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Overheating - blown head gasket? HELP!

akelley728

NAXJA Forum User
1999 Cherokee Classic 4 Door
Motor: 4.0
Transmission: Auto
Mileage: 189,000

First time poster, I hope I am doing this correctly.

My wife and I were married a little over a year ago. We live in Virginia Beach, Va. Shortly after we got married we bought a pristine sky blue Cherokee.

It has been running like a champ. Oil / fluid changes every 3-4000 miles. Took it in to a AAA Car Care Center on friday for an oil change and 24 point inspection. I told them I noticed a “squeaking” noise at idle. They said the noise was due to the water pump starting to fail. However they had done a leak test and it wasn’t leaking.

Now I know virtually nothing about cars. I asked how long
 
until it needed to be replaced. They said it could be weeks but to get it replaced soon as Cherokees were “Sensitive” to overheating.

A couple days later the Check Gauge light goes on. Temp shoots up to 260. I figured oh oh. There was no smoke or knocking. Engine sounds and runs fine. Coolant level looks okay. But I nurse the car back to the AAA center. Long story short, they tell me the water pump failed and the motor blew a head gasket. They were very rude to us and basically said to junk the Jeep.

My wife and I are devastated. This is our baby and we have no idea what to do. We don’t trust what the AAA is telling us. Hoping someone local can help us out. My wife has a lot of health issues so money is tight but we are willing to spend what it takes to make Roosevelt whole again.

If I posted this in the wrong area please let me know. Thank you.
 
Right place to post, but sorry to hear of the trouble.

IMHO, I'd have another shop take a look at it. While they may be correct in the water pump dying, your (brief) description does not sound like a blown gasket if it truly ran smoothly back to the shop. The gasket COULD be fine and the pump is truly dead, or they disconnected your fan and it truly ran hot.

Here is a decent article with two easy ways to check if your head gasket is blown: https://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/jeep/4.0L/how-to-test-a-blown-head-gasket-1
 
Right place to post, but sorry to hear of the trouble.

IMHO, I'd have another shop take a look at it. While they may be correct in the water pump dying, your (brief) description does not sound like a blown gasket if it truly ran smoothly back to the shop. The gasket COULD be fine and the pump is truly dead, or they disconnected your fan and it truly ran hot.

Here is a decent article with two easy ways to check if your head gasket is blown: https://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/jeep/4.0L/how-to-test-a-blown-head-gasket-1

Thank you so much for your reply! What more detail can I give? Right now we don’t know if we should move the car from the AAA center. The article is very insightful so I appreciate it.

Also where can I find out where there might be local XJ owners who could help? We live in Virginia Beach. Appreciate all the help that the forum can give!
 
I wouldn't wait on an XJ expert. These motors are in a number of different Jeeps and they aren't that complex; and average shop can and has worked on them.

I would check Google/Yelp/family member reviews of good near-by shops, then get the jeep there. I feel it is hard to come back from a position of distrust with a current shop.

Have another shop check what's going on.

Be prepared for a $1000+ for a shop to do a head gasket if that is the case.

Unfortunately I do not know any local shops (I'm in CO) so I can't help there.
 
IMHO, I'd have another shop take a look at it. While they may be correct in the water pump dying, your (brief) description does not sound like a blown gasket if it truly ran smoothly back to the shop. The gasket COULD be fine and the pump is truly dead, or they disconnected your fan and it truly ran hot.


Yeah, the timing sounds suspicious. The water pump would not be my first guess for an engine squeal. If it changed with engine rpm, my first guess would be idler pulley, the belt or power steering. I'd probably believe it more if it had been leaking coolant. Have someone else look at it and actually test to see if the head gasket is bad. I don't know this business or their level of integrity, but there are plenty of dishonest shops out there who might "accidentally" disconnect the electric fan to drum up business.



Those free inspections are always a bit suspect anyway, as they tend to find things that may or may not need fixed. They always show you the dark brake fluid and engine coolant insist it needs flushed. I had them claim my vehicle needed $1000 worth of brakes two months after I did them myself. He got a bit quiet when I mentioned that I watched them perform the inspection and they never went near the wheels.
 
This IS the place to find out about what to fix when needed, how to diagnose it and even about fixing things on your Jeep, whether you know much about cars. Educating yourself about how things work so that when you take it to a shop, you don't get taken for a ride.

Find at least two shops to compare diagnoses and prices and don't tell them you're shop shopping. Agreed you should read reviews and never take your Jeep to filthy, junky shop OR any tranny shop that starts with Aa***.
 
My opinion is, a single overheat event on a 4.0 is not a head gasket killer.

Get a second opinion.
 
I've had two water pumps now that had shot bearings and never did leak much if any. Best guess is they were a redesign that stayed leak proof even with some seriously bad bearings. The shaft was sloppy and had significant side to side play. More than enough play to slip the belt.

Maybe yours over heated because the belt was slipping and not driving the pump.

It may or may not have a head gasket issue. Some of the signs are easy to spot, coolant missing form your overflow tank (level low). Top of pistons way too clean when looking down the spark plug hole with a good flashlight. Excess moisture coming out of the exhaust pipe after warm up (or steam). Bubbles coming to the top of the filler neck after warm up (caution there will be some overflow before the level stabilizes). One or more of these signs are likely to be present with any sizable head-gasket issue. Less likely, milky looking engine oil, looks kind of like the foam on a Latte. Tiny head gasket leaks can be harder to diagnose.
 
I also would get a second opinion. My 97 jeep would overheat in summers and i would pull over and let it cool down. A couple times stuck in Chicago traffic it got close to 260 degrees which is bad. This went on for 4 years. Never blew a head gasket. I installed a high volume water pump, high flow thermostat housing, 180 degree thermostat, and new OEM radiator. It would still overheat running the ac when it was over 90 degrees out. I finally bought an eBay 3 row aliminum radiator. Its never overheated since, i even run the ac while off-roading in 90 degrees days and it will stay 185-207. My aftermarket stat housing had a port for a temp sensor so i got an autometer digital gauge.
 
The previous owner may have installed a fail open thermostat. When they fail typically your temp gauge jumps to max for a few minutes then starts to read accurately. It should be running colder than normal if that's the case.

Since you have little experience a way to tell if your vehicle has blown a head gasket is to check the exhaust. Without smelling directly you should be able to detect a sweet smell and have a film of sticky residue on your trunk if it has blown a head gasket.

I think these are just a bunch of dumb kids that are trying to rip you off. Take it to a different shop.

You can ask them to test your coolant for exhaust with dye.
You can also have them do a compression test to see if one cylinder has less compression than the other.

If it's running smooth I really doubt the head blew.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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