Pipkerx Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) Over the past 6 months I'm been having intermittent issues with my 2012 DJ R/T. After longer periods of driving the engine would really begin to lug at city speeds and seem to really struggle / almost misfire. At the beginning a little bit of extra throttle or a manual downshift would take care of it, but lately it was becoming frequent and the check engine light would come on. Took it to a local Dodge dealer and they ran some tests and it passed so they reset the check engine light and sent me on my way. I thought maybe it was a dirty fuel system so I did the standard in tank cleaner but also paid a shop to do a throttle body / intake clean to clear out any junk. Not much of a change in the end, when the motor was on for a while (3+ hours) the poor running would come back, the motor would lug and then throw the check engine light. Took it back to dodge and they tried asking all sorts of questions including when my last oil change was (I have all my receipts and the vehicle was fully caught up on recalls). In the end they took my DJ in and after 5hrs of diagnosing they found that my left cylinder bank exhaust phaser was not operating correctly causing the timing to be off and the vehicle to run poorly. This is their therory at least, I still don't have my DJ back yet to test as they are doing the repair as we speak. Thankfully I have powertrain warranty left, only 79,000KM on my DJ. What do you think, would an exhaust phaser cause what I'm describing? Before this when people mentioned phasers I thought of SciFi, lol! Edited May 31, 2016 by Pipkerx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeaton Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 If this happens to you again, take it somewhere and have the code read or buy a code reader to get the code yourself. They should have been able to easily figure it out by the code generated and stored. How could they have "ran some tests and it passed, so the reset the check engine light"? What sort of tests? dhh3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhh3 Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 The cam phasers advance and retard the duration of the valves being opened, for fuel economy and power. All sorts of inputs determine how long the valves should stay open. They rotate the camshafts back and forth to do this, and I believe that they use oil pressure to rotate them back and forth. If the exhaust valves were "stuck" in the wrong position, this could be the outcome that you are describing. If the position the valves are stuck in is for power, then they would be open too long for lower RPMs. Each camshaft (4) has its own phaser. daddyRT, Journey_SeXT and jkeaton 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pipkerx Posted May 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) The first time they read the error message and did some test drives they couldn't replicate the issue. The second time I brought it in I made sure it was acting up. They just called me back and they confirmed its the exhaust phaser on bank 2. Currently my engine is apart and they are replacing the phaser. They will have to get it back together to be 100% sure it's fixed. They also fixed the power steering hose recall and did an oil change. So tomorrow I should get it back, haven't had it since Monday morning. Edited May 31, 2016 by Pipkerx dhh3 and jkeaton 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeaton Posted May 31, 2016 Report Share Posted May 31, 2016 Glad they were able to duplicate it and are going to get it fixed up for you. Keep us posted! dhh3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtomatoman Posted June 1, 2016 Report Share Posted June 1, 2016 I had my cam phaser replaced on my 2011. Mine had no symptoms. The symptoms you describe certainly could be a timing issue. Good luck. Peace. jkeaton and dhh3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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