Overheating, but its 20F outside??

[captainofiron]

What the heck is going on.

This morning I was driving to work. No problems, turned on my XJ to warm her up while I busted out the ice scraper to clean the ice and snow off the windows. Still no problems.

Get going start driving, about 5 minutes later, the temp gauge gets to about 50%, like always. So I hit the heater and keep going, well usually when the temp gauge hits 50% it will jump down to about 30-40% and climb and drop, its always like this

WELL not today.

It climbs all the way to the top, by this time I am half way to work. on the highway... not good.

So I pull off to the emergency lane, let it cool then limp to the next exit, so I wait and wait, so I turn around and plan to go home and pick up my trans am.

So I get to a gas station and decide to boil off the coolant and fill it with some fresh stuff from teh station. I go in and get some stuff and come out and there is a 4door XJ next to mine with the same exact problem, WTF

He tells me that its a common XJ problem. So now I am home using up my precious comp time, I dont want to go to work anymore, all this frustration. http://www.cherokeeforum.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

Any ideas. It was running fine the past week with the same freakin temperatures, I have it filled with 50/50 coolant.

Help would be appreciated.

[PipesTA]

Is the thermostat stuck closed? XJ's have manual fans, correct? I know there's a lot of problems with the WJ fan control modules since I've put 3 in my rig.

[captainofiron]

actually its got a manual clutch driven fan and an electric, but both are PUNY as well as the radiator.

Anyways, yea I am thinking its the t-stat too. The only bad thing is that my t-stat housing is held on with RTV and luck haha

[captainofiron]

http://i977.photobucket.com/albums/ae258/javierandyana/Snow%20Dec%202009/Image051.jpg

[Chris]

Sounds like water pump or tstat

[captainofiron]

Im gonna swing by Autozone later and just buy the t-stat and water pump and just replace them

[Tarheel'Z']

when you turned on the heat was it warm??

[skinnies]

I'll guess thermostat, common problem.

[captainofiron]

when you turned on the heat was it warm??

Yea, At first I thought maybe something was clogged and or water was frozen, but when the heater worked great, I didnt know what the heck was going on.

[captainofiron]

Well Last night I got the t-stat replaced, I then let it run for about 30 minutes, it got up to 210 then went a little over then cooled again just below 210. Well I started to hear hissing and saw steam, I was pissed, thinking that my head or something was cracked. Well I pop the hood and to my surprise it was just a hose leaking. So I also noticed that my water pump sounded horrible, so I bought that also. I really hope its not just the idler pulley

So I am going to fix what I can today. I guess Im driving the T/A this week.

I will let yall know how it goes.