Went off roading and broke some stuff.

I have a 98 XJ manual 2.5 . when i left the trail i noticed that my airbag light was on, my speedometer didnt work and when parked it was over heating. i also have an exhaust leak i could not find. i am leaking coolant pretty good from somewhere low in the back of the engine and have no clue about the speedo or airbag light. any ideas or shold i just put this one in a shop.:helpme:

Wow, well I don't know anything about the 2.5, but I would first suggest washing all that mud out of there, go to one of those coin operated time do it ur self places, and think about the other people that use the bays and look for one that already has mud in it, I found there tire cleaner is a great degreaser.

After uve clean the crap out of it, u might b able to find exactly where the coolant leak is coming from. If u still can't find it fill ur rad back up with water and let the jeep run till u find it.

Speedo is hooked up to a sensor on the tranny, I would guess the cable broke while u were wheeling, more or less look for a broke cable/wire.

I know not very informative but at least it's somewhere to start

poor little xj.........

guessing a freeze plug got jarred loose for the coolant

The speedo sensor is on the output housing of the t-case

Speedo: as mentioned above, check the connector and harness at the back of the transfer case.
Overheat/coolant leak. Check over the heater lines where they enter the firewall. Could be coolant dripping down from there.
Aribag: Tricky,... 'Not sure what you could knock loose that would set off the air bag light. Possibly a loose connector on the passenger air bag? The drivers side feeds through the clock spring in the steering wheel, if there was a problem with that, the horn/cruise control wouldn't work either. Might be something as simple as a fuse.

tbburg said:

Speedo: as mentioned above, check the connector and harness at the back of the transfer case.
Overheat/coolant leak. Check over the heater lines where they enter the firewall. Could be coolant dripping down from there.
Aribag: Tricky,... 'Not sure what you could knock loose that would set off the air bag light. Possibly a loose connector on the passenger air bag? The drivers side feeds through the clock spring in the steering wheel, if there was a problem with that, the horn/cruise control wouldn't work either. Might be something as simple as a fuse.

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What he said. It's probably overheating because it doesn't have enough coolant and or it's boiling over because it's leaking and can't hold pressure.

Thanks for the help, I'll look high and low for this coolant leak. other than that idk what to say the airbag light is off and the speedo is working :confused1.

Leaking coolant...
Might check the radiator too. If it's the stock radiator you might have blown a seal
on one of the plastic tanks. If you have access to a black light you'll find it quick.

I do in fact have a black light. Can you elaborate......? And what are the chances that its the head gasket?

he said a blacklight because coolant is florescent, it glows. if you think you might have a blown head gasket (i hope for your wallets sake that you dont) pull your oil dipstick, it will be overfilled and the oil will look something like chocolate milk, also pull the oil fill cap it would have condensation on it, another quick and easy test is to run the jeep for a little bit then pull off the radiator cap and if engine exhaust comes out of the radiator you pretty much know the head gasket is toast. the head gasket isnt gonna make coolant leak from the engine, it allows coolant to get in to the cylinder and down into the oil pan its more likely to come out of the exhaust pipe. i had problems with my jeep getting muddy and acting weird. go through and check all the conections throw some contact protector on it and replace the polly lum in the places wheres its dried and cracked away.

ok thanks. someone said somehting about the head gasket and i got scared lol. Am losing coolant and oil but i think its leaking out not mixing. and both have been a problem the coolant just got way worse.

save the radiator cap and get a new jeep with a 4 liter

djrethoret said:

...another quick and easy test is to run the jeep for a little bit then pull off the radiator cap .

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Pull the cap - when cold - not hot. Check for exhaust bubbles.