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Help troubleshooting oil type smell

ChrisATL

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Not sure which group to post this since I can't find the source, so am hoping the general audience can assist. I have a 2022 Jeep JL Sport S with the 3.6L V6 with eTorque engine. It runs just fine. The problem is this smell that comes up occasionally that I cannot identify the source.

The situation - under certain circumstances, I will get this strong odor near the front passenger side, high up on the grill area. Somewhere in the front passenger headlight area, in the general radiator area. When this odor arrives, it smells like a heavy burning oil. It doesn't seem to smell like antifreeze, and my coolant levels are fine. It's a bit different than what I have smelled when oil is burning on the hot engine somewhere. If I had to guess, it smells like differential oil.

The smell has happened in the following situations. We flat tow behind an RV. Twice now (not every time), we have disconnected at our destination, turned on the engine, and pretty quickly gotten a big whiff of this smell. And it lingers for quite some time. It can linger for days, in fact. Eventually, it dissipates. Another situation where it happened was driving to the top of a local mountain which has incredibly steep grades. At the top, as well as after returning back to camp, the smell lingers.

There is never any sign of a leak anywhere. If I had to guess, it almost seems like there is a vent somewhere that is letting excess heat or something escape from the differential right in the area described above. But I can't find anything anywhere. Hoping someone here has encountered this or knows of an answer.

Through all of this, the performance of the Jeep is never impacted. It runs great. But that doggone smell...

My next step is to take it to the dealer, but I know that it won't be present when I take it in, which will lead to them saying that they can't duplicate it, have a nice day.
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GATORB8

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There is a vent that runs up from the front diff. You can follow it from the connection to the differential.
 

NWJeepr

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I'm pretty sure it's road grime burning off the headers and cat. Smelling this while running the Jeep after towing it behind a MH, or when getting the engine nice and hot running it up a grade makes sense.

We used to tow our JK behind our MH and would have "the smell" under the same circumstances. The giveaway hint was it would be noticeably worse after towing in wet conditions while road grime and spray were blasted at the Jeep while towing. We also had the JK shipped across country twice. In both instances, the Jeep was on a part of the carrier where it was absolutely blasted with road spray. So thick and crusty you couldn't see out the windows. I watched the truck driver unload it, just rolled it off the carrier. It idled to operating temperature while I signed shipping paperwork and the thing just reeked of "the smell" until it burned off.

It's worse with diesel MH's too. The JK used to collect a lot of diesel soot when it was towed behind which made the smell, smellier, if that makes any sense.
 
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ChrisATL

ChrisATL

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There is a vent that runs up from the front diff. You can follow it from the connection to the differential.
I'll take a look. How long would that vent continue the smell? Seems that it continuing for a couple of days is a bit beyond what I'd expect. Seems like once it cooled or something, it would stop the venting.
 

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GATORB8

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I'll take a look. How long would that vent continue the smell? Seems that it continuing for a couple of days is a bit beyond what I'd expect. Seems like once it cooled or something, it would stop the venting.
IIRC there's a little vent cap on the end. If that was damaged/stuck, may be it would tend to linger?
 

DewHawk

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@ChrisATL The only thing I can think of would be a vacuum line running to the intake has a bad check valve that's leaking oil blow by into the intake box from the crankcase breather. There's a couple kits out there that eliminate this issue (Teraflex is one of them). Easiest way to check into this would be to simply open the intake box and just do a visual inspection for oil residue.

Beyond that, there's a few very unlikely things it could be mostly centered around axle seals and the FAD gasket being bad.
 

Deleted Member RoadNomad

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Grab a flashlight and look down around the bottom of the oil cooler (just find the spin on oil filter cap) and look for any oil accumulating in that area. This happens when the cooler"O" rings begin to leak or seep or a cracked assembly which is very common to the pentastar 3.6
 

roaniecowpony

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I had a smell of gear oil while running the rubicon. It turned out the right rear seal is leaking a bit. Not much, but the odor of gear oil is strong.
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