WTF?!?!?

ok so my jepp is acting up today. i was driving on the highway and noticed my tmp. was at 250*. i went of on the side streets and parked at wendy's. got a drink and went out to the car and put the hood up. i checked the coolant and the lines and they looked fine. i left the hood open for less than 10 min. and started it up again. it sputtered as if a cylinder was not firing. i shut it off and started again. it turned over purfectly fine and all the gauges were at the perfect levels. my temp was 210* and the oil was about 25-35. what is going on?? it is having trouble stay cool and the temp gauge is all over the place. in a amatter of 1 min it drops 40* and starts and run perfect. i want to get the temp. sender replaced but don't know if that will solve the problem. i have been trying to put in the hood spacers for a while now but just haven't gotten around to it. what are the pro's and con's to the hood spacers? should i replace my temp. gauge? and what ca you suggest to keep it cool this summer?

the current temp here is around 97* so it is preaty hot for minnesota. any advice will help!

i will check back on this at aroung 10-11 PM i will be at Valleyfair!

Thanks for the help!

i would check:

- coolant / water ratio
- thermostat
- radiator for plugged lines
- hoses for debris
- make sure there is no air in the lines (run the heater)

then....

- check sender

hood lift is just a bandaid if anything. a good cooling system should be able to regulate the temp just fine and keep it at oem specs.

should be an easy fix.

BTW.... are there really 10K lakes in Minnesota?

The fact that more than one of your guages was acting up and you had a miss-fire makes me think it could be a loose or bad ground also. Check the grounding strap that goes from the block to the firewall. Be sure it's clean and making good contact. Also check your battery terminals and cables to be sure they are in good shape.

i think there might be 10k bu ti also think that there are more. i belive there was a news story on that a few years back. i will be sure to count next time. you can always go on to google earth and start counting. in my opinion MN does not have a good way of defineing a lake. there is a lake near my old house that was smaller than the pond down the road.

i will check the radiator lines and run the heater.

the ground is fine. i have my sub and my fog lights hooked to the chassis and they both work fine.

i will however be replacing my battery as soon as i can afford it. i will be getting the optima red top. i need as many CCA's as i can get for the winters here!

for the guage problem whatelse should i check? i will double check the battery and make sure the cables are good. but is there any thing else i can do???

if you have any more suggestions please feel free to post!


i will check back before i head off to work and after i get back. (approx. 12-4 PM. still have training) feel free to say anything!(on-topic that is.)

Thanks for your help!!

i what sould the ratio for the coolant be for this time of year??? (remember that we got in the 100's today)(that is rare though)

i added more water when i got back home to try and cool it off some more. the tank was looking fairly empty.

IIRC MN has like 13K lakes or something like that...I've found that if you need to cool your motor down and can't stop the truck pull the hood latch.

Did your electric fan kick on? REgardless of a bad temp sender or not electric fan should've kicked on, maybe you might need a thermostat instead. I'm running a 3 core, w/160* thermostat & 1 single electric fan and it's 210 at the warmest.

Gnat5680 said:

i what sould the ratio for the coolant be for this time of year??? (remember that we got in the 100's today)(that is rare though)

i added more water when i got back home to try and cool it off some more. the tank was looking fairly empty.

Click to expand...

sounds as though you lost some coolant. It had to go somehwere.
-leaky cap
-bad pump
-leaky hose
etc. eyc

it get 110 where im at here in Texas. and thats a temp reading from the shade!!! bastards.... yea start with the easy stuff adn just run down the list. rad cap. water pump. hoses. heater core. ect ect ect.

Zoro said:

Did your electric fan kick on? REgardless of a bad temp sender or not electric fan should've kicked on, maybe you might need a thermostat instead. I'm running a 3 core, w/160* thermostat & 1 single electric fan and it's 210 at the warmest.

Click to expand...

the elctric fan does kick on and seems to runn fine.
i was also driving with the hood pulled. and that worked very well. i will do that next time i have trouble.

petey: the radiator still was holding some stuff. it did not leak back down to the resivior.


what are some fairly inexpensive things i can do to make it cooler. i ave heard all about CO2 coolers. what are they and how much do they cost? what about getting some more fans? is there a spot for some more? i have already ripped the rubber mat from the bottom of the engine. that cooled it off a few degrees.

Gnat5680 said:

what are some fairly inexpensive things i can do to make it cooler. i ave heard all about CO2 coolers. what are they and how much do they cost? what about getting some more fans? is there a spot for some more? i have already ripped the rubber mat from the bottom of the engine. that cooled it off a few degrees.

Click to expand...

Not really alot of room under that hood. You could switch to a cooler thermostat($6-$7) or wire in a switch so you can throw on the electric fan on anytime you want. Hood louvres are also another thing you could try.

hood spacers, and such are band aids. You still have cooling problem. All a cooler thromostat will do is delay the time it takes for the engine to get to operating temp. It does NOT make your engine run cooler. ( I have LeBaron hood vents because I want to think that it does help when crawling with the AC on when the outside temps are in the 100's.)

50/50 water and antifreeze should be good all year around

Generaly, a overheating at freeway speeds could mean a bad pump (assuming you radiator is not clogged and your thermostat is not sticking). I have seen what appears on the outside a good pump (nothing comming out of the weep hole.) where somebody put some realy "hard" tap water in it and totaly desolved the fins on the pump over time. (I use Culigan water from the big 5 gallon jugs as our water here is VERY hard)

Overheating at idle is likey a "stuck" thermostat (assuming your pump is good and radiator is not clogged. (I've have that problem as well)

I hate those cheap a$$ plastic overflow bottles that Jeep, in their infinate wisdom, used. I have to replace mine every other summer. One day I will spend the coin for one from the Summet cataloge. If you have ever taken those cheap a$$ plastic caps apart, you will see why they are very prone to leaking over time. The last one I had just fell apart.

If you are at the point of throwing money at it to discover your problem through the process of elimination, I would suggest a new cap. They are about 4.99 + shipping from Quadratec. A leaky cap can give you all kinds of of overheating problems. They can leak very slowly so as you would never see any coolant leaking. A good cap also keeps preasure in your closed system
http://www.quadratec.com/products/product_search.php?kw=overflow+bottle&submit=Go!

a thermostat is only about $7 and very easy to change out. But get the right temp thermostat for your application.

It cost about $30.00 to $60.00 to have your radiator rodded out.

if you lost a lot coolant and filled the bottle it will often NOT go down because of air in system. On your thrmostat housing you have a big hose and a little hose. take off the little hose and slowly fill the hole with coolant with a funnel. I've had cooling problems due to a bad cap. Bought a new cap, filled the bottle to halfway and still had overheating problems The coolant stayed in the bottle and did NOT disapear just like yours. I discovered that I was about a gallon low on coolant when I filled it from the thermostat housing. Some call it "burping" the cooling system and folks will tell a hundred different ways to do it.

Is it actually running hot or is your guage retarded?

i would check the bottle like someone mentioned, mine was cracked and it ran hot, pressure leaks are verrry detrimental to the system. i doubt its blocked lines or anything like that if your jeep normally runs fine and randomly acted up. im no pro though!
-nick

i think my gauge is retarded. all of them are. i need to replace all of them. but i will check the cap. the gauge has not gone over 210* in the last two or three days. it has been 98* with a heat index of 104* so it is really hot out. i have started my job and will be getting regular paychecks now so i will be able to get the things i need to get it fixed up. anybody else have more ideas?