The 3.0-L turbodiesel V6 “EcoDiesel” supplied by former Fiat affiliate VM Motori and made available optionally on the Ram 1500 light-duty truck and Jeep Grand Cherokee can fail relatively early in its service life. So much so that the
Ram 1500 equipped with the EcoDiesel engine has been branded a lemon by the Automobile Protection Association and
Lemon-Aid author Phil Edmonston.
The EcoDiesel has exhibited an unsettling number of main bearing failures, an event that can unfold while driving on the highway, which owners have described in vivid detail. One owner recounted one incident as “a catastrophic bottom end engine failure at highway speed, breaking the crankshaft and sending a connecting rod through the engine block.”
The EcoDiesel can fail with as little as 30,000 km on the odometer, owners claim. Fiat Chrysler is quietly laying the blame on the thin viscosity of the required 5W-30 engine oil, and it has changed the specification to SAE 5W-40 full synthetic oil to better protect engine components. The technical service bulletin applies to all existing 2014-16 models using the EcoDiesel engine.