Yet another question. Forgive me, but the last XJ I had was like ten years ago and in the meantime most of my Jeep knowledge fell out of my brain to be replaced with GM misinformation.

Anyway... I noticed when I first got Meredith that there was a good amount of oil around the air filter assembly, particularly on the inside of the hood and bits of hoses and so forth. Being the average red-blooded, quick-to-panic human male, I immediately thought of blow-by. I also know that a wonky CCV system can toss oil out of the breather. I checked the CCV tubes and they actually look brand new, shiny and with new clamps. Not clogged, though the tubes had some gunk in them. I checked the air filter and it, too, was new-ish... there a little bit of gunk at the bottom of the assembly, but nothing particularly impressive... essentially, the sort of gunk I'd expect to be loitering around the bottom of the air cleaner assembly.

Thing is that the oil that was spread around seems... old. I mean, it's not like shiny new oil, it's more like... oily dirt. So I cleaned off wherever this stuff had accumulated and I stuck some clean pieces of tape in those spots. I figured that if there was a blow-by problem, I'd be able to gauge at least how awful it was by how rapidly new oil -- or oily dirt, as the case may be -- accumulated on my shiny new duct tape.

I've so far driven it around 400 miles, to Maryland and back, at highway speeds and local speeds, and there has not been any further accumulation of oily dirt or oil at all. My air filter remains clean. I can see a little trickle of ugly coming out of the CCV tube that goes into the air cleaner assembly, but again... it's not even really liquid, more like gunk that accumulated in the tube. I'm not particularly sludged up under the valve cover, either. And the damn thing runs great!

I am hoping, in the deep, naively optimistic recesses of my brain, that one of the previous owners actually repaired a problem with the CCV or something and just didn't bother to clean up afterwards. I know the previous owner had it for a year before he passed it on to me... and I can piece together that, before him, at least the rear axle was replaced (it's from a '96, according to the salvage-yard yellow paint marker that's scribbled on it) and various sundry other bits were done. So maybe that guy fixed this too? Or maybe it's just laying in wait to lunge at my throat when I least expect it.

Thoughts, anybody?

AJ

 

Theory number two, which that hopelessly optimistic part of me just made up, is that one of the CCV lines rotted our and broke at some point in history, temporarily spraying ugliness into the engine compartment, until it was eventually replaced with the lovely new bits that are there now.

 

I'd say just keep your eye on it for now and see if it gets any worse. If it runs good, just leave it be, but check it after driving it here and there. If you see any part of the CCV system leaking, use this write up:
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f310/...ite-up-733669/

 

Thanks! That's exactly what I've been doing all day... I keep wiping down and cleaning off the bits of the engine compartment that get cranky, and then just checking it after I've driven. And I think I've figured it out!

A large portion of the oil seems to be collected on and around the power steering pump, which is kind of near the air filter assembly. At least, I assumed this was oil because it was the color and consistency of oil, and for some reason I expect power steering fluid to be red (a quick Google search indicates that it is not). Well, the power steering fluid in this Jeep is apparently not red, and pretty much looks just like regular old oil.

I imagine, then, that my power steering pump is leaking... which is a big brow-wipe of relief. Because I can change a power steering pump in an afternoon, whereas replacing piston rings is not the sort of thing I can do in a few hours in the driveway.

It also kind of explains some things I was a little confused about, like how blow-by would end up on the outside of the air filter assembly inside the engine compartment rather than, say, on the back of my headlight or even just soaking into the filter itself.

When I get some time tomorrow, I'll muck about and see if I can locate where, precisely, it's leaking from. I'll post an update if anybody cares.