'98 Grand Caravan 3.3L head gasket failing at 33,000 miles

'98 Grand Caravan 3.3L V6 head gasket failing at 33,000 miles.

Dripping coolant leak from failing head gasket on rear cylinder bank. No oil in water, no water in oil, just coolant dripping from rear bank, so far.

Beyond 3 yrs time, within 36,000 mileage of OEM warranty.

"Self authorizing" Dealer says "tough", won't advocate with Chrysler for any "good will" coverage

$1000 head gaskets plus $600 other opportune work (pumps, belts).

In 35 years of prior ownership, no BMW, Honda or Datsun head gasket has ever failed.

Last Chrysler product, ever.

Reply to
RWM
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I would think Chrysler would go halves with you on the cost. Keep pushing. It's worth it to them to keep you as a customer.

Reply to
James C. Reeves

Reply to
jdoe

Reply to
RWM

In 30 years of ownership and over 750,000 miles, no Chrysler head gasket has failed me. Yer point?

No imports. Ever.

Now that the insults are over, you should contact another dealer or contact Chrysler directly. For one thing, failed head gaskets on a 3.3 are not common AT ALL. Its not a like a 2.0 DOHC (or all those Hondas for which Fel Pro makes "problem solver" head gaskets, for that matter).

Secondly, if oil and water haven't mixed, are you SURE its a head gasket? Could be a casting plug (aka 'freeze plug') on that head too. Could be LOTS of things, unless you've actually traced the source of the water to the head/block junction.

Reply to
Steve

Classic case of YMMV.

Visually, leaks starts at the head/block interface and unless the dealer techs are flat lying, they state, yes, it is a failing head gasket (as did the local garage).

Round two with DC begins tomorrow.

Reply to
RWM

We'll see; round 2 with DC begins Thursday. They apparently took a snow day today. We're in the minivan market for at least one more round, whether DC or a competitor.

Reply to
RWM

| > I would think Chrysler would go halves with you on the cost. Keep pushing. | > It's worth it to them to keep you as a customer. | | We'll see; round 2 with DC begins Thursday. They apparently took a snow | day today. We're in the minivan market for at least one more round, | whether DC or a competitor.

I've had two. A 1987 Grand (the 1st year for the grand) ...ran great for 10 years and sold it to a friend that ran it for another 3-4 years. I'd imagine it had over 200,000 miles before they got rid of it. I currently have a 97 with the 3.3. Been lucky, I guess...never any gasket problems that I can remember.

Reply to
James C. Reeves

Reply to
mic canic

Reply to
mic canic

Independent garage and dealer don't think so. Both say head gasket.

I'm sure you'll be able to tell. Maybe you want to have a look?

mic canic wrote:

Reply to
RWM

I agree with the other posters that the head gasket is not a common problem on this engine, but mine did go. Albeit at 129,000 km!

Same place, on the rear cylender bank. The previous owner replaced the water pump, thinking that this is what was leaking - or perhaps HOPING that it was the water pump. ;)

I was skeptical at first, but I was slowly and consistantly loosing coolant.

After the head gasket was replaced, all was well again.

I think the dealer is jacking you around. You are doing the right thing going direct to DC. The minimum they should do for a vehicle with such low mileage is 50/50 split. Kick some butt, and let us know how it goes.

Mine is a '94 GC BTW.

Reply to
cloaked

This topic has been discussed before and the recommendation was to go to Chrysler's regional people. You can start by calling their

800 number, 1-800-992-1997, E-mail and paper post address is also available on the Chrysler website. Keep in mind that the regional people if they agree, are going to only give you any kind of credit if you have the work done at a dealership. So you should shop around before you start calling them.

Well, it all depends on how long you usually keep your vehicles, right?

This is a 6 year old vehicle. If you kept it in the garage and never drove it at all, it would still depreciate and you would lose value.

I'm sure you know this and you know that the vehicle is worth maybe $7K and your thinking that nearly a quarter of the value of this vehicle is about to be sunk in repairs.

But let me ask this. Suppose that this van was driven on a more ordinary schedule and 2 years ago it was at 33,000 miles. Well it's the same vehicle as what you got now, isn't it? But it's market value would be more along the lines of $11,000, turning this repair more like a 10-15% of the car value. And I'd guess also that you wouldn't be as hesitant to drop $1600 into repairs on a 4 year old vehicle.

I never had an electric frying pan gasket fail. I've had a few head gasket failures in some of my vehicles. Therefore your logic is that electric frying pans are superior to cars.

Not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

DC Customer Service (1-800) was closed for a snow day yesterday... as we are, here, today. Thanks for the pointer on email; didn't find that on the site.

The issue is not the cost of repair, it is the indifferent attitude of dealer, the fact that dealer reneged on a promised advocacy role, and what is clearly either a manufacturing or assembly defect; overall track record suggests it may not be a marginal design.

Not a frying pan to automobile comparison, either! ;-)

Thanks for the regional contact reference.

Reply to
RWM

I've owned two chryslers for over 200k miles and had two head gaskets go. Both on 2.2 engines.

No boring cars, ever. Import or domestic.

Good advice. I would start with a different dealer that might be friendlier and willing to help you out with chrysler.

One of my chrysler head gaskets failed in such a way that the coolant leaked out of the block and not into any of the oil passesge. So it is possible for the head gasket to go with no coolant and oil mixing.

------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Bummer.

Take some pictures and post them. We can all take a shot at diagnosing the problem. :)

----------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

FWIW, I had a head gasket on our 3.3L Intrepid go bad at 44K almost exactly two years ago. The leak was on the right head near a water gallery on the back or bellhousing end of the head. Corrosion between the head and block ate a tiny hole in the gasket, which is thin there. I'll bet your leak is in the same spot (right side of the rear head on the Voyager).

I pulled the other head and did both gaskets just to make sure all was well. That one spot of corrosion about the size of a dime, which cleaned up beautifully with minimal work in the machine shop, was all I found. No rust or corrosion elsewhere in the engine cooling galleries could be seen.

The only thing I can figure is that either clamping forces aren't good in that area, or the previous owner wasn't careful about using the proper antifreeze/water mixture. Or, more likely because the EGR pipe to exhaust manifold joint had a leak (improper assembly at the factory), that eventually caused overheating in the right bank which warped the head at that point. I do know I had to replace the right exhaust manifold because it had cracked in several places. And, once the EGR pipe was properly installed (I had to buy a new one + gaskets for that), I no longer got spurious Check Engine EGR codes which had been happening occasionally for about 6,000 miles.

Who knows? I've run two other 3.3L Mopar engines to far greater mileage without a head gasket problem.

Did the head gasket jobs myself, except for machine shop planing of the heads, and haven't had a problem since then. Did the work on evenings and one weekend for about $350 in parts and machine shop work.

Reply to
Jim Scott

Drivers side, rear head (Caravan 3.3L). Thanks.

Just wondering, but how did you determine "improper assembly at the factory"?

Did you take this or the inadequate clamping force (design issue) up with D-C?

Jim Scott wrote:

Reply to
RWM

That's all great and good. But, what about when the mechanic tells you (and puts it in writing) that "it's normal for the age and mileage of the vehicle". In my case they said that about a rear bearing noise on our Grand Cherokee. In reality, a lot of Jeeps have bearing problems in the axles. Do you think they'd have fixed that under the warranty ? Nooo.... of course not ! lol....

Mechanics aren't perfect either and should take some blame for items that are their fault as well.

Steve m... (98' Grand Cherokee now has 72k miles) (04' Pontiac GP 4k miles ... hey what happened to all that Dexcool ??? lol.... )

Reply to
Steve m...

I determined this by close examination of the gasket between the pipe from the EGR valve and the exhaust manifold. The gasket was burned through and there were clear signs of a leak, as if the joint had never been tightened properly since day one. Also, the bolts were loose. There had been so much leakage that the clamping collar was distorted from heat, and would not effect a seal when I tried using a new gasket. My car is a California model with a special pipe, which attaches to the back end of the exhaust manifold instead of looping down and coming up from underneath and mounting to the bottom of the manifold, as in federal emissions 3.3's. Installing the new pipe was a real bear; there's little working room and only one way the inside bolt can be approached and tightened. It took a lot of trial and error and fooling around with a mix of sockets, extensions, etc. to get it torqued correctly. If it was that difficult for me, then it must also have been too much trouble to get right on the assembly line, is my thinking.

No, I was well out of the 3/36 warranty, and that's merely speculation on my part. Also, I didn't need the aggravation, if you know what I mean, as I had to get the car back on the road ASAP. The EGR/running lean overheating probably caused just enough warping in that spot to let corrosion start. Corrosion is what broke the seal by eroding the gasket. The machine shop guy said he took very little metal off when truing the head, so if there was warpage, it wasn't much. And the block passed warpage tests.

Reply to
Jim Scott

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