Liberty Over Heating

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:50 pm

Hey guys my '94 Liberty (2.2lt auto) is having some trouble. I took it for a 10 minute drive down to the shop, by the time i got home the temperature gauge was as high as it could go. It has coolant and no visible coolant leaks.
I recently put a new alternator in it but i dont see how that can be doing it.

Any help appreciated

Post by **Alex** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:55 pm

water pump may be dicky, radiator may be blocked, fans may not be working, thermostat may be stuffed/

may have a pin prick leak in a hose somewhere(very common) under the throttle body is a common spot, sucking in water from here when she cools off and gets an air pocket in the cooling system.

lastly could be the headgasket, pushing exhaust gases into the cooling system causing air pockets.

could be any of the above.

alex

justin35 · Post by **justin35** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:03 pm

could be a number of things even a faulty therastat but i would more think head gasket or cracked head(common) but if it got that hot its proberly now a head gasket.best to get your heads pressure tested once of. see if youve lost any water come morning,could even take you plugs out and crank motor over and see if any water comes flying out,check to see if your oil is milky,oil in radiator,

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:08 pm

okay cool thanks guys. i know my fans are working. both of them have been coming on to cool it down. other then that ill have to take good look

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:14 pm

the weird thing is that when i was coming up my hill the temp gauge dropped from high to the normal range and then rose a little when i parked it.

justin35 · Post by **justin35** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:18 pm

that may indicate just your temp sender or temp gauge ..try them before spending big money elsewhwere

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:58 pm

will do mate

guyph_01 · Post by **guyph_01** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 8:05 pm

When it gets hot, try and touch the top hose and bottom hose. If they are both really really hot than you know your thermostat is working. If the top one is really hot and the bottom one is cold or maybe warm, then you know the thermostat can be causing it as water is not circulating.

Good luck. And don't drive the car till you fix the problem as you'll blow a head gasket and that big big money if you don't know how to do it yourself

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:47 pm

Thanks guyph 01

ill do that tomorrow

Would it help if i bleed the system??? i fixed a leaking hose the other day so maybe when i put it back on it got air trapped??

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 7:06 am

you might have mentioned that earlier mate...

sounds like trapped air. try bleeding it, but you might have air trapped in your heater core.

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 7:29 am

silver123103 wrote:Thanks guyph 01 ill do that tomorrow

Would it help if i bleed the system??? i fixed a leaking hose the other day so maybe when i put it back on it got air trapped??

vincentvega wrote:you might have mentioned that earlier mate...

sounds like trapped air. try bleeding it, but you might have air trapped in your heater core.

Yes I was about to say that, bleed it before going next step, like what they said above check top and bottom hoses before moving on next step. There is plenty of threads abt bleeding the system.
Cheers
AP

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 12:05 pm

Where is the thermostat located?? i tested the top and bottom hoses when it was at operating temp. the bottom one was still cold and the top one was hot. so i guess i need a new one of them

Post by **Alex** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 12:15 pm

bottom radiator hose, youll see the termostat housing (round bit the hose clamps to)

remove that and pull out the thermostat.

to test the thermostat make sure its cold, chuck it in a pot of water and put it on the stove. When the water starts boiling or just before that at about 80-90degrees i think it should open. If it isnt opened by the time the water is boiling its dicky.

Otherwise cold bottom hose can still imply theres an air pocket. Its quite common for an air pocket to get trapped around the thermostat.

Alex

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:14 pm

Okay thanks alex

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Sat Jun 19, 2010 12:18 pm

your thermostat could be fine. you probably have an airlock preventing it from opening.

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 12:40 pm

Okay guys so i replaced the thermostat and bleed the system. Took it for a run, it reached high again but i kept driving and it dropped down to normal. Then it rose again and dropped back down. But then it stayed at normal all the way home (about 30minutes). The fans were on all the time to.

Any ideas?

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Mon Jun 21, 2010 1:35 pm

silver123103 wrote:Okay guys so i replaced the thermostat and bleed the system. Took it for a run, it reached high again but i kept driving and it dropped down to normal. Then it rose again and dropped back down. But then it stayed at normal all the way home (about 30minutes). The fans were on all the time to.

Any ideas?

Mm... If you are able to access to the radiator to have a feel from cold but problem is that there is no areas as the fans are in the way, the best way is to disconnect the fans then put your hands at the front of the radiator top - middle - bottom and see if it has warm/cold/hot patches (be careful of the belts while idling)
Its often an indication that you might have blocked cores, it cannot be done at hot, has to be cold startup as its best time.

If you noticed middle section of the core is cold and top & bottom is hot, then it shows that its blocked.

Other option is to get the radiator inspected.

Did you tilt the liberty on an angle while bleeding the system? (front-drivers side pointing up the hill to push the bubbles up)
Cheers
AP

silver123103 · Post by **silver123103** » Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:08 pm

Yeah i bleed the car like that. not sure if i did it properly though (im not very good mechanically). when i unscrewed the bleeder half of it was stuck in there. so now i got the top half but cant put it back on. Would it matter if i filled the hole with something?