Hey, I just wanted to post up my recent quandary.

My dd 99 Cherokee started having a antifreeze smell and loosing a small amount of coolant. I couldn't see any in the oil, externally, nor did the exhaust smell.

When I did a search most threads were lead into head/head gasket/freeze plugs. My cause was different so I thought I would add this here to hopefully another search result.

My issue was the radiator, not a big surprise, but normally in my experience when a radiator fails it is easier to spot. This one was very hard to locate without tearing stuff out of the way for a better view. The pic shows a slight stain near the tank. I never saw a liquid drop of antifreeze, just the moist spot.

My trans lines were also leaking so I changed them too. The new Dorman lines leaked worse than what they replaced. I ordered new oem lines from http://www.factorymoparparts.com. They were $106 delivered but at least they worked.

 

They make hand pumps that will presurize the cooling system, which will really help narrow doen future leaks that are difficult to find.

I have a bad radiator myself, so I got a CSF 3 core for $168 shipped. Bought it yesterday.

 

having this issue now. I smell intifreeze when I turn on the heater. I see nothing on the outside firewall or the drain tube for the heater/ac box. nothin on the inside. no loss of coolant that I notice either. no leaks at hoses, radiator nothin. my jeep is a 2000 xj sport with 126000k on the odometer. just bought it. I see some weepage between head and block for oil but that may have been a prior leak. there is no antifreeze odor to what I found there.... dang. hope it aint the head. how do I know if I have the bad head on this engine or not. where is the number for it.

 

A coolant smell on the inside is usually something to do with the heater core but if your passenger side carpet isn't getting wet, I don't know what else it could be.

 

X2 Probaly not a big enough leak yet to wet down the carpet. By pass the heater core, at the valve (which are also known to go bad) And see if it continues.