Mysterious Overheating

[2003KJ]

Ok so it was hot today. about 93-95º around lunch time. Humidity way up there.....overall not a good day...lol. SO I went out to pick a bite to eat. Sub shop is no more than 2 miles away from my house. I'm driving down the road, runnin about 60mph, got the a.c on, radio turned up (good song...lol) and all of a sudden I hear the dredded warning chime. Ya know that one that means one of your guages has peaked, or your out of gas. Sure enough, temp guage is peaked.

I managed to get to the sub place, popped the hood, and there isnt any coolant in the overflow bottle. Ok, this means its all in the radiator, and what was in the radiator has leaked out. Started checkin around, drain plug on the radiator is nice and dry, hot as hell, but dry. No sign of coolant anywhere in the engine comparment. No sign of coolant in the motor oil either, so that ruled out head gasket. Radiator cap is on nice and tight. Go in to get my lunch, come back out like 3 minutes later and check it again, now i've got half an overflow bottle of coolant. Ok....now i'm really puzzled. Attempted to get back home, half way back overheating again. Managed to limp it back to my driveway, parked it, stuck a fan in there and left the hood up all afternoon so I could get it cool enough to work on. Go out there about 30 minutes ago and everything is almost full. All the levels are where they were 3 weeks ago when I last checked all the fluids. To be sure I topped off the level in the overflow bottle and in the radiator....neither took much at all.

I've gotta go to one job tonight, and i'll see what happens on the way down and back. When I get home later i'm gonna run some tests with it. Like holding it at a certain RPM in park for a while to see if I can find out where the hell this coolant is going to.

If it does it again tonight its going to the dealer first thing tomorrow morning.

BTW the specs are 2003 Sport V6 automatic. Anybody else have any overheating issues? I've only got about 24K on the ticker and it's been absolutely trouble free.

 

[-=JoN=-]

did u check for fat blockage?...
(cuz it couldve run from the a/c vents to the radiator..fat can do that i heard...LoL)

seriously .....
was ur fan kicking in?

 

[AtlanticLiberty]

sounds like your thermostat is sticking once in a while.

 

[2003KJ]

found the problem. Ran some more tests tonight. Radiator hose (upper) is not functioning properly. I can touch it while its overheating and its almost cold like its first thing in the morning. Something has prematurely collapsed inside of there. Going into the dealer first thing in the morning for a new hose. Called them tonight and this is the 1st reported case of this hapening on a KJ (to them atleast). My appointment is at 7am in the morning. We're going to take the hose completely apart to see what the deal is. When I say we're I mean myself, the service manager and the mechanic. I know on XJ's they had one of the radiator hoses that was spring loaded. And they tended to fail after a while, and that the KJ has the same set up. Not sure why it failed at only 24K, but i'm very impressed to see the dealer is taking special measures to make sure i'm happy. Opening their doors for me an hour early to fix a problem (still under warranty), shows me they want to keep my business. And with practice like that, they will have my business. I'll post what happens tomorrow

 

[2003KJ]

Ok just got back from the dealer not too long ago. The problem was the inside of the hose was actually falling apart and causing a blockage in the cooling system. The insides of the hose were getting caught up inside the radiator as the pressure was increasing and decreasing. Popped a new hose on there (supposedly better) and did a complete coolant flush and she's back to normal again.

Certainly interesting none the less. Like I said in my last post, very impressed that the dealer took extra steps to make me happy and solve the problem (even invited me to help them work on it, way cool...lol). They've definately won my future business. I've even already called Chrysler and told them how happy I was with the service.

 

[Bennett]

All from the AC getting blocked... LOL. (inside joke)

 

[Trodo]

Weird. I've heard of hoses collaspsing on themselves but never chunks getting loose. I'd chalk it up to bad luck. Glad you got it fixed with no complications. Always good to hear when going through the dealership.