Sunk it but winched out

[COwens]

So going in dirty deep water can cause a seal leak?

What kind of tape?

Haven’t decided yet but it will obviously be a specialty high temp water tight tape for those holes and the slot. If you don’t have a problem I highly recommend pulling those plugs and doing the same thing. I’ll post my taping in about a week. Go underneath and check. You will not believe how flimsy those plugs are. They have zero purpose other than for the production line.

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[Gvsukids]

Haven’t decided yet but it will obviously be a specialty high temp water tight tape for those holes and the slot. If you don’t have a problem I highly recommend pulling those plugs and doing the same thing. I’ll post my taping in about a week. Go underneath and check. You will not believe how flimsy those plugs are. They have zero purpose other than for the production line.

My plugs have come loose too and I've used needle nose pliers to pull them back out.
I also have a rear seal leak/seep, but not from the plugs coming loose.

 

[chorky]

I actually think it's the getting stuck part that matters. The rms is not that high up so if you get stuck with the engine running in sandy water it seems to quickly find it's way up there and tear up the seal.

This is the 5th person I know of that had the same story of getting stuck in door height water, which is below the 30" fording depth, and then developing an rms leak.

When I took mine in to the dealer, the service writer said he'd seen a number of them but they all had the same thing in common of sandy water or mud.

wow - well that is a serious design flaw and a pretty big problem considering most roads folks go on either have some sort of mud puddle, or dusty sandy roads....

 

[ShadowsPapa]

wow - well that is a serious design flaw and a pretty big problem considering most roads folks go on either have some sort of mud puddle, or dusty sandy roads....

I've not had a 3.6 rear main in hand, but it should have a design similar to below so the outer part (to the left) would shield the inner seal lip from grit, dust, dirt, etc.
It would eventually fail but it would take time.
Oddly, the front hub seals on my car have a double-seal setup so that there's an inner lip that keeps the lube in the hub bearings, and an outer seal lip that is larger and flatter that runs against the axle hub. You could drive through mud and sand and grit and that bigger outer lip will shed it. Other parts have sort of a shield that not only runs really close to the seals to prevent dirt from getting between, when the shafts are spinning, it's like a slinger, tossing the mud and water away from the shaft.
So, what's the 3.6 got? Nothing but a single lip seal, no slinger, no second lip?

 

[chorky]

I've not had a 3.6 rear main in hand, but it should have a design similar to below so the outer part (to the left) would shield the inner seal lip from grit, dust, dirt, etc.
It would eventually fail but it would take time.
Oddly, the front hub seals on my car have a double-seal setup so that there's an inner lip that keeps the lube in the hub bearings, and an outer seal lip that is larger and flatter that runs against the axle hub. You could drive through mud and sand and grit and that bigger outer lip will shed it. Other parts have sort of a shield that not only runs really close to the seals to prevent dirt from getting between, when the shafts are spinning, it's like a slinger, tossing the mud and water away from the shaft.
So, what's the 3.6 got? Nothing but a single lip seal, no slinger, no second lip?

Yeah I would like to see a picture of the 3.6 rear main. from what folks here are saying it must not have any protection at all but that seems really weird design

 

[Gvsukids]

Yeah I would like to see a picture of the 3.6 rear main. from what folks here are saying it must not have any protection at all but that seems really weird design

This?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This?

The actual rear main seal itself - the actual seal at the back of the crankshaft.
As far as those plugs, if the holes were pretty evenly round, a person could buy nice plugs from Amazon and close those two holes up.
Odd that dirty water with grit gets up in there with those in place. That center weep hole would allow grime and water up inside the bell housing area, of course, and let it get to the back of the crankshaft.
That this is happening at all is WEIRD.

 

[chorky]

The actual rear main seal itself - the actual seal at the back of the crankshaft.
As far as those plugs, if the holes were pretty evenly round, a person could buy nice plugs from Amazon and close those two holes up.
Odd that dirty water with grit gets up in there with those in place. That center weep hole would allow grime and water up inside the bell housing area, of course, and let it get to the back of the crankshaft.
That this is happening at all is WEIRD.

even if these plugs are as bad as everyone says (now I gotta go look at mine) I still cant believe it is causing such a widespread issue.
1) Jeeps should be designed to be off road…its a Jeep
2) i cant imagine any MORE dirt and grime is getting into the bellhousing of these rigs as compared to something from the 80’s or 90’s...

just seems awful suspicious.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

even if these plugs are as bad as everyone says (now I gotta go look at mine) I still cant believe it is causing such a widespread issue.
1) Jeeps should be designed to be off road…its a Jeep
2) i cant imagine any MORE dirt and grime is getting into the bellhousing of these rigs as compared to something from the 80’s or 90’s...

just seems awful suspicious.

For those plugs to be that bad, they'd have to almost fall out. Even if they wiggle a bit, they'd block out sand or anything very large at all and let in only very very very fine stuff.
The weep hole between them is about the only way most stuff could get in if the factory plugs were in place.
But it would be simple to find plugs that would actually seal off those larger location holes. Likely I have some in my shop as a lot of stuff I get has plastic and rubber plugs in and on hydraulic hoses or pumps or other stuff. I suspect the plugs I used to fill the sensor holes in my front bumper would work if they were the right size.

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