Hi Everyone. New owner of a 1991Jeep Cherokee 4Dr. Had it checked out by a mechanic before I bought it. No leaks at the time. Six weeks later and I have a leak. Any ideas based on attached photos what might be leaking?





Dripping from pipe looking thing?

 

First pic looks to be the rear main seal. Easy way to tell is put your finger in it and see if its engine oil. Looks as if your tranny pan may have a small leak as well.

The second is the drip line from your AC unit. Run the Ac and any condensate/moisture produced will exit via that hose.

Good luck with your XJ!

 

Start up top. Most leaks are the from valve cover which tends to run toward the rear and the back of the block will be oily as a result. The o-rings in the oil filter adapter are also pretty common, and you typically see oil on the side of the engine and on the starter, and also running backwards off the back of the oil pan as well. The rear main seal could be bad, but check everything else first before assuming its the rear main, The oil on the transmission pan is probably just the drops flying back when moving.

If it's the valve cover, I highly recommend using the more expensive FelPro blue silicon gasket as it seals much better and is reusable. The cheap cork ones seem to start weeping after a year or two.

 

Thanks for the response. It ended up being the valve cover and the oil pan. How difficult is it to put a new gasket on the oil pan?

 

The oil pan is a bit of a pain, mostly because of trying to maneuver it out around the oil pickup. Worse if not lifted.

 

Does it make sense to do the rear main seal while in there?

 

My vote is yes it makes sense! The biggest part of the rear main seal is getting the oil pan out of the way. It would be a shame to do the oil pan gasket and then 3 months from now find the rear main seal leaking! Get a FelPro gasket for your oil pan as well. It comes with a kit to hold it in place while you fight with the oil pan. But I would encourage you to change the rear main seal when you do the oil pan!

 

Thanks! I'm going to replace both and will go with FelPro.