Dodge/PleasureWay: Missfire on cylinder number 5

[Silviejauvin@gmail.com]

Hello, dears owners of older Pleasure Way, I have a problem and need your expérience...

At the garage specialised on Dodge, in Lake St-John Québec, the verdict fell like a mass on my fallen hopes ... The service manager tells me that my Pleasure Way has a Major problem ... An engine problem and not a PCM problem, he said ... The 2 PCMs that I waited for 2 months and which must have been the source of the problem, diagnosed by 3 garages, were therefore unrelated ??? Well !

Your engine has a compression problem on cylinder number 5, he says ... I have known that from the start! He tells me that the compression on 7 pistons indicates 140 pounds but on the fifth piston, only 105 pounds ... Concluding that it may be a cylinder, and that they may have to open the engine to go see and as long as you open it, you might as well change it completely, either with a new reconditioned one, or with a used one, whatever the case. He tells me about an invoice that can go between $ 5 and $ 7,000 ...

I can't believe what I'm hearing!

Completely demoralized, I go for a walk with Marina, my dog, to decompress and think ... On the way back, I call my Captain, who is an expert of mechanics, to tell him about my problem. Skeptical, he reassures me by telling me that my engine is still very young with only 130,000 km and that it would be highly unlikely that the cylinder is missing ... According to him, he thinks it could be a valve problem, Gasquet valve or, at worst, engine head ... And that is not a major problem ... He explains to me that it is possible to do compression tests with oil to know if the problem comes from the cylinder or the valve ... Ah yes !!! Here then...

In short, it feels good to have another story that allows me to play down and take a step back ... I will have to continue my research on the web to better understand the role of a piston, how is the compression working and what are the other components of the injection system and speak again, as of Monday morning, to the technician of the dealership to make sure that he does the appropriate tests in order to find the source of the problem before making me panic by telling me about change the entire engine while the basic tests have not yet been completed!

And you, what do you think about this ?

[SteveJ]

Originally Posted by Silviejauvin@gmail.com

Hello, dears owners of older Pleasure Way, I have a problem and need your expérience...

At the garage specialised on Dodge, in Lake St-John Québec, the verdict fell like a mass on my fallen hopes ... The service manager tells me that my Pleasure Way has a Major problem ... An engine problem and not a PCM problem, he said ... The 2 PCMs that I waited for 2 months and which must have been the source of the problem, diagnosed by 3 garages, were therefore unrelated ??? Well !

Your engine has a compression problem on cylinder number 5, he says ... I have known that from the start! He tells me that the compression on 7 pistons indicates 140 pounds but on the fifth piston, only 105 pounds ... Concluding that it may be a cylinder, and that they may have to open the engine to go see and as long as you open it, you might as well change it completely, either with a new reconditioned one, or with a used one, whatever the case. He tells me about an invoice that can go between $ 5 and $ 7,000 ...

I can't believe what I'm hearing!

Completely demoralized, I go for a walk with Marina, my dog, to decompress and think ... On the way back, I call my Captain, who is an expert of mechanics, to tell him about my problem. Skeptical, he reassures me by telling me that my engine is still very young with only 130,000 km and that it would be highly unlikely that the cylinder is missing ... According to him, he thinks it could be a valve problem, Gasquet valve or, at worst, engine head ... And that is not a major problem ... He explains to me that it is possible to do compression tests with oil to know if the problem comes from the cylinder or the valve ... Ah yes !!! Here then...

In short, it feels good to have another story that allows me to play down and take a step back ... I will have to continue my research on the web to better understand the role of a piston, how is the compression working and what are the other components of the injection system and speak again, as of Monday morning, to the technician of the dealership to make sure that he does the appropriate tests in order to find the source of the problem before making me panic by telling me about change the entire engine while the basic tests have not yet been completed!

And you, what do you think about this ?

My brother is going through this same issue on a '96 Roadtrek with a 360 Dodge engine with about 160,000 miles on it. The highly reputable shop that we grew up with the owner of, did a through diagnostic without disassembly using borescopes and other voodoo. They found scoring on the cylinder walls and performed a ring soak on it. Total bill was under US$500, IIRC.

Their consensus was that yes, things aren't right but nothing would be hurt by continuing to drive it as an engine replacement is the cure. They strongly recommended not leaving it sit without running for more than 3-4 weeks unless fogging oil was used. He lives in MN so the engine would sit for months sometimes without running it. He is leaving this day for a few days "up north" pulling an ATV behind it.

Unfortunately for you, the shop is in the St. Paul area of MN which nowadays might just as well be on Mars. I do miss travelling in Canada, it was in our plans this year.

Oh, and welcome aboard.

[Stevemo]

The last generation of Dodge vans are notorious for having bad PCM connections. You will get "No Bus" messages on the dash and they won't work. People will use zip-ties to try and hold the connectors on.