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Just figured out what the "Jeep thing" is...

4K views 25 replies 22 participants last post by  MWT 
#1 ·
This "Jeep thing" is like dating a really really hot chick, who is crazy! Its alot of fun, you spend too much money, your up all night ending up sweaty & greasy from it, your friends are jealous, you get admission into some sort of weird club... but it gets mad at your for no reason, throws fits seemingly randomly, has unexplained issues which it somehow solves on its own only after you try a bunch of different things (and spend a bunch of money) to solve it... and yet you can't resist getting in it every chance you can.

I have had my jeep for 2 months, it was overheating, so I back-flushed the heater core (heat was weak), flushed the rad, changed thermostat (on the side of the highway, in the rain), and changed the waterpump. The heat was awesome, and I thought my issues were over. Then the heat got weak again... and it overheated this morning on the highway. It seems I am losing coolant somewhere... but can't find a leak (just got some dye to try), and there's no white smoke. And now, ofcourse, randomly, the heat is amazing.

Tomorrow I am going to replace every hose which wasn't replaced last time, pressure test the system, and hope I can find a leak somewhere.

I do love the jeep, but as the saying goes, no matter how hot that chick is, there's some guy somewhere who is sick of her ****!
 
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#2 ·
you left out the part where it cheats on you, gets pregnant and marries the other man.



at least, that's been my experience.
 
#5 ·
This "Jeep thing" is like dating a really really hot chick, who is crazy! Its alot of fun, you spend too much money, your up all night ending up sweaty & greasy from it, your friends are jealous, you get admission into some sort of weird club... but it gets mad at your for no reason, throws fits seemingly randomly, has unexplained issues which it somehow solves on its own only after you try a bunch of different things (and spend a bunch of money) to solve it... and yet you can't resist getting in it every chance you can.

QUOTE]

best quote ever!!!!!!!11
 
#9 ·
...issues only become problems when you don't have the tools or time to fix it.:
Gily just made it into my sig!

Any to the O/P
Grats on the jeep!
The first thing I replaced on my Tj was the radiator,but that was because it had a crack in it...
 
#7 ·
This "Jeep thing" is like dating a really really hot chick, who is crazy! Its alot of fun, you spend too much money, your up all night ending up sweaty & greasy from it, your friends are jealous, you get admission into some sort of weird club... but it gets mad at your for no reason, throws fits seemingly randomly, has unexplained issues which it somehow solves on its own only after you try a bunch of different things (and spend a bunch of money) to solve it... and yet you can't resist getting in it every chance you can.
my new signature
 
#11 ·
Glad people liked that comparison. I came up with it Monday on the side of the highway in the rain while waiting for the jeep to cool enough to figure out what the issue is.

So here's the deal, filled with coolant, everything's awesome. I drive about 50 miles... overheats! I stop, overflow tank is full, and its blowing air into it. Once it cools, it sucks the tank dry. Obviously I lost coolant somewhere, either causing the overheating, or once it overheated, it blew the coolant out the tank overflow.

My mechanic is my buddy, so we spent all day yesterday going over it... for the second time. The radiator was changed by a previous owner, and looks pretty newish. Last week I changed the thermostat (because it was overheating) on the side of the highway (in the rain... only breaks in the rain on the highway). We changed the waterpump last week also, which was newer but was weak. Flushed the system, backflushed the core, and changed hoses. Worked awesome till Monday, when I overheated.

We can't find a coolant leak anywhere, and there's no white smoke. Yesterday we went over every hose, every connection, every clamp (changed most to hose clamps, rather than spring clamps). We drained and flushed the coolant, pressure tested, put in Peak flush solution, and dye. I drove around for 5 hours on the highway, and in stop-go traffic... and no overheating. Everything checked out fine! One theory was combustion gasses leaking into coolant, and causing the overheat... but pressure tested perfect.

So, it seems it has fixed itself. My current theory is either a clog somewhere which finally opened, or air bubbles (even though we made alot of effort to make sure we didn't have any major air bubbles in the system last time). I will be watching the coolant closely, to see what happens. If it was a bubble, it was about a gallon sized bubble!
 
#12 ·
Did you "burp" the coolant system? You could have left a large air bubble and it got to the pump where it stopped the flow...then once it settled out the pump caught prime again.

Jeeps, English cars and women, If you don't pay attention to them every day they will make your life a living ****.
 
#13 ·
I hope that you figured it out, but if it still happens i would def be checking to make sure that your oil doesnt have coolant in it. My truck did the same thing you are saying when the headgasket had a tear in it.

By the way i hope you dont mind but i quoted you in my sig, cause that was just a great way to put how us jeepers feel
 
#14 ·
I hope that you figured it out, but if it still happens i would def be checking to make sure that your oil doesnt have coolant in it. My truck did the same thing you are saying when the headgasket had a tear in it.

By the way i hope you dont mind but i quoted you in my sig, cause that was just a great way to put how us jeepers feel
I forgot to mention that we did check that last time, but I will keep my eye on it too.

And, no, I don't mind you using that quote in your sig, its kind of an honor actually that my 6th post here was good enough to be quoted. :cheers2:
 
#15 ·
That is a fantastic comparison.:thumbsup:

After I bought my Jeep I once said that the Jeep was the AR-15 of the automotive world as there's no shortage of parts, modifications, etc, you can do with / for it.

Good luck figuring out your issue.;)
 
#17 ·
Just a thought.

When I got my YJ, there were all sorts of stuff wrong (including radiator and carb replacement). I worked through it (including the unexpected loose manifold bolt) ... and I suddenly realized I had gone months without a crisis. My Jeep started and got me to work, day by day, no issues, except for the detail stuff that I tweaked because I wanted to. I took it on a 3 week road trip. Still working well.

Just remember that. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
 
#19 ·
Sorry to resurrect my old thread about my engine overheating, but I thought maybe some people would be interested in knowing the solution.

After replacing half the cooling system (all hoses, waterpump, thermostat), I was still overheating, and losing coolant somewhere. I was losing about a gallon of coolant every 200 miles or so... it was very annoying to say the least. The only thing we could think of left to check was if the head was cracked, or the gasket blown.

On Monday I bought a block tester to see if I was leaking into the coolant from the engine... and it turned out to be positive. So, with either a blown gasket, or cracked head, the coolant was overheating, and overflowing the overflow bottle. We checked the oil at that time to see if I was leaking antifreeze into the oil, but it looked perfect, so the leak was 1 way, and not 2 way. I made an appointment with my mechanic buddy for Thursday to start the tearing down of the engine.

Thursday we started ripping the engine apart... when we took the valve cover off it was covered with peanut-buttery goo. Looks like in the last few days, the leak had gone 2 ways! But, it only just started cleaning the tops of the valve rockers off (added about a quart of antifreeze to the oil), so we think we saved the engine from a complete re-build by less than 100 miles! Phew. We spent the day tearing everything apart and cleaning. We sent the head off to get cleaned and tested for cracks.

Friday, we heard back from the machine shop that the head was dead! It had one huge crack in the top, and several other cracks in various places! So, we ordered a new, re-cast (not re-built) head which apparently is stronger than the stock heads.

Tuesday the head came in from Alabama, and we put the whole thing back together. I had never done this before, so I learned alot in those 20 hours of tearing down, and re-assembling. We finally got the beast put back together right as the predicted 8 inches of snow started to fall. I have to say, I am glad to have my jeep back, and especially for the snow that came our way... it handles the snow with ease! Its almost as though it didn't notice that it had snowed... she just powers through it with no worries.

So, if your losing coolant with no idea where its going, and your oil looks good... go spend the $52 on a block testing kit, and see if you have blown a gasket, or cracked the head. If your buying a used one, its probably worth the $52 to see if your buying into this problem (I wish I had done that).

Now that I have bought my girl $1000 worth of new parts, and spent 20 hours non-stop messing around inside her from ontop, and underneath, covered in oils and sweat, I am sure she'll give me years of awesome rides.
 
#20 ·
Just caught this thread today MG, wish I had sooner as I hunted this dog on my CJ7 back in '93. Everything you described is exactly what I had gone through and came up with the same end result. Could you post where you picked up that new head, just in case someone on here needs it in the future? It would be greatly appreciated. You know the good thing is that you now have a completely new cooling system and shouldn't have to do anything with it for a very long time! Factor in the increased efficiency of your heater (especially the defroster with the snow and frozen stuff coming down) and you've got some great preventive maintenance already done. At least you did this to yours in the winter. My '84 CJ7 blew the head gasket in July on a cross country drive from Denver to Albany, Georgia in '93. I had to remove the thermostat (higher flow volume) and ended up driving at night during record heat through Texas and Louisiana with the heater running on high while not exceeding about 50 mph with the doors off. Whew! That was one HOT trip. Had my fianc'e with me for our first extended road trip as well (she didn't complain once...knew right away I had a keeper). I got lucky as well in that it was leaking out of the water jacket, but not into the internals of the motor. Warped the head in a big way and I had to replace it...still can't believe we made it without killing the motor. Glad you tracked it down and got it fixed without too much damage!
 
#22 ·
Alright same thing happend to me last summer.

Turned out i got it right the first time with the problem.
you might have to replace the radiator....... the reason i couldnt find a leak in the radiator or a puddle in the driveway is because it only leaked when there was pressure aka when i was driving hence the coolent would leak out of the radiator hit the motor and evaportate....

you might look into that
 
#23 ·
This "Jeep thing" is like dating a really really hot chick, who is crazy! Its alot of fun, you spend too much money, your up all night ending up sweaty & greasy from it, your friends are jealous, you get admission into some sort of weird club... but it gets mad at your for no reason, throws fits seemingly randomly, has unexplained issues which it somehow solves on its own only after you try a bunch of different things (and spend a bunch of money) to solve it... and yet you can't resist getting in it every chance you can.
hahaha, thats mine in a nutshell! I hope you don't mind, I paraphrased it and put it in my signature :rofl: (I suppose it'll show whenever I buy my membership :p)

Anyway, good luck with her. Hopefully shes not getting so old she has hot flashes :cheers2:
 
#24 ·
hysterical

Holy cr@p this could be the most hysterical thing I have seen so far!!! :laugh:

This "Jeep thing" is like dating a really really hot chick, who is crazy! Its alot of fun, you spend too much money, your up all night ending up sweaty & greasy from it, your friends are jealous, you get admission into some sort of weird club... but it gets mad at your for no reason, throws fits seemingly randomly, has unexplained issues which it somehow solves on its own only after you try a bunch of different things (and spend a bunch of money) to solve it... and yet you can't resist getting in it every chance you can.

I do love the jeep, but as the saying goes, no matter how hot that chick is, there's some guy somewhere who is sick of her ****!
 
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