I just bought a 98 Cherokee with the 4.0 and has 204k miles on it and it just started to leak oil. I work at a dealership and put it in the air and the oil pan looked like it has been taken off and beat up a little bit from the previous owner taking it off road there is also what looks to be silicon around the pan but the oil looks like it might also be coming from around the flywheel. I also checked the head gasket doesn't look like its leaking but there is a little build up on it. I bought a new oil pan, pump/pickup and pan gasket so hopefully that will solve my problem, any ideas let me know! Thanks!

 

oil pan? filter adapter? rear main seal? valve cover gasket? could be any of these culprits none are hard to replace.

 

Start from the top and work your way down, cause anything above the rear main can leak down and mimic a rear main seal leak. Valve cover, oil filter adapter, distributor, oil pressure sender, oil pan, and of course the rear main

 

Do you lose more than 1/2 quart of oil between oil changes? If not, you have an automatic anti-corrosion system for the underbody of your jeep! LOL. Mine sprays from what looks like a rear main or from the pushrod gallery side of the head gasket. not too worried because there's no drips in the driveway and my oil is only down 1/4 qt between changes.

 

This. And check your oil pressure sending unit to make sure it isn't leaking either. It's right above the oil filter.

My 95 had what I liked to call the "oil recirculation system" it always had fresh oil because it leaked out what it didn't like. Just change the filter every so often and fill the oil and jeep will do the rest lol.

 

I check the oil yesterday and the oil level was fine wasn't low at all! I'm putting it back on the hoist when I get off work to check it over again I have a oil pan, gasket, oil pump/pickup on order should be here tomorrow. There was silicon where the gasket used to be so hopefully it's just that but I'm changing them just incase.

 

Checked*

 

If you're pulling the trigger on the oil pan, do the rear main seal while you're in there

 

Can you get to it while the pan is out and is it pretty simple to replace it? I'm new to this and don't really trust everything on the net!

 

No comment on how hard the RMS procedure is, but I do have a tip: look for "write-ups" for various items. Preferably with pictures. There's a lot of Jeep maintenance on YouTube, too.

 

You can get to it while the pan is out. I definitely wouldn't call it simple but one of the hardest parts of the procedure of the rear main is getting the oil pan off. Lemme look up some write ups for you

 

http://jeepin.com/features/rearmain

http://www.jpzombie.com/forum/topic/...ear-main-seal/

http://www.jeep-xj.info/HowtoRearMain.htm

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=101118

 

Thanks!