Oil Pump Failed and Destroyed 2005 Wrangler Engine

[Topgun514]

I laughed at the LR comment too, cool looking and very neat when working, but I think a bentley would be cheaper in the long run.

Sorry about your engine troubles. If your looking into a new vehicle and want dependability, I have always had a soft spot for toyota's next to Jeeps as well.

 

[monele]

Man that sucks. I pulled mine just the other day to check the bushing to see that there was oil on it and no signs of wear. At 54K so far so good. For just this reason I run only synthetic oil (slightly better flow when cold) and a really good oil filter. (I'm not going to argue brands here) As well, I try to never shift above 3K RPM. May be over protective, but I figure every bit helps. Hope you get it resolved with out too much trouble.

 

[Calin.Macrinici]

Graham - sorry to hear about the failure. This is a problem that has been discussed extensively on a number of Jeep forums, however the problem is not one discussed by dealers or in other media. Therefore many 05/06 Jeep owners never hear about it. The problem is "solvable", and a repeat failure is avoidable with some simple modifications to the Oil Pump Drive Assembly (OPDA). I did the modification to mine in less than an hour. My OPDA was howling just after startup at around 70k miles. I now have over 110k miles on the same engine and OPDA, and will get many more miles from this engine.

So which less than an hour modification did you go with?

Daimler/Chrysler changed sources for a number of components used in the last two years of the TJ/LJ line, and it was not in an effort to improve quality. They cheapened parts and used components from other models simply to streamline and maximize profitability on a soon to be terminated vehicle line. It was shameful. The engine failures occurring in the last 2 years of production of such a venerable engine as the 4.0 inline six are due to accountants, not engineers.

If I'd only knew when I got my LJ in 2005 that they'll scrap the model after one year... nah, I'd still have gotten it, I love it!

 

[Bodo]

BTW -anyone even THINKING about sourcing a stroker from Titan, PLEASE do your homework. There are far better sources.

Indeed. Titan has a very, very poor reputation.

 

[Jim K in PA]

So which less than an hour modification did you go with?

I pulled the CPS, removed the gear and shaft, removed the pressed in plug in the lubricant passage, drilled a 1/16" hole in the steel bushing, flushed out the old grease and small bits of drilling chips, and installed a 90 degree grease fitting in the hole for the cap. I checked the condition of the shaft after cleaning off the dried, blackened original grease it was not scored or damaged, so was fine to reuse. I reinstalled the shaft and gear, and pumped grease into the housing until I saw it just emerge under the tone wheel. Perfect now. I have a brand new replacement CPS/OPDA on the shelf just in case, but I doubt I will need it. The drive gear on my CPS is scored because it was being driven by the scored cam gear, which was damaged by the soft CPS gear on the original unit that was replaced under recall before I bought the truck. Confused? I will replace the OPDA gear when I replace the cam.

BTW - the original lubricant in the outer passage was pristine - because it could never get to the CPS shaft! The OEM supplier of the CPS/OPDA units never drilled the passages in the high speed steel bushing to allow the lubricant to migrate to the CPS shaft. Idiots . . .

If I'd only knew when I got my LJ in 2005 that they'll scrap the model after one year... nah, I'd still have gotten it, I love it!

I bought my '05 LJ Rubicon in April of 2007. The truck had just 7520 miles on it. The new JKs had just come out, and I was intrigued, but not really interested in them. I love my LJ and will drive it for many more years and miles. The power of the 4.0 is somewhat lacking when fully loaded, and I will address this in the next year or so, but otherwise it is the most capable off-road vehicle the Jeep factory ever put out. There were less than 6k LJ Rubicons built in '05/'06 (combined production).

 

[1stDeuce]

I think this problem came up on some early '00 TJ's too. (I uh, worked there then...) Normally, the cam sensor (goes where the distributor used to be) seizes, and strips the gears off it's drive, which stops the oil pump. The oil pressure drops to zero and the "check guages" light and chime goes off. If you shut it off, it won't restart, but so long as you don't shut it off, it'll run fine. (w/o oil pressure!) Just curious, but do you have any idea how long you drove with zero oil pressure? Not that it's your fault, just wondering how fast things go south. My old chev straight six would starve for oil quite a bit at times, (it leaked a LOT) and the bearings all looked fine when I ripped it apart for fun.

As for a fix, I don't know of a good one... We just swapped a new sensor in, changed the oil, and sent them back out. WATCH YOUR OIL PRESSURE GUAGE! If it suddenly drops to zero and the chime and light go bingo, pull over and shut it off ASAP! If it won't restart, you just saved your engine, and the sensor is only like $50 or so I think. Roll it to #1 TDC, drop the new sensor in, pull the alignment pin, and off you go again! (The cam gears seem to be much stronger than the dist/sensor drive gears.)
Change the oil ASAP too, and it wouldn't hurt to fish around a little with a magnet, or get a mag drain plug after that too.
C

 

[Jp90Talon]

As for a fix, I don't know of a good one... We just swapped a new sensor in, changed the oil, and sent them back out. WATCH YOUR OIL PRESSURE GUAGE! If it suddenly drops to zero and the chime and light go bingo, pull over and shut it off ASAP! If it won't restart, you just saved your engine, and the sensor is only like $50 or so I think. Roll it to #1 TDC, drop the new sensor in, pull the alignment pin, and off you go again! (The cam gears seem to be much stronger than the dist/sensor drive gears.)
Change the oil ASAP too, and it wouldn't hurt to fish around a little with a magnet, or get a mag drain plug after that too.
C

Yeah not so easy....

#1 I havent checked recently but I am pretty sure the unit is still on national back order

#2 I wouldnt feel that good if I just replaced the assembly and left this floating around my oil pan.

 

[nwoods]

Wow Graham, really sorry to hear about this. I know that LJ was sort of a dream truck for you. May I suggest a nice Chevy 4.0L V6 upgrade?

 

[grahamfitter]

Wow Graham, really sorry to hear about this. I know that LJ was sort of a dream truck for you. May I suggest a nice Chevy 4.0L V6 upgrade?

Actually I was thinking a hemi upgrade might have been a better idea but that was after I'd been given the bill for a replacement OEM.

The Jeep hasn't been driven much since. I'm riding a motorcycle to the Overland Rally in Vermont this weekend so I can't do something rash like sell the Jeep!

 

[1stDeuce]

I think he means 4.3L V6, but I'd opt for a 5.3 V8 if going the chev route. Nice all-alum ones available from Rainers and Envoys. But a nice Hemi conversion would be fine, and keep all the guages working, and probably even bolt up the the Jeep trans.
Or find a reputable place to rebuild your I6, or just opt for a short block from someplace. Get away from a dealership for this kind of work for sure!!

Still wondering how fast stuff goes wrong... I think the 4.0Lis only a 5 main bearing engine, but still, it should handle being starved for oil for at least a minute or two, assuming you weren't really running it that hard. How exactly did it all go south when the drive failed?
C

 

[AmericaOverland]

I found that out on wranglerforum.com just a week after I bought the Jeep. I had the OPDA pulled and the engine build date verified. I'm several months outside the range of suspected build dates, according to my dealership, and the gear on the OPDA appeared to be normal for its age. It looks like not only did I get a motor that was built outside that date range, but also had slightly relaxed tolerances at the time the parts of the motor were forged/cut and machined. You might run into this problem if you had slightly tight tolerances occurring as part of the natural variation of manufacturing tolerances as manufacturing machinery go out of spec, allowing parts to be machined a little too big or otherwise off.

 

[grahamfitter]

I think he means 4.3L V6, but I'd opt for a 5.3 V8 if going the chev route. Nice all-alum ones available from Rainers and Envoys. But a nice Hemi conversion would be fine, and keep all the guages working, and probably even bolt up the the Jeep trans.
Or find a reputable place to rebuild your I6, or just opt for a short block from someplace. Get away from a dealership for this kind of work for sure!!

Still wondering how fast stuff goes wrong... I think the 4.0Lis only a 5 main bearing engine, but still, it should handle being starved for oil for at least a minute or two, assuming you weren't really running it that hard. How exactly did it all go south when the drive failed?
C

It went wrong pretty quickly. It started with Captain Kangaroo taking over the engine, then loss of power, then the dashboard lit up. We stopped quickly and shut off the engine. It wasn't obvious what was going on with the engine stopped but there was still normal oil level in the engine and we didn't like where we were so we restarted it and limped several hundred yards to get off the freeway in a safe place at which point the screaming monkey below the hood was awake.

I would have preferred not to use a dealer but this happened 200 miles from home on day one of a three week trip. (We were en-route from Massachusetts to Newfoundland and broke down near St. John, New Brunswick.) Given that we didn't know what was broken, we weren't familiar with the area, we needed to tell CAA (the equivalent of AAA) to tow us somewhere and there was a Jeep dealer a few kilometers away it made most sense. After they diagnosed the problem we rented a truck and picked up the Jeep with a new engine on the way back.

Link to trip report.

 

[AZ ADVenturist]

Build Date Question?

What is the build date &/or VIN range for '05 TJ?
Mine is a TJ Rubicon dated 03/05 - VIN...43744! Only 31k miles, but I'm 3rd owner,
so don't know much history. Mostly a garage queen, but now I'm worried.
This is a great thread, Thanks for any all input... Ric.

 

[-JD-]

What is the build date &/or VIN range for '05 TJ?
Mine is a TJ Rubicon dated 03/05 - VIN...43744! Only 31k miles, but I'm 3rd owner,
so don't know much history. Mostly a garage queen, but now I'm worried.
This is a great thread, Thanks for any all input... Ric.

This JF thread is a pretty good consolidation of the "known" issues and proposed "fixes" ... http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/2005-06-jeep-opda_cps_distributor-failure-1144202/

 

[AZ ADVenturist]

Thanks, I'll check that.