About 1 year ago the waterpump went bad in the
2008 JK. Rubicon
/w 3.8L V6

Recently the waterpump started leaking at the lower side of the seal again. (NOT THE PULLY SIDE)

I removed the waterpump cleaned up the seal area perfectly clean and used PERMATEX WATERPUMP GASKET MAKER.

Refilled the coolant.

When test driving the car looking fingers crossed no leaks. The motor SHUT off and wouldn't start.
Coolant was going everywhere and appears to be leaking from the pump again or the surrounding area. It is impossible to see the source of the leak.
Also the motor was running horribly and I waited 30 minutes before it would start.

There are 0 DTCs in the vehicle.

I wanted to find out if anyone has this problem and what did the problem ended up by being.

My thoughts are that a head gasket is possibly leaking and exhaust gas is pressurizing the coolant system.

It only has 80,000 miles on the clock but I think the previous owner got this changed because the maintenance and repairs I have had to do is of a vehicle in the 150,000-200,000 mile distance.
Axel seals on front axel, power steering hoses (pressure side), ball joints.
Also the records for other maintenance is far to soon like replacing the front axel gear assembly, at 50,000 miles.
Catalytic and o2 sensors changed on warranty etc.
Even the rear axel, BOTH U-joints, intake gaskets failed and much more.

The latest DTC was P2172 Throttle Valve Actuator (mass air flow too high) but upon clearing never returned.

Thanks for any help.

 

I got my Chrysler expert involved.

He notified me that he has dealt with over 20 JEEP 3.8 motors that experienced this.

He says the following is the failure and upon checking this motor he appears to be correct.
CAUSE BAD QUALITY. (well not from me. Castrol FULLY synthetic Chrysler approved) with long life filter changed every 5000miles.

Excessive RING wear -> caused by bad oil by the previous owner.
Indication burning 1LITRE per 1000miles (STILL IN CHRYSLER SPEC)

Exhaust gas getting past the rings into the crank side.
He said the following failures I will have.

Pressurized coolant - > CHECK YES have this problem.
Crank Bearing damaged (especially #6 bearing) -> CHECK YES I have this problem for sure #6 is the worst.

Looks like a motor swap or Rebuilt will be underway.

According to my Chrysler GUY (at the DEALER) is a friend NOT dealer stupidity

Apparently if you burn lots of OIL your motor will fail this way every time.
He also mentioned even Dealers in 2008/2009 at times used a low quality oil that has caused many motors to fail under warranty.

Recommendation by him is to run 100% synthetic from day one when I purchase a new JEEP /w fram synthetic long life filter.

Any comments??

 

Plenty of folks are reporting this problem who religiously change oil and filter. It isn't a problem with what the previous owner did--there are apparently some bad motors out there. Having written that, do be aware that for virtually all of the auto manufacturers for at least the 40+ years I've been driving, one quart of oil per 800-1000 miles is NORMAL. Yes, I don't agree, but they approve the warranty repairs.

As for synth from day one: I'm old school. Break in the engine first. Change at 500 miles to get manufacturing junk out of the engine. then at 2500, then at 5000. Dino until synth at 5000 miles. My Jeep does not burn oil and I have 132K miles and change oil (Mobil 1 Extended Warranty) at the oil manufacturer's recommendation (earlier if the vehicle has been used in particularly dusty conditions).

BTW: If this were my Jeep, I'd get a second opinion on that need to replace the motor.

 

If this Jeep was used hard off road, there is nothing unusual about those repairs. Dirt and mud and sand and dust are very hard on engines and vehicles. I've had to do plenty of those repairs myself, plus many more (driveshaft, unit bearing, power steering pump, etc). I attribute all of it to the abuse my Jeep sees on the trails.

My water pump also recently failed. What I read above is your water pump failed, you replaced it and it seemed to work fine. Except that after the test run your engine wouldn't start and there's coolant all over the place. Well, seems to me that the water pump needs to be pulled and fixed. It's what you last touched. 99.999% chance that's the problem (Okay, I made up that number. But since it's the last thing someone worked on, it's really most likely the problem.).

 

Your talking about the silicone type gasket maker. Did you let it set 24 hrs before refilling with fluid and driving? It takes minimum of 24 hrs to cure

 

Oh man, use The Right Stuff ...

http://www.permatex.com/products/our-brands/the-right-stuff

 

Agreed, the right stuff is a very user friendly gasket maker and has a great seal.

Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

 

Yeah that's why I asked if he used the silicone type. I made that mistake when doing an intake swap when I was a kid. Sprayed antifreeze everywhere lol

 

I have a 2009 JKUR which has had 5-30 Royal Purple in it changed every 6K. This is from 5 miles to now 98,000 miles.

I have had zero problems with oil burning other engine/oil related issues.

The compression test I did a month or so ago showed about 175psi on all 6 cylinders. If I was you I would do a compression test. If you have heavy clearance issues the compression test will show it and it only take 3-4 hours if you know nothing about what you are doing.

If you know what you are doing you could be done in 90mins or less.