Recently, we had the owner of a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk in the shop requesting an easier way to access the oil cooler drain plug. The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk came with a supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat producing 707 horsepower, making it the most powerful SUV Chrysler ever made, going from zero-to-60 in just 3.5 seconds.
Amazingly, the Trackhawk could comfortably haul a family of five to soccer practice then turn around and be ready to race with its paddle shifters for the drag strip (there’s literally a button with a Christmas tree on it).
During a recent oil change at a nearby dealership, the owner was recommended to drain the engine oil cooler, which contains about 6 ounces of fluid. Unfortunately, the engine oil cooler is located on the passenger side behind the front bumper.
The only way to access the engine oil cooler is to remove the front bumper. With shop rates, this was going to cost the owner around $200-$250 to perform. While most wouldn’t worry about draining these final 6 ounces with every single oil change, here’s a quick do-it-yourself workaround that took only about an hour to complete:
We started by lifting the Jeep all the way up. After looking it over, we decided the easiest way was to cut a hole in the bottom of a splash shield directly below the engine oil cooler (making sure we weren’t going to cut through any oil lines or wires on the backside of the bumper).
We used a carbine bit on a dye grinder to cut a hole into the splash shield to gain access to the cooler, making sure not to go too big so we have material to attach a new cover that we will be making. We made a cardboard template before transferring it to a sheet of ABS plastic.
Placing the newly made ABS plastic cover against the bottom of the splash shield, we drilled four holes, then placed four push pin clips to securely hold it in place, giving it almost a factory look.
Now whenever there’s an oil change, the technician just has to remove these four clips and remove the drain plug from the cooler. A huge shout out to Leading Edge Automotive in Elkhart, Indiana for letting us use their shop.
