Need help,cant figure this one out.

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EarthBaby

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Hello
I drive a 2003 jeep liberty.
My dad works on it and is stumped this time.
It overheated one day and shut off,
Not the head gaskets ,replaced spark plugs and coils.
Still runs really rough.
On the right side you can unplug all 3 spark plugs and it runs the same.
The only codes coming up are
P1281
P0351
P0353
He's ran blue devil through it and seafood.

It idles really bad and will run ok while driving it while it's cold but when it heats up it will stall.

any ideas what's wrong with it??
 

sleazy rider

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P1281 is a coolant code via Google, the other two are coil failures codes. What brand coils did you put in? What did dad do with the coolant system to fix the overheat?
 

EarthBaby

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P1281 is a coolant code via Google, the other two are coil failures codes. What brand coils did you put in? What did dad do with the coolant system to fix the overheat?
Honestly I know he's done alot but I'm not aware of everything yet,I know the coils are just $25 ones from O'Reillys.
 

sleazy rider

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Yeah, you might as well have handed $150 to your local corner panhandler. Get some Mopar coils from your dealer if you want them to work and last. Jeep is mighty particular about it’s electronic components. Same with the spark plugs.

Did dad replace the thermostat and coolant with O’Reilly’s stuff too? There’s a hex head bleeder on the top of the engine where the radiator hose is attached to the engine. Make sure all the air is out of the system because overheating a Liberty is easy to do and cause lots of damage quickly.
 

EarthBaby

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Yeah, you might as well have handed $150 to your local corner panhandler. Get some Mopar coils from your dealer if you want them to work and last. Jeep is mighty particular about it’s electronic components. Same with the spark plugs.

Did dad replace the thermostat and coolant with O’Reilly’s stuff too? There’s a hex head bleeder on the top of the engine where the radiator hose is attached to the engine. Make sure all the air is out of the system because overheating a Liberty is easy to do and cause lots of damage quickly.
Ok thank you,I will give him this info and get back to you with what he says.
 

Ramboflorence

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Hello
I drive a 2003 jeep liberty.
My dad works on it and is stumped this time.
It overheated one day and shut off,
Not the head gaskets ,replaced spark plugs and coils.
Still runs really rough.
On the right side you can unplug all 3 spark plugs and it runs the same.
The only codes coming up are
P1281
P0351
P0353
He's ran blue devil through it and seafood.

It idles really bad and will run ok while driving it while it's cold but when it heats up it will stall.

any ideas what's wrong with it??
It's obviously ur coils if u unplugged ur spark plugs and there was no change
 

Warpc0il

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Hello
I drive a 2003 jeep liberty.
My dad works on it and is stumped this time.
It overheated one day and shut off,
Not the head gaskets ,replaced spark plugs and coils.
Still runs really rough.
On the right side you can unplug all 3 spark plugs and it runs the same.
The only codes coming up are
P1281
P0351
P0353
He's ran blue devil through it and seafood.

It idles really bad and will run ok while driving it while it's cold but when it heats up it will stall.

any ideas what's wrong with it??
Okay, so we had a similar set of symptoms and the cause was very different to those being suggested.

Basically the seal on the coolant tank cap had rotted.
The coolant wasn't being held under pressure, so gave the impression of overheating as it boiled over.
The coolant sprayed across the engine bay and got into the connectors for two of the ignition coils and one fuel injector, causing the engine to misfire and a whole bunch of codes.
The local garage declared that a head gasket had blown, caused by ignition coil failure, and the car was a wreck.
After determining what the problem really was it cost me £8 for a Crown-brand replacement cap, a top-up of coolant and spray of contact cleaner.
That was 3 years ago and no trouble since.
 

sleazy rider

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When you work with symptoms presented on the internet, its a guess. Educated and based on probabilities, but a guess. Standing in front of the vehicle, I’d be running several checks with a well equipped toolbox and developed skill set. As far as your situation, until I run a compression leak down test or find coolant in the oil, a head gasket isn’t the diagnosis. But I made good money at what I did when I did it. Loved doing electrical diagnosis and found some pretty esoteric faults causing customer issues.
 

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