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03' Liberty Coolant/Oil Leak???

3K views 26 replies 5 participants last post by  sgucken 
#1 ·
Hey guys, Im leaking oil from my passenger side valve cover gasket towards the firewall. Its creating smoke and coming in through the vents, nasty. I'm not losing a lot from this leak.

I am all of a sudden losing coolant. i can see it on the garage floor and it seems to be only once the car is shut off. Its a noticeable amount thats lost, i saw from my coolant reservoir. nothing dangerous but I'm sure it will lead to a major loss soon if i don't fix it.

my question is that i can't figure out where its leaking. i thought maybe the water pump originally. i changed that with an aftermarket pump almost 2 years ago. the weep hole at the top is clear of any liquid or grime though.

i have two pictures here of something that is completely soaked and I'm not sure what it even is. looks like its soaked with oil and coolant. its right to the left of my oil filter.

i am almost thinking it might be the thermostat housing thats leaking coolant too. ill throw in a pic of that too.

i hope you guys can help.
 

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#4 ·
hey guys, started tearing everything out and got to the valve covers but of course i can't figure out how to take the plastic wiring connections off the studs that are over the bolts. heres some pics, please help

the first pic is the bottom front bold of the passenger side (I'm starting with the passenger side first).

the second pic is 1 of 2 plastic clips that are over the head of the bolt, there are studs on top of the bolts too. in order to pull the harness off on them i need to somehow release the red tabbed connections (theres 3 or 4 i believe) once those are off i will have slack to then get the 2 big plastic harnesses of the gasket cover bolts.

please help guys, i am horrible with these plastic things.
 

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#5 ·
On mine on the valve covers those plastic harness holders just pull up off the studs , the ones with the red tabs have to be squeezed after the red tab is slid back . The red tab is a lock that slides down the connector after the connector is pushed onto the sensor or whatever the connector connects to . The side of the black connector that was under the red tab has to be depressed before the connector will pull off . Think I got this right . lol
 
#6 ·
alright, the plastic harness just pulled right off the stud and there was enough slack in the wired connections (with the red tabs) that i didnt have to even disconnect them.

valve cover came off, it was a little hard to get the right angle to pull it out but i got it. gasket came right off with it too.

here are some pics so you can see what I'm dealing with. i have a short video and i hope it is able to post here. the video is of the side of the engine near the firewall where i think its leaking down onto the exhaust. my pressure washing didnt work so well as you can see in the vid there is still a ton of shiny oil lol. i have to get at it after I'm done with the valve covers.

i threw in some pics of the cover itself because there is rust on the lower front part of the cover. my dad said its fine and to just clean it really well. i already put the cover back on too, just waiting to tighten the bolts until my torque wrench comes in tomorrow from amazon.

let me know what you think.

for some reason i can't upload the video here or in photo bucket.
 

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#8 ·
i am absolutely using new gaskets, i would never reuse them after going through all this work to take the covers off lol.

i did not use sealant, i was told i don't need it. i already put the cover back on the passenger side but i didnt put anything back or torque the bolts down properly. do you really think i should go get sealant and take the cover back off to put it on? i don't think sealant was used originally and they laster 130k:confused:

i just went to home depot and bought a gallon of kerosene for my torpedo heater, its cold here in chicago:thumb down: gonna start the driver side until the torque wrench arrives

also, does that rust on the edge of the cover concern you at all? I'm assuming no since you didnt say anything. i hope not because i already put it back on
 
#9 ·
I was looking at the rust on the valve cover mating surface & wondering just how smooth you ended up getting it when you cleaned it up . Normally you wouldn't need sealant & if you got it really smooth you will probably be alright . If you cleaned the mating surface of the heads you wouldn't need sealant on them . The only thing I was concerned about is the rust & roughness on the valve cover .
 
#10 ·
I was looking at the rust on the valve cover mating surface & wondering just how smooth you ended up getting it when you cleaned it up . Normally you wouldn't need sealant & if you got it really smooth you will probably will be alright . If you cleaned the mating surface of the heads you wouldn't need sealant on them . The only thing I was concerned about is the rust on the valve cover .
yeah i was too but my dad convinced me that its not an issue because its not dirty and there is no sign of oil residue on it. plus he said it would be expensive, i should of just called the dealership to find out lol.
 
#12 ·
update, just got the bolts all loose on the driver side and went to pull the cover out but the high pressure fuel line going to the fuel rail is in the way. now i have to go to the parts store and get some plastic clip to release it from the fuel rail. never goes smoothly, i thought it would be much easier on this side lol.

good news is that my torque wrench is here so when i come back from the parts store i will be good to go and hopefully finish up today.

heres the pics of the fuel line thats in the way. for some reason the pics always turn when i post them here. weird.

almost there man, wish me luck
 

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#15 ·
well, went to torque the first bolt on the passenger side and the bolt snapped flush in the hole. luckily its the top bolt in the front. everything else i did not torque, just did it by hand.

my mechanic said just drive it and see if it leaks, hopefully it doesn't.

lots of smoke when i started it up because of coolant that i spilled all over the place from putting the reservoir back on.

i noticed oil dripping from the same spot so i am hoping thats just residual. i have no oil loss from looking at my dipstick.

the two breather tube hoses that are cracked are now making noises so i am gonna get those from the dealership tomorrow. for some reason they were fine being cracked on their as long as they have been.

what a project this has been. i just hope the oil leak is fixed. not even worried about anything else.
 
#17 ·
nope, haven't figured that one out yet. i wanna focus on just the oil now because that seems to be the biggest issue. can't keep breathing in burnt oil everything the vehicle comes to a stop lol.

i just replaced the two breather hoses today that were cracked. after i replaced them i heard the same sucking noise once i fired the car up haha, thats always fun, especially when you think for sure you knew what the problem was lol.

after looking around for the noise while the car was running i found another big crack on this purge harness(?) hose, thats what the dealership is calling it. its cracked on the rubber that attaches to the nipple sticking out of the driver side of the throttle body. ill throw a pic up of the hose.

i called the dealership and they said is $90 for it lol. thats crazy. i typed in that part number and don't even see this hose being part of it. looks like its only the 2 lines that go directly off the harness?

any idea how to get this lil rubber area fixed for cheap:confused: part number is 53013427ae i would imagine if i can't find it cheap that i could just cut a piece of hose and fit it on there. its just a straight piece? i just don't know where i could find it.

i am going to spray a lot more degreaser and hose down the firewall side of the eshause system on the passenger side thats been smoking. hopefully i can clean all the residual well enough to tell if I'm still leaking.

if I'm still leaking from somewhere else i would have to clue where else because its definitely from up high and going low onto the exhaust. i wish i could of posted the video so you can see but it wouldn't drag to here or upload to photo bucket.
 

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#20 ·
well, just went to the auto parts store near my house and they had the same size hose and cut a foot of it for me. put it on that tube and i still have that sucking noise lol. glad i didnt spend $90 for the part from the dealer.

i did not have this noise until i changed the valve covers a few days ago:confused: the two breather tubes were cracked and rotted, throttle body purge hose was cracked and rotted. fixed all 3 and still this noise is there.

i hope its not a exhaust manifold leak noise, if it is i don't know why it would happen after i changed valve covers.

here is a video i took of the noise, seems to get louder as i got closer to the firewall.

hope you guys can help.

here is the link to the video, i just uploaded it to my youtube page

 
#21 ·
update, i checked yesterday pretty well for any cracks or hoses disconnected and i didnt find anything. not sure where that noise is coming from.

i did manage to find that coolant leak though and i did check this spot before too but for some reason when i checked last night i found some dripping from the lower radiator hose on both ends.

i replaced the original clips with the ones you see in the picture almost 2 years ago when i did the thermostat and water pump. the original clips gave me such a hard time to remove so i put these ones on.

not sure if i should switch back to the original or what. i believe i did replace the hose with an aftermarket one but kept the spring inside.

also, still a good amount of residual oil still burning off from the exhaust. I'm gonna be cleaning it off as much as i can in the next couple days here though
 

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#22 ·
Those type hose clamps should be fine . Have you tried tightening them a little more ? Sometimes after a period of time they'll seem looser than when originally installed . A size shorter clamp would have been fine . You didn't run out of slots in the clamps & hit the solid part of the clamps when tightening did you ? Only other thing I can think of is if there was any build up of solids on the radiator connectors where the hose slides on or inside the ends of the hose . Once the exhaust gets good & hot residual oil should burn off fairly quickly . Have you checked the large flexible plastic hose that goes from the air box to the throttle body for any cracks ? I have started mine with this hose off & it sucks .
 
#23 ·
well, i was able to get some turns out of both ends on that radiator clamp. thanks for the tip, my dad mentioned the same thing as well. it was just weird because i had looked there before but the leak would only happen after the car was shut off and sitting for a bit. i just happened to notice it while i was cleaning off residual oil from underneath the engine.

as far as the oil leak. i cleaned off as much residual as i could from underneath with my garden hose and some more degreaser. hopefully this was it.

i will keep you posted. the car hasn't been driven much since.
 
#25 ·
A few posts up you indicated you snapped a valve cover bolt. Are you using the correct torque wrench and setting? These bolts are torqued in inch pounds, not foot pounds.


I am happy for you that you got the oil leak fixed. Good job!
 
#26 ·
A few posts up you indicated you snapped a valve cover bolt. Are you using the correct torque wrench and setting? These bolts are torqued in inch pounds, not foot pounds.

I am happy for you that you got the oil leak fixed. Good job!
well, the torque conversion from inches to foot pounds came out to just under 9 foot pounds but my wrench was a min of 10 foot pounds so I'm sure thats why it snapped.

not leak from the top front corner bolt that snapped though. knock on wood.
 
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