My 89 is overheating, within 5 miles down the road! I changed the thermostat (160 degrees), and put a new radiator cap on it, no help. Where is the drain plug for the radiator located? Any suggestions as to why it has been getting hot? Outside tempature is 90, jeep is running 240 to red., Thanks for any and all help.

 

Check your water pump for circulation?

 

make sure your electric fan is working if it has one... make sure you got water... if both good probly looking at a radiator if your water pumps not dumping water everywhere... more then likely its clogged up internally and waters not flowing right... i got a used one for $3.25 of ebay with 10,000 miles on it... lol... cheapest new i found was like $80 on ebay shipped...

 

Drain plug is on passenger side. it's accessible from underneath or by taking the grill off.Check the radiator for cold spots when it's hot? They clog up it's pretty common. The impeller on the water-pump could be bad. I know that year '89' when you fill the motor with coolant after it's been drained it's best to fill through the heater hose outlet on the thermostat housing. Filling through that bucket on top never seems to fill the motor. Good luck

 

If this came on all of the sudden, I would first check the air flow through the radiator. Take a hose and put your thumb over the end and force the water through the radiator from the engine side and see if that makes any difference. Won't cost you annthing.

 

i had this same problem last week. i changed thermostat, pulled water pump, and flushed system. the water pump was $30.00, the thermostat was $10.00, fan clutch was $30.00, and $20.00 for coolant- all from o'reilly auto parts. check the fans- fan clutch and electric fan. my electric fan is wired to run while key is on. pull the two hoses off the radiator, stick water hose in upper tube. see if the water is flowing good. if so, then pull water pump and check blades-replace if there is any pitting rust. pull the hoses off the fittings and start flushing all the lines. i found a ton of rust-colored crap being flushed out of mine. once you put it all back together, fill bottle with coolant. run engine til its in normal operating temp shut off and let it cool off. repeating this step 3 times should have the system free from air in the cooling system. this was recommended by the chilton book, and worked for me. hope this helps!

 

Thanks for all your help, I'm gonna flush it here in the next few days, I'll let ya'll know how it turns out. Thanks again!

 

hey guys
mine is having a similiar problem
early summer i replaced the rad, hoses, thermostat and waterpump (cant remember if i bought a new rad cap)
today i left it running while getting my daughter from the sitter and started talking when i hear the idle drop half sputter and comeback to normal. the electric fan had been running all this time and when i hopped back in the stock temp gauge was around what i presume is 230
i drove it home at about 45mph and it came back down to 200
check engine light is on but ive not checked the code yet
should i be worried about the headgasket?

 

 

Same guy?