Jeep36111

DO I NEED YOUR HELP GUYS....

I have a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The truck has been a godsend for me. BUT now what?.......

Sunday, when I was headed into the city with the air on everything was fine, but as soon as I was stopped at a red light or in traffic, the gauge immediately climbed into the danger zone. I spent fathers day with my daughter for three hours with full heat on. Not fun. Yesterday, was cool. Without air on, the gauge would pin everytime I stopped even for a minute. The spraying of the "brown" coolant all over the engine compartment didn't happen until last night when I was parked with the engine on, but no ac. The amount of steam was incredible. After cooling down, I filled the system with water and drove five minutes home. The pictures are from today. I need to know what parts to try first because I have to do this myself except if its something I can't handle. I spent half the night on the Jeep forums. The thermostat doesn't look that hard to replace. There is only water in the system now so I need to flush it. On youtube there are 100 ways to flush. I need the easiest. And my apartment does not have an outside hose connection. What would you suggest? Today, after I took off the radiator cap before starting, all was fine for about 10 minutes from a cold start, I had to rev it a bit to get the brown water in the radiator to start bubbling and the leakage starting from where the hose is attached to the cracked plastic in the picture. Liquid did not come from the crack at first, but where the hose is clamped to the plastic radiator cover where the crack is. I have no idea if the crack was there before this started happening. When it started steaming the temp was fine and the fan was not running. That's as best as I can explain it. I have pictures, but don't know how to add them? I added them to my gallery.

RocketMouse

One thing I would suggest is moving your thread to here: https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/
The site is divided up into several main areas. The link above is specifically for stock Grand Cherokee questions. I'm merely suggesting this as you will probably get more assistance with your issue by posting it there.

Other than that, on these old Jeeps, there are several things that can begin to fail that can result in the failure you're experiencing.
One thing I would ask you is prior to the first main failure, did you hear any unusual sounds from under the hood? I'm specifically getting at if your water pump was failing.
With the brownish coloured coolant... it could've been a clogged radiator as well. Often times with theses things, there's more than one thing causing the failure. Could be a combo of things like, radiator, water pump, fan/clutch assembly, t-stat, etc. You get a full on failure of any one of those and it's not going to end well.
The other thing I would check closely too is to make sure you didn't crack the head with that kind of overheating episode. Check your oil and make sure it's normal and not a milkshake.

Jeep36111

No I did not hear anything unusual. How do I post pictures. Start a gallery? I will move the question and thanks.

cruiser54

I moved it.....

dave1123

Photos can be posted by clicking on the image icon at the top of the "Reply to Thread" message panel. It will direct you to choose what source to get them from, like from your computer files.

I looked at your pics and can't tell what engine you have. The WJ (99-04 Grand Cherokee) is my specialty because I've been driving one of 6 years. I'll do what I can to help.

Jeep36111

Thanks

dave1123

V8 or 6.

Jeep36111

6

dave1123

Okay, now we are in my zone of knowledge. I'm thinking when that crack happened, you lost all pressure so the coolant began to boil. Steam expands exponentially so that a small amount of water turns into a great volume of steam and pressure goes up rapidly. If the fan is malfunctioning, this would cause the temp to stay down because of airflow cooling while driving but go up when you stop. At this point I'm just thinking on paper trying to get my mind on track. Bare with me.

So, the fan quit working so when you stopped the temp went up because the heat had no way of dissipating. This probably started steam pockets to form and caused the crack. Pressure disappeared in the system and the coolant boiled freely, stirring up all the sediment on the bottom of the block, thus your brown water. The thermostat is now toasted so it won't close and all that sediment is in the radiator blocking the tubes and probably the heater too.

To my way of thinking, you need a good system flush, a new thermostat, and a new radiator because of the crack. Then make sure the fan is working properly. The system is supposed to cycle between 195* and 212* controlled by the thermostat and fan working together. The fan is supposed to run on high whenever the A/C compressor is running.

Jeep36111

I had a mechanic here today who went through the car. While not going into your amazing analysis, he came to the same conclusion. The car is sitting outside without the stat and won't be driven until the new radiator gets here from Amazon in two days. I hope the ones Amazon sells for $88 are not advised against by people like yourself who really knows this stuff. Also, I was told that until he puts it in, we won't know if the head gasket, fan and who knows what went south too. The car runs smoothly though at idle. Thanks so much.

dave1123

My mechanic is a good friend that is into classic and hotrods just like me, except he has money! I bought a heater core at Rockauto that was defective and started leaking 30 minutes after it was started! He told me next time to let him source the parts locally because then he can go back to the source and get reimbursed for labor as well as a new part! That heater core cost me a bundle! I thought I was saving money! Instead I paid for ripping the dash out TWICE! Don't get me wrong. In over 50 orders from Rockauto, I've only had a problem twice with parts and both times they were factory defects, not their fault, and I got store credit for both no questions asked. They sent me a replacement brake caliper overnight!

Case in point. He found me a good used transfer case with only 65K miles on it. When he installed it there was a crack in the case from shipment. He got another from the source in 2 days and got reimbursed for labor and a 1 year guarantee.