I've always had my oil changed at the Valvoline Instant Oil Change as my life has just felt too busy to take the time to do it myself. However, life is finally settling down and I decided it was time I did the work myself because my buddy always tells me I'll know so much more about my car if I do my oil changes myself. Boy was he right.




Ignore the bumper. It's on my list.


I made several discoveries during the hour I spent changing my oil and air filter.

First, I found some leaks at the front and rear of the engine. I assume that the rear one is the "rear main seal" that is often referred to in the forums. I'm not sure what the front one is. I have pictures of both:




Front leak under serpentine belt.



Rear leak near drain bolt.

The next potential problem I discovered was an unplugged hose. I failed to get a picture of the hose, but I believe I found the location where it plugs in, so i wanted to get some opinions on that. The images are from the left of the engine bay just in front of the passenger side.







Appears that the one on the left should have a hose as well.

The third problem I found is what appears to be a missing bolt. I had to take a weird angle to remove the drain plug because of the torque they seem to have put on it at the VIOC, and I saw this:




The final potential problem was my dipstick. During one of my changes at VIOC, they broke the pull off of it and had to order a new one to replace it. They put a short one in to cap it and I came back in a week or two and got the new one, but I'm wondering if they got the right one. After filling the engine with all 6 qts of T6, the fill level came to just the exact bottom of the "safe" section of the dipstick. I had thought it would come to about the middle of it, so again, I question the stick. I'm going to measure it later today. I believe it is supposed to be 25.5" but I'm not 100% on that.


One positive, and it's a big one, is that I switched to the Rotella T6 5w-40 from the bulk 10w-30 they've been putting in at the VIOC. It quieted my engine down so much that it's almost eerie. I am worried however, as I have heard that synthetics will potentially make it through leaks faster than dino oil. When I drained the oil, there were only four quarts, so perhaps the six quarts will account for some of the quieting of the engine as well. Obviously I have a leak or two as evidenced from the picture and from the amount of oil I drained from the engine. My oil filter adapter has been changed recently, because i was going through a quart of oil a week, so at least I've slowed it down to go through only 2 quarts over the course of 3 months. But i'm definitely going to check the level more often.

If anyone has any information about the problems I have shown, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!

 

As far as oil leaks:

I’d be looking up ABOVE first, and VERIFYING the source of the oil leak YOURSELF.

Everybody, who doesn’t own or have to pay for or perform your vehicle repairs, loves to poke their noggin UNDER the Jeep and come out bearing the false bad news that your RMS is leaking. Many mechanics, friends, and good old Uncle Bob seem to enjoy telling you it’s the rear main seal. Has a catastrophic ring to it, doesn’t it?

A simple leak at the back of the valve cover or other source could produce the same symptoms. You don’t need to be a mechanic to figure this out. If you have good eyesight and a dim flashlight, you’re good to go on your own. Don’t jump on the RMS/oil pan gasket bandwagon right off the bat.

Almost any oil leak on your 4.0 is gonna drip from the RMS area for two simple reasons:

First off, the engine sits nose-up and any oil will run back to the RMS area.

Secondly, the RMS area is also the lowest point on the engine. Simple physics and the old plumber’s adage apply here: “Crap flows downhill”.

Valve cover gasket, oil pressure sending unit, oil filter adapter seals and distributor gasket, in that order, have to be eliminated as possibilities first.

 

Cleaning off as much oil as possible can help trace the source of the leak (or leaks). Keep an eye on it after every drive. Also, dont forget about the front crank seal. Any oil leaking there will get blown back. Should you ever need to replace the balancer, replace that seal.

 

Synthetic oil doesn't cause leaks, bad seals and gaskets do. The reason that people believe synthetics cause leaks is that they generally do a great job at cleaning old gunk/deposits. That old gunk can help a bad seal/gasket prevent or slow a leak.

You did good by using T6. Trace down those leaks properly.

 

Bingo.

 

Much appreciation for the replies everyone.

Catastrophic is nothing when it comes to this Jeep. Before I purchased it from my mom she had the entire engine replaced due to a fire. And before she acquired it from my sister, she had burned up an engine as well. So we are on round three and I'm just trying to take better care of it. But I get your point.

Yea, sorry, didn't mean to imply that they it would cause a leak, just that it would get through wherever I already am leaking.

So after getting under the hood some more yesterday when I had a minute, I found that my valve cover, especially near the rear, is all gunked up and quite shiny with presumable oil on the flange. The oil pressure sending unit and oil filter adapter have both been replaced recently, so I've got a good mind to think that is where my leak is coming from. The gasket is 70k miles old so it's probably time.





The next problem is this guy:




Unkown canister, possibly missing a hose.

I don't have a manual yet, it's on the shopping list, so I'm not sure what that canister is. My best guess is evap? It has one hose coming out of it, but it seems to have a place for another hose to plug in. And when I was under the car I saw what looked like a loose hose, but didn't have time to get to it and didn't really want to mess with it until I had any more information. Should there be two hoses plugged into it?

 

Fel-Pro.

You're welcome.