Four problems related to manifold/header/muffler/tail pipe have been reported for the 2006 Dodge Charger. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2006 Dodge Charger based on all problems reported for the 2006 Charger.
Car will run fine one day next day it won't, car cuts off when stopping an stop sign or light. Car jerks when pressing gas pedal too hard, gas odors coming from muffler.
I drove my vehicle to the store and everything was fine. I came out an hour later and attempted to start the car but it wouldn't start. I attempted to start it again and it started but the engine sounded horrible so I turned it off immediately. I had it towed to my mechanic who said there was no compression on cylinder #3 and the valve was unseated causing damage to the cylinder. I take meticulous care of my vehicle and this type of engine failure should have never happened with only 105k miles on it. Upon reading several thousand reviews on this 5. 7l hemi engine, this appears to be a major problem and has been identified as a manufacturer defect. The below is the diagnosis for this early engine failure: "faulty valve seats according to the engine company, the original Chrysler design presses the valve seats into the cylinder heads. The problem results when the powdered metal the valve seats are made of expands, causing it to drop into contact with the valve and pistons, which leads to catastrophic failure. In this process the seat breaks into many pieces causing deterioration of the piston, cylinder wall, valve and cylinder head. This metal can even get into the intake manifold ¿ if not cleaned properly, it can lead to a failure in replacement engines. Piston ring landings again according to pp, a flaw in the engineering of the piston ring landings results in the engines running much hotter than they should. Coupled with what they call overly small drain holes in the heads and block, this overheating breaks down new oil, leaving sludge in the engine, ultimately blocking it. Consequent oil-starvation can lead to engine block seizure. ".
2006 Dodge Charger. Consumer writes in regards to faulty ignition switch. The consumer stated the vehicle had a transmission leak, and it shuddered, the sun roof rattled and the side trim fell off. A former transmission specialist, informed the consumer, the condensation drain for the air condition dripped onto the transmission and pooled around the transmission filler tube. When the vehicle reached a 140,000 miles, it began emitting white smoke, to the point where the consumer was unable to see out of his rear view mirror. An inspection revealed the valve seat of the #3 cylinder had dropped out, smashing two large holes one on each side of the piston, the size of a quarter. There was also a hairline crack across the apex of the piston hole-to-hole, the debris had pummeled the cylinder head. Also, debris from the damage had been sucked back into the inlet manifold depositing metal chunks into the #1 and #2 cylinders damaging the pistons and heads with small chunks of metal embedded in them. Updated 08/28/14.
Driving at 65 mph on the freeway, the vehicle began to shudder/ hesitate, there was so much white smoke from my vehicle that I could not see anything behind me in my rear view mirror. I had to have the vehicle loaded onto a flat bed tow truck. The number 3 valve seat had dropped out and smashed holes in the piston, the debris had pummeled the cylinder head. The debris had then been sucked back into the inlet manifold, the debris was deposited into number 1 and 2 cylinders pummeling the head of the pistons and cylinder heads. There were actually shards of metal embedded in the cylinder head. The vehicle is next to worthless at this time. The vehicle is a limited addition daytona and cost about $35k new. I have been dealing with Dodge for more than a year as this is a design fault and appears to be quite common. Dodge refuses to do anything about it. I spoke to an executive of Dodge with the title of head of top care customer care for fiat Chrysler automobiles on 4/9/2015, her statement "you should not expect much more than 100,000 miles from any vehicle". Really wants you to go and buy a Chrysler product, I have owned 5 of their vehicles in 15 years, never again.