Radiator overflow........'overflowing?'

[mrblotto]

Greetings all.....again....lol.

You've helped me in the not-too-distant past so I'd like to run this by y'all if I may
Vehicle: 2001 Jeep Cherokee 6cyl (4.0L?) approx 130k miles

Was checking the oil yesterday, so I figured while the hood was up I'd check the radiator fluid. Well, it was all nasty cruddy and rusty looking......yoinks!

So, today I left work for a bit and went down to the local 'quickie lube' place (I know, I can hear the groans from here!), and they did a cooling system flush. All seemed to be well. I then drove it from there to home (approx 2 miles), turned it off and went inside to pick something up. Not more than 5 mins later I come back out and see radiator fluid coming out like Niagra Falls........I was like 'wtf!?'

So I drive back down to the quickie lube, toss the guy the keys and say 'fix it' (rather tersely I may add). The dude cant find anything wrong, but says maybe the overflow was too full. I'm like 'ok....cool. nothing to worry about'.

Go back home to hose down the driveway so no animals get poisoned. Pull in, turn it off and commence to hosing. As I was getting done, I noticed AGAIN radiator fluid leaking out.......gah!

This time, I popped the hood and saw the overflow container, which HAD been maybe half full, was now indeed full! So I unmounted the resevoir and lowered the level to where it said 'full'. I then checked the fluid level in the radiator itself. It definitely needed some. So I poured maybe 12-16 oz of water in there to fill it up.

Finally, I drive around to do another errand (didn't need to shut it off), then returned the Jeep to my wife 'cause it's what she drives. Not 5 mins after I turn it off, again with the radiator fluid spewing out of the overflow resevoir (sp).

I go back to work (1/2 hour away) and call the quickie lube place. They're like 'well........it could be the radiator cap, or maybe a blown head gasket'. The latter makes NO sense to me. I say 'fine, whatever, I'll have my wife come down after work. In the meantime I call advance auto and have them set aside a rep radiator cap for like 6 bucks and change. They're like 1/4 mile from the quickie lube place. I'll have my wife pick it up before she goes there.

In a nutshell, I'm hoping it's just the radiator cap and nothing more serious. It only seems to overflow after the engine is turned off.

What do y'all think?

 

[Vette73]

Could be air in the system trying to get out and pushs the coolant out. Did you ever open the Rad Cap after the flush?

Was it running hot?

 

[mrblotto]

Could be air in the system trying to get out and pushs the coolant out. Did you ever open the Rad Cap after the flush?

Was it running hot?

When I noticed the radiator fluid spilling out the second time from mr. overlow resevoir I opened the radiator cap to check the level. And it was a bit low.
I added water (cause that's all I had), and while the cap was off squeezed the radiator hose (upper one maybe its called?) a couple times to see if any air would come out. None came out, only the fluid level in the radiator seemed to change ever so slightly.

Edit: no, it didn't appear to be running hot. It was a hair below 210 which is right in the middle of the gauge (180 to 260 methinks)

 

[Vette73]

Yea replace the rad. cap and drive some more. I would say check the Therm but usually it would run hot if that was bad.

 

[mrblotto]

Thank you for your quick response Mr. 1975!

I'll have the wife pick up the rep rad cap from advance auto and drive over to the quickie lube place so they can at least refill the rad with something that better resembles radiator fluid. I also told her not to agree to or pay for anything else as I tend to think these kinds of places like to 'prey' on unknowing folks (yeah, I realize the irony too....lmao)

/insert salute emoticon thingee here.

 

[CrackRabbit]

When you replace the rad cap park the jeep on an fairly steep incline with the front facing uphill (or use a jack/ramps if you live in a flat area) and let the car run up to normal operating temperature with the rad cap off to let any extra air bleed out.

Once that is done and you put the rad cap in place watch the overflow reservoir for bubbles while running the motor. A continuous stream of bubbles can indicate a leaking head gasket.

 

[mrblotto]

TY CR. I'll give that a shot when I get home!

 

[Pulsar]

I fought this for a long long time on a Taurus, and it presented the EXACT same things that you're talking about.

The rust in the system flowed through until it plugged up the heater core. This restricted the flow and let the fluid overheat and boil out of the system.

If you replace the cap and it doesn't fix the issue, it's likely that either the heater core or the radiator has constrained flow and is allowing portions of the coolant to overheat. You can try more flushes, but I ended up having to replace the heater core after 6 free flushes from my mechanic.

I tried replacing the T-stat too because it was the cheap option, but that didn't fix the problem. You should probably do the same.

 

[mrblotto]

Update:
Got the cap replaced. Quickie lube place refilled the coolant as well. Wife drove it around some, then stopped at a friends house for about an hour. Then she drove back to the house. No leaking reported

*fingers crossed*

 

[hanoverphist]

I also told her not to agree to or pay for anything else as I tend to think these kinds of places like to 'prey' on unknowing folks (yeah, I realize the irony too....lmao)

a small place tried to talk my wife into getting a fuel injection cleaning service on her van a long time ago. she called me since it was over 100 bucks, and i reminded her she had a carburetor on her van. i also told her to get the f out of there.