What is this? 3.6 pentastar engine

Hey guys. I’m working on my wife’s van today fixing the dreaded oil housing leak from the pentastar 3.6 engine and found this other leak coming from what appears to be a sensor?? next to the spark plus coil packs. Looks like it would be easy to remove, just not sure what the heck it is. Any ideas? In both photos it’s on the left.

 

Could be a knock sensor

 

Found it. It’s a valve lift solenoid. I was able to access the one on the front and look up the part number. They are both leaking.

 

Nice, we've got the same engine in the grand Cherokee already have the Dorman metal unit in the cart for later replacement.

 

Yep that’s what Im replacing it with as well. It’s at 75k miles and Noticed oil dripping about a month ago and found that’s what it was from. Figured I’d do the spark plugs as well while I’m in here and now the valve solenoids and probably the egr valve as well since there’s a ton of carbon build up on it.

 

I replaced just the seals on my daughters pentastar for $8. The problem is over-tightening the filter cap, and also when tightening the filter cap, allowing excessive manipulation / movement of the housing which causes the seals underneath to lose contact / seal. Be easy when removing and replacing the filter cap. My wife's started leaking after an oil change but quit after a few days. I changed the way I remove and replace the filter cap to not manipulate the oil cooler housing position as much. If you've already cracked your housing, replacement is the only way and I would go metal at that point.

Wife's is a 3.6 in the JGC
Daughter's is 3.2 in the JC

Same motor, different displacement.

 

Exactly right from what I have seen and heard.

 

Yeah ive seen a lot about that as well. I’ll keep that in mind when I go to change it again. Finally finished it up though. Wasn’t too bad at all. Ended up cleaning the EGR valve instead of replacing due to cost, changed the plugs, changed the pcv, left the valve solenoids in place for now since they are only seeping a bit of oil. There’s two o rings on each of them but they are flat not round, so I’m going to see if I can find just the rings for them.