Exhaust Manifold Cracked

[compadian]

So for a while I would always hear a ticking sound on startup and sometimes acceleration, me reading the forums I was convinced it was just a hemi tick and not expecting the worse case scenario of a exhaust leak. This week I was already irritated of the sound and decided to check out what the noise was and to my disappointment, my freakin exhaust manifold is literally cracked in half. I have a 2019 with only 26k miles! Anyone else has had to change their manifold out? Did dealer give you problems?

 

[Rlaf75]

If your vehicle is still covered under the factory warranty, which I believe it still should be then they shouldn't give you any problems

 

[Reverse]

They changed both of mine out without any problems.

 

[ben b]

Sorry to hear your truck has a cracked Manifold with so few miles.

If you search for threads with Manifold in the title, you will find a few excellent discussions with around 200 postings total. You are not alone.

 

[zarillus]

That's awful and sorry to hear that !

 

[compadian]

I was able to schedule a service for next week on Monday, I will definitely ask them to check out the other side as well.

 

[Nels]

I took my truck in today for a scheduled appointment because of this same sound deacribed, suspecting the manifolds due to this forum. First they reported just the passenger side and changed it to replacing both manifolds. Supposed to have parts Thursday (2 days). We will see. Told it will be covered by MVP warranty that i got buying Certified pre-owned. I'm at 36,300 miles so out of original manufacturers warranty.

 

[silver billet]

Of the two ticks, you definitely want manifold and not lifters. You lucked out, especially since having a warranty.

 

[Nels]

Of the two ticks, you definitely want manifold and not lifters. You lucked out, especially since having a warranty.

Agreed!

 

[yankeefan31569]

its
covered under the 5/60k also

 

[Nels]

On further thought you're probably right that it's covered under the original powertrain warranty. On the warranty topic, i understood the Certified additional warranty to be 3 months/3,000 miles. Dealer service rep tells me his computer shows i have MVP warranty to 100k miles until sometime in 2025. A pleasant surprise if it's true. I haven't asked questions about that - dont want to raise any flags if it's wrong in the system!

 

[MValdez]

My 20 19 with 46K miles has been at the dealership for a week now to get the cracked exhaust manifold replaced when they discovered I also had a cracked cylinder head as well. I have to say I am pretty disappointed with this truck and the amount of times it has been at the dealership for repairs. I only have the standard limited and powertrain warranty and it's covered.

 

[Nels]

Follow up report. My dealer diagnosed that both manifolds needed replacing due to warping, likely caused by broken bolts. Parts ordered tuesday, picked up the truck today (friday). The service advisor told me they do 4 or 5 of these a month. This is in a city of 50,000 with other ram dealers in the vicinity. I wouldnt call it a high volume dealer.

 

[Kicker]

JB weld?

 

[Redfour5]

So for a while I would always hear a ticking sound on startup and sometimes acceleration, me reading the forums I was convinced it was just a hemi tick and not expecting the worse case scenario of a exhaust leak. This week I was already irritated of the sound and decided to check out what the noise was and to my disappointment, my freakin exhaust manifold is literally cracked in half. I have a 2019 with only 26k miles! Anyone else has had to change their manifold out? Did dealer give you problems?

Must not be too many long term hemi owners here. It sounds like the dreaded Hemi Tick. Google that term... Essentially, although a fantastic engine it has a design flaw. On my 2015, I had one side "fixed" twice with bolts being replaced. The last fix at like 70K miles was on both sides with a new manifold on one. Many dealers have an almost exclusive tech who works on these. My 2015 had a 100K power train warranty. As of 2016 I believe, they went to 60K. Speculation is that the "hemi tick" was part of the reason... Like I said, google the term and you will find many resources explaining in detail what it is all about. I was hoping they had fixed it by now...but apparently not. There are a couple of permanent fixes, but they cost so, Ram must have done a cost analysis and determined they would just go with the existing...problem... Oh, my last fix seemed to work... AND, it doesn't happen on all of them..just quite a few... All covered by warranty. BUT, if you hear it be sure and get to the dealer BEFORE 60K... Seriously... And don't drive 10K or more with it...or you could do more harm, not necessarily visible on the "bolt" fix. But, You will find it is like a no big deal at the dealerships. They are used to it...and don't even argue with you. They look up your VIN and your mileage and just fix em...on a regular basis.

 

[Nels]

Must not be too many long term hemi owners here. It sounds like the dreaded Hemi Tick. Google that term... Essentially, although a fantastic engine it has a design flaw. On my 2015, I had one side "fixed" twice with bolts being replaced. The last fix at like 70K miles was on both sides with a new manifold on one. Many dealers have an almost exclusive tech who works on these. My 2015 had a 100K power train warranty. As of 2016 I believe, they went to 60K. Speculation is that the "hemi tick" was part of the reason... Like I said, google the term and you will find many resources explaining in detail what it is all about. I was hoping they had fixed it by now...but apparently not. There are a couple of permanent fixes, but they cost so, Ram must have done a cost analysis and determined they would just go with the existing...problem... Oh, my last fix seemed to work... AND, it doesn't happen on all of them..just quite a few... All covered by warranty. BUT, if you hear it be sure and get to the dealer BEFORE 60K... Seriously... You will find it is like a no big deal at the dealerships. They are used to it...and don't even argue with you. They look up your VIN and your mileage and

Sounds like i should expect this to reoccur?

 

[Redfour5]

Sounds like i should expect this to reoccur?

Who knows... I was unlucky, but lucky because it was all covered by warranty.

 

[MValdez]

Who knows... I was unlucky, but lucky because it was all covered by warranty.

from what i have read Most of the individuals who have had this happen to them had it re-occur multiple times pushing them to the point of paying $$$ to swap out the stock headers for aftermarket

 

[Rlaf75]

My 11 with 80k miles on it when I traded it in a couple weeks ago just started with the exhaust leak on a cold start. I could see the spot it was leaking from and it appeared the manifold gasket was bad which would indicate a possible broken bolt but the bolt was still there. The faint leak would go away after the engine warmed up a little so I was never worried about it. My buddy had a bunch of bolts break on his 11. After he got the broken bolts out he replaced the manifolds with headers and used stainless bolts and he hasn't had a problem since.

I wonder if using a quality stainless stud and nuts would be better than bolts. Just about everything bolted onto race engines uses studs because they are stronger.

 

[Redfour5]

"but the bolt was still there." According to the tech at my place, that is the issue. There apparently is a bit of an art to getting the bolts out without doing more damage. Upon occasion, you can't do it and a new manifold is in order as I remember telling me. They did put a new one my last time at about sixty K miles. I'm not sure if was damaged or had the bolt issue he noted. I had zero problem after that until I traded/sold for the new one at 75K.