Tomxj48

Ok so my 98xj had clean coolant when I got her about 2 months ago... sense then the coolent turned baby crap brown and looked like mud, thick and chunky!! I was kinda pissed and my "Water" temp guage started jumping around so I flushed the system out with fresh water very good, changed temp senser, thermostat, and put new coolent... well been driving it about a week and it did NOT fix the guage crazyness but, the guage does work most the time... so my temps where down a little and everything was good...

ok heres the problem... the coolent is worse then before... NASTY baby crap brown rusty looking like garbage... already! its only been like a week....not running hot or anything.. just nasty fluid! so I come home from work today and there is water dripping out from what seemed like the lower radiator hose... I was like GREAT!!! well I had somewhere to be so I drove her about ten miles... watching my temps it never ran hot... went to wal-mart in the parking lot it leaked quite a bit out... when I got home I looked under her and looked with the motor running... no leak... shut her down.. looked under and it was leaking now from I dont know where... the water was dripping all from like the oil pan area and off my front diff... I meen it was dark and late so I just gave up for tonight.... but after a little bit it stoping dripping!!! im going nuts!!


Im going on a 3 day camping trip with her next weekend I need help!!
Tommy

Abovetimberline

It maybe coming from the water pump,look just under the front of the pump,or tstat housing. Once you find the leak I would suggest flushing with a good flush kit.

TimothyRaymond85

Sounds to me like ur leaking oil into your antifreeze. Check your motor oil and make sure it doesn't look like mud either. If it does do not drive the truck because more than likely u have a blown head gasket. I dont know if ur year jeep has an engine oil cooler in the radiator but I would make sure that not is leakin because if it is u can most likely bypass it for the trip. Dirty antifreeze should not look like mud but if u want to flush it again i would get a chemical radiator flsuh from a local auto store and make sure to run it with the heater running to make sure u unclog the heater core. Then i would leave the car running and flush the car with a steady stream of water.

Programbo

I'm guessing a head gasket. As suggested check your oil as well.

JrRifleCoach

I agree,

Check to see if your making water, or oil.

Handycapt

If it's turning brown that fast I'd also say head gasket. Check your oil and if you see antifreeze in it it's most likely the head gasket. You can also fill up your anti-freeze and then check the reservoir while the motor is running. If you get a bubbling/rolling effect, it's also a good indicator of a head gasket.

It could be a few other things though. The crazy temp gauge fluctuations happened to me a couple times. It happens when there is air trapped at the temperature gauge. the coolant is hot, but the air isn't as hot. So your gauge reads low. When the coolant finally hits it it is super hot, and so your temp gauge goes through the roof.

Air bubbles can get trapped in the water pump and wreak havok on the coolant system. Eventually they should get pulled through.

The Heater core in the xj is notorious for corrosion and clogging. It could be that you just need to back flush the whole system to get all the junk out.

Just disconnect the upper heater hose from the outlet (by the upper radiator hose. and pop off the radiator cap. Take a hose and hold it tight to the heater hose, and you'll end up flushing everything back through the system, and out the top of the radiator.

Still, like was said before, it sounds MORE like a head gasket, but you could get lucky. The amount of coolant you are actually LEAKING kind of sends me away from that option. as most of the time head gaskets don't put a lot of fluid on the ground. But that is only most of the time.

Start with checking the oil for anti-freeze and the reservoir for "boiling."

Tomxj48

The oil is clean, it doesnt have anti-freeze in it... I will try flushing it like you said... see when I flushed it the first time, I didnt realy know the best way to clean out the heater core, so I figured that I would see some more of the crap come back, but I will try to fluch it like you said... And yea, with the crazy temp freaking out, I thought at first maybe it was air, but I could start her up on a very cold morn, and 1 min later it will spike hot, then drop back down to cool... I meen maybe its still a combo of air + the sending unit for the senser?

Anyways my dad is going to look at it today while im at work, we'll see what he can find.. sucks cuz by the time I get home from work its dark..lol.. but im thinking maybe water pump, cuz I know on my car when the pump goes bad, it will spit water out of the little perge whole or what ever you'd call it...

oh and the other thing that I was thinking, maybe someone put like a bunch of stop leak in her and thats the crap?? and now that I flushed it its leaking??

Abovetimberline

It could be bars leak but it is more than likley rust and sludge from poor maintenance from po,it is not uncommon and many have posted the same problem. I think when you flushed it you just dislodged a bunch of sludge and rust.
I would suggest you flush it then inspect your radiator and do a pressure test just to make sure it is all good after you repair the leak.
I had to flush a friends 4 times to get it to clear up,of course I only flushed it with water,until the last flush which was #5.

Rmart30

I would disconnect both hoses to flush the heater core rather than flushing it back into the system. You will also be able to flush it both directions that way and get more out of it.

Jamie57

There is a chemical you can put into the system and run it for a bit. Then when you flush the system you should get all the crap out. I got a bottle of it I was going to use on my 91. never got a chance as I picked up my 98 soon after. Can't remember the name but I think it's made by Prestone.

rivercrazy

x2 that. Both of my 4.0 water pumps have that purge hole and it'll start leaking (right after turning off/not while running) if its going bad.

If it is bad, it might not be circulating the coolant so it'll take a little while for the "good" coolant to mix with the crap that's in the system.

Good Luck!

swells

MIne did the same thing. my heater core was full of rust, and the whole system was really dirty. I heard to use distilled water so I drained the system and flushed the core really good put the distilled water in with no antifreez drove it a couple of weeks drained it again, it was really nasty after running the distilled water now the coolant stays it's color for a long time.

Carl48

This problem gets posted regularly on various Cherokee forums. You need to do a thorough clean and flush. Get some cooling system cleaner and follow the instructions...then flush, flush, flush, flush...you get the idea. Clean out the overflow bottle...it will be full of crap that will just get sucked back into the system. When you finally add the 50/50 anti-freeze and water, use distilled water. Also, check that the thermostat is installed properly and has a bleeder valve or hole.

Jeffdm49

With the engine hot, running and in park- take a look at your tailpipe. See if it's dripping water. Mine did the same thing. A new head solved the problem.

RICZR2

My 2000XJ had the "baby crap" issue too.Needed to flush system at least 5 or 6 times to get remotely clean water.