frankmilan

today I'm in the jeep, engine idling and I notice the heater on full starts blowing cold air...(colder than usual), it's never been hot, get a few miles up the road and the low coolant level light comes on, only a few miles from home luckily, so I fill it up with 50/50 antifreeze water, run the engine for a while, then notice coolant is leaking from the filler cap, considering the heater's stopped working is this a block in the system or just a messed up filler cap???? any ideas please!!

Throttle Jockey

maybe it was just too low to circulate through the heater core. the cap is bad for sure. new cap and make sure you purge the system real good.

frankmilan

much appreciated... hope it's that simple!

frankmilan

Ok, new cap, flushed system now I've got a lot of white smoke out the exhaust..... I'm guessing a crack in the block somewhere? is k-seal any good?

frankmilan

sorry for offending anyone, being a 'newbie' & starting a new thread.... I was in a bit of a rush when I joined and I couldnt find a lot that was specific to my engine... after reading through 20 or so possibilities I was more confused than when I started...

OverlandZJ

I dont see where you offended anyone... Welcome to CF.

We dont see alot of Diesel questions here in the states because they were not offered here. I also dont think we have many members from outside the US here, making it tougher for you to get the info you seek. Not to take anything away from this board but i'm gonna suggest you try NAXJA, i think you'll find more info and perhaps more members with experience with your engine... simply because it's an older XJ board.

www.naxja.org/forums

Good Luck.. and keep us posted.

Throttle Jockey

did it actually overheat? are you losing coolant? if no to both questions, then you are most likely overfueling. an injector basicly bleeding into the cylinder. the white smoke is unburned fuel.. high head temps will reak havoc on diesel fuel injector even if it did not "overheat"

frankmilan

thankyou...I didn't even cross my mind that you don't have many diesel versions over there..anyway I've learnt a lot reading posts on other issues here..and I'll try NAXJA, thanks again

frankmilan

It's losing a lot of coolant the bottle is empty after a few miles, the temperature gauge starts rising almost to the red then goes back to normal then rises again?? If there is any left in the bottle its boiling....

projectmayhem

check the thermostat

gregblack

Hi I have a Cherokee with a VM 2.5 diesel I also had some coolant problems, loss of coolant out the cap and no heat , I back flushed the heater matrix and the radiator. I now have hot water going through the heat rad still not much heat. While I was doing this I was filling to the cold fill line and it would blow coolant through the cap, I tried to filling the minimum line and it was fine, I have added more coolant and it is now about 1" below the cold fill line and every thing is fine I intially filled through one of the heater hoses making sure the heater matrix was full and replaced the hose I have done about 1000 miles since and the level has not changed.
I hope that helps.
Cheers Greg

'99orvis

The VM diesel engine in the Cherokee sold in Europe is known to be a bit weak. I have no experience of it directly as mine is a 4.0 but have read a lot about it on www.birtydastards.com

Thats a Jeep forum in the UK where lots of people have experience of the diesel Cherokee. Good luck!

frankmilan

Flushed everything again!..(thanks Greg)....thermostat ok, still f****d what next?? waterpump?

found birtydastards as well, thanks for that..

gregblack

Hi always try to keep it simple do the eay things first, I think now I would start to worry though in case its a head or head gasket, check for oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil and get some one to pressure test the cooling system.
good luck Greg

KillerCOM

If overfueling there would be black smoke from the exhaust not white, white smoke is an indication of burning coolant. I recommend that you perform a leak down test and find out if you have a crack/blown head gasket. When doing the leak down test look for bubbles in the radiator, if present you have a blown head gasket/crack. Other than that I would also pressure test the coolant system and look for any possible leaks, if no leaks are visible and you are loosing pressure its another indication of blown head gasket/cracks.