[birdwatcher12]

I'm a new Jeep owner, and this is my first post on Jeep Forum, so bear with me...

I bought a 2000 Cherokee Sport in June this year. My wife and I love it, but I'm puzzled. The long story short... It was leaking oil just a little when I bought it. Just a few spots showing up in the driveway. Took it over to the local shop and had the valve cover gasket replaced. The rear main seal needs replacement too, but we couldn't afford it at the time with new tires and brakes on the bill. The service tech put what he called a diaper on to help with the leak.

There's the backstory. Now the issue is this... The oil dipstick always looked low to me, even after I changed the oil and put in 6 quarts, it never registered right at the OK mark, always an inch or so lower. This week though, the dipstick was bone dry. Thinking the rear main had taken a turn for the worst and we were hemorrhaging oil, I put in 3 quarts to see where that got me, but still, The dipstick was dry. I put in another 3 quarts. The dipstick registered, but barely.

My wife absolutely had to get to work that day, We only have the one vehicle, and I didn't have time to change the oil before to assure we had the correct level. She drove the 25 miles there and back on faith and without a problem. This morning I was able to do an oil change. What drained out of the pan was... gulp... almost 10 quarts of oil. I put in a fresh 6 and checked the stick, and it barely registers anything.

My questions are these.... How might my dipstick be steering me wrong all of a sudden? And it drives fine now, but I know too much oil is way BAD. Especially that much. Could 10 quarts of oil have done anything terrible- long term that I'm just not feeling yet?

[backwoodsgoop]

What I would suggest you might try looking in the owners manual to the eng oil fill spec 6 quartz sounds about right mark your eronious dipstick to that level and use that as a reference point. as far as any long term damage to your engine with it bieng over filled I wouldnt worry about it. doubt that it hurt it any.

[xJoshxx]

4.0L holds 6quarts with filter so add 6qt's and forget your dipstick or go buy a new one.

[leftlanetruckin]

before you assume everything is wrong, do you have an oil cooler fitted??? that would account for the extra volume of oil.
have a look around for any lines that go from the motor to an external oil cooler before doing anything else.
if you put the original 6 qts of oil into a motor with a good size oil cooler, the results wont make you happy.

martin

[mdm]

Originally Posted by leftlanetruckin

before you assume everything is wrong, do you have an oil cooler fitted??? that would account for the extra volume of oil...

You would need a pretty big cooler and/or a whole lot of oil lines to need an extra gallon of oil.

The dip stick is the wrong one.

[leftlanetruckin]

Originally Posted by mdm

You would need a pretty big cooler and/or a whole lot of oil lines to need an extra gallon of oil.

The dip stick is the wrong one.

obviously not worth checking then huh?
and yes, i have ran some pretty big oil coolers is my old rally cars...

martin

[brian674]

I've had a similar problem. My dipstick reads way too high. I don't understand it but it's almost 3 inches above the full line. Doesn't run bad. I put the six quarts plus filter in as usual. I then drained the oil and put the used oil in the used container to measure how much came out and it's pretty much six quarts. edit: [I drain the old oil then add the new oil, just to be clear].

I think the dipstick is wrong, but I'm not too worried about it. I don't have any smoke coming from the tail pipe or any knocks (other than the usual Jeep stuff).

Anyone have a similar problem.

This is my second Jeep. my first Jeep was a 2.4 liter and the dipstick on it always read low. My 4.0 liter always reads high.

Oh well.