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Veteran Mechanic Puts Brand-New Engine in Jeep Gladiator with 45,000 Miles. It Turns Into an ‘Absolute Nightmare’

'That's crazy 45,043 miles and it needs 3 engines.'

Jeep gladiator nightmare

Photo by: Unsplash.com

Stacy Fernandez

By: Stacy Fernandez

Jul 1, 2025 at 9:00am ET

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This seasoned mechanic claimed the dealership gave him a busted engine. Tons of commenters say it’s happened to them too.

What people really want to know is “How are they getting away with this?”

Mechanic Gets Busted Engine

In a series of trending videos with a collective 346,000+ views, mechanic Sherwood Cooke Jr. of Royalty Auto Service, who has more than 30 years of experience, shared what went wrong with this repair of a 2020 Jeep Gladiator that had about 45,000 miles on it.

(FYI, the video was reposted by @carservice.tt, but the original video was created by @royaltyautoservice)

“This is one of the biggest nightmares we’ve ever had to deal with,” Cooke said. “It’s crazy the mistake we made, and you can make it too.”

Cooke popped the car hood, and when his cameraman revved the engine, it sounded quite terrible.

He explained that they’d installed the new engine 300 miles ago (on average, that’s about seven to 10 days' worth of driving).

Having had issues with some engine manufacturers, Cooke went straight to a Chrysler dealership for the part (Jeep and Chrysler are both owned by Stellantis). It’s a dealership that Cooke’s team deals with almost daily.

“We have no problem with them at all. They have no say in this,” Cooke clarified.

When Cooke’s team installed the engine, it had a bit of a tapping sound going on, but once the engine warmed up, that went away, only for the client to come back shortly with the same issue.

Warranty Company Gives Them the Run-Around

A person on Cooke’s team called the engine’s warranty company, which would only communicate via email. On Thursday, March 27, it sent a long list of requirements for the auto shop to complete, including one unreasonable request.

A week later, it told the shop that since it didn’t respond within the week (keep in mind, the shop is closed at least one of those days), the case was closed and now had to be taken to a Stellanis dealership for diagnostics and “warranty consideration.”

“All diagnostics are the responsibility of the customer or the IRF until the failure is deemed a warrantable failure,” the email read.

Cookes’ employee got back on the phone and explained that they’re supposed to have seven business days to reply. “You can’t count the weekend to begin with,” they said, and that they’re closed on Fridays.

The worker also asked to speak to a manager, which the warranty company wouldn’t let him do, and then put him on hold for a whopping 45 minutes.

When it finally got back on the phone, it agreed to keep the case open.

“This is a theme because you’re going to see a war of attrition. Who’s going to give up first?” Cooke said, adding that putting the worker on hold for that long was in hopes that he’d hang up and “go away.”

“This is what this company wants you to do. I will promise you that,” he says.

Proving his point, Cooked sent the company the info it asked for, and it just asked for more and more documentation.

This back-and-forth lasted two months.

Did It Ever Approve the Repair and New Part?

After all that, the company said it’ll pay Cooke to attempt a repair, but if the new part still has issues, Cooke’s services will no longer be covered by the warranty, and the client will have to go to a Chrysler dealership.

To put salt in the wound, Chrysler sent an engine that was poorly transported and could have been damaged. Cooke tried to send it back for another one, but Chrysler instead said that the one he received was fine and a new one would take two months to get to him.

Had Cooke known this is how Chryseler handled things, he would have stuck with the other manufacturers who at least honor the warranties, he said.

How Long Should the Warranty Last?

While it’s unclear exactly which warranty this part had, Chrysler’s standard limited warranty is three years or 36,000 miles, according to the official site.

“Though certain parts like powertrains may be covered for longer,” it states.

Commenters react

“ALL of the manufacturers are building Junk,” a top comment read.

“How does Chrysler get away with this?” a person asked.

What do you think?

View

Comments

“Warranty companies are pure scammers they will do anything to get out of a warranty,” another wrote.

Motor1 reached out to Cooke for comment via email and TikTok direct message.

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