[craigp22]

Good afternoon y’all. I wanted to introduce myself first before I make a new thread about something that may have been discussed.

I’m 28 years old and live in the Phoenix area. I only have two friends that own hellcats, so I have been browsing the forum occasionally for first-person feedback for the last year or so, I bought my hellcat in spring 2022. I consider myself a beginner in terms of knowledge and experience.

My car is a 2018 Challenger A8 in granite grey with just over 50k miles now. It had a catastrophic powertrain failure last weekend which is what motivated me to make an account.

I have been trying to dig into old posts to see if there already is one about my issue, and I can’t find one addressing the same exact problem, so feel free to ask here if you want, but I was going to also make a separate discussion for that.

 

[MrFixitND]

Welcome! Sorry to hear about your issues, interested in hearing more what happened? Lots of knowledgeable people here, may be able to shed some light on what went wrong...

 

[craigp22]

Welcome! Sorry to hear about your issues, interested in hearing more what happened? Lots of knowledgeable people here, may be able to shed some light on what went wrong...

Hey man thank you for the response

What happened sounds like it’s a common enough issue…. Oil cooler lines ruptured.

The difference with mine that I’m not seeing with other people is the dealer is recommending full replacement of the entire engine + a few other accessories.

It was the first drive of the day, I was getting onto the highway at a normal pace after waiting in line at Costco for gas, looked in my mirror to merge and noticed smoke coming from the back. Immediately got back off the highway and pulled over and it was smoking out of the passenger side of the engine bay, oil sprayed all over the passenger side of the car.

Even though it’s not part of the 2017 recall it looks like people have continued to have issues with it in later years.

 

[ZelS001]

Hey man thank you for the response

What happened sounds like it’s a common enough issue…. Oil cooler lines ruptured.

The difference with mine that I’m not seeing with other people is the dealer is recommending full replacement of the entire engine + a few other accessories.

It was the first drive of the day, I was getting onto the highway at a normal pace after waiting in line at Costco for gas, looked in my mirror to merge and noticed smoke coming from the back. Immediately got back off the highway and pulled over and it was smoking out of the passenger side of the engine bay, oil sprayed all over the passenger side of the car.

Even though it’s not part of the 2017 recall it looks like people have continued to have issues with it in later years.

My oil cooler line blew on my 2018 HC charger. Luckily mine was fixed under powertrain warranty

 

[MrFixitND]

Yes, the oil cooler lines are a known issue. Doesnt generally require an engine replacement, as long as it is cought before the engine is out of oil. (Which to me it sounds like you cought it early...)

However, if they replaced the cooler lines and now it has engine noise or low oil pressure, it is very possible that it was ruined from lack of lubrication.

You didn't mention what year your cat is, or if you are still under warranty?

 

[baabootoo]

Any more details? Was it run at WOT for 10 minutes and they say the bearings are gone? JUST a leaky oil line doesn't necessarily mean a new engine.

 

[craigp22]

Hey sorry guys, been kinda depressed the last few days and luckily my job keeps me very busy.

I put it in the intro but it’s a 2018 challenger a8 with a little over 52k miles on it. Should still be under the 5 year / 60k mile warranty, but dodge is trying as hard as they can not to.

they didn’t even start w/ repairing the lines, the service writer just said that they tore it down to find the extent of it, and the resulting damage to the engine is requiring it to be replaced. He didn’t say specifically what broke or why they are recommending replacement.

Dodge has been giving the writer the runaround and trying as hard as they can to find a reason to say the warranty is void. Said he’s never had to work this hard for a powertrain warranty.

@baabootoo haven’t gotten any details from dodge about specifically what broke with the engine. I warmed the car up, drove across the street to costco and idled in line for gas for 10-15 min, a couple short stoplights, and got on the highway. No WOT at all that day, not even on the on ramp because they are slippery concrete. Was super mellow on throttle, trying to merge smoothly on pace w/ flow of traffic and not cut it up going faster than everyone

 

[PercyGT]

Welcome! Too bad to hear about the issue and the hassle of dealing with the stealership/