I now have zero power and coast around a corner, luckily find a gravel driveway to coast to... almost. I am sitting 3/4 on the driveway and 1/4 on the road. It is dark, NO CELL service for miles and no homes within view, luckily I see an old highway cone up the road. I run and grab that and put it out in the road 50 yards in front of my vehicle. we are 8 miles from town and a few from the class/course we just attended all day. I leave my buddy and run up the road to the closest house. Nobody home. Finally I see headlights... a car is coming. I flag down a car and it is a 65 year old woman with two small dogs, I am a 45 y/o man. She give me a ride! Bless her heart! Back to our class/course and the instructor gives us a ride to town.
Cell Service. I call Ram roadside assistance and the first person says sorry we are having tech difficulties etc.. and to call back later. I tell her, mam I need to get my car off the road ASAP. SHE HANGS UP on me. I keep calling back and finally get someone to help. Roadside assistance tows it to the nearest Chrysler Jeep location in Olympia. So truck is safe, but I have no car. I call roadside back and try to lineup a rental car, they are no help and keep passing me around to other numbers. Finally I call my dealer and they are no help either. I get a taxi 45 minutes into town the next day to rent a car. no problem I will take care of that later.
Chrysler Jeep Olympia says they can't even look at it for 10 days.... So I call my dealer to have them tow it back. They have me tow it back on my own Dealer Hillsboro Dodge ($1000) and maybe we can file a claim later. I tried AAA first (I have premium) and they said, because the truck is in a SAFE space, they could not tow it even though I am premium. Raised it to their supervisor and they said NO too. First negative experience with AAA in 25 years.
My Truck has been sitting at Hillsboro Dodge since February 3. They finally looked at it on Feb. 17. Their initial diagnosis is a "valve got sucked into a piston. Metal on Metal contact and likely a full engine replacement.. If it is under warranty". They are continuing to do diagnostics and working back with Ram. I have officially filed a report with Ram so they have the specifics, but they have been little help thus far.... and the hours on the phone has been likely the worst part.
Hillsboro Dodge has pulled a demo Ram 1500 our of inventory for me to use. This was made available on Friday, Feb 17. I am thankful the Hillsboro team decided to do this, but this was after 2 full weeks of no car. I am lucky we have other vehicles, but can imagine the pain for someone who does not. The tech says if all goes well and it is under warranty then it will be at least 1 month.
It appears a few others have had this issue too. If you have had this happen, please reach out and we can get the group together to monitor how this is remedied.
Thank and I hope this does not happen to you.
Can't wait to get the truck back... but might be a little gun-shy about Dodge now.
dc
My quick story that is in a parallel universe with yours:
Hopefully the story is encouraging because it turned out well!
Bottom line before you read all this crap, force the dealership into lobbying the mothership to have the entire motor and supercharger replaced, anything less than that you’ll be driving around with a motor that you’re always going to be worried about.
My new truck had 6600 miles and six months and my truck and on it’s own suddenly stopped and would not restart.
Had it towed to my dealer, not the dealer I purchased it from which was out of state for them to investigate what the hell is going on. It took almost 3 weeks for them to actually get to the truck because there’s only one engine mechanic under employ at this dealership. No big deal because I have another car that I can use.
When the mechanic was able to take out a couple of things he used to his sneak a snake camera to look and see what was going on inside and it wasn’t good, the supercharger had lost a bearing and it went through the screws chewed it all up and then went into the intake manifold, and destroyed the motor internally.
ok, shit happens…… they told me that rather than tearing the entire motor apart and then ordering a butt load of parts, that they would petition the mothership to get approval to install a brand supercharger and motor.
Knowing that this is going to take a while, I asked my service girl if they had a loaner/courtesy car that I could use while my car was in the shop. They gave me a 2022 ram longhorn, which I absolutely freaking loved completely free of charge, just so you know, I had it for almost three months for free.
So my story ends with, (knock on wood) I now have a brand new motor and a brand new supercharger and as a matter of fact, a brand new catalytic converter‘s as pieces of metal went into that as well, and I’m happier than a pig in slop. Good people did good things and couldn’t be happier with the end result. It’s so shitty that this process isn't the same across the country and you have to go through craziness like this is.
Good luck, brother, sending positive thoughts your way!.
Was doing ~50mph with no load, trailer etc. and not even accelerating when it happened. Will keep everyone posted on this thread.
