Burning Oil Smell

Well, here we go again. My valve cover gasket is leaking again!!!
That sucks big time! What year is yours and how much do you drive it? I thought I had smelled hot oil back around 6K miles, but dismissed it as another vehicle since the smell did not return. I now have 30K and it's my daily driver. Most of my miles to date, are HWY to work and back along with several work/vacation related long high speed runs. I have my oil changed including a high capacity filter every 5-6k miles. I asked my Jeep mechanics to check and no sign of leaks. Is this going to eventually happen or is it hit and miss?
 
That sucks big time! What year is yours and how much do you drive it? I thought I had smelled hot oil back around 6K miles, but dismissed it as another vehicle since the smell did not return. I now have 30K and it's my daily driver. Most of my miles to date, are HWY to work and back along with several work/vacation related long high speed runs. I have my oil changed including a high capacity filter every 5-6k miles. I asked my Jeep mechanics to check and no sign of leaks. Is this going to eventually happen or is it hit and miss?

Mine is a '23 with 25k miles on it. If you haven't seen your oil level drop between oil changes then you are probably fine. I don't know how frequent the issue is. They probably should have run aluminum valve covers instead of plastic imo. But it's a popular engine so hopefully just hit or miss.
 
Mine is a '23 with 25k miles on it. If you haven't seen your oil level drop between oil changes then you are probably fine. I don't know how frequent the issue is. They probably should have run aluminum valve covers instead of plastic imo. But it's a popular engine so hopefully just hit or miss.
I hope so too just over 10000.00 miles 2023 as well 😕
 
I wonder if it's how and how often it's driven? After letting it reach operating temp, I open the pipes and use the sport + setting a lot around town. And on the HYW, my foot is constantly in it...I use Sport+/closed piles up & down the mountain to hold gears longer. I very rarely just cruise. 🤞
 
I wonder if it's how and how often it's driven? After letting it reach operating temp, I open the pipes and use the sport + setting a lot around town. And on the HYW, my foot is constantly in it...I use Sport+/closed piles up & down the mountain to hold gears longer. I very rarely just cruise. 🤞

I typically drive around town, and a short ride on the highway in the morning. It's in no way getting pushed to the limit. I run the exhaust pipes open most of the time.

But mine started leaking at 6 months of ownership. That's when I visually noticed the leak. It probably started earlier. I remeber a strong smell of oil weeks or months before, but thought it was from another vehicle since my jeep was basically brand new.

I knew something was wrong when I would smell the burning oil driving up this hill at my kids' school. The angle of the hill pushed the oil drip to the back of the head and dropped directly on to the exhaust. After it happened a few times, that's when I took it to the dealer to find the leak.
 
Well, now this is interesting. I was so frustrated with my valve cover leak that I looked at a pre owned 2024 wrangler 392 today with only 13k miles. I was all set to trade. The dealer said it was in excellent shape, no major issues.

Well, I brought my sheet of cardboard and my flashlight. And what do you know? There's a leak! That's probably why it was a trade-in.

They threw it on the lift right away when i showed them pics of the leak and the service dept confirmed it was the valve cover leaking. Same as mine.

So I didn't trade.
 

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Someone from the service dept recommended i add a catch can to the engine to possibly relieve the pressure the valve covers experience but I'm not sure if that's a real solution. I don't know much about them. But I'd be all for it if it would work.

Going back to chat with service next week to see what we can work out. Maybe I'll be able to connect with an engineer at jeep to find a solution where we don't have to pull the engine and swap the head.
 
Someone from the service dept recommended i add a catch can to the engine to possibly relieve the pressure the valve covers experience but I'm not sure if that's a real solution. I don't know much about them. But I'd be all for it if it would work.

Going back to chat with service next week to see what we can work out. Maybe I'll be able to connect with an engineer at jeep to find a solution where we don't have to pull the engine and swap the head.
A catch can does not in any way relieve the pressure the valve covers get. That person either does not know what they are talking about, or is trying to fool you into thinking that is a solution, but it's not.

A catch can simply removes some of the oil droplets/vapor from the crankcase vent keeping it from being ingested by the engine. In some engines this is more important than others to reduce deposits on the valve area.

Good luck.
 
A catch can does not in any way relieve the pressure the valve covers get. That person either does not know what they are talking about, or is trying to fool you into thinking that is a solution, but it's not.

A catch can simply removes some of the oil droplets/vapor from the crankcase vent keeping it from being ingested by the engine. In some engines this is more important than others to reduce deposits on the valve area.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info! I know they are used for some cars with turbos but i wasnt understanding how it would help in this case.
 
That sucks big time! What year is yours and how much do you drive it? I thought I had smelled hot oil back around 6K miles, but dismissed it as another vehicle since the smell did not return. I now have 30K and it's my daily driver. Most of my miles to date, are HWY to work and back along with several work/vacation related long high speed runs. I have my oil changed including a high capacity filter every 5-6k miles. I asked my Jeep mechanics to check and no sign of leaks. Is this going to eventually happen or is it hit and miss?

The used '24 i looked at the other day was doing it too. And it only had 13k miles. I know where to look for it now but initially I needed a boroscope to spot the leak.
 
I've had my 24 FE in to Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville 3 times now. I bought it Late August with 160 miles. (5 months ago)
Each time they say they can't find anything leaking. Last time, they apparently "checked" the radiator hose while it was there because it blew off and covered the rig in antifreeze as I got on the interstate in front of dealership. They sent a service tech over that put the hose back on, topped off the fluid without belching the air and told me to "have a good evening"..... As if I was going to just take it home.
I guess you're just supposed to pay 105k for a Jeep and accept driving around with the smell of burning oil in the cab?
Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville AR is an absolute joke of a sales AND service center.
 
I've had my 24 FE in to Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville 3 times now. I bought it Late August with 160 miles. (5 months ago)
Each time they say they can't find anything leaking. Last time, they apparently "checked" the radiator hose while it was there because it blew off and covered the rig in antifreeze as I got on the interstate in front of dealership. They sent a service tech over that put the hose back on, topped off the fluid without belching the air and told me to "have a good evening"..... As if I was going to just take it home.
I guess you're just supposed to pay 105k for a Jeep and accept driving around with the smell of burning oil in the cab?
Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville AR is an absolute joke of a sales AND service center.

Whoa! That's bad! Did you try looking around the valve covers with a boroscope? That's probably where the leak is. It's hard to see but it's likely dripping right above where the exhaust is.

Mine is back in the shop for the same valve cover leak..4 times now.
 
I've had my 24 FE in to Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville 3 times now. I bought it Late August with 160 miles. (5 months ago)
Each time they say they can't find anything leaking. Last time, they apparently "checked" the radiator hose while it was there because it blew off and covered the rig in antifreeze as I got on the interstate in front of dealership. They sent a service tech over that put the hose back on, topped off the fluid without belching the air and told me to "have a good evening"..... As if I was going to just take it home.
I guess you're just supposed to pay 105k for a Jeep and accept driving around with the smell of burning oil in the cab?
Lewis Jeep in Fayetteville AR is an absolute joke of a sales AND service center.
Likely valve covers. I had a leak. A few times over, they couldn’t find it. I bought a scope, found the leak, showed them the video and got it fixed.
 
Joining the valve cover oil leak group, I found it over the weekend, made a video, took it to the dealership today and they are waiting for parts now.
Mine was on the passenger side.
My 392 is not a FE though, it’s a 2024.

The funny part is that the dealer has a FE in the showroom with the hood open, I checked to see if it had the same leak as mine and it does lol.
Here are some videos of the leak.
 

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Joining the valve cover oil leak group, I found it over the weekend, made a video, took it to the dealership today and they are waiting for parts now.
Mine was on the passenger side.
My 392 is not a FE though, it’s a 2024.

The funny part is that the dealer has a FE in the showroom with the hood open, I checked to see if it had the same leak as mine and it does lol.
Here are some videos of the leak.
Did you point out the leak in the final edition to the dealer? What did they say?

This seems like a very common problem. The dealer is looking at mine right now to figure out how to fix it and I have a star case open with Jeep. I should have more Info by Wednesday.

My engine seems to have developed a short starting cycle when it's warm at around 23k miles.
 
Did you point out the leak in the final edition to the dealer? What did they say?

This seems like a very common problem. The dealer is looking at mine right now to figure out how to fix it and I have a star case open with Jeep. I should have more Info by Wednesday.

My engine seems to have developed a short starting cycle when it's warm at around 23k miles.
I did mention it to the service person and sent the video but they didn’t say anything about it.
Here is the video, you can see the dry old drip.

I forgot to mentioned that I called Jeep Care ahead of time and they created a case to follow up, I mentioned to the dealership and offered the case number in case they needed it but they didn’t case much about it, should I update @JeepCares about the progress or just leave it?
 

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I did mentioned it to the service person and sent the video but they didn’t say anything about it.
Here is the video, you can see the dry old drip.

I forgot to mentioned that I called Jeep Care ahead of time and they created a case to follow up, I mentioned to the dealership and offered the case number in case they needed it but they didn’t case much about it, should I update @JeepCares about the progress or just leave it?

You should have a case manager assigned to you if you have a star case so I would reach out to jeep cares. You can email them here through the forum or call them directly.
 

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