ChadLunsford

I have a 96 Cherokee Country 4.0L. Today I was driving home from work, its around 40-50 degree weather, and my Jeep was overheating. What is also weird is that my heater does not work now and I think I am leakng coolant from the driver side around the front of the motor. Both my fans are working, I have no idea what might be wrong, if u have any ideas please feel free to let me know.

bnkk

Thermostat or housing. Both at autozone for like 30$ make sure your system is full after replace and see what happens then. If the leak is somewhere else then youll need to fix that since low coolant will make it overheat easy.

ZINGGG

Use the search and look around for this issue. There are numerous things. Thermostat, water pump, radiator, leaky hoses, fan clutch, etc etc. I'm assuming you mean the coolant is boiling over? Flush the system, refill and check for leaks. If no leaks and still overheating, start replacing the components of the cooling system

beat up jeeper

Don't use stop leak it will plug up the water jackets in the head and make ypur problem worse

Tango 22

+1

The coolant is probably boiling over the overflow bottle on the passenger side and thats why it looks like it coming from there. These motors are prone to overheating due to the above mentioned components. Dont let the jeep overheat TOO much or TOO many times either because it can wreck the transmission (If automatic). They dont like to be overheated. T-stat and housing are the easiest and most accessible things to start with.

countrythang

Yes def. do the things mentioned above, usually one of the first things to go and cause overheating...
I also strongly suggest buying a little bottle of the flush cleaner and flushing the system pretty good, and then put in good clean anti-freeze. That was a big difference in my 96.
The stuff coming out of there is pretty nasty...

marked1

worse case senerio, possible head gasket or head (compression in cooling system) . It would boil water out of your cooling system and run hot.

ZINGGG

x2 on the head gasket. That'll be your worst case scenario. How quickly does it overheat once you've started it up? Does it happen right away after starting her up and idling or after a certain distance or? The shorter amount of time it takes to overheat, probably the more severe your problem

storm101

Start by putting more fluid in, and find the leak, if the level got too low due to a leak it will obviously overheat, and without enough coolant volume you won't have good heat either as the coolant is what dispurses you interior heat.

After you do the above, post your findings.

ChadLunsford

I put near a gallon of coolant in the radiator, and found that my water pump is leaking. With coolant now its not overheating and my heater works. Hopefully after I replace the water pump tomorrow I won't have any leaks and have my DD back on the road. Thank u for the help :-D

ZINGGG

Good deal. New water pumps should all come with a fresh water pump gasket. Make sure to get that on there too and you should be good to go!

Disoriented Hillbilly

If you are going to replace the water pump, now would be a good time to go ahead and do a flush, replace tstat and rad cap, and replace hoses. Little money, lots of assurance.

storm101

X2, most of its already at least half off anyways!

ChadLunsford

Right on, ima do a flush and ima go ahead and change my serpentine belt since it needs it. Only thing needed now is a lift kit and tires lol.

Tango 22

X3 When I used to sell a water pump job at the dealer, I would do the metal heater hose tube that screws into the pump and a t-stat and gasket for good measure.