So I purchased this cherokee used a few days ago. It was cheap for my area so I knew it needed work.

Anyway my coolant halfway between empty and add... Thinking the over heating may of burnt some of it up. Couldn't find any leaks. I was gonna do a radiator flush and see if the level stays where it should after that. Then I realized if the coolant was possibly burning up then the radiator/waterpump may just be going bad.

Anyway my question is should I just go ahead and replace the radiator/waterpump instead of just flushing it.

Its a '91 limited with 164k

 

What is your description of "getting hot at idle"? Have you verified actual temps with a IR heat gun? Factory gages aren't all that accurate.
Is the clutch fan and E-fan working?

Does the pump look like it's 164K ? Rad?
If it needs a flush anyways, that would be the time to do other maintenance on the system. Depending on your budget, do as much as you can.

Do you have the shroud around fan?

 

Has any cooling service been done since you bought it.

 

Did you add collant to tank and then it dropped to halfway, or was it at that level when you bought it?

 

That is the level when I bought it. Haven't done any work on it yet. Popped open the radiator cap just not and there's metal shavings in there. Thinking the coolant dripped out of the waterpump so its bad. Witch explains the metal in the radiator.
Gonna go ahead and order the parts from amazon.

 

Is that metal or stop leak ?

 

Was thinking it was stop leak. Never had any experience with it though so not sure it flowed together when I picked it up with the zip tie

 

New radiator, 90 bucks, you're going to do it eventually because we all do. Just do it now. Here's the deal:

Radiator-90 bucks
Water pump- 30 bucks
195 deg thermostat- 15 bucks
Upper and lower hoses-30 bucks
Coolant- 2 gallons of 50/50, you'll have a bit leftover. 15 bucks.
New radiator cap-8 bucks
Fan clutch- 40 bucks

So for about 230 bucks plus your sweat you can refresh the cooling system on a Cherokee that you just bought. You'll have piece of mind heading into the summer. Seriously we all end up doing this stuff and it will drive you nuts if you do it a little at a time. This way it's one tear down and your set.

 

Think this is what I am gonna do. Was able to grab all the needed parts for $140 on amazon.

 

Would it be a good idea to flush the system before replacing the radiator, etc ???


That way if there's any crap in the block then it wouldn't contaminate the new parts.


Just my $0.02 ...

 

Get rid of the heater control valve and replace the heater hoses with later model hoses.

 

All good advice here!!

Flush it before.

 

Definitely gonna flush it first. Got to washing out the coolant reservoir. Any tips on how to get the coolant stains/brown gook off the inside of the bottle.

 

Have you removed the bottle?

If so, Put ice cubes and salt in it with a little water and shake the crap out of it.

Rinse.

 

Yea I did gonna give that a shot tomorrow.