hi a couple of days ago, my grande cherokee started blowing cold air from the heater and then my overheat warning came on. I turned off the heater light went out. i took it to the dealer and they are saying I need to replace the engine for $15,000 plus the head gasket for $3800 plus plus - almost $20,000.
This is crazy to me for a 5 year old vehicle. I have 146,000 km on it and i drive 85% highway. Please help- is this right.

 

The forum for the Grand Cherokees is over at https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/

You lost enough coolant that it stopped circulating and the temp went up. Depending on how bad the engine was over heating, it could have blown the head gasket, or it could be fine once the leak is fixed. It's also possible a bad head gasket was responsible for your coolant leak and there is bearing damage from having coolant in your oil. Coolant in the oil is pretty obvious and testing for a bad head gasket is relatively simple. Something isn't right with that quote though. The head gasket is in the engine, so they wouldn't do both. Replacing the head gaskets is at least an all day job, but even then, $3800 seems high. $15k to replace the engine is crazy high, when a complete long block engine direct from Mopar is around $5k - $7k.

I've had two incidents in my 2014 Cherokee of leaking enough coolant that it started overheating and blowing cold air. Both times, I just repaired leaking hose clamps with no other harm done.

 

Okay, $15k for an "engine" plus $3.8k for a "head gasket" by itself sounds fishy. If they are installing a new or remanufactured engine, then both options would have a new headgasket for $0. I believe they meant $15k or the engine OR $3.8k for a headgasket job. I would immediately have the Jeep inspected at a different repair shop that is not affiliated with that dealer. In fact, most auto parts stores will lend you a Combustion Leak Detector tool for "free" and you have to buy a $10 (USD) bottle of blue fluid. It is very simple to use. You simple place the tube w/rubber stopper over the radiator cap of your reservoir and fill it with the special blue fluid up to the level marked on the tool. Have someone start the engine. Then you use the included squeeze-bulb and and let it suck up any fumes that may be present in your cooling system. If the color changes to green, then you definitely have some sort of cracked head or head gasket leak. I just checked and Princess Auto does not carry the tool but Canadian Tire does carry it and it is $39.99 plus Trudeau-taxes.
By the way, a Factory-new genuine Mopar 3.6L engine for your WK2 is about $5700 USD (part #68565534AC) . A remanufactured engine is $5300. A head gasket job, in the states, would be about $1000. Where are you located?

 

I am having the same experience! Of course just out of warranty. 2017 Grand Cherokee. Bought in 2018 and have 60,000 on mine. 🤯

 

These things seem to have an issue with the thermostat. Mine was stuck open so I couldn't get much cabin heat. Cost me like $55 for a genuine Mopar thermostat-housing-sensor (all-in-one) assembly and two gallons of $15/gal for genuine premix Mopar coolant. Whole job took me like 20 minutes and I did pull off a couple hoses to drain as much fluid as possible. It was actually a very easy job. I used almost every bit of the 2-gallons of premix I bought. I'm curious if that fluid is akin to the original Dexcool in regards to it causing more trouble than good.