Etorque Seized

[TheWaterman83]

Glad it went well for you and you're back up and running. I'm at 87,xxx miles now myself so just a touch more than you. Hopefully my truck allows me the opportunity to plan for this - my intention is to do it sometime in the next 8,000 miles as preventative maintenance.

If you hear any grinding, whining, screeching on cold starts. Chances are it COULD be your eTorque on it's way out. It could also be a failing pulley or tensioner but 3 out of 3 times on my truck it was the eTorque generator.

 

[Klondike]

I went through three generators within 83,000 miles and the last one caused me to trade the truck in. Couple things:

First off, good for you on tackling that yourself. Second, just be careful. When the last one on my truck failed the dealer was very reluctant to let me drive it. When they fail and the armature contacts, it can send a voltage spike through the system. My service tech said they've seen them fry BCM's, TCM's, and all sorts of stuff. If that shorts again, just know it can cause a lot of issues.

I am sorry you went through this. Like I said, this caused me to trade the truck for a Ford F150.

Thanks for the warning. To be honest, though, I struggle to see why this is any different than any other alternator with respect to the potential for damage to other systems. It's not common to cook modules when regular alternators fail, but then again, bearings don't usually fail catastrophically on other systems. Anything is possible, but I have had so many bad experiences with dealers. They are either flat out dishonest, or not knowledgeable enough to provide good information and try to cover by making themselves look smart to the general public. Neither one is not beneficial to us, the customer. Even more frustrating, there is no information available to support rebuild/repair of the mechanical portion of these units. $80 in bearings and a few hours labour and they could save themselves so much reputational damage. No vehicle is perfect, all will have problems. I buy used and keep mine for 400k km's so I expect to repair things. If you make information available so aftermarket can support it, local shops can do basic labour work, etc., and not have people forking out thousands of dollars and waiting weeks for backorder parts, that has to be an overall good thing, right? Proprietary modules and control systems are fine - I wouldn't buy aftermarket for anything I wanted to make sure worked properly anyway. But not providing a parts list or testing specs so an alternator shop could rebuild the basic components is mind boggling. Its 100 year old technology. It's not revolutionary.

I'm sorry you had to go to a Ford... - just kidding. These things just have to work. That's the one non-negotiable!

 

[John Kloehr]

Thanks for the warning. To be honest, though, I struggle to see why this is any different than any other alternator with respect to the potential for damage to other systems. It's not common to cook modules when regular alternators fail, but then again, bearings don't usually fail catastrophically on other systems. Anything is possible, but I have had so many bad experiences with dealers. They are either flat out dishonest, or not knowledgeable enough to provide good information and try to cover by making themselves look smart to the general public. Neither one is not beneficial to us, the customer. Even more frustrating, there is no information available to support rebuild/repair of the mechanical portion of these units. $80 in bearings and a few hours labour and they could save themselves so much reputational damage. No vehicle is perfect, all will have problems. I buy used and keep mine for 400k km's so I expect to repair things. If you make information available so aftermarket can support it, local shops can do basic labour work, etc., and not have people forking out thousands of dollars and waiting weeks for backorder parts, that has to be an overall good thing, right? Proprietary modules and control systems are fine - I wouldn't buy aftermarket for anything I wanted to make sure worked properly anyway. But not providing a parts list or testing specs so an alternator shop could rebuild the basic components is mind boggling. Its 100 year old technology. It's not revolutionary.

I'm sorry you had to go to a Ford... - just kidding. These things just have to work. That's the one non-negotiable!

There are two problems here. The biggest is a Stellantis issue, not having replacements for failures in warranty. And the warranty is 80K miles as this is an "emissions" part.

The second is there not being agood program of rebuilt parts, but for those who can wrench... We are solving that on this forum.

I do hear some noise on cold start which I have not tracked down, I am concerned it might be the eTorque generator. If the alternative to me fixing it myself is waiting months for a warrantee part, I'll fix it myself. If that happens, I should sue Stellantis in small claims court for the parts and my time. Probably will not get anything for my time, but might win on cost of the parts.