yesterday I drove off and after a short distance, less than a mile, my Cherokee stalled. tried starting it and it sounded very weird and did not start right away. opened the hood and heard some bubbling sound coming of the coolant reservoir and it also smelled like coolant. no leaks were visible.


mine is the base model XJ without the temp gauge. the temp light did not come off. after two minutes tried starting it again and started like nothing happened. took it home and here I a trying to get some input before I start buying stuff.


please help.


thanks

 

When the motor is COLD, remove the rad cap and inspect the coolant level in the radiator. It should be at the very top of the rad, motor COLD. Coolant level could be low....rad cap could be bad. I have no idea on the stalling motor....that list of causes could be really long.

 

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the engine cranking sound was not the same as usual. hard to explain.

the coolant in the reservoir sounded like water boiling. took the reservoir cap of and saw the coolant bubbling. the coolant smelled like when an engine overheats. it's weird that overheated so quick.

really hoping that it's not the headgasket. could it be a bad thermostat?

thanks

 

Do you have any info on cooling system maintenance done on your XJ?

 

It could be low on coolant in the rad and bleeding pressure/air into the bottle causing bubbles.......have u removed the rad cap and checked coolant level in the rad?

The t-stat is easy to test in a pan of water, on top the stove, using a cooking thermometer.

 

don't know if it's important but it kept bubbling with the engine off

 

nothing recent. i bought the jeep back in april. i only use it on the weekends. just up until yesterday the engine was running well without any overheating and or overheating issues or symptoms

 

i'll check the level tomorrow. what really worries me is the sudden coolant smell under the hood. it never happened before.

 

update.

the coolant level was scary low. started the engine and let it ran while filling up the radiator. it was running for about 10 minutes. when i turned it off the bubbling started on the reservoir, i also heard the same bubbling sound coming from inside the engine and almost instantaneously after turning it off, coolant started leaking from the front of the engine. im pretty sure the water pump is done.

does the bubbling sound inside the engine mean something worse than just the water pump?

 

Means yo coolant flashed over and started boilin' dawg.

If you had your radiator cap on when this occurred a sign of a bad rad cap is engine randomly overheating. I'd replace the cap if you had it on when it did that.

 

Read my sig.

 

Sure sounds like a blown head gasket or cracked head. Or both. To me.

If the light lights up when you turn the key to "on" prior to cranking, it's working. When a head gasket is blown into the cooling system, combustion gasses leak into the cooling system, thereby pressurizing it.

The bubbles in the reservoir and groaning in the block happen before the coolant actually gets hot enough to trigger the light.

The reason your coolant is scary low is because it is being burned in the cylinders. You hydrolocked your engine, which is why it didn't want to start right away, and sounded "weird".

The over pressurization has now probably blown through the water pump gasket or shaft seal.

 

the light is definitely not working. i'll get a mechanic to finally give me the bad news. thank you guys for all the info.

it's very cool that there is so much info out there about this cars. it' my first jeep and this forum has been very useful.
thank you again👍

 

Part of the diagnostic key is that it did it first time in less than a mile.

That's not because of a bad radiator cap or water pump. Y'all.