Birty Dastards Jeep Club

Tech Forum => Workshop => Topic started by: yoby on June 17, 2010, 10:33:24 AM

Title: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: yoby on June 17, 2010, 10:33:24 AM

Meh.....

Not having a great week this week.  Blew up a Volvo on Saturday (now scrap), and arrived at work this morning to the fishy smell of hot coolant, a low coolant warning light and a spreading damp patch under the wagon.
Visual investigation has revealed the source of the leak to be somewhere between the front two injectors, at the Cylinder head.  I've lost no power, and it's never ever got warmer than between 1/4 and 1/2 on the temp guage.  Is this indicative of a failed head gasket, or something more serious ?.

I don't mind changing hoses and stuff, but nowhere near competent enough to strip this down and repair myself. Has anyone got any ideas on what this is likely to cost and also whether there's anyone in South Essex that would be able to do the job (I did have a number from someone that Mike gave me for a guy in Southend, but seem to have misplaced it).

Cheers all

Dave

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: Mike Pavelin on June 17, 2010, 06:47:35 PM

Could be a core plug in one of the heads rusted through.

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: yoby on June 17, 2010, 06:52:52 PM

Cheers for the response Mike.  Is this a 'better' fault than the head gasket in a repairable kind of way.
Worth mentioning that there's no oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil.

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: Mike Pavelin on June 17, 2010, 08:14:47 PM

Not really, all 5 heads have to come off anyway even if only one is leaking.

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: Bubba on June 17, 2010, 08:20:29 PM

bugger

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: yoby on June 17, 2010, 08:54:27 PM

Bugger being an understatement. Any ideas as to what this'll cost?
Got to seriously consider whether it's worth the cost of the repair.

I can see this ending up in tears and on eBay for spares or repair

Title: Re: 2001 Grand Cherokee 3.1 TD (86,000 miles) Leaking coolant
Post by: carljh on June 30, 2010, 03:50:59 AM

well yours managed 3k more miles than mine did!

mine was bubbles in the expansion bottle, and an oil leak down the side of the block at the back.
shelled out to have all the heads replaced, at £110 each plus all the gaskets and stuff, ended up with a
bill for £1100. expensive, but i like the car so decided to spend the money.
that was at a local small garage, were the mechanic/owner was jeep trained so knows the best way to do the job.

like yours it ran fine otherwise, was able to park it up before i blew it up properly!

as already said only way to fix is remove all the heads and have a look, and since they are off have them crack tested
before they are put back.
hope that helps