What the ****!? I checked my fluids last month! my tranny fluid took almost 2 quarts, Engine oil a full quart and my coolant is low! WHAT IS HAPPENING! There is literally no drips anywhere at all, no smoke or anything..... Well theyre topped off now except the coolant and wow my trans shifts so much smoother before.... Yes yes flame me for that lol. But i swear they were all fine last month all at the safe marks. Anyways ill keep an eye out for those every week now there is no drips or anything. Also since i have 50/50 coolant in my system can i just add distilled water to top it to the full mark? And 1 other question how do i check the coolant level? any specific step or just look at it when its cold? because for one it is almost empty! im just questioning if i can just add water since it is cheaper than 17 dollars for coolant here. And yes that is the cheapest i can find out of all the auto parts, walmarts and gas stations. I didnt check dollar stores yet.

 

Yep. Need to be checking more than once a month.

Where you located? I've seen ads for 50/50 for under $10. I just keep my reservoir filled at the hot mark. If your losing coolant you may as well use water cause you'll be emptying the system for repairs.

 

It's OK to do a small top-off with distilled water, but if it's as low as you say, you should definitely be putting 50/50 mix in there. It's best to keep some 50/50 mix around at all times. Check it cold. You must have a leak somewhere, either internal or external. When you say it's almost empty, are you talking about the radiator, or the overflow bottle?

That's some high-dollar coolant in your area... it's about $10/gal here for the concentrate. Buy some cheap distilled water and you have two gallons of 50/50. The pre-mix is usually more expensive than mix-your-own.

EDIT: Earl makes a good point that you should probably concentrate on finding the leak and just use water in the meantime--but fix the problem before winter.

 

I was happy to see analog gauges on my '16 Ford F150 until i noticed the oil psi needle was always in the same spot, cold start, hot idle, hi-way speed no matter what.
Dug into this and come to find out that oil gauge is only an analog idiot light.

I agree, that the temp gauge accurate or not, is a useful tool for showing 'relative temp changes' as you said once a person gets to know their XJ after a while.

 

Yeah, the Ford oil pressure and the temp gauges are both like that...so stupid. They've been that way for years too--my 1995 Bronco was the same. My '67 Bronco has great gauges in it, and it displays current instead of voltage. Today's drivers would freak out at all the variance in the gauge readings.

The sad thing is, even after you get to know it well, the first thing you will blame for a strange reading is the gauge or sender! lol An OBD II bluetooth scanner is a great, cheap investment if you have a smart phone but that will also read wrong if the sender is to blame.

 

i trust the gauge, it and my sg2/obd2 read the same,,,it still depends on the sensor accuracy

 

That is true for the most part. If the gauge was experiencing issues it would likely be a cluster or cluster grounding issue and likely the other gauges would have issues as well.

 

The overflow bottle. And yes thats a funny story, I did have 50/50 coolant.... Or so i thought when this guy who owned a jeep was getting rid of it he gave me a bag of jeep goodies inside plus alot of fluids. One being 50/50 coolant and looked brand new! so sweet i have coolant now but i checked it and the level was fine so there it sat on the shelf. Well when i found out i was very low i went to open it and the seal was broken already and inside was water like really? It was still sealed from the cap thats why i thought it was 50/50 new. But I live in the hernando region of florida which has been pretty hot lately so maybe they jacked the prices up? And Also i think i found my coolant and trans leak, My overflow bottle the hose that comes out from it on the top i noticed the hose is knicked and scuffed up from the fan and wet so i think that is my slow coolant leak. And my trans leak seems to be coming from the trans cooler line under the radiator cap. I see some oil there. But the engine oil has me worried now. Also since i fixed the hose im gonna pull my overflow bottle out and clean it it is very nasty inside. I look after my jeep i promise lol i dont neglect it. I guess i need to check often now... Glad i found it now than having something blow up.

 

haha! Nope, sounds like regular 'ol XJ cooling issues to me, not necessarily a lack of your maintenance. Sounds like you're on your way to tracking them down.

How many miles do you have on your XJ? Mine just hit 154,000 and I replaced the entire cooling system a month ago. It was still working well, but had radiator and water pump leaks so I just did it all. 2000 & 2001 owners can't really gamble on an overheating issue due to the head cracking issues.

 

just clicked 203k miles as i pulled in the driveway just now. And true i think my leak was the little overflow bottle hose hitting the fan i blew through it and it wasnt holding pressure at all and the hose was wet so i think that is my leak. Im about to replace it and zip tie it so it doesnt hit the fan and then clean my coolant bottle so i can read it and top the coolant off. Dollar store had my back lol 10 bucks!

Edit. when i got it I cant remember when exactly but i did replace the entire system but that was years ago i think it was the first month of 2009 i got it i replaced it tho. Then sat for a good long time till recently. Btw scorching hot coolant HURTS!!! the old system blew a hole in the radiator cap spot and spewed hot coolant all over my hand.... That was such a fun day. Then after the er visit, coming home and cussing my jeep out and flipping it off and a week later. I was slowly replacing the system because lets face it almost 300 dollars to replace it is really not that bad at all.

 

Good deal. I know mine moves quite a bit of coolant in and out of the bottle on a hot day as pressures increase and decrease in the radiator.

 

Yep just waiting for the bottle to cool off and get some coolant back into the radiator so i can remove it and clean all the disgusting muck out of it. Guess i overlooked that when i did the system.... Oops. They really should have a cold and hot symbol or something on the bottle or tell how to check it. Because not everyone had their owners manual get torn up by a dog.

 

wow! i didnt expect rice and water to work so well in cleaning the bottle out, Granted its still dirty with very hard caked grime in there and deposits of rust but for the most part its ALOT cleaner and can read it now. All topped off and awaiting a very scorching day again lol.

 

Alright finally took it on a decent drive today temps stayed under 210 besides from starting back up, But was a coolish day today. Got my battery, alternator, starter and check engine light checked today. Results were i need a new battery since mine gave out 337 cca but the good news is the alternator is good. And the check engine light was that evap valve i mentioned earlier. AND oil was onto the second line at idle from 0 and 40 while driving. I know its a dummy gauge and isnt accurate (i have been reading above posts) but for me that is better than nothing right? Maybe it was just low on oil. Next time i might add some lucas oil stabilizer, Is that a good idea? A few people i know swear by that stuff.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you're getting at here, but that's exactly in line with what I said:
It's when you get in to the abnormally high ranges that the temp gauge doesn't match up with what the actual temperature the sensor is reporting. The gauge is interpreting signals from the PCM, not the temp sensor, so any inaccuracies in the temp sensor itself would have to appear in both places not just the gauge.