Oil Cooler failure

[davet]

Hey guys,

I have a 2015 Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel. Around 97K on the clock and serviced only about 2000kms ago. The vehicle is well looked after, I keep a close eye on gauges, fluid levels etc. After a long drive back from a weekend away I noticed oil on the driveway. I opened the bonnet, overflow bottle appeared full of oil. Engine temps were fine in the lead up, I regularly check gauges. No warning lights or messages or anything. I immediately took it to a Jeep specialist mechanic with good reviews who informs me oil cooler has failed. Upon further diagnostics I am now looking at;

New oil cooler
New radiator
Cooling system flush 5-6 times to remove all oil contamination from system
($3800)

Replace any hoses that are leaking
That last point is now looking expensive as today I got a call to say the 'valley hose' is leaking as is the oil cooler hose.
($2100)

All up it's looking like around $5900 for parts and labor. Mechanic seems knowledgeable and decent. That price does not include replacing the EGR cooler hose or turbo cooler hose which don't appear to be leaking (yet?). He said that would be an extra $1300 in parts and labour but not essential to do as they aren't leaking. As such, I said don't bother.

My questions are

1. Is $5900 about right for this sort of scope?
2. How common are these oil cooler / hose issues at 97K. It seems pathetic to me to have to spend nearly $6K on a car with under 100K. Coming from a WH CRD before this which was flawless, I am extremely disappointed to say the least.

This is the third Jeep Grand Cherokee I've owned and right now I think I am now done with Jeep after this experience. I had a WH and before that a WJ (both Merc CRDs) and they were great. This WK2 was a good car, until it wasn't....We were lucky it 'failed' in the driveway not 100's of kms from home.

[bjm]

Originally Posted by davet

Hey guys,

I have a 2015 Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel. Around 97K on the clock and serviced only about 2000kms ago. The vehicle is well looked after, I keep a close eye on gauges, fluid levels etc. After a long drive back from a weekend away I noticed oil on the driveway. I opened the bonnet, overflow bottle appeared full of oil. Engine temps were fine in the lead up, I regularly check gauges. No warning lights or messages or anything. I immediately took it to a Jeep specialist mechanic with good reviews who informs me oil cooler has failed. Upon further diagnostics I am now looking at;

New oil cooler
New radiator
Cooling system flush 5-6 times to remove all oil contamination from system
($3800)

Replace any hoses that are leaking
That last point is now looking expensive as today I got a call to say the 'valley hose' is leaking as is the oil cooler hose.
($2100)

All up it's looking like around $5900 for parts and labor. Mechanic seems knowledgeable and decent. That price does not include replacing the EGR cooler hose or turbo cooler hose which don't appear to be leaking (yet?). He said that would be an extra $1300 in parts and labour but not essential to do as they aren't leaking. As such, I said don't bother.

My questions are

1. Is $5900 about right for this sort of scope?
2. How common are these oil cooler / hose issues at 97K. It seems pathetic to me to have to spend nearly $6K on a car with under 100K. Coming from a WH CRD before this which was flawless, I am extremely disappointed to say the least.

This is the third Jeep Grand Cherokee I've owned and right now I think I am now done with Jeep after this experience. I had a WH and before that a WJ (both Merc CRDs) and they were great. This WK2 was a good car, until it wasn't....We were lucky it 'failed' in the driveway not 100's of kms from home.

From memory only you can get new orings for the oil cooler,why is he replacing
the radiator flushing should clean that out as well !The valley turbo coolant hose
is a known problem! I know a Jeep mechanic in Coffs Harbour ,who replaces
the rubber hose with a better quality piece total around $900.00 !If your mechanic replaces this hose with Jeeps part it will fail again!
It appears your mechanic is guilding the lily !
Give Richard at JeepsRUs inCoffs Harbour re price on valleyhose,hes done around seventy.!
Might pay to get another quote re oil cooler leak,clean,from a guy who works on Jeeps!Maybe somebody on this forum can help.
And dont think only Jeep has problems , same age Raiders ,Toyo Prados
cost a fortune in known faults repair costs!

[drover]

Around a grand to replace the valley hose of death it seems, using aftermarket not Jeep parts, aftermarket oil cooler is in the $300 area, why a new radiator I wonder ?? the whole engine does need a good flush out thats for sure and they maybe replacing the header tank and they are expensive so I would be cleaning the old one out really well ...... I certainly wouldn't be using genuine hoses I would be having quality aftermarket hose used....

There are a couple of good Jeep spanner men over your way and I'm sure someone will chime in about them....

You had a good run like me on your earlier Grands but the Mercs also had oil cooler problems, in fact most CRD's oil cooler and EGR failures happen no matter what the brand

[FARWEST]

Agree with bjm...shop around for quotes...talk to Jeeps'r'Us for advice and price on what REALLY needs to be done...oil cooler failure and the failed hoses are common....you DONT need a new radiator....there are quite few WA Members on this forum so hoping they give you advice on who to use in your part of the World....its NOT a Jeep thing...lots of other breeds have inherent factory common problems costing around the 5-10k mark to repair....sorry to hear yours shyte itself before you knew of the inbiult 'weak spots' to safeguard.....and....DONT replace, or allow the workshop to replace, the valley hoses with oem parts...they WILL fail again...there are upgraded aftermarket kits for that job...that will tell anybody how common the failure is, when there's are aftermarket upgrade kit available for anything of any brand...eg: Intercooler charge hoses on Ranger/BT50 engines.

[Jeeper6]

That is ridiculous! When the oil cooler failed on my previous WK2, the symptom was the same. An expansion tank full of oil overflowing out on to the driveway.

Same thing, temps were fine and no indication of any engine issues...

I ended up buying a new oil cooler assembly compete from a Dealer which cost me around $1600.00...the part was called a "Support" and had the oil cooler attached to the oil filter assemble as a unit complete with oil filter.
NB: I didn't have to it was just a delay in the workshop sourcing the cooler...it would have been just a few hundred dollars for the cooler itself.

That was installed by a workshop for me...they flushed the radiator a few times and that was job done...never had an issue after that. No new radiator, no new hoses...

I was charged 8 hours labour costing $1018.16 to remove and replace the oil cooler and totally flush the cooling system and replace the coolant.
This included changing the oil and oil filter which I supplied.

It is not a major job at all...

I have a spare oil cooler now in my garage, cost me about $150.00 in case I get caught out again...which I will carry with me when I head interstate in a couple of weeks time.

I'll add that i did drive the Jeep down to a local general mechanical workshop when i discovered the oil puddle to see what they could do. They diagnosed it correctly and charged me for that.
They did say.." you are going to have to replace the radiator and all the hoses where the oil has got in, probably the thermostat as well..."

I had it Tilt Trayed down to 7 Slot over here where I get all my work done...and they pretty well shrugged their shoulders and said no worries...we'll flush it out, replace the oil cooler, new coolant and oil and you are away...job done.

I think like many other major services on many different makes and models, the oil cooler replacement should be included along with the valley hose on post 2013 models...

[davet]

Thanks guys, this mechanic is a Jeep specialist, and has good reviews...They seem very knowledgeable and easy to deal with. Quite a full carpark of Jeeps to work on. Unsure if they're taking me for a bit of a ride but honestly, I don't feel like they are at this point.

They are only replacing the cooler not the cooler + housing so I think he said the cooler only is around $500 and with the housing around $1700.

The radiator + overflow replacement is being done because he reckons it will be very difficult to get fully clean of oil. Maybe they could have flushed it instead? Would have saved a fair bit of money.

I'll ask about aftermarket hoses vs OEM - good suggestion. The hoses were leaking when they checked....maybe they were fine before the cooling system got filled with oil, maybe they weren't who knows.

[Jeeper6]

It does depend a bit on how long the oil had been leaking in to your coolant, I caught mine very quickly so there was little damage done to hoses or expansion tank. Yes the housing is just under $1700.00 but you don't need the that, just the cooler itself.

As far as the radiator and expansion tank go, a few flushes, then refill and drive for a couple of weeks and flush and refill...expansion tank will have some oil stains inside but they don't make it any different. I cleaned a small amount of sludge out of the expansion tank with a rag a couple of times afterward as any sludge will float to the highest point...

In fact I have the coolant hoses and expansion tank out of that Jeep on the shelf here as spares...