Hi everyone,
My father was driving his 2013 chrysler 300 on the highway and mid driving the car just fell into neutral. He was on the side lane already and was able to pull over. When he tried the restart the car the car just didn’t start again. We had it towed home and did some very basic trouble shooting at home. For example we tried different key and also the key to the ignition button. We tried charging the car battery. The engine just didn’t turn. The belt was super tight when I tried to pull on it - no give at all- but the air filter was not wet. It was a very rainy day. We brought it to a dealership and they say the connecting rod in the engine broke. Originally they told us it would be covered under power train warranty but then chrysler company rejected the warranty claim because they said the damage was caused by water ingestion. Probably bad gas they told me on the phone. We hadn’t put gas in the car for a week before this occurred. When it happened it happened suddenly with no indication anything was wrong. No noises or jerks or anything like that. The car just stopped working on the highway; there was children in the car. They want $8000 to replace the engine. This car was always maintained professionally and was always driven responsibly by my father and only had 50000 miles on it. I’m sorry for the long story but does anyone have any advice? Does this all add up? And what can we do?
Contact the Chrysler zone rep and get yourself a lawyer that specializes in these types of cases. Why do I say this?
Because this
And this;
These don’t match nor make sense and that’s coming from the dealer. Especially based on your comment that the air filter was not wet.
Do you mean the crankshaft did not rotate? Could you hear the starter engage and try to turn the motor?
Interesting you would check this…did he go through a “big puddle” just before it quit?
sorry i could have been clearer.
this piece of information about it probably being bad gas this came from corporate chrysler customer service.
i called them and asked why they were not covering this under powertrain warranty and the rep told me that this sort of damage could only occur from water ingestion and that is not fault of chrsyler he says. i told him im sure there is someone i can talk to who will understand we didnt do anything wrong with the car and quite the contrary we were put into a very scary and dangerous situation! i told him this is obviously a build failure we didnt take it through a pool we didnt modify anything etc just drove in the rain! the rep said from the information he sees in the file he cant say for certain what caused it and then he went into technical jargon talk which i couldnt understand but the bottom line was water ingestion definitely not a build quality issue and probably caused by bad gas and this was a decision made by a higher corporate office and he does not have the authority to overturn it and there isnt anyone i can talk with who has that authority. that is literally how that phone call went.
i asked the dealer for a written quote and details of the damage they provided me with these 2 pictures:!
thanks for reply
no my father was driving on the highway he didnt go through any collection of water
im sorry i dont know anything about cars. i have a friend who is a mechanic and he was helping me troubleshoot from afar. since we couldn’t get the engine to turn from the ignition he instructed e to look for the serpentine belt and try to pull on it. he said that should turn the engine a little at least. when i told him its totally taught he said thats a bad sign means engine is locked up.
So, you were in the car when this happened?
not me but my father and my younger sister
Sorry for the grilling, but, as @Mustangman said, you’re entering a legal realm and have to keep your story simple and consistent.
i checked the air filter on instruction of my mechanic friend who was helping me troubleshoot from afar.
i have no problem being put on the grill. i am telling it as it is nothing more nothing less. if something i said could have been clearer i apologize for that and im happy to clarify anything or answer any questions
As degreed automotive engineer, racer and engine builder, I can state with very high confidence that connecting rod was NOT broken by water ingestion. Water would cause the rod to bend before it broke and that rod is clearly a tensile failure which means it is a fault in the part.
Again, this is comment makes NO sense. Not a criticism of you but the Chrysler guy.
Tell your father to get a lawyer ASAP. Go to the dealer and get those parts and take them with you and take them to the lawyer. I think you should not be paying for this repair, Chrysler should. Sign NOthing the dealer gives you without passing by the lawyer first.
thankU so much your comment. it means so much to me - it gives me hope because even though i couldn’t say if it was caused by water ingestion or not one thing i did know is that this car was young and well taken care of and we didn’t do anything negligent. and for the car to stop like that while driving on the highway and for the company to tell us we should fork over $8000 to fix it while its still under warranty - i just knew that isn’t right. my friend the mechanic i was talking about earlier he is a certified chrsyler mechanic for 30 years with a minor in engines and he hasnt seen these pictures yet because i just got them but he told me “sholom theyre taking you for a ride and that [ticks] me off so much”
You better show him the engine, that picture doesn’t show much. That connecting rod may not be the first one that broke, it may have broke after the rods with water in the cylinders broke.
i wish i could show him. he lives in green bay wisconsin and we are in southfield michigan otherwise i would have had him look at it already firsthand before anyone else. i just emailed chrysler corp i told them what had transpired and how i had showed these pictures to certified engine professionals and these professionals have stated with certainty that this is tensile damage and not water damage. i was of course referring to mustingman’s statement. we will see how chrysler responds to the email.
but the dealership didnt mention anything else had broken. they just said the connecting rod.
You should take a look at the other 5 connecting rods. Has the technician shown you the damage?
There seems to be a lot of Chysler 300 having the same issue all over the internet…here is one of them.Click on the blue link.