Hey All,

On my way to work (6:30am and 47ish degrees) I was crusin down the highway and had my "Check Gauges" light come on and noticed that my thermostat gauge had jumped to 260. I pulled over as soon as I had shoulder room and proceeded to take a look at the engine. I noticed I was a little low on water, so I filled it up. I checked the gauge again and it was resting between 210 and 220. (Usually it rests at or just below 210.) Hoping it had just been low, I started again and the same thing happened, "check gauges" came on and then I watched the thermostat gauge jump to 250 the pop up to 260. I had the heater on just a little to cut the chill, I turned it off and immediately the "check gauges" light went off and the gauge came down to between 210 and 220. It stayed there until I reached work.

Latest work done was about a month ago I replaced the leaky thermostat housing gasket, the thermostat and valve cover gasket. Never had any other overheating or water issues like this.

I've read up a little on this and I'm going to check the head stamping. Just praying it's not too serious.

Thanks in advance.

 

My Cherokee did this the other week. Turns out my electric cooling fan wasn't plugged in completely. So when my XJ reached the point where it needed the fan and noticed it wasn't there. She politely said "hey half ***, pull over and check me out."

 

Definitely sounds like just an electrical issue, not an actual overheating problem. If it was actually overheating and hit 260, the engine would be pretty toasty at that point. Also it would stay that hot for a little and gradually cool off, not drop immediately back to ~210. I've heard sometimes on XJ's that the electrical connectors for the gauge cluster get dirty and need to be cleaned. Pulling the cluster shouldn't be too hard

 

Sticking thermostat ?