Is there or is there not a metal oil filter housing replacement for the crap plastic one?

 

A lot of the time it seems it is not the assembly itself, but simply the o-rings. As far as I know, you can put the wishful thinking to rest

 

Probably depends a lot on mileage and whether some ham fisted mechanic has worked on it. I had a friend do an oil change on their year new JL and over torque the cap causing a crack in the housing which had to be repaired. Personally if the vehicle is under warranty I take it to the dealer even though it costs more, but then they get to know you and you are more likely to have a better result if something goes wrong under warranty.

My 2013 JKU had it's fail after 213000 km, but again suspect that it was over torqued, granted it's plastic, gets hot and was 8 years old. Have heard about O ring failures as well. Attached is a video which is worth watching, you can swap in the newer version of the oil cooler assembly from 2014+ Pentastars however one big warning at the end of the video (spoiler alert), the oil filters are different so it's critical that whoever is doing the oil change knows this and uses the correct filter.

 

Personally if I'm tearing it down for O rings I'm going to replace the whole housing while I'm there.

Dorman now makes an aluminum replacement
https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-135...ler&origin=YMM

 

Thank you for this. It is odd they reflect fitment only back to '14. I can't imagine why this wouldn't fit on '12-'13 pentastars as well.

 

Doesn't look like the Doorman part ships with the oil filter cap and plastic stem that sits inside the cartridge which is different then the ones in the 12-13 Pentastars. But having said that if you got the cap and stem it should work as the 14+ mounts up to a 12-13. Just the warning about the different filter cartridges but a mechanic might catch the difference due to the metal part vs plastic.

It is certainly work looking into, I will.

 

I speculate the cooling fins (that it reuses) may be different.
Other than that it should fit IMO but would require the '14+ oil filters.

 

Watch this video. It explains the height difference.

 

Thought I'd bump this thread with a few pics of the Dorman housing. Got an email from Rock Auto last week that the part was in stock so I ordered one along with a new Mopar assembly so all the parts would be new.I used the Mopar oil cap/filter, cooler (and screws) and sensors. The Dorman unit came with new gaskets and mounting screws.



I'll do my best to follow up as I put some miles on the unit.

 

It looks like I'm heading down this path. Just curious how things are after 14 months of use?