What did you do to your jeep today?

eric1514 · Jul 19, 2026

I’ve never heard of looking for water leaks with UV dye. Oil, A/C, but not coolant. Typically you would pressure test with air.

But to answer your question, I’d use the whole bottle assuming it’s the typical 1oz bottle. That’s the amount you would put in the crankcase and it only holds 5qts.

seafish · Jul 19, 2026

eric1514 said:
Typically you would pressure test with air.

This…Ideally pressurize to 20 psi using a coolant leak tester kit from HF or Amazon.

Alternatively, you can use a rubber tipped air nozzle with an air compressor regulator set to same as above.
Then remove overflow hose from the rad (leaving the rad cap on)and insert rubber tip firmly into the overflow bung and pull trigger to pressurize system while someone else listens for and finds the leak.

eric1514 · Jul 19, 2026

You might be able to pull the bleeder plug and cobble together something that ends with a coupler for an air compressor. Then lightly pressurize the system like seafish said and look for where water is coming out.

burntkat · Jul 19, 2026

I'll use the dye kit, as I said. I can't see air pressure. I can see dye leaks.

burntkat · Jul 19, 2026

eric1514 said:
You might be able to pull the bleeder plug and cobble together something that ends with a coupler for an air compressor. Then lightly pressurize the system like seafish said and look for where water is coming out.

Maybe you misread. I wasn't asking HOW to check for leaks.

burntkat · Jul 19, 2026

This stuff is purposefully made for coolant leak detection.

sota · Jul 19, 2026

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Roughly 1300 miles of driving, a failure of the air conditioning system, a repair of the air conditioning system and finding out that Camp Perry is giving away firing line benches because they have too many of them and no place to store them anymore. So you decide to stuff two of them onto the roof and ratchet stranded out to the factory plastic bars. As well as have two bicycles, a superdoodle bug, and a bike rack hanging off your hitch, and have the interior completely stuffed full of refrigerator, clothing, cameras, guns, ammo, everything else you can think of for an entire week of shooting.

Needless to say, I love my jeep. Even when it gives me heartburn.

burntkat · Jul 19, 2026

Put half the bottle in rhe cooling res. About to go for a drive to get her to temp and see what the dye tells me. I am about 90 percent sure it's going to be that scabbed-together upper rad hose. There has clearly bees something leaking somewhere.... Maybe? This stuff doesn't flouresce (I may be wrong, but I'm told all coolant would flouresce a bit), and I am known to splash through puddles and mud. It could be flung-off from the fan.

Basically, I suspect the two spring clamps on the switch bung/splice aren't doing the job properly. I will replace them with quality, stainless steel, worm clamps, and I bet that will solve the problem. It's a minor leak, I may just go with Copper Seal if that doesn't work. (send clutching of pearls and gnashing of teeth to /dev/null/.... I have been using the stuff as a prophylactic treatment in every vehicle I've driven for 40 years, with nary a problem....)

Purchase of the new UV flashlight was a good move - it causes the dye to flouresce better than my EDC Olight ArkPro does.

burntkat · Jul 19, 2026

Took a 6 mile ride, got home and there is a little streamer of UV dye showing where I suspected... As well as a very light dusting all over the belt, radiator fan and so on. I may have a pinhole leak in the radiator, can't really tell. We will likely be removing it this Saturday for the AC work, so I will check it out then. Meanwhile, I will get a jug of coolant and a bottle of Copper Seal on the way to work, and dose her on the way back home from work tomorrow afternoon, so it has plenty of time to homogenize throughout a cold (for values of cold... It will be aboit 120 degrees just sitting in the parking lot) engine and find any pinhole there may be.

lfhoward · Monday at 4:21 PM

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I like this Sylvania kit because the UV blocker lasts for 2-3 years. This kit requires some good ole elbow grease with sanding, rather than a drill attachment, but the results are awesome.

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Looks like it took me all night, LOL. But I taped off the area last night and did the rest of the process today.

burntkat · Monday at 4:52 PM

lfhoward said:
I like this Sylvania kit because the UV blocker lasts for 2-3 years. This kit requires some good ole elbow grease with sanding, rather than a drill attachment, but the results are awesome.

Have you tried the Rustoleum UV topcoat?

lfhoward · Monday at 6:38 PM

burntkat said:
Have you tried the Rustoleum UV topcoat?

No, but should I?

seafish · Monday at 8:04 PM

I also used the Sylvania kit with good and lasting results (4 years now).

lfhoward · Monday at 9:01 PM

seafish said:
I also used the Sylvania kit with good and lasting results (4 years now).

That’s great. Mine have lasted 3 years or so, but I park outside.

lfhoward · Monday at 9:03 PM

Today was also an oil change day. 238,106 miles on the odometer. I’ve been using Mobil-1 Truck & SUV every 3000 miles, with Mopar oil filters. I towed a lot on this last change, so was glad not to see any glitter or anything else concerning in the pan.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get in a tire rotation, grease the lifted suspension components, and possibly have time to do fluid and filter on the transmission.

sota · Wednesday at 10:07 PM

jeep may or may not have a failing passenger cat. trying some seafoam to see if that can't help clear up the problem.

lfhoward · Thursday at 1:21 AM

sota said:
jeep may or may not have a failing passenger cat. trying some seafoam to see if that can't help clear up the problem.

Good luck. Hope it works!

sota · Thursday at 9:38 AM

been 90k miles since I last treated the jeep *eek*.
also possible the downstream O2 is being weird. I thought usually when a cat starts to fail, the downstream starts to switch (not stay steady, but start to track the upstream), but this one is more like glitching low, then riding high. had to replace the bank 1 downstream back in 2019/88k miles. I think that one was damaged wiring though and not a bad sensor.

duchemin · Thursday at 9:49 AM

wheeee32 said:
Replaced the pads/rotors on the front and rear. The job itself was easy. I only had to get up early to get it on a lift. She stops nicely now.:happy160:

What tools did you use for the front pads

lfhoward · Thursday at 3:00 PM

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This was from a couple weeks ago. Exploring the Sproul State Forest in north central PA.

What did you do to your jeep today?

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