bigredjeepbeautiful

It's seems that when I'm driving around town, it's fine. But when I slow down, for example going through McDonald's drive through, it gets really hot. I usually stop and shut her off to cool down. It hasn't overheated yet because I don't let it but it gets pretty damn close. Also it's happened twice, coolant sprays out of the radiator cap. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but I wouldn't be surprised if it does. Any help would be appreciated as this is my daily driver. Thanks!

Oswalla

Yes the cap could be bad. Overflow should go to the overflow bottle instead of out the cap. Also check the fan clutch. Grab a blade and see if there is movement in a front to back fashion, pay attention to the shaft where the bearings are. Should be no movement at all by the bearings on shaft. With a warm motor turned off, the blade should be hard to spin and easy when cold. Those are the cheap easy fixes.

I'm assuming you have no leaks and the antifreeze is good and up to proper level.

Turbo X_J

Is the radiator cracked? Some peeps sit on the cap when removing/installing and crack the radiator @ the neck. Does it use any coolant?

bigredjeepbeautiful

The only leak (that I know of) is out of the cap when it sprays.
My OEM fan doesn't function properly so there is an aftermarket one that I manually turn on. I just found out that the fan hasn't been working because the ground somehow came off. So I haven't been having the overheating issue since i regrounded it. But that still doesn't explain the coolant spraying from the radiator cap… I will be purchasing a new cap as well. Radiator is somewhat new still so I doubt the crack but I will definitely check to be sure. I appreciate the help guys.

robertj

If the Jeep is overheating it's the cap's job to spew coolant out when the system gets to a certain pressure. If you had no fan, there's no doubt you were overheating. It won't hurt to replace the cap, but the reason you were overheating was due to a non-functioning fan.

Turbo X_J

Strong possibility that you cooked the motor, I would do a compression test before you spend any money on it.

bigredjeepbeautiful

Well f*** how do I do that?? It still runs and drives like normal...

Turbo X_J

You can borrow a gauge from Vatozone

Oswalla

WRONG FAN....your mechanical fan. It is what pulls air into radiator in slow speed and idle conditions. It has a thermatic clutch that as the warmer the temps are it will lock up and make fan turn and not just free wheel so to speak. Low speed and idle overheats on a otherwise good cooling system points to a fan clutch worn out and not locking up properly. The electric fan is a fail safe on cherokees in my opinion, the mechanical fan should and will provide adequate cooling on a good system.

A leaking cap is not a sealed system, you need a certain amount of pressure for proper coolant flow.

kclcpa

is the coolant brown and rusty? new radiator is pretty cheap. My boy had slight heating issue, just a bit overtemp. New radiator solved.

bigredjeepbeautiful

Coolant looks fine, and the radiator is still relatively new so I'm almost positive that's not the issue. I'll have to check everything over just to be sure though.
Also I have a friend who had the issue i have with the OEM fan, so he will possibly be fixing that. Thanks guys! :-)

madmanmarty

I would check the entire cooling system & do a coolant check.