New overheating issues after submersion

-AINOKEA-

-AINOKEA-

Hooked
Alright so given my recent (and stupid) decision to make a nearly 4 foot deep and 100 foot long river crossing to get home the other night, I’m looking for some input as so what is causing my new overheating issues that started today.

Sequence of events today:
I drove the Jeep and dropped the kids off at school this morning, no noticeable problems. When I was on my way to pick them up, I figured I’d stroll through the vehicle info pages on the dash to see if anything was happening given my recent events. On the highway, nothing significant. I just so happened to leave the screen on the coolant temp screen at a stoplight and noticed that it kept ticking up in temp (up to 228) until I started moving. Once I started moving it would slowly drop back to around 200 or so. When I got home and thinking it was weird, I popped the cover off the top of the radiator that covers the sections between both heat exchangers and noticed a small amount of grass between them. I rinsed them out with low pressure of a garden hose as best as I could. When I started the Jeep back up again I noticed a whining sound which I heard intermittently yesterday and after running a little bit, it started steaming like crazy out of the radiator area. The temp gauge was reading between 199 and 203 but that area in the engine bay above and around the radiator felt incredibly hot and clearly overheating. The whine sounds like the alternator or something very close to it.

Question:
What could cause it to be overheating but read normal temps on the gauges and the fan remaining off (I’m assuming because the temps read normal on the gauge/sensor)?




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I’m guessing the steam was just from the water left from flushing the radiator out boiling off rather than overheating.

Given you had grass clogging the radiator there is a good chance some of it got into the fan on the alternator causing the noise


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2nd.gunman said:
I’m guessing the steam was just from the water left from flushing the radiator out boiling off rather than overheating.

Given you had grass clogging the radiator there is a good chance some of it got into the fan on the alternator causing the noise


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Agreed.

If the vehicle gets up to temp at a normal rate of driving and the fan kicks on I wouldn’t say it’s overheating necessarily since everything appears to be functioning properly with the t-stat and fan. If the fan didn’t kick on or stayed on all the time then you have problems.

“Overheating” is pretty subjective, shit gets hot under the hood and atmospheric conditions affect that as well. All you can do is check your thermostat, fan, and gauges really.
 
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It sounds like you killed your radiator fan. Classic symptoms of no airflow. If the engine is cooling while moving, and overheating when stopped, it's an airflow issue. Is the fan running? Are you missing blades?

After 3 feet of rain out there I think you need a boat, not a jeep!
 
That fact that the Jeep cooled it self down from 228 to 200 tells me that the fans are working. Like the others said, the steam was excess water burning off from cleaning. The increase in temps aren’t that far above normal. More than likely, there is just debris still in the radiator making it less efficient. The whining could also be grit and debris in one of the pulleys. Power spray it out well and that should help.


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wjtstudios said:
That fact that the Jeep cooled it self down from 228 to 200 tells me that the fans are working. Like the others said, the steam was excess water burning off from cleaning. The increase in temps aren’t that far above normal. More than likely, there is just debris still in the radiator making it less efficient. The whining could also be grit and debris in one of the pulleys. Power spray it out well and that should help.


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No. He said it went from 228 to 200 while on the highway. The fan doesn't run on the highway, it's not needed. When he stopped at a red light, the temps started going up.

On my last trail ride, our ride leader's fan went out. Same scenario. Luckily one guy had 3 electric fans on his rig so he donated one and we zip tied it to the front of the grill to get him home.
 
zimm said:
No. He said it went from 228 to 200 while on the highway. The fan doesn't run on the highway, it's not needed. When he stopped at a red light, the temps started going up.

On my last trail ride, our ride leader's fan went out. Same scenario. Luckily one guy had 3 electric fans on his rig so he donated one and we zip tied it to the front of the grill to get him home.
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We’ve done that with a junk yard find too one year to get an LJ home, that’s what it’s all about!

My fan absolutely engages on the highway. I’ve watched my temps go up and down just like that. I have an aeroforce Gauge set to my coolant and trans temps. Whether in traffic or cruising done the highway, my temps move from 204-222 with an occasional 228 on a really hot day.




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Well steaming and hissing isn't normal.... but you're right I've seen 228 deg before, but I think it would have gone even hotter if he let it. We need to know if the fan is running. But he's on island time so we won't hear back from him until around lunch time for us I would guess.
 
zimm said:
Well steaming and hissing isn't normal.... but you're right I've seen 228 deg before, but I think it would have gone even hotter if he let it. We need to know if the fan is running. But he's on island time so we won't hear back from him until around lunch time for us I would guess.
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Yeah. It’s still weird whatever is going on because it changed from before the swim to after.


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I have had my fair share of deep water crossings, I don't think 228 is something to write home about. I do recommend that you clean your radiator thoroughly, during the aftermath of Maria I had to do a few in the island and most of the stuff was leaves and other stuff being dragged into the radiator fins.
 
Thanks for all the replies. This morning the radiator was still soaked so I thought I’d take it for a quick spin around the block to get get some airflow in there to push the water out. During the drive, temp fluctuated between 194-205ish. Got home and let it run for a few minutes, temps gauge read 204 sitting in the driveway. Fan never kicked on, then the steam started... but the gauge never left 204. I don’t understand how the temp gauge isn’t climbing when the fan isn’t running. My fan used to kick on about every 30 seconds before all this.

Also, I think the whine is the alternator, but while driving there is a loud whistle coming from somewhere in there. I’m stumped because I don’t see anything obvious, and the loud whistle isn’t there at idle for me to track down. It may just be that whatever is causing the whine sounds like a whistle at higher rpm.


Edit: all fan blades are there. I could spin it easily by hand. No noticeable binding in there.

I should also note that after the incident, I let the Jeep run for about an hour to dry it out without issues. I also drive it around the next day without issues. No whining or anything. I faintly remember the fan turning off and on as well the day after.

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I have an appointment scheduled for Thursday at the dealership. Still under warranty but not a fan of making other people pay for my own stupidity. Hopefully they can at least diagnose with some amount of certainty what all I need. I’m pretty sure I’ll need at least a new fan and alternator. Called the parts dept this morning and they said a new fan is $795 plus tax and another $20 for freight. Forget it. I think I’ll order one online. Also from reading other threads here, shouldn’t the inop fan throw a code? Not getting anything.

Anyway, here’s a vid of the whine at idle. Sounds like alternator right?

https://youtu.be/c70yLAbnW9Q


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Let the dealer check it out and see if they'll warranty it. It's a jeep it's supposed to go through water.

If they won't cover it you can get a new fan on the internet for under $200.

The problem with a whine is that you don't know exactly what it is and you can start replacing parts that don't fix it. Get a $5 stethoscope from the auto parts and pinpoint what it is.
 
Definitely the sound seems louder when your phone is by the alternator. Try the stethoscope idea.

The dealer is going to take the “replace a bunch of expensive parts” approach. The question is whether those parts (and labor) will be under warranty.
 
And you might forget to mention that crazy water crossing you did.

I don't know what happened, it just started making this noise.
 
zimm said:
Let the dealer check it out and see if they'll warranty it. It's a jeep it's supposed to go through water.

If they won't cover it you can get a new fan on the internet for under $200.

The problem with a whine is that you don't know exactly what it is and you can start replacing parts that don't fix it. Get a $5 stethoscope from the auto parts and pinpoint what it is.
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^^ This, one time I had a noise that I though was the alternator and ended up being the idler pulleys, if you spend a long time with the engine submerged and the idler pulley under water they can get noisy and eventually fail. Remember those water crossings after Hurricane Maria I talked about, six months later my idler pulleys started whining in the morning until they warmed up. looks like the water seeped into the ball bearings and eventually ruined one of them until it seized breaking the belt and leaving me stranded.
 
I’ve never wrenched on a 3.6, but just a thought... could you pull the belt off... start it for a few seconds and see if the noise is gone.... if it is, then try to spin the idler pulley and alternator pulley independently to pin point the issue...
 
-AINOKEA- said:
Thanks for all the replies. This morning the radiator was still soaked so I thought I’d take it for a quick spin around the block to get get some airflow in there to push the water out. During the drive, temp fluctuated between 194-205ish. Got home and let it run for a few minutes, temps gauge read 204 sitting in the driveway. Fan never kicked on, then the steam started... but the gauge never left 204. I don’t understand how the temp gauge isn’t climbing when the fan isn’t running. My fan used to kick on about every 30 seconds before all this.

Edit: all fan blades are there. I could spin it easily by hand. No noticeable binding in there.

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I just went through this a few weeks ago. It took about a week for my radiator to completely dry out.
The entire time it was soaked, same thing - fan wouldn't run and it actually stayed slightly below operating temp.
It ended up drying out though, and the fan was the issue as it wasn't coming on when overheating - but only threw a code once.
I just sprayed out the connector with some compressed air and let it sit overnight. Plugged it back in and voila, it turned on.
 
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