Slightly sludgy 2009 Jeep Patriot 2.4L

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Just did an oil change on my Girlfriend's Jeep Patriot 2009. She bought the car 5 years ago with 63,000 on it. It now has 108,000. She's been taking it to jiffy lube and been driving it 8,000 miles on whatever they put in (considering they charge her $30, I bet it's conventional). We got her Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20 and a FRAM Ultra, XG10060. I've got a couple of questions for everybody: Attached is a photo of the inside of the fill cap, it was a little sludgy. Is that something to be concerned about? If so, what should I do about it? What OCI would you run? Would you double stint these filters?

Background: She drives around town a bit, but there aren't a ton of lights here in CoMo. She'll hit the interstate for a 30 min drive twice a week, 2-hour drive once every other month. Probably 65/35 highway-city split. 5w-20 is the only oil the manual allows. Her car is never garaged. She says the car needs to last her through Law school, 5 more years. She's currently putting ~19,000 miles on it a year.

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Since there is some sludge present I'd prob do one oci on the filter. Once it's cleaned up some it can used for two intervals. I'd stick to the 8k on PP or any quality synthetic. Which will give it enough time to do a nice cleaning. I wouldn't dump the PP any sooner than 8k. In a normal application it can go 10k but cut it short by 20% since it's a little dirty.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Since there is some sludge present I'd prob do one oci on the filter. Once it's cleaned up some it can used for two intervals. I'd stick to the 8k on PP or any quality synthetic. Which will give it enough time to do a nice cleaning. I wouldn't dump the PP any sooner than 8k. In a normal application it can go 10k but cut it short by 20% since it's a little dirty.


Agree with one OCI for the filter during cleanup. I would be inclined to do 2-3 shorter intervals with the PP, at 5k miles. Once those are complete it would be synthetics for 10k (w/one UOA to be sure)
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Since there is some sludge present I'd prob do one oci on the filter. Once it's cleaned up some it can used for two intervals. I'd stick to the 8k on PP or any quality synthetic. Which will give it enough time to do a nice cleaning. I wouldn't dump the PP any sooner than 8k. In a normal application it can go 10k but cut it short by 20% since it's a little dirty.


I'll be doing a cut and post next weekend when I go home for an interview. If the condition of the filter that came off is good/sludge free should I consider extending the OCI out to 10k or the filter two runs?
 
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My experience is 3 consecutive OCI's with PP or M1 should clean it up. Leave the cap dirty, see if the oil can clean that up too.
 
Originally Posted By: GRWOil
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Since there is some sludge present I'd prob do one oci on the filter. Once it's cleaned up some it can used for two intervals. I'd stick to the 8k on PP or any quality synthetic. Which will give it enough time to do a nice cleaning. I wouldn't dump the PP any sooner than 8k. In a normal application it can go 10k but cut it short by 20% since it's a little dirty.


I'll be doing a cut and post next weekend when I go home for an interview. If the condition of the filter that came off is good/sludge free should I consider extending the OCI out to 10k or the filter two runs?


Yes, if the current one looks decent then the Ultra should handle 10k easily. I've seen ones with 20k miles on them still look very nice.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: GRWOil
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Since there is some sludge present I'd prob do one oci on the filter. Once it's cleaned up some it can used for two intervals. I'd stick to the 8k on PP or any quality synthetic. Which will give it enough time to do a nice cleaning. I wouldn't dump the PP any sooner than 8k. In a normal application it can go 10k but cut it short by 20% since it's a little dirty.


I'll be doing a cut and post next weekend when I go home for an interview. If the condition of the filter that came off is good/sludge free should I consider extending the OCI out to 10k or the filter two runs?


Yes, if the current one looks decent then the Ultra should handle 10k easily. I've seen ones with 20k miles on them still look very nice.


Thanks, will link the C&P in about a week.
 
That cap looks pretty average for the driving conditions and oil change history.
I seriously doubt you'll find anything significant in the oil filter when its cut open.
 
I think you are on the right path.

Since a lot is at stake here with pushing the Jeep to 153,000 miles, I'd do 5,000 mile OCI's, including filter, until she graduates and can afford a new vehicle.

Cheap insurance and will be a good diagnostic on the little Patriot.
 
It is long out of warranty forget the silly 5w20 and put a good, high detergent 30 grade in it. We ran our Chrysler 2.4 to 188k before trading it, and it never got anything but a 30 grade for the 6 years I owned it. Even then the rest of the car was falling apart around the engine, great little engine. Maxlife would be a good choice mostly what I ran ours on. Edge is loaded with boron now days would be another good consideration for next time around.

I agree it certainly was getting conventional and 8k OCI's probably contributed to this but it probably won't effect longevity much or be all that hard to clean up with attention like you are giving it.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverC6
I think you are on the right path.

Since a lot is at stake here with pushing the Jeep to 153,000 miles, I'd do 5,000 mile OCI's, including filter, until she graduates and can afford a new vehicle.

Cheap insurance and will be a good diagnostic on the little Patriot.


So I take it you aren't too confident this Jeep makes it to 200K? At this rate, ~19000 miles a year, she'll be at 208K by the time she graduates and would likely put a few more miles on it before she can buy her own car.

Originally Posted By: LeakySeals
My experience is 3 consecutive OCI's with PP or M1 should clean it up. Leave the cap dirty, see if the oil can clean that up too.


Does anyone know how you can tell if a good syn has cleaned the engine, without pulling the valve cover? (because I didn't do that today to take stock of things)

Originally Posted By: KCJeep
It is long out of warranty forget the silly 5w20 and put a good, high detergent 30 grade in it. We ran our Chrysler 2.4 to 188k before trading it, and it never got anything but a 30 grade for the 6 years I owned it. Even then the rest of the car was falling apart around the engine, great little engine. Maxlife would be a good choice mostly what I ran ours on. Edge is loaded with boron now days would be another good consideration for next time around.

I agree it certainly was getting conventional and 8k OCI's probably contributed to this but it probably won't effect longevity much or be all that hard to clean up with attention like you are giving it.


Was this engine originally designed for 30 weights and CAFE dictated a change? I'm hesitant to put that in her car if it was designed for 20 weights. It ran noticeably quieter today of PP 5w-20, you can't really hear the engine at idle, so that's good. If you could pick from any of these which would you pick: M1 Ep 0w-20, Mobil super syn 5w-20, M1 EFE 0w-30, Edge 0w-30, QS fully Syn 10w-30, QS Defy 10w-30, mobil super syn 10w-30, Old style Pennzoil Ultra Euro L 5w-30 (diesel oil, AECA C2,C3 not rated API SN) All of those are in my AZ stash.

As a side note, I don't think this car has had it's 100K service done yet, or much of the other long-term service. (transmission fluid/filter, rear axle fluid, power steering, drive belts, PVC valve, coolant), is it worth it to service everything at once? That would be a fun spring break. . .
 
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"Does anyone know how you can tell if a good syn has cleaned the engine, without pulling the valve cover? (because I didn't do that today to take stock of things)"

To some extent, yes. You can tell by what you see on the dipstick. The oil should get cloudy and dark fast. Any varnish on the dipstick should slowly go away. You can tell by what you see in the drain pan. Lots of crud, little white chunks that look and feel like sand. The dirty oil cap slowly cleans up.

The engine itself will behave differently. Startup ticking will diminish, engine will be stronger, smoother because better flow, less friction.

I think you said you are using a Fram Ultra. Good choice for 2 reasons.
- has a huge junk trapping dirt capacity.
- at 99%+ efficiency, the synthetic media has excellent flow and gets even more efficient as it loads up.
So don't be so fast to swap that filter out. Let it load up with [censored].
 
I'd run PP or PU and cut the OCI to 6K miles, and use an Ultra filter. Get a UOA after the second run of PP or PU and base your OCI on that. If you want to clean it up faster run a 3K mile 5w30 dino run with Kreen added to the oil, then do as I mentioned above.
 
The above suggestions will get the engine clean and probably help it get to 200K, but I'd be more worried about the CVT.
New trans fluid, antifreeze, brake/PS fluid are probably due. I had a couple '09 Pats in the family a few years ago, and that particular year didn't set any quality records due in part to Chrysler's financial issues. 5w30 oil was spec'd everywhere but North America.
This link to the owner's forum has some handy DIY tips: http://www.jeeppatriot.com/forum/index.php
Good luck!
 
^^^^

Like most engines it will "tolerate" a 20 grade but that one certainly wasn't "designed" for it.

I'd be all over one of the 0w30's you have in your stash, or the Defy.
 
Originally Posted By: KCJeep
^^^^

Like most engines it will "tolerate" a 20 grade but that one certainly wasn't "designed" for it.

I'd be all over one of the 0w30's you have in your stash, or the Defy.


You are really tempting me to pick up more Defy 10w-30 with that statement. I didn't really have anything that I wanted to run it in when I bought it a month ago, but then I met this girl. The last Autozone I was at had 4 jugs of Defy. $1.16 net per qt after rebate . . .
 
I don't think the engine is 'sludgy', I think it has some varnish on the parts, tho.

Looks the same as the fill area on my 2010 Soul...I've gone back to doing 3-4k drains on inexpensive conventional oils, even if it doesn't 'clean' it, it will not worsen it.

Also, my engine allows for the use of 30wt. oils, I use 5W-30 in it, and it does run smoother...I'd do the same for this rig, as it is out of warranty.
 
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