For the past week my jeep has been having over heating and loss of power, today I was in the mcdonalds drive thru and I was idling for a long time dude to poor service an while idoling my temp gauge shot right up, so I pulled over of course and popped my hood, my good friend just so happen to be driving past and stopped to talk to me, he's a mechanic at a local ford dealer and what we could see is that the a little collant on the top of the water pump an my collant gas turned a funky color, does this sound normal with a water pump failure and is it a easy diy project?

 

Sounds like cooling system neglect/lack of maintenance......time for some cooling system TLC. It hasn't even gotten hot yet.....git 'r done.

The XJ cooling system has got to be one of the cheapest, easiest to do, cooling systems out there. <$250 buys all the parts, including a new rad, and 4-5 hours will git 'r done.
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I always keep up on my coolant, oil etc my jeep has high miles so it's also time to start replacing more things

 

When coolant temperatures increase outside of normal, it can free rust and sediment in the system causing color changes and stuff to be floating around in the coolant. Water should not be coming out the top of the water pump. This is a "vent" for the water pump. It could be coming from above, like the thermostat housing. You may have a bad thermostat or failed radiator cap. A plugged radiator or old fan clutch should not cause temperatures to "shoot up" all of a sudden.

 

It's green with a little brown there's not to much floating around in it what should I look into getting when replacing my coolant system? Radiator water pump thermostat etc

 

If your not sure of the condition and/or age of any of your components?

Serpentine belt
water pump
gasket
inlet tube
hoses (heater and radiator)
fan clutch
radiator
radiator cap
thermostat
coolant

 

If original, most of that stuff is at the end of its life and you don't owe it anything.

 

I ended up replacing my water pump I'm going to replace my thermostat next weekend and maybe look into a new fan and radiator

 

I ended up replacing my water pump I'm going to replace my thermostat next weekend and maybe look into a new fan and radiator and radiator cap

 

If you want to do it the smart way replace it all at the same time so you don't have to keep buying coolant each time you have to drain it. If you can't afford to get everything all at once, buy the part and wait until you have everything that will cause you to have to drain the coolant and do it all then.