SRT engineering visit to fix my car.

[shiftz33]

I've had an "warm oil smell" coming into the car when I would take the transmission out of drive via the air vents since I purchased my 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 back in December.

I've done a lot of testing to figure out how to reproduce it on demand. I sent an email to Ralph Gilles (CEO of SRT division) last New Year's eve night. He quickly responded to my emails. Ralph put me in touch with Jim Wilder (lead engineer for the 300/Charger SRT8). Jim had me take the car into the service department at the selling dealership and they checked out many things (removed all stickers from the exhaust pipes, cleaned the exhaust pipes, examined the transmission bell housing and engine for any sign of oil leaks). Nothing was found to be wrong with my car.

On the drive home from the service department visit, I reproduced the smell again. It was starting to appear that the gear change (drive-to-neutral) was somehow involved in the smell being generated.

After I tried many tests (vary the time period before changing gears) the smell always followed the transmission gear change from drive-to-neutral. It took about 5 seconds to have the smell appear inside of the car.

Jim was kind enough to decide to come check out my car's problem. Jim Wilder and Vince Schrand flew into Sacramento last night. They came to my house this morning and we set out to reproduce the smell. They didn't necessarily pick on the smell to the degree that I did, but when they were checking for the smell near the transmission vent tube (behind the passenger side cylinder head), they both could smell my "oily smell".

They checked the transmission fluid level and it looked correct and the transmission fluid look good with no odd smells. As a test, they placed a rubber cap over the transmission vent tube breather and the smell did not occur any longer.

They then installed a transmission vent tube breather relocation kit they had made up before flying out to check out my car. This relocated the transmission vent tube breather to the driver side front end of the cylinder head.

With the relocated transmission vent tube breather in place, the smell no longer made its way into the inside of the car via the HVAC.

There were no stored codes, the transmission fluid was good and the car drives like it should, so there was no need to replace the transmission. Although, they had one staged at a nearby dealership just in case a transmission replacement was required.

Jim and Vince were a blast to talk to today.

I just enjoyed my first trip in my new 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 without smelling "that smell".

The attached picture shows the three of us by my Charger SRT8.

My situation was unique enough that it warranted their personal investigation into the issue. Something I truly appreciate!

Left: Vince Schrand
Middle: Me
Right: Jim Wilder

[Brocket]

Wow, so good to see them stand behind the Brand and take care of a customer. Did you give them any grief on the tuning ability while they were there? Glad they got her figured out and resolved.

[shiftz33]

Originally Posted by Brocket

Wow, so good to see them stand behind the Brand and take care of a customer. Did you give them any grief on the tuning ability while they were there? Glad they got her figured out and resolved.

No, I left the "tuning" issue alone. :-)

[Ladon]

Now thats service right there, Thats awesome!

[bruno]

What an incredible story to share!! How like Ralph to set something up like this rather than be passed around over and over again at dealerships where most techs would have no clue. Something tells me this could happen to someone else with your exact set up. I'm so happy they figured it out and had back up solutions for you just in case. What a team! Guess you couldn't have asked for a better New Year's present.

Now, if you come to this year's big Spring Fest next month, you should have the opportunity to thank Ralph in person and to most likely meet some other SRT Engineers.

[1HOTSRT]

Nice ending

[1magsrt8]

what a great story and an even better ending. think about it who does that. Ford yea right. These guys stand behind out srt8s all the way down to the sxt. Thats a story we need to keep alive.
love it.

[BioHzrd]

Glad to hear they fixed your problem.

I wonder if they will now put out a service bulitin of some kind for the next person that has the same issue.

I really wish Dodge had some kind of escalition division for issues such as this so people didn't have to go round and round with the dealer since they are just part swaping monkeys and not problem solvers.

Cool story you have to go with your car now.

Time to take it to the track.

-Steve

[augie]

love the happy ending !!!