My 98 XJ was sputtering at idle and shaking a bit it then shut off while I was driving. Looked under the jeep and saw lil leak of water. Tugged on the lower rad hose connected to the water pump and it was extremely loose(pulled it off). I tightened the hose, noise went away, and thought everything was fine and drove home. Got back in the car later and drove a couple miles and noticed the temp gauge heating up, turned on heat to find blowing cold. Jeep then overheated and shut her off. Luckily I was in the neighborhood so she's in the driveway. Couple things to add:heater core is on the way out, have flushed and has been working the past couple months(no pass leak, lil fog in the middle of windshields sometimes). Water pump was replaced about 8k miles ago. Radiator and tstat replaced 4K ago. I live high in the Rockies where it's quite cold. I'm thinking something could be obstructing the system but really not sure. Some troubleshoots would be nice to start knocking things off.
Thanks

 

Bump

 

if there was no water in radiator then not surprised that the heater was cold. better do something with that heater core before you overheat her again. Have you tried filling the radiator and run it at idle for a while for awhile to see if it will overheat?

 

She's not overheating when idle only while driving. Could it be a air blockage? My lower radiator hose is cold, upper hot. My coolant is a lil dirty. Thinking flush the whole system including the heater core, checking tstat....

 

Should also add I've been mysteriously loosing coolant without any leaks.