Coolant leak

dvdgrigsby

New member
I have a 92 Cherokee. I am getting some coolant leak and it looks like it is coming from beneath 1 side of my radiator. Does this mean the radiator is for sure cracked. Can it be fixed rather than repalced? Will it get worse? It is a fairly slow leak. I add coolant every 10 days or so. Going over a mountain pass I can overheat, but if i blast the heater it goes to almost normal level in a few minutes. Thanks for any suggestions!
 

You're overheating, most likely, because you're losing pressure from a leak... Firstly, when you replace the coolant, are you using a 50/50 mix of coolant and water? Straight coolant is not a good cooling agent at all...

If the radiator's cracked, could it be fixed, technically yes, but it's probably at the point where it's gonna keep getting more and more and more leaks, so I would just replace the entire thing, if I was you...

Are you sure it's the radiator? Check the hoses where they go in to see if they're cracked, if memory serves me correctly, not looking at mine right now, obviously, but I want to say that the lower hose goes in on the drivers side, and the upper hose, the passenger... If anything, start it and get it up to pressure, you will be able to see much better where specifically it's leaking from, just DON'T touch the fan :)

If not radiator, front of the engine area could also be water pump, but based on the amount of leakage, I don't think that's the case, don't discount it though... Like I said, just get a definative idea of where it's leaking from; radiators are not that hard to do really (though I've never done one on an XJ...) '90 Bonneville, 3 feet of snow on the ground, working in a driveway, had it done in about 2 hours (that's including three cocoa breaks...)

Welcome to Jeepz, hope you get this problem fixed, and stick around :)
 
Yea, I follow you on the pressure loss problem. I was wondering if that made sense. This weekend I will start it up and get a definate answer where the leak is coming from and take it from there. Am I at risk driving as long as I keep the coolant and temp at the normal level? Thanks again
 

coolant loss

I would say it's not the head gasket, only because you mentioned that the leak's coming from the bottom area of the radiator, that narrowis it to radiator, or hose to me... Head gasket will not usually cause an overtly obvious coolant leak, it can, but usually just burning off in the cylinders, causing thick white smoke and coolant loss...

Naturally, you'll be wanting to get it fixed ASAP as soon as you know for sure where the problem is, but till then, you should be OK; it sounds like a little pinhole leak if you're adding that little, but keep coolant and water on you; whay'll happen is that the leak will get bigger and bigger as it goes on till you end up with a total radiator failure... Keep an eye on the temp gauge and coolant level, and do what you've gotta do; I know firsthand that sometimes you just can't fix these things immediately...
 
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