Ozalid

Ok, sticking with the "its probably NOT your rear main seal"..that has been talked about here,
My 1st Jeep was a 95 4.0 with only 51,000 miles , ( got it due to insurance total)....It had what looked like a main seal leak, due to the location of the drip...We all know where that is
It was loose head cover bolts at the back of engine... My present 94 Cheroke 4.0 with 222,000 miles showed the same symptoms ..Oil leaking just forward of he oil pan bolt....
Getting ever closer, it appears to be coming from an area just forward of the oil filter,near the distributor and engine mounts...?? Distributor gasket ???
Thoughts ?? Thanks

BlueRidgeMark

Oil filter adapter is a likely suspect. Lots of threads on it.

Clean the whole area and keep an eye on it to see where it's really coming from.

Sword

Not sure why you think it might not be the rear main. There is a diagram floating around somewhere that shows the various drip origin spots that you can help identify. I had this problem on mine, changed the oil filter adapter but still had another leak - it ended up being the rear main

BlueRidgeMark

Here's the reasoning:

1. Because the engine is tilted, just about every leak accumulates and drips off in the same place, so they all look like RMS leaks. So, an abundance of caution is needed before jumping to that conclusion. You can get really frustrated fixing RMS leaks that don't get fixed because it was really coming from some other place. Other possible leaks should be eliminated first.
2. He's got leakage up near the distributor & oil filter. An RMS leak isn't going to get oil up there.

Make sense?

fb97xj1

Sometimes its the RMS. Sometimes its not. Even so, blaming the RMS right away because theres oil on it is like blaming the starter because the engine wont turn over. My 97 had oil on the RMS and bell housing, but it wasnt the RMS that was leaking. It was the valve cover gasket.

Waynerd

On the other hand even the last XJ assembled is old enough where it’s a good preventative measure to change gaskets and seals. Why wait until you have oil leaking all over? If I had the time and ambition to do it I would do the pan and valve cover gasket and the rear main and adapter o ring on every jeep I purchase as soon as I get it. As of now though I have 3 leaking oil from various areas.

5-Speed

The only reason I replaced my rear main was cause I was already down there doing to oil pan gasket (which was split and leaking). I doubt it was leaking before but figured it was cheap insurance to change it. My main oil leak ended up coming from the oil psi sensor itself. Not from the threads but out of the connector. And sure enough, it looked like it was the rear main dripping the entire time.