2017 Jeep Cherokee Oil Consumption

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
2017 Jeep Cherokee Altitude FWD. Just hit 20k miles. Ow20 Synthetic oil every 5k miles. Always had it serviced at Crown Jeep and never had anyone say anything to me. Well last Friday night, I was leaving my house, made it about a mile, turned right and jeep cut off and lost power steering and brakes were stiff. Screen told me to shift into P or N. Was able to pull over to the side and would not restart. Walked back home to grab wife's car to jump start because battery light was coming on. Got it started and went on. Drove it around that night, the next day, Sunday and Monday morning. I go to grab some lunch and turn right again to pull into parking lot and jeep stalls and cuts off again, but am able to pull into parking space. Battery light comes on again. I leave it parked, am able to walk back to work. Go back after work and she starts right up. Drive it up to Napa, battery tested out fine. Made an appointment at Crown and they tell me that Battery and Alt check out fine, but there's hardly any oil in the car and that there is a sensor that shuts the engine off when the oil is low to keep any damage from happening. They do an oil change and proceed to tell me that the 2.4L Tigershark motors are known for consuming oil and is a known problem, but FCA isn't recognizing it even though we've seen a lot of these cases. So I did a little research and sure enough, seems a lot of folks are having this same issue. Some people are saying there are losing 1 qt every 1k miles, and never make it to their next scheduled oil change.

I also have about 5 weeks left on my 36k/36mo bumper to bumper warranty

Anyone shed any more light on this? Wondering if its time to trade this thing in for something else. Don't really want to do that, but also don't feel I should have to look after a practically brand new car with so little miles.
 
wow, might be time to bail and get something more reliable, without 'known' issues popping up on the google.
I lost my faith in Chrysler products when our 2005 minivan starting losing oil like that. There was no engine shutoff safety, and it seemed like every time I checked the oil, the dipstick was dry. Traded that puppy in when the O2 sensor code got thrown (betting burning oil), but at least it had 100k.
 
RenegadeT said:
wow, might be time to bail and get something more reliable, without 'known' issues popping up on the google.
I lost my faith in Chrysler products when our 2005 minivan starting losing oil like that. There was no engine shutoff safety, and it seemed like every time I checked the oil, the dipstick was dry. Traded that puppy in when the O2 sensor code got thrown (betting burning oil), but at least it had 100k.
Click to expand...
Yeah, also noticed that the sticker they put in my windshield for my next oil change is 3,000 miles instead of 5,000 miles like its always been...so they obviously know something is up.
 
That's a common occurance these days with the advent of 0W and similar very thin oils. Back in the day, 1.5 qts/1000 miles was considered within Chrysler's ok standard. That was when 10/30 was the norm.
However, it is the owner's responsibility to check their own oil level and to correct it between changes.
Hate to say it, but that's nothing to be concerned with in all likelihood.
 
Jody Treadway said:
That's a common occurance these days with the advent of 0W and similar very thin oils. Back in the day, 1.5 qts/1000 miles was considered within Chrysler's ok standard. That was when 10/30 was the norm.
However, it is the owner's responsibility to check their own oil level and to correct it between changes.
Hate to say it, but that's nothing to be concerned with in all likelihood.
Click to expand...
I hear what you are saying about checking oil levels. Something I used to have to do when I had my 97 XH with 135k on it. But with a 3 year old car with 20k miles on it. Don't think I should have to worry about getting stranded halfway between an oil change because of a design flaw where some of these tigershark motors are consuming 4 qts or more of oil in 2500-3000 miles. I was 3k into my 5k oil change and the tech literally said that there was no oil and that's why its shutting off. No warning, nothing. Doesn't seem normal to me.
 
X2 what @Jody Treadway said. It's not just Chrysler. My boss has a 09 Chevy 1500 the 5.3 has burned 2 quarts every 5k since new. He's not the only one either.

When I was at Ford in the early 2000s 1 qt per 1k was considered acceptable even then with 10w or 5w oils.

Modern engines have very thin low tension piston rings compared to 15 years ago and use thin oil all in an attempt to get that extra .001 mpg to meet gov regulations.

Driving style can make a difference too. Gm has a tsb from a while back that 1 qt every 2000 was considered acceptable on Corvettes and Camaros but aggressive driving, such as going over 3500 rpm, downshifting the manual transmission or more than 3/4 throttle it could be as mush as 1 qt every 500 miles as normal.

I've seen this myself with the stroker motor I built for my Fairlane. If I drive like a grandpa it won't use a drop of oil in 1k, if I drive like a 500hp stroker should be it uses a qt in 500. It has thin modern rings too.
 
Sounds like an opportunity to me.

Havent you been posting about debt snowballing and getting out of debt?
Maybe its a God wink that its time to rid your life of a car payment.
 
I bet God checks his oil between changes. :driver:

In all seriousness @Cherokeekid88, what you are describing is normal. Think about it, very thin synthetic oil, low tension rings, etc contributes to oil consumption. I agree it seems out of the realm of reason, but it is a reality these days with engine and oil design.
 
Ron said:
Sounds like an opportunity to me.

Havent you been posting about debt snowballing and getting out of debt?
Maybe its a God wink that its time to rid your life of a car payment.
Click to expand...
We have, and we almost have the wife's car paid off and were gonna add that amount to my current payment on the jeep and pay it down quick(er)
 
Jody Treadway said:
I bet God checks his oil between changes. :driver:

In all seriousness @Cherokeekid88, what you are describing is normal. Think about it, very thin synthetic oil, low tension rings, etc contributes to oil consumption. I agree it seems out of the realm of reason, but it is a reality these days with engine and oil design.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Just crazy to me I guess and a bit scary to know that I could have my daughter in the back seat going down the highway and the damn thing shut off. I guess I will just add "Check oil Level X times a month" to my chalkboard to-do list.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
Yeah, Just crazy to me I guess and a bit scary to know that I could have my daughter in the back seat going down the highway and the damn thing shut off. I guess I will just add "Check oil Level X times a month" to my chalkboard to-do list.
Click to expand...

Check your oil when you fill up with gas, won't add any time for you just while its filling up check it real quick. Simple & easy, just like people used to do.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
the tech literally said that there was no oil and that's why its shutting off. No warning, nothing. Doesn't seem normal to me.
Click to expand...
That IS the warning. It's warning you that if you don't put oil in it, it will cease to function.
 
Yeah that’s pretty normal today with the oil they require and the nickel cylinder coatings and such. If it bothers you, trade it in cause it won’t get better.

PS, you don’t have to be “left stranded”, just check the oil every week and always have a quart in the car. Is in inconvenient? Yes. Will it be cheaper than starting over on any late model vehicle that will potentially do the same thing? Yes.

I have drove junk most of my life, by instinct there is always a quart of ATF, and Oil under the hood. Usually have a gallon of coolant with me too.

This reminds me I need to change the oil in the truck, guess I’ll do that today!
 
DSM Turbos said:
Check your oil when you fill up with gas, won't add any time for you just while its filling up check it real quick. Simple & easy, just like people used to do.
Click to expand...

THIS! It used to the norm to check fluids at every fill up, and no one thought anything of it to need to top off the oil. Now most people call it an “inconvenience” to need to do that.
 
I can't remember the last time I've seen anyone at a gas station checking their own oil. Last person I saw was probably my junk-driving self.

I'm pretty surprised that this is considered 'normal' for a new car. My wifes 2013 toyota minivan uses synthetic 0-30w, and it never requires oil top-offs between 10k oil changes. Now my '01 5.3 suburban with 230k is a different story, thats a qt every 1000 miles.
 
jeepinmatt said:
That IS the warning. It's warning you that if you don't put oil in it, it will cease to function.
Click to expand...
But whats crazy is, it doesn't show me the oil light. It shows the battery light. If it had shown me the oil light, I would know to check the oil, but this isn't the case. Car shuts off randomly and the battery light comes on, most people are going to think Battery or Alt.
 
Not being argumentative or anything, but the battery light came on when it stalled. You had oil pressure prior to the stall, so the oil light would not have been on. Low oil level won't necessarily cause low oil pressure unless it is below a certain threshold.
 
77GreenMachine said:
I have drove junk most of my life, by instinct there is always a quart of ATF, and Oil under the hood. Usually have a gallon of coolant with me too.
Click to expand...

When I bought my 2015 Sierra, first thing I did was get a quart of 0w20 (never had anything that light before) and atf for the emergency supplies. I was looking for power steering fluid spec and capacity and couldn't find it anywhere, then realized electric power steering.
 
There's nothing normal about this, and it has nothing to do with 0W-20 being low viscosity. It has 20k miles, so it's a brand new engine. Honda and everyone else seems to have zero issues designing an engine with zero oil consumption with 0W-20, so it's not a problem with thin oil.

If it's actually consuming that much oil, and isn't a problem with the oil change tech not filling it all the way or a loose oil filter, trade it in. A car that consumes that much oil after 20k miles is not worth keeping.
 
Jody Treadway said:
Not being argumentative or anything, but the battery light came on when it stalled. You had oil pressure prior to the stall, so the oil light would not have been on. Low oil level won't necessarily cause low oil pressure unless it is below a certain threshold.
Click to expand...
No not at all. But if you never had a car stall because of low oil, especially it only being 3k in the oil change and the battery light coming on and then it not starting, points me to think something is wrong with the charging system. Now, that I know why my Jeep is stalling, I can be better prepared.
 
Fabrik8 said:
There's nothing normal about this, and it has nothing to do with 0W-20 being low viscosity. It has 20k miles, so it's a brand new engine.

If it's actually consuming that much oil, and isn't a problem with the oil change tech not filling it all the way or a loose oil filter, trade it in. A car that consumes that much oil after 20k miles is not worth keeping.
Click to expand...
I mean, this is my thought process. This is also my first new car. Tech didn't say how much oil was left in the motor (said it was empty) so lets just say 1 qt was left, its consuming 4.5 qts in 3k miles.
 
Fabrik8 said:
There's nothing normal about this, and it has nothing to do with 0W-20 being low viscosity. It has 20k miles, so it's a brand new engine. Honda and everyone else seems to have zero issues designing an engine with zero oil consumption with 0W-20, so it's not a problem with thin oil.

If it's actually consuming that much oil, and isn't a problem with the oil change tech not filling it all the way or a loose oil filter, trade it in. A car that consumes that much oil after 20k miles is not worth keeping.
Click to expand...

Well...technically....if the OEM says its acceptable then it may well be normal.
Now whether or not its appropriate is an entirely different matter.

It would not be acceptable to me, and the vehicle would be gone. I wouldnt waste time raising hell about it Id just take my business elsewhere.

What would be interesting is if warranty would cover a seized motor with low oil that never threw a code.
I have to wonder if the rings were seated properly.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
I mean, this is my thought process. This is also my first new car. Tech didn't say how much oil was left in the motor (said it was empty) so lets just say 1 qt was left, its consuming 4.5 qts in 3k miles.
Click to expand...

Go to a different dealer than the one you purchased it from, and talk to them about it. Any dealer can do warranty work, and there are some conflict of interest things that tend to happen when something expensive starts to show itself during service at the dealer that sold the vehicle.

Free oil changes should not build loyalty; you should find a dealer who gives a shit about a basically-new vehicle burning that much oil after 20k miles.

Or, just dump it.
 
I will admit I do not check oil in anything I own in the last 25 years or so. I know I should but honestly if it blows it needed fixing anyway. Had a Chevy truck that would loose a quart about every tank of gas and finally built the motor and never worried about checking again after that. In the case of a new vehicle loosing that much oil I would be the thorn in the ass of the manufacturer! If it’s not leaking out or under filled IMO it’s a failed design and would do everything in my power for the manufacturer to handle it or buy it back to shut me up.
 
Ron said:
Well...technically....if the OEM says its acceptable then it may well be normal.
Now whether or not its appropriate is an entirely different matter.

It would not be acceptable to me, and the vehicle would be gone. I wouldnt waste time raising hell about it Id just take my business elsewhere.

What would be interesting is if warranty would cover a seized motor with low oil that never threw a code.
I have to wonder if the rings were seated properly.
Click to expand...
This is sort of where my head is at. Keep it (only 2 years left to owe) and just make sure to keep oil in it knowing (to me) that something isn't right, which could lead to bigger problems once its out of warranty or trade it in for something else and basically start over....
 
Back
Top