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Purchasing an older HEMI?

2K views 7 replies 8 participants last post by  Tatman45 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello, I am very close to purchasing a 2006 300C AWD from a private seller. I was all pumped up and ready to hand over my money when I did a little research. I was looking through Edmunds.com and CarComplaints.com when I saw that everybody and their dog were having catastrophic failures with the HEMIs in the 2006 models (not the 2005 or 2007 models so much).

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I understand about it thus far. When the car is turned off, coolant in the water jackets of the engine tend to heat soak. This expands some aluminium parts of the engine, a bunch of technical stuff, and the valves end up infused with the pistons. More or less. And having this fixed costs upwards of $8000, which is around double what I am actually paying for the car.

I also noticed that this happens generally around 75,000 miles. The car I am looking at purchasing has nearly double that, at 140,000 miles.

So, I am just looking for some advice by people who have actually been around these engines. Would buying this car be the equivalent of burning four grand? Was this something which happened in certain 2006 engines and not others? Is there a way I can check if the engine in the car I am considering purchasing is at risk of catastrophic failure? Does this have something to do with the MDS? How do I know if this HEMI even has MDS? (I should note that I am in Canada).

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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#2 ·
Good on you for researching your purchase, no matter what car it is.
I haven't read anything here about that but doesn't mean that there isn't something. But definitely not a hot or common issue. Did you search the board as well?

Not sure where you're located or what geographical area those sites were looking at. I know that there was a recall on one of my bikes because the frame was "known to break" and essentially split the bike in half behind the steering head. Most of the sport bike community were either "Oh crap, glad I don't ride one of those bikes", or the others were, "Man I'm not riding my bike until I get that fixed."

But like memes and how your brain associates a picture with someone's purposefully structured textual message, you associate the two and draw your own conclusions based and fill in the rest of the blanks or assumptions on your own. Turns out, the number of frame issues was so very small compared to the plethora of that model bike produced, AND all the instances happened with race bikes on the track and resulting from crashing. Not resulting in crashing.

Crap, I'm rambling. Point is, are the sites reputable? Was the problem really that common and if so, shouldn't there have been a recall for it? was there a recall for it and was that car dealt with correctly? You know stuff like that.

I'm sure some of the regulars will chime in and offer up some real world details details.

Good luck, I'll be lurking
 
#3 ·
The issue you describe has never come up here to my recollection with respect to the engine. I, myself, had a 2006 Heritage Edition 300C, and it was running perfectly well at 121k miles when I gave it to my son and family after we bought the current 2015 300C Platinum. I believe he's approaching 130k miles by now (a year later) if not more.

I expected, maybe, you found some complaint about the AWD system, or some other unique aspect of that kind of model... but not the engine infusing with coolant. There was an issue with early SRT8s where the antifreeze could develop a gel-like gunk that had to be flushed from the system, but even that didn't affect or "infuse" anything into the block or cause valves to impact pistons.
 
#4 ·
Oostin,

You do know that the 2nd generation 300 came out in 2011? If you can swing it, that's a better all around bet than the 1st generation cars. IMHO

No matter which generation is in the cards for you - do go with a HEMI. Comes the day you want to move on, an old Chrysler 300 with a V6 is almost impossible to get rid of while the Hemi always has appeal. As a general rule the 300 HEMI is a very solid engine that is good for 200,000 miles or better. Now if you are a street racer or the like then maybe not so much but that's true of any machine.

I have a 2nd gen 300c. That's 2011 and up. On my forum there is not much talk of generic engine issues with "driver" cars. Within the "performance" oriented owners, as expected, there is a higher level of reported problems but even then, not much reported engine failure. I suspect the same is true of 1st Gen cars as the engine is basically the same.
 
#5 ·
I would worry more about the AWD giving problems then the hemi.The engine reliability will be
dependent on how it has been serviced and looked after.Jim Belle of Kenne Belle superchargers
maintains that dodge and chrysler engines are the strongest stock engines built. I can tell you that
hemi engines are banned from NASCAR RACING because they are capable of more power than other
stock engines.
Sure there have been failures,but of the thousands that have been produced they heve become
a legend.The advice to go second generation is solid.The eagle engine after 08 has the valve seats
machined into the heads.Fixed the dropped valve seat problem in the first generation 5.7.
 
#6 ·
I've had the SRT coolant additive issue and that was covered under a TSB pretty early on.

The early SRT engines also had a valve spring problem that was covered under warranty and fixed very early in the first year of production.

However, the issue you are describing is a new one on me.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your choice of vehicles.
 
#7 ·
My 2005 5.7L Hemi just turned 80K-miles with zero engine issues.

Has the one you're looking at had proper servicing?
 
#8 ·
I have a 2006 300c awd and mint has 200560 miles... except for normal maintenance and my flex joints in my exhaust she runs like a champ. I had to replace normal things that wear out like control arms, tie rods and my input speed sensor that was inside my Trans which took me an hour tops. I say go for it.... mine had 178k when I bought it
 
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