Well I have a pretty messy oil leak, cleaned it all up and watched and waited. It is either coming from the crank seal on the front of the timing cover or the cover itself. I did read the TSB on this so I'm thinking I got one of the bad ones. Checked moparpartsonline and the cover is over $500! Wow! Anyone else replace it with something a little cheaper? Are there any aftermarket ones available? Could I use a later model one if I could get it out of a jy? Thanks.

 

The cover is pretty much the entire front of the engine. Never heard of one from anywhere other than MOPAR.
Don't know if any changes were made between '07 and '11. I'll look up the part numbers for those years.

edit to add:

'07 and '08 are the same part number: 68003438AA

'09 through '11 are the same as previous except the last letter is B: 68003438AB

The dealer can tell you for sure if all 3.8L covers are the same design.

 

Why not just replace the seals? Is the cover damaged?

 

Thanks Ronjenx. I don't know if the TSB covered 08 as well. ZMagic, I don't think it's the seal. There is a TSB out about the porosity of the metal being out of spec. The oil actually leaks through the pores in the metal due to a casting flaw. Of course it's not a recall and I'm way out of warranty so it would be out of my pocket. $500+ for the cover plus a couple hundred labor is pretty expensive. Someone asked what a jy is but the post is now gone, anyway jy is junkyard. Thanks again.

 

I went through this on my '08, covered by the powertrain warranty. I had to show them the leak source, as it looked like a rear main seal at first glance.
Did you purchase your JK new?

 

Ah, I see. I was not aware of this TSB.

 

I bought it about 6 weeks ago, thought I got a great deal. Since I've had it, I've had to put in a new heater core, check engine light is on (misfire cyl 1) and keeps coming back and now it smells like old wet dog, i'm thinking the PO shampoo'd the carpet which masked the odor.