What happened to my engine (video)
 

Hey all. I'm new here. I have a 2005 Grand Cherokee Ltd. with the Hemi engine. Mileage is 205,000 and the car has been spectacular.

However today, I had someone come by for a test drive (I'm selling the vehicle). I put gas in it just before he arrived and it drove great. The guy took the car on a 15 minute test drive and then parked it. I drove it about 8 miles to a store. When I came out of the store, the vehicle wouldn't start. It was crank and crank, then try to start. The engine would rev all the way up and then die. I was guessing it was the fuel pump.

Anyway, I had the car towed home. I was able to start it and drive it into driveway, but there's now a tick. I'm hoping this video will help someone identify the problem.


As I said, the car was running great and has a perfect maintenance history.

Any ideas on what's happened? I'm a decent mechanic with Mercedes, but Jeeps are a bit "foreign" to me (LOL).

Thanks for the help!

Did you go with him on this test drive? Any chance he abused the hell out of your jeep in those 15 minutes and broke it?

It sounds to me he over-reved it and it now has a bad lifter or something.

I'm with Dave on this one.

Quick update - I've drained the gas and put in good fuel (plus a can of Seafoam). So there's 8 gallons of gas and a can of Seafoam in the tank.

The car runs better now. There's no tick or knock, but I'm getting a misfire at cylinder 6 and smoke coming out the exhaust (OBD2 code of P0306). I'm also getting the P1521 (I think) indicating the wrong oil??

I plan to switch the coils and see if the misfire follows the coil.

Anything else I should be doing?

I appreciate the help!

I think that engine runs on the variable displacement system where it runs on 4 cylinders until power is demanded, then runs on all 8. I believe that's accomplished by holding the lifters and valves open with magnetic solenoids if I'm not mistaken.

Video didn't post. SO here it is. Please take a look (and listen) and let me know your thoughts!

Could be the Sea Foam, could be a head gasket. How much SF did you put in, the whole can in 8 gallons? Should be a can to 20 gallons. Have you checked the oil? Make sure it's not milky.

I'd say a compression test is needed at this point.

month old post

Probably sold it for cheap......