The ‘Pentastar Tick’ Could Kill Your Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Or Jeep Engine. Here’s How I Fixed It

The Pentastar Tick is a well-known problem, with rumors starting to fly around not long after the engine’s 2011 model-year launch. As owners put miles on their engines, forums and Reddit threads lit up with more and more reports and questions about the issue. I first heard it for myself when I was driving a Dodge Charger media vehicle that had well under 30,000 miles on the clock. 

You’ll find details in several internal documents like STAR Case #S1309000016, which dates back to 2014, as well as at least one technical service bulletin. Plus there are videos all over Youtube about it, and there’s been a class action lawsuit filed.

Here’s a look at the STAR document:

Here’s a TSB:

Here’s a YouTube Video:

Here are some screenshots of that class-action lawsuit:

And here’s a Reddit post and a Jeep Forum post:

And here are a bunch of complaints on the National Highway Safety Administration website, though it’s worth noting that that the complaints don’t specify the engine involved (though all of these vehicles could be equipped with the Pentastar):

This Pacifica was only equipped with the Pentastar:

And so was the Wrangler JK:

It’s not clear that there’s only one singular problem, here, but the shortest version of one of the main issues as I understand it goes like this: The Pentastar tick is a loud, rhythmic metallic tapping, with a higher pitch consistent with something loose in the valvetrain. The noise, in some cases, provides a warning that, if ignored, will end with a camshaft failure and metal particles being sent through the oiling system, which can destroy the engine main bearings and require a rebuild or replacement.

Later engines may be better; according to folks on this Bob is the Oil Guy thread, metallurgy in some parts batches may have been the problem. While there has been a Pentastar Upgrade version of the engine released, the valvetrain design is, as I understand it, essentially unchanged, so it’s possible one could experience a similar issue with any year and displacement of the engine. 

Note that this isn’t the left-bank cylinder head issue early Pentastars also suffered. And it’s also not the same camshaft issue that sometimes happens to Hemi-V8 powered vehicles. There’s a lot of model overlap between the two engines, but the specific problems are different. It’s also worth noting that, though I’ve found plenty of complaints online, I don’t know the prevalence of the issue; it’s likely most Pentastar engines are just fine.  

Let’s Step Back A Second

Before we get into the meaty details of this particular issue, let’s do a quick refresher about the basics. 

Engines have cylinders where the combustion happens to convert air and fuel into physical force. Valves are used to let the air and fuel in, seal the cylinder for the burning part of process, and then let out the exhaust. 

Everything is carefully timed and linked together. The valves are operated by a camshaft — basically a metal rod with teardrop shaped lobes. The lobes push on something – in this case a “rocker” — a metal finger that pivots and ultimately transfers the camshaft’s motion to the valve, which is normally held shut by a spring. (There’s a hydraulic lifter that is there to take up the “lash” in the system; it uses oil pressure to make sure everything is tightly sliding/pushing so there’s not too much play, which can cause damage/affect engine performance). 

With all these metal pieces in contact and spinning, when things go wrong, they can really go wrong. Normally, with proper lubrication and component durability, things last for many hundreds of thousands of miles. And therein lies the rub: In this case, durability isn’t what it should be, and even though Chrysler engineers did a good job designing a simple, robust overhead cam valvetrain with rockers that use a roller (like a skateboard or rollerstake wheel, just small) as the element that’s in contact with the camshaft lobe, for whatever reason, a whole lot of these have not held up. 

In the land of air-cooled VWs and red-block Volvos, loud valves are usually no big deal. Happy, even. But when your modern car goes all tippity-tappity in the engine bay, as my 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee did, it’s a problem. 

The “Pentastar Tick” is a common issue for the 3.6 and 3.2 liter V6 used in many Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram vehicles since 2011. The good news is that, in many cases, it’s pretty straightforward to fix, but bravery is required. 

Don’t Sleep On This

The Pentastar Tick, which you can hear above, can be fatal to your engine’s camshafts, and by extension, the whole engine. It’s never good to send metal flakes through the lubrication system. The cause of the tick, in many cases, is a failure of the needle bearings in the roller rockers that follow the cam lobes.

Basically, there’s a little wheel that’s supposed to spin as it rides the teardrop-shaped cam lobe. This design reduces friction for more efficiency. When the bearings die, though, the wheel drops out of its proper position, and then the steel of the rocker contacts the cam. 

This is bad. The roller and the camshaft are properly hardened and designed to be in rolling contact. But sliding contact is bad, and could lead to lots of metal particles being sent through the motor.

And the longer you wait, the more expensive the repair gets. Rockers are about $10 each for decent ones. Camshafts are more than $350. Engine swaps are well over a grand in labor alone. 

Parts Plus Labor Will Be Thousands

Given the amount of disassembly required to replace the $10 rockers – to do all 12 in that cylinder head – this job at a shop or dealer will cost you between $1500-$2000. The nice thing in this instance, if you can call it nice, is that the Pentastar is pretty well-designed and robust. It’s not that hard to get in there and fix it. To start, you just have to remove: 

• Engine Cover
• Upper Intake Manifold
• Throttle Body
• Ignition Coils (in that bank only)
• Cam Position Sensors
• Valve Cover
• Cam Phasers
• Camshafts

And there’s a dipstick bracket bolt on the bellhousing that’s a sneaky bastard and a bear to get at. I had to use a bunch of long extensions and a universal from below. I *may* have cross-threaded it on reassembly. 

Dive In

The job doesn’t require much more than a pretty good Harbor Freight tool kit, some cleaners and solvents, penetrating oil, and a tube of RTV. The biggest challenge I faced was making sure the cams and timing gear were locked in place. I just had to make sure I had all the torque values and instructions for reassembly. I had to pick up a Harbor Freight torque sensor to get the cam caps properly torqued.

These are the special tools you need: Chrysler #10200A, #10202, and #10369A to lock the cam phasers and timing apparatus in place. The official versions are nice, made out of metal, durable for repeated use. I went with a $25 plastic set sold as appropriate for the VW Routan, one of the first vehicles to get the Pentastar. They’re good enough but won’t hold up to shop-grade regular use. Watch the video mentioned below by MotorCity Mechanic to see how they’re used as part of this job; it’s easier to see than it is to describe. 

I researched the job first, looking at the Haynes manual for the WK2 Grand Cherokee and sifting through the bullshit online. This two-part video by David Pike, on Youtube as MotorCity Mechanic was thorough and clear. 

There are some shortcut techniques that involve loosening the cam caps and wriggling the bad rocker out and the replacement in. Don’t do this. If one is bad, the rest are the same age, so they may be close to failure, too. You’ll be back in there again soon if that happens. You don’t really save anything, either. Once the valve cover is off, it’s not much more work to just do all 12 rockers and reset the counter.  

How It Went

Once all the bolted-on stuff is out of the way, it’s not hard to get into the rocker box. Don’t be afraid to get unrelated stuff out of the way so it won’t snarl your work, unless you like to pretend you’re working in the tight confines of a cabin cruiser. Sadist. 

I cleaned everything as I was disassembling, and also used a paint marker to leave breadcrumbs for myself about what plugs into where. Valve cover removal was a little belligerent, the factory sealant is very effective. I used some wooden wedges and a 1×2 to carefully pry it up with less chance of breakage. 

Inserting the timing tools took a couple tries, but rushing only ensures you’ll do it twice. When it got frustrating, I took a minute for a sip of coffee or to curse the heavens and then got back to it. There’s a large socket needed to remove the cam phasers, and it’s a little nerve wracking lifting the camshafts out, but it’s not hard at all. There will be some gunk on the tonewheels at the back of the cams, but you can just wipe it off; it’s normal. 

Inspection

Clean things up and look closely. Cam lobe damage will start on the edges – you’ll see a bright area where the rocker arm has begun to dig in. If you can feel a bump between that area and the rest of the cam lobe with your fingernail, that’s bad. The more pronounced it is, the worse it is. You get to decide what’s acceptable. Luckily, the single problem lobe in this project has very light marking on the lobe — nothing bad enough to require replacement. 

I measured the height of the cam lobes with vernier calipers to make sure they hadn’t self-machined themselves undersized, and that was also fine. A note: my engine has had a diet of synthetic oil since brand new, and it shows. This thing was sparkly clean inside with low, if any wear detectable. 

The Reverse Of Removal

The new rockers just drop in place, they’re retained by the cam. I opted to leave the original hydraulic lash adjusters in place, as none of them were a problem, but it’s worth considering renewing those, since you’re in there. Budget about $9 each. 

I cleaned off the cam journals and they were in great shape. I made liberal use of red assembly lube when putting it all back together, and dunked the new rockers in a bath of oil before installation. Torque it all up, and you’re done, just hit rewind on the process. 

Re-sealing the valve cover gasket was a little tricky, and it’s got a little leak, so I’ll need to re-do that. It’s a plastic valve cover with retained fasteners, so it can be difficult to get in place just right without three hands. No big deal, and the chassis gets some rustproofing. There’s some contortion to get the throttle body and hoses back in place, and that dipstick bracket is a jerk.

Success…oops

My heart sank when I first fired it up. The revs went very high, and something wasn’t right. I shut it down quickly, and found the large intake leak caused by the hose I’d missed by the throttle body. I had to pull the upper intake again to get it back in place, but after about 20 minutes of swearing, the engine was purring. 

That kind of satisfaction can’t be bought. 

A Couple Tips

Have a clean workspace and a table or two. You’re going to need a place to spread out all the stuff you remove, and a work surface for measurement and parts prep. 

Get all the tools and parts you might need. Return the stuff you didn’t use; planning for contingencies will avoid stalling progress. That means you should…

• Research obsessively. Find out what’s involved, list out the tools you’ll need, and see if the special tools are really necessary. I needed the right size sockets for the cam phasers, the digital torque meter, etc. 
• Get a quote from a shop. This would have been a $2K bill from the Jeep dealer. Other shops may be cheaper, and you need to choose what you want to bite off, and what you’d rather just pay for. My local Jeep dealer is awesome and they turn stuff around done right and quickly. I traded time for cash in this instance, because I was comfortable with this repair, but it’s not for beginners. There have been other jobs on this same car that I opted to just pay for, as expensive as that was. 
• Mark stuff as you remove it. I used a paint marker to put dots on things; it’s surprising how quickly you forget stuff. 

If You Don’t Wrench

Because Jeep is aware of this issue, you may be able to get some relief from Jeep Cares. The worst they can say is “no,” and they might have a couple of ways to help. 

Independent shops are often less expensive than dealer service, as well, so seeking out a recommendation in your area for an upstanding mechanic is another option. Especially if they’re a Jeep specialist.