I took my 2014 Town and Country in for rough idling and check engine light and got a diagnoses of 5th cylinder no compression. Ultimately it was suggested I should consider a new engine. Now it turns out I was 2K miles under the power train mileage limit and Chrysler was willing to look at the car. They said they could not duplicate the compression issue but noticed 3 cam shafts that were damaged and were willing to replace those under warranty. So, I am going from a new engine to a 24-48 hour fix. I am in no way a car expert but this seems strange to me that the car went from a huge repair to almost minor. Appreciate any suggestions or questions I should consider asking the dealership before they give the car back tomorrow. One area of concern I have is will the loss of compression issue come back with new cam shafts. I worry that this is a quick fix to get me over the mileage limit so they don't have to deal with a potential underlying problem that caused the cam shafts to fail.
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Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!– Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦Feb 26, 2019 at 17:54
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Factory Warranty repairs only fix what is broken, typically they do not give you a whole new engine.– MoabFeb 26, 2019 at 23:03
1 Answer
A worn camshaft would very likely cause low compression on a few cylinders, depending on which lobes were worn.And replacing a cam and associated lifters ( they ride on the cam) could be a 100 % fix. A traditional cam ( steel or cast iron ) is carburized to give a very hard surface and a low hardness / tough core. The thickness or hardness of the hard layer apparently was not up to specified requirements. Once the hard layer wears off ,that lobe wears quickly. There are some variations on this design with forgings and powdered metal cams, but the same principles. In the good old days I had to pull three camshafts out of Oldsmobile V 8's ( in a junk yard) to find one with no worn lobes to have it reground with different timing. In all likelihood the original car owners did not realize the problem.
