My woes continue, I replaced my alternator but rushed the belt install which lead to it failing while driving. The failing belt wrapped around the crank etc. and now I have a massive oil leak. I found this broken o-ring which may be the root cause of the leak, but have no idea where it came from. Does anyone recognize it?

 

I don't recognize that O-ring. What year and engine do you have?

Regardless of the engine you have the power steering and the crank pulley are the only 2 pulleys that have an oil substance behind them. Check to see which of those two fluids are low. The water pump has coolant behind it but I doubt you would mistake it for oil.

So if your power steering fluid is low you have to pull off the pulley and replace any seals, and more likely you will have to pull off your crank shaft pulley which is a huge pain in the ****!!!!. I recommend you borrow and lithium battery operated impact because that will save you a ton of time. Or you can use this as an excuse to buy an impact gun:-) You can borrow a crank shaft pulley puller kit from Autozone. Take your time and do NOT use a hammer to tap anything. Use a wood block or rubber mallet if you need to encourage the (random profanity) to come off. I made the mistake of getting angry and hitting the pulley from the top and bent something on my 89 Plymouth Horizon back in 2000 when I was in high school. Gave it to a junk yard after that.

 

its a 2011 3.6L

 

Most likely it's the rubber seal from the front crankshaft seal it's behind the harmonic balancer ( crank pulley) you need to remove the pulley and then you'll need a puller to remove the crankcase seal and replace.

 

Both Mopar and I believe it's oil leaking behind the crank shaft pulley which is technically called the harmonic balancer. If you are mechanically inclined take it to a shop. With the correct tools the job would take between and hour or two, and the seals you would replace would come to about $20. There is a major risk of causing more damage if you do it yourself because getting the bolt loose on the pulley takes amazing force. That is why I recommend a battery impact, they have all the torque in the world the moment you pull the trigger BUT they might break your wrist because that bolt is really really in there after 10 years.

 

Thanks for your help guys, I got the balancer off, and ordered a front crank seal. Looks like the o-ring belongs here on the bolt. I hope its included with the new seal.

 

that's the bolt from the center of the harmonic balancer? I've only replaced 3 in my life but I've never heard of one with an O-ring.

 

I'm finished the seal replacement, new one on top and bad one on bottom. As the seal was obvouisly the root cause of the oil leak, I decided not to install the O-ring. The mystery of the source of the o-ring remains.... I'll update this post if I ever find where it came from. thanks for every ones help!