Why does the hot oil warning comes on on my 2009 jeep wrangler when in 4 wheel drive and driving on a beach?

Answer 1

Do you mean your temp guage, or your check oil light? The oil light may not mean that the oil itself is overly hot. In fact, just the opposite is the case if your temp guage hasn't crept up above about the halfway point.

Keep a good eye on your oil level by checking it every couple of weeks. If the level goes down over the course of a few weeks of driving, the engine is burning oil a lot more quickly than it should [like, not at all for an '09]. Also keep an eye on oil viscosity. Sometimes the oil light in a new rig can even keep a good check on oil viscosity. If the oil breaks down, it will cease doing a sufficient job of preventing excessive wear. The easy way to check for viscosity breakdown is to warm the rig up for about five minutes [don't go too much longer, or it will be harder to tell], pull out the dipstick, and rub some of the oil between your thumb and fingers. It should feel approximately as dense as a comparable right off the shelf. Some breakdown is absolutely natural, but you'll be able to tell if something's gone awry: for one thing, if it's quite dark and feels thinner than it should, you've got a problem. If you're in doubt, just change the oil anyway.

Some people will recommend this or that oil. There are certainly oils that are better than others, but the biggest thing is just changing it religiously.

As a final note, if you warm up your rig and take off the cap on your valve cover, it should NOT smoke. If it smokes, get help. More than likely, few or none of these are likely, but there they are, just in case.

The hot oil light comes on when the transmission temp is too hot. This is a common problem with the auto JK's and usually occurs when the transmission is in 4-Hi. The only real fix is to install a larger additional transmission cooler which is easy to install and not that exspensive. Do not remove the original cooler as it could void your warrenty.

There may also be a recall for a software update to fix this.