fabian9931

Whats up guys and girls. Well my xj 00' is overheating. In jersey right now where its cold out. If you guys can help me out that would be great. these are the details

During the summer car got hot and gauges beeped at me. i pulled over and it was low in coolant. didnt see it leaking anywhere, wasnt pressure tested either. coolant was a thick rusty muddy color not like oil and coolant mixed more like that build up that is common on blazers. anyway topped off on the radiator and was fine ran fine till last week.

Last week it was cold about 22 degrees at night. I was driving home from my soccer game and noticed the car didnt blow heat. was blowing ice cold. so i was driving while my eye was eyeing the temp gauge. every 10 seconds i looked at it and it was at normal (middle). still blowing ice cold. Car felt like it lost power and i hit the gas in order not to slow down as it felt like it was. rev'd up and keep driving. still needled at same normal spot. next thing i pull off the hwy and car started to make a loud loud tapping noise (almost like exhaust tapping on frame that loud, was coming from inside motor) 2 secons later xj shut off. soon as it shut off smoke started on the engine bay which it was overheating. i turned the key with engine off and needle finally pinned at H for hot. didnt give me a warning before. let it go in neutral for a parking spot and i had no tools on me. oh just to let you know my car is bone bone stock. and running the 4.0 liter with 160k miles. i can hear the coolant boil. litterly boiling.. so i let it sit and had a friend drive me home.

came back the next day with 2 gallons of coolant. opened radiator cap and same muddy thick gritty rusty crap that we know about. radiator dry. resevoir was way way over full. about an inch of empty ness up top, so it was full full. with that brown nasty stuff. anyway. added coolant till radiator was full. scanned eng light since it was on and cam up as misfire. car was ice cold being that it sat all nite in the cold obviously. started car with radiator full and cap off. car was cold for a while. radiator burping spilling alittle. finally needle got up to normal and fan kicked on. top radiator hose is hot hot hot. lower radiator hose was cold cold as well as cold heater core lines (both of them). car never made that taping noise while it ran for about 15 min. then started to over heat and started tapping bigtime again so i shut it down.

got xj towed to my house.

i first started with a thermostat and gasket and more coolant. changed that. reason why is because i believed the tstat was stuck being that the bottom hose was cold and top hot. not circulating. I took it apart and ran the water hose out to the car. ran the water hose on the top of radiator while lower hose was disconnect to flush. got it running clean and clear. did same with motor and water pump. was flushed out of that brown thick stuff. also removed resevoir and washed that with boiling hot water in my basement. cleaned as well. ok installed tstat and gasket. filled with coolant and then again. ran for about 15 min with heat on high, fan kicked on. temp sensor was reading. and the needle got up to normal mid point and heat was still cold. did this with radiator cap off so it was bleed the air pockets. ran it for 20 min at least. radiator burping and airing out but no heat and then car again started over heating and then again tapping and i shut it down. while it was running for that 20 mins again the lower hose and the 2 heater core hose were cooled while the top hose was hot hot. heater core was changed about 50 k ago. dont know what to do. could be a head gasket but oil is normal. clean oil not mixed with coolant is what i mean. maybe its a big big air pocket? i remember airing cars out for 45 min at times. dont know. help please. thanks

djb383

Time for some routine maintenance.

fabian9931

Routine maintenance? yes i know i should've flushed is alot earlier instead of waiting.

djb383

Now it will probably need more than flushing.......like some new parts. Maybe another new heater core, water pump, radiator, etc., etc. All 11+ year old vehicles require regular routine maintenance, some TLC, especially if it's your DD.

TrekkerJmm

You can try the "Peak" radiator flush kit from AZ or just about any auto parts store. You also may want to get the Prestone Cleaning/flushing solution. I did mine before the summer and used the kit ($4.99) and the cleaning/flush and haven't had an issue since...Tj