hey all... 98, 4.0, 2 door sport. I have been noticing coolant on the ground at random and today there was much more and noticed it running down the outside of the frame in the drivers fender well. so I finally opened it up to figure out where it was coming from and noticed this little tube out of the bottom drivers side of the radiator under the hose. from what I can tell the coolant was coming out of it. what is it? should it be hooked up to something?

 

Looks to be one of the auto trans cooler hook ups. Yours std trans I hope? Shouldn't be leaking coolant unless it ruptured inside letting coolant into the trans cooler.

 

yes, its a 5speed... sorry. I put my finger in the end and it was certainly wet. it only does this at random, not everyday

 

Shouldn't be coolant in that section of the radiator. It's an auto trans cooler. I'd plug it off for now but you might want to think about a new radiator. It's the original radiator I take it?

 

Radiator is leaking coolant into the trans cooler portion. It (radiator) needs to be replaced.

 

Yep.

It's a good time to replace the water pump, hoses, and thermostat while you're in there.

 

And there's really no better time to replace the viscous fan clutch on the mechanical fan while the radiator is out of the way.

Everybody always overlooks the viscous fan clutch. And everybody always calls it the vicious fan clutch. But it's not trying to be mean. It's just misunderstood.

 

Agreed, Shaky! And I overlooked it!

Thanks for the assist!

 

Might as well do the belt and idler pulley to.

 

I LOLed.

 

I'm seconding this. Typical wear item. So much easier to do without obstructions.

 

Hey all... I replaced the radiator and water pump last night. put the coolant back in, started the Jeep, burped the system by squeezing the radiator hoses until no more bubbles came out of the radiator fill nozzle. capped it up, cycled the heater with nice hot air blowing and no leaks. drove it 25 miles, topped off the overflow and all was well. that was last night... drove it 3 miles round trip to lunch today and started seeing steam and smelling coolant. looks like it's coming from the upper radiator hose right at the connection to the radiator. I grabbed the hose to be sure it was warm and coolant cycling and I could hardly squeeze the tube. I really had to grip it to get the tube to compress. what's going on? air in the system?

 

Hose should be pressurized ...Coolant smell will take a little while to go away. Is clamp good and tight on hose. Keep an eye on coolant level on bottle. When cooling systems are filled thermostat needs to be open while running then top of rad and replace cap. Burping is not done by squezing hose air will naturaly escape during heat cycle on a open cooling system.

 

it was, I checked them all after test drive last night. Thanks for letting me know if should be pressurized. I will tighten that clamp and see if it stops the leaking this afternoon on the way home.

I just didn't realize the hose would be that firm as it wasn't last night.

 

Tighten with 5/16 or 8mm socket not screw driver.