Hi y’all. First time here.
About 5 months ago my wife drove her '07 Dodge Charger through some water during a flash flood and the car stalled. Turns out there’s an air intake on the underside of this already low car and… slam: Drowned, Dead engine. Towed the car to a Dodge dealer and called the insurance company. They decided to pull the old engine, replace it with a “new” engine, and then check for further damage. Long story short, we got a refurbished Chrysler engine, a one-year warranty, no other damage was found, we paid our $500 deductible, and drove the car home.
Last week her engine light started coming on intermittently. 3 days ago she was able to get it to an AutoZone while the light was on and their computer pointed to the EGR, the Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve. The guy there told her that typically these do not begin to malfunction until a car like her Charger has at least 250,000 miles on it. Hers has 110,000. She took it to the dealer and the diagnosis was verified. They wanted $390 to repair it: $100 for the valve, $8 for the gasket, the rest for the labor. I spoke with the service manager on the phone yesterday and he lowered the price to $350.
My question: Is not the EGR Valve part and parcel of the engine? Should not my 1-year warranty on the engine cover the EGR valve? Is it not possible, perhaps even probable, that while this Chrysler engine may have been refurbished, rebuilt, re-whatevered, that the EGR valve that came with it remained untouched, not refurbished, and is failing because of the gosh-only-knows thousands of miles it spent on the Chrysler?
No its not part of the motor, its a bolt on part like an alternator… What most likely happened in your case is they replaced the Long Block which is the motor block, lower end, and heads… I am guessing they unbolted and reused all accessories such as the AC compressor, alternator, and yes the EGR valve… NOW with that being said…
A) They can fail WAY before 250,000 miles… The minimum wage guy at Autozone is wrong
B) It is possible you can get away with cleaning it with some carb cleaner. Over time they fill with carbon and stop sealing properly
C) On most cars this is a VERY simple part to get to, and is held on by two or three bolts and has a wire harness that is one plug attached to it. I don’t know for sure, on a charger but I think the labor seems VERY high… Like I said you should be able to do this yourself in most cases.
I take it back about the labor, it sounds like it could take an hour to get the job done. $100 for the part, figure $100 for the labor, plus tax, plus diag time, plus test drive to make sure its fixed… Your about right
the egr valve is inexpensive on the aftermarket just need to know watch engaine you have in your Dodge. one hundred for the Mopar valve is a very good price.
Thanks for the answer, gsragtop. If it is not part of the engine then obviously it should not be covered under the engine warranty. This is what I needed to know. I don’t particularly enjoy starting wars even when I’m in the right; the last thing I want to do is attack an innocent service manager when I’m the bad guy.
I did call two other garages yesterday, after having spoken with the Dodge dealership. One is the garage I have used for my current truck and the 2 vehicles before it. They told me that they had changed one EGR on a Dodge Charger last year and that it was “pretty complicated”. The other guy I called (chosen at random from the yellow pages, but with a good reputation about town) stated that he’d never done one a Charger; he looked it up on his computer and said, “Yeah, there’s going to be more to this than usual; if I were you I’d take it to a dealer.”
Does anyone here have any experience removing, cleaning, and/or replacing an EGR on an 07 Charger? Is it as involved as I’ve been led to believe?
Thanks, again, gsrag. I guess I was typing my last post while you were commenting. I appreciate it, man. $350 it is and hopefully she can drive the thing painlessly enough until April, 2014 when it’s paid off!
The EGR valve repair is on you, that’s for sure… Now, back to this “Refurbished” engine they supposedly installed…I would get your receipts out and determine EXACTLY what was done to repair your flooded engine…
110K miles and you are 2 years away from having it paid off? Ouch!
You know, Dodge chargers do have different engines. It seems that mechanics are judging that the EGR is the same on all engines. $100 seems very hi, in my opinion.
Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out, but I’ll chime in anyway. EGR valve failures are not unusual on this engine. It’s not an old-fashioned vacuum diaphragm valve but rather an electrically operated device. It is also located on the right rear of the engine and requires removal of the uppper intake manifold to replace (unless you’re really skinny with long arms and strong thin fingers).