What the heck is going on? Please help
#1
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Year: 2001
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
What the heck is going on? Please help
Ok heres the story. 2001 XJ 4wd sport running fine 2 nights ago. Yesterday morn on the way to work suddenly starts running like garbage and smoking from the hood. Sweet smell. Engine dies completely. Thought maybe overheated, noticed coolant was very low, refilled, got it to retastart barely mad eit another 2 miles ... dead. Towed home.
when home looked under and saw the hose was hanging loose from the engine. Nothing else seemed off. Reattached it, and jeep will start now but idle is ridiculously rough. Not sure how far it'd make it. Sweet smell is gone as well. There's caking near where the hose was off.
Wtf is going on? I literally just did an engine rebuild less than 6 months ago. I can't figure out what happened. Thanks in advance
engine bay
A lot of build up
this was totally detached
when home looked under and saw the hose was hanging loose from the engine. Nothing else seemed off. Reattached it, and jeep will start now but idle is ridiculously rough. Not sure how far it'd make it. Sweet smell is gone as well. There's caking near where the hose was off.
Wtf is going on? I literally just did an engine rebuild less than 6 months ago. I can't figure out what happened. Thanks in advance
engine bay
A lot of build up
this was totally detached
#2
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Year: 1995
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Engine: 4.0L
Well when the hose comes loose all of your coolant goes bye bye. Sounds like you may have ran it for an extended time with no coolant in the block at all. This is going to take some more diagnosis. I'd start by pulling the plugs and doing a compression test, or even better sticking a borescope down the spark plug holes and checking out the cylinder walls.
#3
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I would also be concerned about a head gasket or cracked head. A compression test will likely tell you if this is the case. Borrow one from auto parts store for free it's easy to perform on an I6.
Last edited by Zingo; 05-25-2020 at 12:42 PM.
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downs (05-25-2020)
#6
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I thought this too but there's no symptoms of blown head gasket outside of the poor engine performance.. no white exhaust smoke, leaking oil, oil dipstick is perfect and amber, no lights. Im really hoping this isn't it. :-(
#7
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Well when the hose comes loose all of your coolant goes bye bye. Sounds like you may have ran it for an extended time with no coolant in the block at all. This is going to take some more diagnosis. I'd start by pulling the plugs and doing a compression test, or even better sticking a borescope down the spark plug holes and checking out the cylinder walls.
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#8
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My question is what was the coolant temp gauge saying while this whole event was going on? I would think that losing that much coolant would throw a code and the gauge would show an overheat condition.
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
#9
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Year: 1995
Model: Cherokee (XJ)
Engine: 4.0L
My question is what was the coolant temp gauge saying while this whole event was going on? I would think that losing that much coolant would throw a code and the gauge would show an overheat condition.
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
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IJM (09-28-2021)
#10
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Year: 2001
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My question is what was the coolant temp gauge saying while this whole event was going on? I would think that losing that much coolant would throw a code and the gauge would show an overheat condition.
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
My only other concern is that by refilling the coolant and not properly burping the system - it may have overheated part the block and created a crack somewhere. I agree that you need to do a compression test and find out if there is any real damage. For what its worth I've seen guys drive their jeeps with no coolant for a few miles without any problems so definitely don't assume that your engine is toast without doing more testing!
#12
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will do! Really hoping to not dish out a ton of $$ again (I have no engine experience) ..... but I suppose it's still less expensive than getting a new car. I got this jeep a few years ago from a couple of garage mechanics and every major issue I've had so far is from some aftermarket "fix" or modification they had done. And the rest .. well, i know just enough to be dangerous ....
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downs (05-26-2020)
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