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Important Notice To all Dodge & Jeep Owners with the 2.0L 3.0L 3.2L & 3.6L Engines
JK TalkGeneral discussion forum regarding thoughts, opinions and rumors about the Jeep JK Wrangler or related subjects that don't quite fit in the Modified, Stock or Electronics forums.
Important Notice To all Dodge & Jeep Owners with the 2.0L 3.0L 3.2L & 3.6L Engines
Please let's put all our defiance's aside as I have some very important information to share with you.
According tocarcomplaints.com & carproblemzoo.com and many online searches or forums relating to the failure of the Oil Filter Assembly (OFA), Jeep has discontinued the manufacturing of the Oil Filter Assembly (OFA) and may be opting for a redesign. What does this mean? It means that at some point within your Dodge or Jeep's history, the current 3.6L/3.2L OFA is going to fail and you're going to be left with oil spewing out the back of your engine, down onto your transmission and onto your exhaust system.
Some have said that this "could" catch fire as an end result. But let's clear the air. According to our Diesel expect, the only way oil can catch fire is if it under extreme pressure & heat. as this would not be the case under the jeep while driving etc. The worse that can happen is the exhaust will smoke. With this part and many other part that create the entire oil filter assembly being discontinued, it's unclear as to if and when these parts will be restocked on dealership and parts vendors shelves..
According to another post on the forum, this person is claiming that the oil is bypassing the oil filter entirely. our issues is not related to the oil filter but the oil cooler. So our oil is passing through the filter, but is not passing through the oil cooler. But without removing the intake manifold, The dealership can not verify what or how the oil is leaking other than seeing other jeeps with this same issue. According to jeep, this is not a dangerous or hazardous enough issue to warrant a recall.
You will need to take precautions to routinely degrease and wash this oil back flow off these components and maintain your oil level because there's no replacement on the market. Jeep themselves has known of this issue since 2014 and has not issued any recalls. It is also important to anyone performing your oil change on any of the 3.6L engines, DO NOT overtighten the oil cap as this can break the housing/assembly & seals on the assembly thus causing the leak. Oil Filter Assembly (OFA)
So if you start seeing an oil leak like this on the engine/transmission, One might think it's the rear main seal. Have your jeep diagnosed as to verify if it's your OFA and not the rear main seal. As of one week ago, Our 2017 jeep Wrangler with 72K miles was diagnosed with a failing OFA without any ETA on when the replacement part will arrive. This failing part effects ALL Dodge & Jeep Models with either the 3.2L or the 3.6L Pentastar Engines.
Although this may appear to be an oil leak from the rear main seal, closer inspection will prove otherwise.
I've been doing some cross-referencing of this part on several retailer's parts sites. None of these sites are listing this oil filter assembly or list the assembly as being on back order. The only sites that list this part as being available is eBay & Amazon. We're hoping to hold on any panic buying in order to have the dealership install this part as they will offer a lifetime warranty. Otherwise you can take your chances with using aftermarket parts or buying from sites like Amazon or eBay.
I've also contacted Jeepcares in another forum as well as on twitter and within their Jeepcares web site to see what can be done about this issue. if you're jeep is going through this same issue, then you need to either post you failure date on carcompleints.com or other sites and let others know this is unacceptable. We need this part redesigned and soon.
If your Dodge, Jeep or any other vehicle with the 3.2L or 3.6L engine has this leaking Oil filter assembly, send a contact to @JeepCares here:
Although I've done some research on this and found others on this forum and other forums have reported this same issue with either their Dodge, Jeep or Chrysler Vehicles, I wanted to make it clear that we're all talking about the same oil filter assembly/adapter as this is a common on the 3.2L and 3.6L engines. However I have just learn that this same 'type" of assembly is also on the Hemi engine as well as the 2.0L/3.0L/3.6L JL & JT engines which all have some form of newly designed above the block oil filter assembly. In fact, using the 2.0L & 3.0L part numbers, these too have either a "discontinued" or "no longer available" at parts retailer sites. I've double cross referenced all types of oil filter assemblies from the 2.0L/3.0L/3.2L/3.6L. Just so others know that this also applies to the 2.0L (gas) & 3.0L (diesel) engines. So if you think you're 2020/2021 jeep/dodge will not be effected by this issue, you'd be dead wrong.
The issue is that most will say that the weakest spot to this design is the lowest spot below the oil filter container tube. However, my discovery shows that this is only a small part of this weakest link. The unit's o-rings will blow out or dislodge from their seated positions thus causing an oil leak. This dislodging of the o-rings occurs when one stomps on the gas as to accelerate into traffic which sends a massive amount of oil and pressure to the units o-rings. I've registered with several parts retailers this past week looking for any updates. At that time and when I first checked those sites, they had posted approx delivery dates. But checking this morning.. those dates have been removed and in big red letters (Discontinued) or (Not Available)
Just to answer anyone's questions about IF you should drive your jeep with this type of failure, The issue is either you have a cracked unit because someone over tightened the oil cap or is it just the o-rings has bene dislodged.. if oil is getting to the oil filter you're fine to drive the vehicle. but it would require you to constantly maintain the oil level. it actually looks worse because the oil is basically flowing or back flowing from the oil cooler, that's if it's entering into the oil filter and not just leaking out from the unit. We've bene driving the jeep for 2 weeks now with this leak and although it's not leaking like a sieve.. we get a gush of massive oil all over the rear of the engine, transmission and down onto the exhaust cross pipe. This is because the oil collects between the engine heads slowly fills up the when you hit a bump or turn a sharp corner the oil in the valley spills out onto the rear of the engine down onto the trans etc.
Borrowed this image from a fellow wrangler owner who did the repair himself
The bad part all this, there's NO ETA on when this part will arrive and may are getting rid of their jeep/dodge etc and writing complaints like you & I have and jeep isn't or hasn't done anything about this. So if you happen to take your Dodge/Jeep to the dealership and they remove the intake manifold, see the leak and know this part is on national back order, you're screwed because they aren't going to reinstall these parts for free and may ask that you don't drive the jeep till the part arrives which could be months/years.
One fellow not know what the issue was with his jeep, took the jeep in and the dealership completely disassembled his engine attempting to find the cause of the leak, Which left the owner of this jeep hanging with a very high bill and months of waiting for the part to arrive. The jeep owner told me, he's going to get rid of the jeep all because either your lube center over tightened your oil cap or you've stomped on the gas (like I did) and blew the o-rings.
As part of my effort to learn more about this issue, I've sent several emails to some of those engineers we've work with over these last 20 years. I'm calling all engineers to create a new better oil filter design seeing that jeep has not given me/us any idea when this part will be back on the market. Current I'm waiting to hear back from those engineers to see if any of them have the time to dissemble/analyze the current oil filter assembly. 68365931AB Building a better mouse trap sort of speak. Only thing I can say now, is pray that those engineers I sent email to, reply favorable and we can get those 3D printers working on the creations of a new redesigned assembly.
Got something the share this morning as this could explain what's been happening to the o-rings. Using a borrowed image from another fellow jeep who did this repair himself, I've added some arrows as to explain what's been happing to these oil filter assemblies. The orange arrows show where the rear of this oil assembly is attached. The blue rags hide the other mounting holes as well as the other oil flow tube holes. But take note of the main flow tube hole as marked by the red arrow. There's absolutely no threads or mounting brackets used to install the oil filter assembly. The assembly is simply placed over this and the other holes then tightened down onto the engine block. The main flow hole (red arrow) is where all of the forced oil is sent into the oil cooler which is located on the oil filter assembly. The oil cooler is the metal ribbed device mounted on top of the oil filter assembly. Oil is constantly being forced upward and into the oil cooler which then flows through the cooler into the oil filter and back out through the front holes which are not seen in this image. Because there's nothing retaining or restraining the rubber seals on any of these oil flow tubes, the assembly merely floats on top of the engine with the hopes that the 5 retaining bolts to hold the assembling in place. The o-rings are merely force fit onto these molded engine holes without any sort of tie down or mounting bracket retaining these o-rings from being dislodged.
2 weeks ago, we went to a lube center to have them change our oil. We started going to a new lube center because Valvoline & Jiffy Lube have both went rogue on us. Spilling oil down the side of the engine, transmission fluid also down the side of the engine, leaving part off the jeep and not correctly tightening critical components in the engine bay as well as transfer case, front and rear differentials. This same thing happen while at Jiffy Lube, so we started going to Valvoline in the hopes that Valvoline would do better.
Right when I would start getting good technicians or started to get to know the shop manager, Valvoline would rotate these people to new locations or we would get some noob techs to handle our oil change. I was growing fond of one of the shops general managers so much so that in one instance, he said he needed a new sway bar end link for this Dodge Avenger. I contacted Moog and was able to get that new sway bar end link for his car.
Long story, short, we started going to a new lube center, and even before they started the oil change they spotted the oil leak under the jeep. They said it looks like a rear main seal. So after the oil change we drove a few blocks to the dealership and paid to have this issue diagnosed. According to that dealership, they said its the oil filter cooler/adapter/assembly and it needed to be replaced. Again that was 2 weeks ago.
During that time I was searching for the oil filter cooler/assembly and learn as we all know now, that this part is very hard to locate or has been discontinued no matter what the part number. Mind you, we left the dealership with paperwork claiming that they ordered the part, but it was on back order and we would have to wait months to get it. According to a national registry, there's nearly 7K units on back order and these numbers continue to grow.
Although our warranty has expired, I sent contacts to Jeepcares in an effort to inform them we're not happy with how this was being handled. I told them who our dealership was and they did some research for us. But something happen while waiting to hear back from Jeepcares. Our dealership went through a restructuring, several services techs where let go (according to jeep cares) and to top it off.. Jeepcares was not able to locate any information within their records that shows our dealership actually ordered the replacement part for our jeep. Our dealership dropped the ball on this and never ordered the replacement part, Furious, we came within inches of getting rid of the jeep.
Last Fri, we get a call from Jeepcares saying that our services advisor who was handling our services at the old dealership was relocated to a new dealership and with a new position. That evening our service advisor taking time our of his new schedule, called us saying he has the oil filter in stock and they're ready to install the part on our jeep.
Mind you, our old dealership was approx. 20 mins away from our current location.. The new dealership, where our service advisor is located and where they claim they have the oil filter assembly in stock just for us, is 5 hours away. So this Tue March 2nd, we're taking time off, driving 5 hours to a new dealership just to have this new oil filter assembly installed on our jeep. I'm hoping I can get in close to find out what really failed on our oil filter assembly and will report back afterward.
So it's now or never, either the jeep will be repaired in less than 1 day, or we'll be driving home in a new vehicle.
[Update] Important Notice To all Dodge & Jeep Owners with the 2.0L / 3.0L / 3.2L & 3.6L Engines
Just return home from a very long day at the dealership. We left the house this morning at 4:00 am est this morning and drove 4 hours to the dealership. Several times through out the day, I was allowed into the shop and watch the entire procedure. The mechanic was very knowledgeable and helpful while keeping me informed on what needed to be done.
As I watched the mechanic, I was informed that one or more of the forward o-rings (closes to the oil filter upright) blew it's seal and that the oil filter housing/upright was not cracked as first suspected. Our installation took a total of 4 hours to complete. We're very happy with how Jeepcares was able to locate a Maryland dealership who had these parts in stock and was able to see us in as quickly as possible.
So Just to confirm, Our issue was NOT related to over tightening of the oil filter cap. Moreover it was related to at least 2 failing o-rings within the 68365931AB adapter/cooler unit. But as a precaution, the entire unit was replaced.
More Insight Into the Oil Filter Assembly/Adapter/Cooler
I've list all the possible names this unit can be referred to when searching for this part online or in part retailers. While at the dealership, I was informed by the service manager that a district supervisor from Mopar was going to be there later that day to discuss my discovery. But the supervisor actually arrived right before we left and I over heard them talking about my o-ring discovery. They even came to talk to me about how to replicate this issue. I informed them that this seem to have happen while stomping on the gas peddle while accelerating into traffic. This mass of rush of oil an pressure blew at least 2 of the 5 seals.
It is apparent that when a Dodge, Jeep or Chrysler vehicle enters into the dealership with an oil filter adapter issue, 9 out of 10 the dealership just replaces the unit without knowing the cause. Most have said that a hair line crack appears on the unit soon after having the oil changed. But this is not the case. The mechanic is simply told to replace the unit and not to ask any questions or offer any support for other "discoveries". A discovery that would go unchecked since my discovery as of 2 weeks ago. what needs to have happen here, is that the mechanics once they remove the unit, needed to get with the service managers and inform them of what the issue was or could have been. My oil filter adapter and failed o-rings was given to the Mopar supervisor.
I also informed the service manager that at one point I thought I seen something inn reference to a new set of red o-rings that was to be used on the replacement oil filter adapter. They were not aware of any new replacement o-rings. So I'm a bit disappointed at the dealership and district supervisors for not following up on my suggestion of a better design o-ring for the oil filter adapter.
The main reason I'm continuing this post this morning even after every thing seems to be in order, I'm still noticing a small amount of oil under the jeep. Plus I'm smell a small amount of coolant. This tells me that although the mechanic who handled our repairs, said he was going to clean the engine and belly of the jeep but never did. The radiator has several stains down the front and I'll have to wash it this weekend. I'm not upset at the mechanic, but clearly he either avoided cleaning the engine bay or simply was pulled over onto another project. Which leads me to the next topic.
I have seen others on the forums and sites like reddit saying there have a coolant leak somewhere towards the rear of the engine block and can't seem to locate the source. Now that I know how the oil filter adapter works, I'll try to explain one place this coolant leak could be occurring. In this image, it shows a flow tube protruding out the rear of the unit. This tube (at one point I thought was a vacuum line) turns out to be where coolant enters into the unit via a rubber hose. Then the coolant flows through the cooler (metal part on top of the unit) then flows down through forward flow tube which does not have an o-ring. So If one is wondering as to where a coolant leaks is coming from on top of the jeep's engine, this might be the culprit.
This image shows where the oil is forced into the system through this main hole, travels through the oil cooler (metal part on top of the unit) then is forced into the oil filter, then flow out the bottom holes. The coolant antifreeze and oil flow have separate tubes which cross one another, thus the term oil cooler is used because they utilize coolant antifreeze to actually cool the oil.
The important part here, My oil filter adapter blew an o-ring at this location: And just to clarify, there wasn't any hair line cracks in our oil filter adapter. So be prepared, that if you stomp on the accelerator from a complete stop or accelerate into traffic, chances are at or about 40K - 80K miles your o-rings will fail at some point and the entire unit will need to be replaced. This repair will cost you between $700.00 - $1,000 and depending on the age of the vehicle, you may have "other" charges introduced into your work order. This is one reason I informed the service manager that at some point throughout my search, I heard there is a new red o-ring kit available for our oil filter adapters. However this may only be an update for the UK market and not the North American market.
This is all pretty interesting. Looking over the info, it looks like we could replace the o-rings ourselves and sane the headache of the part replacement- based on what you're saying above. I've not been into the 3.6, but I'd imagine there's more than a few owners that are stomping the gas to merge into traffic. I've got a friend with a 2016 so I'll be checking to see if there's anything I can see from the top/ back.
Very good write up OM. Those 5 mounting holes would not bother me if I had a Pentastar motor but what would/does concern me for my son's 2016 is those lousy o-ring designs. Anyone with a hangover at the factory assembling that cooler would be prone to doing it wrong. A better o-ring design would be easy for FCA to do and add as problems occur. If I were reinstalling I would place a ton of vaseline on those o-rings to let them settle in the right place and tighten the unit down real even like and slowly.
But again thanks for the comprehensive blurb there. Also one has to wonder at 7000 units why an aftermarket company does not make and sell a cast and CNC machined Aluminum unit with lines out to an external cooler.
And just another note - If an aftermarket design was created I would want a bypass block for the coolant to go out to a remote filter which also would be remote and included in the block design. IE bring everything to the outside of the motor and eliminate under the manifold issues. Going to talk with a friend who owns a large machine shop to see what he thinks. He can cast and has CNC lathes and milling/cutting machines. For 7000 units needed he probably could get a 1000 units sold. What is the cost of those cooler/filter units from FCA?
03-04-2021, 03:07 PM
Important Notice To all Dodge & Jeep Owners with the 2.0L 3.0L 3.2L & 3.6L Engines
