Oily residue on drivers side of engine... normal???

[Halstem1]

Hey guys. I need some help or expertise.

I crawl around under the Jeep every few thousand miles to make sure everything is tight and where is should be. Noticed some oily residue up on the underside of the engine on the drivers side. Kind of hard to explain. I’m picturing it’s on the underside of the exhaust manifold. is this normal engine “grime” or should this not be here???

I’ll post a couple pics. One is looking up from the front between the diff cover and the yeti track bar. Second pic is zoomed in on that with the camera closer.

thanks.

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[mgroeger]

Take a look on your valve covers, specifically towards the front of the engine on each cover. Behind the dipstick you will notice a "plug" that plugs into the cover and has a wire harness coming off and then on the driver's side you will see the same thing. They are cam positioning sensors and they can leak if the O-ring goes bad. My wife's started weeping 20k miles ago and the dealer replaced them the other week for us. I didn't get any weeping down the engine like you are showing but it's worth looking at for you.
You can also put dye in the oil and trace it out with a black light.

 

[Halstem1]

Take a look on your valve covers, specifically towards the front of the engine on each cover. Behind the dipstick you will notice a "plug" that plugs into the cover and has a wire harness coming off and then on the driver's side you will see the same thing. They are cam positioning sensors and they can leak if the O-ring goes bad. My wife's started weeping 20k miles ago and the dealer replaced them the other week for us. I didn't get any weeping down the engine like you are showing but it's worth looking at for you.
You can also put dye in the oil and trace it out with a black light.

You’re the man. You’re right. Sounds like yours did it for a while. So nothing too serious? Getting ready to take a trip next week and doubt I can get serviced before. How annoying.

 

[Halstem1]

Meant to post a pic. That’s passenger side. Drivers side is harder to see but doing the same thing. The passenger side one has oil residue all the way down the valve cover.

 

[mgroeger]

Meant to post a pic. That’s passenger side. Drivers side is harder to see but doing the same thing. The passenger side one has oil residue all the way down the valve cover.

Winner winner chicken dinner. That is EXACTLY how ours looked. Like I said it was many many miles until we had it fixed and even then the local FCA rep said don't fix it because it isn't dripping yet. The dealer said we are going to fix it, it's obvious that isn't normal. The JK had a similar issue I believe. FYI... FCAs stance is the fluid is not actually dripping then it is considered normal. Most mechanics know that is BS so the best thing to do is take it in and at the very least you have a record of when it occurred for a future repair.

Funny thing is on my '18 Rubi with 30k miles it's bone dry, her Jeep at the same mileage was like the pic.

 

[mgroeger]

To answer your question you'll be fine for your trip. Obviously it's always wise to do a fresh oil change or at least check your fluid before the trip.

 

[Halstem1]

Awesome! Thanks. I’ll see what they say. If they call that acceptable I’ll probably start a fight. That is definitely not normal. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Therby]

Thank you for this post, I finally tracked it down. I would brake clean and wipe away the oil on the side of engine just to have it come back, wasn’t enough to be concerned about but still.

Looks the same on mine

This is the engine, it was worse but i cleaned it to see if the oil would come back

 

[mgroeger]

They replaced mine and 6k miles later they are leaking again. Going to dealer on Monday.

 

[mgroeger]

Yeah it's a crap shoot. My wife's 2018 is leaking my 2018 isn't.

 

[mgroeger]

UPDATE:
The dealer found out why after replacing those sensors (and consequently the o-rings) it still leaks. It turns out where that thing bolts into the valve cover there is another gasket between what that sensors bolts to and the cover. I guess it's kind of like a housing that bolts to the valve cover and then the sensors bolts to the housing. SO... make sure you tell the dealer to check out that gasket since it looks like it might be the real culprit.

 

[mgroeger]

No idea. The sensor is connected via a single bolt and that seems sufficient enough since the sensor has an o-ring on it. The gasket on the other hand is buried out of site so I have no idea how it's held in place.

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