Spark plug change on 2017 jeep grand cherokee 3.6

Is it true that the 3.6l Pentastar engine's plugs are of a new design which require a 1/2" socket AND that a careless installer can crush / twist them?
I read that somewhere.
 
It’s a stupid design, but I’m still 100% convinced that every one that has failed is due to over tightening. All you need to do is go till it stops, absolutely no more than that. I barely need a wrench to remove mine, no leaks at 90k. *knock on wood*
No. We did all our own oil changes NEVER overtightened it and still leaked at 60,000 miles. 2017 Wrangler. Tech who did it said it leaked at the casting plug. I have been doing oil changes on all kinds of vehicles since 1972 and I know how to not overtighten filters! This design has a plastic housing, plastic casting plugs 5 o rings for the housing to engine & 4 o rings for the cooler to housing. Not good engineering!
 
No. We did all our own oil changes NEVER overtightened it and still leaked at 60,000 miles. 2017 Wrangler. Tech who did it said it leaked at the casting plug. I have been doing oil changes on all kinds of vehicles since 1972 and I know how to not overtighten filters! This design has a plastic housing, plastic casting plugs 5 o rings for the housing to engine & 4 o rings for the cooler to housing. Not good engineering!
If it had a 60k power train warranty I'd say that was PERFECT engineering!! :D

Planned obsolescence conspiracy theorists unite!!! I shall lead thee!!!!!!!!
 
I honestly don't trust them anymore. I wanted a Gladiator but then having to deal with this, and other quality headaches, why would I do that to myself again?
So how do you take something that was previously trouble free, (simple spin on oil filter) with ONE leak source, and come up with a plastic piece of junk with 9 different places to leak oil besides the plastic housing itself! To use a cartridge filter instead of a spin on and add an oil cooler? It's just poor engineering. There are way better ways to do that. I'm not convinced that the oil cooler is even needed if you use syn oil. The old 4.0 liter straight sixes make it to 200,000-300,000 without oil coolers on regular oil!
Our dealer is good it was a bit past the 60K warrantee but they did it under goodwill. So, that was a decent outcome but these things fail ALL THE TIME!
I decided to keep my old '07 Grand and my ancient '98 Grand.
 
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No. We did all our own oil changes NEVER overtightened it and still leaked at 60,000 miles. 2017 Wrangler. Tech who did it said it leaked at the casting plug. I have been doing oil changes on all kinds of vehicles since 1972 and I know how to not overtighten filters! This design has a plastic housing, plastic casting plugs 5 o rings for the housing to engine & 4 o rings for the cooler to housing. Not good engineering!
I never knew about the plugs, all the ones I’ve seen floating around cracked and/or the o rings failed. I’ll stick to just barely bottoming the cap out and not applying any extra torque.

Don’t get me started on my luck with Dodge and oil drain plugs. Barely tighten them and they’re a nightmare to get back off…. Truck now has a fumoto valve because I’m not replacing a third oil pan on a third vehicle.
 
I would highly recommend replacing the oil cooler housing to block seals at minimum while you are going in to replace the plugs. I should have done this at 80K miles when I replaced the plugs on my 2015 Wrangler because the main oil galley seal on the rear of oil cooler assembly ended up failing at 120K miles. The engine leaked out nearly 2 quarts of oil in only 2 weeks time, and it likely would have run dry if it wasn't for an unexpected snowfall to alert me to a trail of oil down the gravel driveway where I park! The plastic oil cooler housing itself was fine, however, all of the seals that mated to the block lost elasticity and were permanently compressed. You can purchase a set of Mopar replacement oil cooler assembly seals for $15 from Summit. You could also consider just replacing the entire oil cooler assembly, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it if you can confirm no one has ever over-torqued the filter cap and it has no existing functional issues.

 
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