Overheating Error Code ??

2001 XJ 4.0L - OBD-II

I went snow wheeling today and got into a bit of a pickle...the trail I was on suddenly got bad because whoever had plowed it decided to stop, and there was nowhere to turn around. I had to reverse out for about half a mile in 4wd spinning the tires a fair bit and going from fwd gears to reverse again to correct myself because it was impossible to stay in the tracks.

Once I got out of there and turned around the Jeep had gotten pretty hot doing all that work. I shut it off for a while and walked the dog down another trail. when i got back and fired it up it ran really shitty for a minute and the CEL came on. I had to get it down the mountain and by the time I did it seemed to be running fine so I drove it home.

I'm gonna try to find somewhere to read my code tomorrow morning but I'm very impatient...does this sound familiar or point to anything in particular?

Is this common?
Did I break my Heep?

I hate not knowing...I will probably buy myself a cheap scan tool now.

Thanks for the help.:gee:

did your temp gauge go up above 210? did your auxillary fan come on at all????

you probably shouldnt have shut it off - or at least you maybe could have opened the hood if it was real hot. the CEL could be anything...you could have fried something b/c of the heat.

I would suggest diconnecting your negative battery cable for about 20-25 minutes, let the computer reset....then reconnect and start up - see if that code comes back.

Could have been running crappy from heat soak too...

I think it went above 210 but not by much...I’m not sure if the aux fan came on or not. I was too worried about sliding backwards off the road into the ditch to notice that. I didn't even know the temp was up until I was facing forwards again. As soon as I stopped it I opened the hood and let it sit that way for a few minutes before closing the hood. Then it sat for 15-minutes more.

I was thinking of resetting it to see if it went away but I kind of wanted to know what it was first so I haven't reset it yet.

Maybe it's the cracked cylinder head code.

Just kidding, that code doesn't exist. But the cracked cylinder heads do.

You have to be extra careful b/c like me, you have the 0331 head - which seems more prone to cracking....

Take a look at your antifreeze and see if you see any oil floating on top - i'd also go ahead and do an oil change, see if you have any water or milky looking junk it it. if you do, you may have cracked your head - but an oil change is a good idea anyway after a hot run like that. better safe than sorry....