My 2000 xj started to overheat. Got the cooling system flushed and moved it to a better place to work on it. After I moved it I noticed that coolant was coming out of the vents on both driver & passenger as well as up thru the defrost vents.

Before I really dig into this, any ideas on what's going on here?

 

I'll take "Heater Core" for $200 Alex......

 

Heaterbox leaking into vents and blowing out is my guess, never heard of that happening but I only been working on my jeep for a couple years and still a novice mechanic so again im just guessing...is it also puddling on the passenger floorboard that youve noticed?

 

Haha beat me with my long post

 

Do you mean it is a fog like type of smoke coming out of the vents or actual coolant?? I Don't see how that would happen. Maybe so much fog it is forming drops of condensation? Fog thru the vents is typically the heater core leaking.

 

And keep in mind inhaling coolant vapors will make your ears grow twice as fast...
Get it fixed asap.

 

Actual liquid is coming out of the heating vents. I had the heater on getting it from one garage to another and some stuff sprayed up thru the defrost vents onto the windshield. And there is no heat so I'm guessing the heating core is the problem.

I'm not much of a mechanic, is this something I could fix myself?

 

Yes, it's puddling up on the floor mostly on the passenger side... Or at least it would puddle up if the carpet wasn't soaking it up on the way down.

 

Yep, need a new heater core

 

Is the HC difficult to replace? Could I do it myself in a weekend? Ill look for a for a thread on it.

Also, now that coolant has been blowing up through my vents is there any way i can clean that out?

 

Someone else can comment on changing the heater core. I think it's pretty involved (pulling the dash).

You can bypass the whole thing by connecting the two hoses that run into the firewall together. You will have no heat, but it won't leak!

 

What he said, you could figure it out if you want to put some work into it, alot of info on the internet

 

heater cores are nasty buggers to replace. i did one not to long ago. you have to pull the dash and drop the steering column. i've heard of some kind of access pannel down on the heater boxes, but never found it. if u take a shop to it they will charge atleast 4 hours labor. this was also on a 96 xj so the interior was diffrent the access pannel may be on the newer ones idk. you'd have to look. start by taking the lower dash trim off. good measure to unhook the battery, not nessicary but i did. then take the instrument pannel off unhook it ect ect the heater controls and the radio all that good stuff. unbolt the stering column slide the driver seat all the way back and lay the column in the seat unbolt the dash from just under the windsheild (i think ther are a couple under the dash too) pull it out however, and please take your time and dont break any of the black heater boxes or it will just blow out of wherever ites broke. takes the lines of of the heater core from under the hood, (they are on the passenger side firewall. then unbolt the heater core and persuade it out. put new one in and do everything in reverse. ill try to get you some pictures to help out.

 

Well at least its not TOO much work

Id really like to do the work myself but its a DD so i might have to have a shop do the work. I found one that quoted me $600, which wasnt as bad as I thought it might be.

If you had pics that would be great. I found some videos online but they were hard to follow.

 

Replacing an XJ heater core isn't really that difficult, but it is a lot of steps, it's tedious and you will be using more than a few four letter words. You will also want to replace your air conditioner evaporator while you have things torn apart. Not doing so is a mistake that you don't want to make.

Plainly speaking, this job is not for everyone. Everybody has a different skill set. You should review a procedure and see if this is something you want to do yourself, or hire out. But be forewarned, the labor costs are high with this job. Higher than you think.

If you do it, use a factory OEM heater core. They are over $300, but unless you like doing things twice (you don't want to do this job twice), I'd stay away from the $75 Chinese heater cores. I used to order from a vendor who made a nice core for about half what Jeep charges, but they are no longer in business.