Jeepjosh

Hi, I need advice as all newbies do. Could anyone shed some light on this for me, most grateful if you could.

I have been offered a 1997 Jeep 2.5 Turbo Diesel with 130k on it and although the overall condition is tidy with lots of reciepts and service history I was concerned about seeing steam and water escaping from the expansion bottle cap once it got up to temperature.
I tightened the cap, which helped but it still came out again after. I loosened then tigtened it again and it stopped for the remainder of the test drive.

The coolant doesnt look sludgy or oily, but there is a small amount of scale coating the actual tank itself. The water that came out was blueish, so indicated freshish coolant to me.

There is no evidence of water in the oil, on the dipstick or mayo in the oil cap.

The car had only the day before been driven down from London to Wales, a journey of about 250 miles, so if it had a dodgy head gasket or cracked head I think it would have broken down halfway.

After idling, I revved the engine and noted a small amount of greyish smoke from the exhaust. It didn't happena again until it had been idling or just been started. I put my hand by the exhaust and it didn't seem to be wet or steamy.

There is also a slight but audible grumble/knock from around the gearstick area. In normal drive, if you push the 4WD selector down more than it should towards the plastic centre console it changes pitch. It sounds like a vibration against the gearbox or gearstick to me, but could it be something worse I am wondering.

It is a PX on a garage forecourt so they are not able to tell me anything about the car and my efforts to contact the old owner have not got me anywhere.

It appears to have been fairly well looked after. New clutch, intercooler, new discs, pads, 2 x tyres last month, garage bills for checking this and that. It has a full service history too.

Shade133

id say go for it if the price is right.

also if anyone could shed light on the steam and water escaping the coolant return tank would be awesome because on my 88 cherokee it does the same exact thing and it actually over time of about 2 weeks here in the hot weather of arizona it will loose water and coolant because it boils out of the cap on the return tank and then my jeep will start to run hot do to it low on coolant/water.

i havent figured this out yet. ive just been making sure its topped off before i drive it anywhere and its been just fine.

Jeepjosh

Thanks for the reply Shade133, I am tempted to go for it but am put off by not being able to speak to the old owner to verify things. I like to do that normally.
If you have the same problem with the expansion tank, it must be a fairly common thing. Your Jeep hasn't conked out on you yet, so maybe it's just a niggly thing rather than a real worry.

cherokeefreak

With a 2.5 turbo diesel I would buy it in a heart beat, they are rather hard to come by. How much are the asking for it?

Jeepjosh

They are not hard to come by over here in the UK, but they are dogged by head gasket or head failure it seems. That's why I am dubious about this one.

They are asking £1300, but it will need road tax which is another £210 for the year.
OK unless the heads have gone in which case I can kiss goodbye to about another £600 to fix it.

I am going to try to speak to the garage that did most of the work on it if I can and see what they say. If they OK it, I'll have it straightaway.

Shade133

ya my jeep runs great no head issues or anything. the head gasket was actually replaced last summer (9 months ago)

and ya diesals are common in the UK

and i dont know much about them at all so if your worried something is wrong with it that is major then definitely pay to get it checked out before you buy it. the little money you'll spend to have it inspected is well worth the piece of mind. that way if they do say you need to have a ton of work done on it. tell the owner because of that you'll want that much taken off the price. 1300 euros is around 2000 in dollars right? but regardless if its gonna take 600 to fix it. tell them to take 600 off the price so 700 euros

cherokeemike

I had this same problem on a 98 Dodge Neon, Tried everything and it turned out to be a 5 dollar radiator cap. Buy a new cap and see what happens.

Jeepjosh

Thanks for the replies.
I am going to find out about getting it looked at by a professional, but time is against me at the moment and the Jeep is a 90 minute drive away from me. I am suspecting the cap is the problem, but just as easy it could be gasket problem and the dealer loosened the cap on purpose to release pressure. Car dealers, I don't trust 'em.

dyte2004

dont buy it mate like you said there are plenty of td s over here and for 1300 you can afford to buy one without any probs and with road tax if your lucky overheating tds can be hellish and very hard to find if it is being pressurised buy a leaking head have a shop around on ebay and auto trader there is better ones out there

Jeepjosh

Update.
I have spoken to the old owner who confirmed it is HG problem, she had the coolant light on all during her journey from London to Wales. It must have got topped up at the dealers, bast*rds.

I pointed out that their website says any issues will be fixed prior to collection of the cars they sell, but guess what. It's a typo they say.

They have offerd it to me for £1000 now, but I refused as it's still going to cost £6-700 to fix, as the old owner found out.

Other than that it was a really good Jeep.

There is one on ebay at the moment i am looking at, but the owner is on holiday and will not be back before auction end, so I cant test drive it. WTF.

superj

i was going to tell you its the headgasket. its is slightly leaking and pressurizing your coolant. it could run for a while like that or it could go at any time. i went through this recently with my 81 320I bmw. no signs of headgasket leak but a little pressure in the coolant reservoir and every once in a while i had to add coolant. blew on me in traffic one day and left me stuck.

Jeepjosh

Just the reason I don't want it now. It could be Ok for a bit then really screw me up in the middle of nowhere.
Cars can go wrong at anytime, but I would be daft to buy with a KNOWN problem.

Don't suppose you know how to get email notifications do you. I have ticked the box,I thought, but have had to keep coming back to the site to check for messages.

Jeepjosh

OK, sorted notification now I think.

Jeepjosh

Continuing story of the dodgy Jeep.
If the coolant light kept coming on as the old owner tells me, the coolant warning light was not on when I drove the Jeep, but I did notice a couple of loose wires on the alternator side of the engine that had connectors on them and at first looked like the joined together. They were both female, so didn't join but I traced them back to a common loom that went to the back of the alternator.
Any ideas what these were. They were covered in oil so had been there for some time, but maybe the coolant light was disconnected. But why were they connected to the alternator.
I would like to know, as next timeI see a Jeep with these wires hanging off I know what they are and what they are hiding.

dyte2004

not sure how the td is wired have you thought about a 4l jeep with lpg i have one super cheap to run cheaper than a td i would say