Squirtle2289

Hello all,

I was test driving a 2001 Cherokee limited with 161k for the first time today. Seems like a great truck and I was about to purchase it. I had it idling in my driveway for about 15-20 minutes without the A/C on as I checked some parts of the vehicle and then coolant began POURING out of reservoir overflow opening. The ambient temperature should have been about 85 degrees F.

I personally have never had a vehicle overheat while idling and not have something wrong with it. The seller told me that it was due to the design of the jeep and it's not broken but the issue is, in fact, very common. He said considering the factors I described above, anyone who owns an XJ would expect it to overheat.

I'm here to ask you guys if that is the case. It otherwise seems like a great deal. $3k for a great seeming truck. Was I just unprepared to operate this truck correctly or is my gut right and this truck shouldn't be overheating because of less than a half an hour of idling.

Thanks all.

EZEARL

First off WELCOME to CF.
The cooling system on the 4.0l Cherokee XJ is considered by many to be minimal. But if kept in top shape it will handle 99.5% of all operating conditions except for maybe extreme uses. Good news is that it's not expensive to replace the complete system if one would want to or if it's needed or if it's age is questionable. That's the good news. The bad news is that the 2000-01 4.0l engines in the XJ (and some other Jeep models) were equipped with the 0331 head which is known to crack. Were talking a lot of money to replace even if you do the work yourself. Also if the problem is let go to long as in using the vehicle it will wipe out the bearings in the engine. There was a thread here not to long ago that asked if you would purchase a XJ of those years. I said no BUT that's just IMHO. Others will reply here I'm sure. But being the weekend it's kinda slow around here. Meanwhile you can do a search on the 0331 head here and on your search engine.

Roler

No it shouldn't be overheating and the PO telling you it's the design and to expect it to overheat is nonsense.

You can check if you have the 0331 head by looking inside, removing the oil filler cap. The exact location where to look (for) can be searched, I can't recall.
If not the 0331 head, be prepared to invest some $$ in doing some cooling system works but it's money well spent.

exasemech

1. They don't all overheat like that. If they told you that don't believe anything else they say.

2. More importantly,if it overheated while you were looking at it then it's probably overheated a bunch before, which is a real worry with that head. Not all those heads fail, mine has 190 k on it and it's fine, but you don't want to overheat them.

3. Run away from that thing