[Rivka]

title pretty much sums it up. Never had overheating issues ever, even under really hard use.
Tonight drive it for about 10 minutes very casualy in town and had steam venting out of the radiator cap on the way back to a friends. Strangly the temp gauge was still reading normal and I Had no warning. Let it cool for a few hours and then went to drive home. I could watch the gauge shoot up, then the "check gauges" light come on and a block later steam billowing from under the hood! All in about 10 flat blocks!

Anyway left it right there rather than risk drivng the very steep hill I live on. Have to do something in the morning, but what besides call the stealership? I'm not in my normal home town btw and have a move 600 miles away in 36 hours. When it rains it pours.

***Update page 2, post 17***

[XXRider]

Since the Jeep is over heating so far I'd guess ether your fan or water pump is not working.

[Red_]

Rad cracked?

[djt283]

I'll assume you checked the coolant level already. When you saw the steam, did you open the hood to see where it's coming from? The stock radiator can leak where the plastic and metal are crimped together. If it's leaking, it wouldn't overheat until the coolant level dropped too low. If you can determine it's leaking, you can probably get away with topping off your coolant to get it where it needs to go. (Replacing a radiator is actually pretty easy).

If the coolant level is ok, then there could be a blockage or your water pump could be toast.

[FLATFENDER54]

Sounds like it might be very low on antifreeze if your guages are not reading hot

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Rivka

title pretty much sums it up. Never had overheating issues ever, even under really hard use.
Tonight drive it for about 10 minutes very casualy in town and had steam venting out of the radiator cap on the way back to a friends. Strangly the temp gauge was still reading normal and I Had no warning. Let it cool for a few hours and then went to drive home. I could watch the gauge shoot up, then the "check gauges" light come on and a block later steam billowing from under the hood! All in about 10 flat blocks!

Anyway left it right there rather than risk drivng the very steep hill I live on. Have to do something in the morning, but what besides call the stealership? I'm not in my normal home town btw and have a move 600 miles away in 36 hours. When it rains it pours.

Did you try opening the hood and taking a peek in there? Or did you just want to hold it up to the computer so we can?

[Unlimited04]

Jeep did some stupid things in 03+ Wranglers. my understanding is all the guages (oil pressure, temp, etc) are somehow averaged or integrated in the ECM. so for example, oil pressure constantly reads 40psi, no matter what it really is. after the ECM sees a low pressure over a long period of time, it will just drop instantly, and the CEL will come on. so basically, if your oil pump just decided to fail, you'd drive for miles without ever seen the pressure drop....stupid if you ask me. i'm sure temperature is something similar, my ScanGuage reads 200*, but the dash says 210*. The dash unit hardly fluctuates at all, and I was idling with the AC on, on a hot day waiting for a friend, and all the sudden the CEL popped on and the temp guage shot up to near max. Dealership said it was supposed to do that.

With this logic, it is very possible you just didnt see the water pump or thermostat failing, and the temp guage decided it was going to lie to you.

[LJameson]

Originally Posted by Unlimited04

Jeep did some stupid things in 03+ Wranglers. my understanding is all the guages (oil pressure, temp, etc) are somehow averaged or integrated in the ECM. so for example, oil pressure constantly reads 40psi, no matter what it really is. after the ECM sees a low pressure over a long period of time, it will just drop instantly, and the CEL will come on. so basically, if your oil pump just decided to fail, you'd drive for miles without ever seen the pressure drop....stupid if you ask me. i'm sure temperature is something similar, my ScanGuage reads 200*, but the dash says 210*. The dash unit hardly fluctuates at all, and I was idling with the AC on, on a hot day waiting for a friend, and all the sudden the CEL popped on and the temp guage shot up to near max. Dealership said it was supposed to do that.

With this logic, it is very possible you just didnt see the water pump or thermostat failing, and the temp guage decided it was going to lie to you.

This seems to be the norm for all cars. People were always weary about their gauges fluxuating like that. It's just one of those features to keep idiots from going crazy. Hell, if it weren't for idiots, we'd probably still have the CJ5

[Tim]

turn your heater on and see if you get any, one way to help test your waterpump.

lots of cooling problems lately...

i have been running mechanical gauges in my 97 tj since the beginning... stock gauges have their place. i just like the whole picture...

[punk]

head gasket?

[Taylormartin]

Mud in the rad?

[finsout]

Thermostat shot?

[Rivka]

Originally Posted by XXRider

Since the Jeep is over heating so far I'd guess ether your fan or water pump is not working.

fan working so i am voting water pump today

Originally Posted by Red_

Rad cracked?

since the steam is coming from the cap and not anywhere else, i am hopping that confirms things are not cracked?

Originally Posted by djt283

I'll assume you checked the coolant level already. When you saw the steam, did you open the hood to see where it's coming from? The stock radiator can leak where the plastic and metal are crimped together. If it's leaking, it wouldn't overheat until the coolant level dropped too low. If you can determine it's leaking, you can probably get away with topping off your coolant to get it where it needs to go. (Replacing a radiator is actually pretty easy).

If the coolant level is ok, then there could be a blockage or your water pump could be toast.

coolant level was good after the first time it overheated, was low this morning, but not totally gone, i assume it is low from having vented out

Originally Posted by FLATFENDER54

Sounds like it might be very low on antifreeze if your guages are not reading hot

again, don't you think that is the first thing i would have checked, this is not a mall crawler we are talking about.

Originally Posted by mrblaine

Did you try opening the hood and taking a peek in there? Or did you just want to hold it up to the computer so we can?

wow blain, you have your butthead hat on today don't you?

Originally Posted by Unlimited04

Jeep did some stupid things in 03+ Wranglers. my understanding is all the guages (oil pressure, temp, etc) are somehow averaged or integrated in the ECM.

wow that sucks, but also explains a bit, i never se my gauges move, and it always worries me a bit, i tow with my jeep and worry a lot about over heating, now i cant trust my gauges for proper warning if what you say is true, blah!

Originally Posted by Tim

turn your heater on and see if you get any, one way to help test your waterpump.

lots of cooling problems lately...

i have been running mechanical gauges in my 97 tj since the beginning... stock gauges have their place. i just like the whole picture...

you know now that i think about it, last night i had no top or doors and turned my heater on and though i did not drive far, it did not seem like it was heating up at all, at the time i did not think much of it, since the radiator thing happened so fast. good diagnostic info to know, thanks
i have dreams of a custom old school dash with nice analog gauges, this gives my more motivation to someday do just that. if i could just figure out how to deal with the airbags i would be doing it already, but i have had my life saved by airbags so i will not dump mine for style.

Originally Posted by Taylormartin

Mud in the rad?

just a fine dust and not that much, i have cleaned the jeep twice now since the desert



Update
finally gave up, since i am away from home and my shop and have to get on the road asap, so the sad jeep when to the stealership.

hope to know what happened by this afternoon. i made it clear to them that they were going to really have to defend any bill they gave me, and give me any broken parts that got replaced, hopefully i will not get reamed too badly

[Rivka]

the saddest sight:

[Red_]

Its too late now, but since it was coming out of the cap it could just be the cap is bad. Without the cap, the system can't pressurize, boiling point drops, and you boil over when you normally wouldn't.