Another overheating question....

My 97 XJ has 97,000 miles. Just recently it started running really hot when the a/c is on. It gets hot enough to trigger the "check guages" light and you hear an audible "beep". If I turn the a/c off the temp goes back down after a few minutes. This has never happened before and in the past I have changed the water pump, the radiator, thermostat, all hoses,( heater core was changed when I did a/c evap replacement), not because of overheating but because I had leaks etc. I have been searching this forum for a while and there is so much disagreement about how to proceed next. Some say Flowcooler water pumps are the way to go, others say they are a waste. Some say replace the rad with a three row aluminum, then others say the stock rad is fine. Then more people say put electric fans in, others say change the fan clutch to a ZJ. I really don't honestly know what the hell to do first. I don't go four wheeling, my truck is completely stock and all I do is drive back and forth to work and around town. I really wish there was a definitive answer as to what to do to keep my truck running cool. I just did a complete flush, back flush, foward flush, heater core flush, every kind of flush, new thermostat and it didnt help. Yes I burped the system too. HELP!! Thanks!

Mine(also a 97) was also doing that. I flushed the radiator last year when I did my waterpump/thermostat. Checked it a couple weeks ago and it was brown from sediment. I replaced my Radiator the other day with a CSF 3 core radiator from www.radiatorbarn.com and i noticed a 15-20 degree drop in temps. It now runs around 216 with the air on and 209 with the windows down and air off, according to my scangaugeII. This is also in 90+ weather here in Indiana.

Seems like the fan clutch is your easiest upgrade. Or go all the way and do the 3 row aluminum rad at the same time. You don't want to be playing around with overheating. And you still have a lot of miles left in your Heep.

Your e-fan is coming on then when you select AC?

cruiser54 said:

Your e-fan is coming on then when you select AC?

Click to expand...

Good Question! Mine was coming on with the AC.

yes the e-fan is definitely coming on when a/c is on. I also checked it out and made sure nothing was physically wrong with it. Just replaced the fan clutch a few minutes ago today, we'll see if that helps. The old one definitely had signs of leaking. My cooling system has been flushed out so many times its ridiculous. I flush it out every 3-4 months given the problems that these trucks have with their cooling systems. I replaced the radiator probaby 30,000 miles ago, but it was with a stock unit.

Let us know how that goes, I may do a fan clutch on mine too because I have no idea when it was changed...........or I'll just go all electric.

Well, there is an entire group of people here that swear if you swap your 195* thermostat with a 180* thermostat your temps will go down by at least 10*.......














AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!! (no really, there's a whole thread about it.) AHAHAHAHA!!!!



Anyway, a lot of people swear by this stuff (though I have never used it myself....)

http://rmisource.com/