daniellemarie008

My dad was in a really bad accident with his tractor last night and my sister called me and told me and I freaked out and flew home in my jeep to say hi before they air lifted him from our house. I parked out on the side of the road to our neighbor hood because there was no were else to park and my jeep got left there for the past day. I got home this morning and drove my jeep back to our house. and as I was about to go into the house I decided for some reason to look under neath it and there was a thin spray of dark oil like stuff all over the bottom of part of the engine and other stuff. I also noticed that there was some oil around the oil filter not a ton but enough to notice on a quick glance. I just got a lift kit on a couple weeks ago and I don't remember there being that stuff there when I getting it put on. Should I be worried? I got a friend to drive me to the hospital this morning to see my dad instead of taking my jeep because I wasn't sure if I should drive it. and didn't want to maybe make things worse. Any help would really be great!! idk when ill be back from the hospital today but I was going to try to take some pictures too for you guys. Thanks so much

DanielleMarie

Nor-CalJeeper

Sounds like you have a leak somewhere, I would start by cleaning up the engine where it is oily the best you can ( I use dawn dishsoap gets rid of oil great! )

Then from there check your oil level to make sure it is at a safe level as long as it is start the engine and let it run a bit, shut it down after a few and see if you can spot where the leak is coming from .

Hope your dad will be ok, I'll be praying for your family

97jeepxj40

Where abouts on the engine is the oil? is it toward the back? since you say you have some around the oil filter could it be the filter o rings? lots of oil leaks head toward the back of the engine due to the angle it sits at. could also be valve cover gasket leaking.

providing you dont find puddles under your jeep i wouldn't worry about driving it, just keep an eye on your levels and guages.

hope your dad is ok.

Fsher21

Tranny fluid does that, it will be redish.

daniellemarie008

Thanks you really can't imagine how much that means they ended up not being able to save his leg during surgery and had to take it off so I've have had a really ruff day to say the least.


I will def clean it off and try that when i get back

daniellemarie008

I dont think it was red at all i rubbed some off on my finger and it look blackish which didn't make sense to me because the oil was just changed 1000 miles ago so if it was engine oil I thought it would be clearish.

daniellemarie008

I think it was more towards the front. and no there wasn't any puddles

97jeepxj40

cant think what that might be really from the front. i posted as i seem to have had oil leaking from most places haha. the only things i can think of up front would be steering box, power steering fluid or coolant.

im sure someone much more 'in the know' than me will have better ideas

Nor-CalJeeper

I am sorry to hear about the loss of your dads limb, I hope he will make a speedy recovery.

As far as the oil leak, does it seam like it is possibly coming from behind the harmonic balancer? there is a seal behing it on the timing cover and could possibly be the source of the leak since you said it appears to be from the front of the motor.

daniellemarie008

Haha i would love to say what exactly your talking about but i'm not sure what parts those are at the moment. I just got back from the hospital but it was already dark so I couldnt get any amazing pics but i did take some with flash for the moment being i'll up load them below! maybe you can tell some stuff from them

daniellemarie008

RenegadeT

those don't look bad at all, keep an eye on all the fluid levels (engine oil, auto tranny fluid, power steering fluid). I would guess thats power steering fluid, on your tranny cooler line, could have been overfilled, overheated, or a small hose leak at the PS pump. Clean it all up (I spray brake parts cleaner on everything) and see if you can catch where its coming from.

Nor-CalJeeper

Also the pulley with the belt on it in your pictures is the harmonic balancer/crank pulley. right behind it is a seal that goes into the timing cover.

If it is bad it can leak the way your describing from the front of the motor.

DFlintstone

That sounds awful...sorry to hear that..

Anyway, something you want to watch, (as mentioned), the O rings in the filter adapter can harden and leak. It might blow oil all over, and back and drip off the bell housing. So if you find it there after cleaning & watching it, here's a pretty straight forward link on that >>> http://www.myjeepxj.com/cherokee-rep...filter-adapter

thesilkiest

This is the best advice and also the one about using dish detergent.
it's dark because all the parts covered with oil has picked up dirt while driving around
I'm also trying to figure this out on my new used xj and will be cleaning everything up tomorrow then checking fluid levels then monitoring
something tells me this is gonna take a while