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Jeep Problems

Jaden Stookey

Jaden Stookey

New Member
Help, I just recently bought a 2001 Jeep Cherokee from a guy for $1000. I have worked on it constantly fixing everything I can. But there are some things I don't know how to even diagnose. I call it the Heep, after I bought it I took for a test drive around the neighborhood, I pulled back in and it puked all the coolant. We knew it had a bad thermostat so I changed that and the water pump. I decided to fill up the radiator with water while it was running. Instead of the water going in, it came up and over filled the funnel. Making me think it has a blown head gasket. But it doesn't smoke, it doesn't have white foam when I open the oil fill plug and it isn't milkshaky. That's one of the problems another one is it can't hold a charge. We bought a brand new battery and it died in 1 day. Full on died, no power to anything. As if it didn't have one at all. I got the alternator tested, it passed, I replaced the terminals and connectors. But when I opened up the fuse box in the engine bay I noticed one of the grounds coming from the engine block grounds was totally oxidised. So I'm going to replace that soon but what do you think? Another problem it has is squealing, I replaced the tensioner pulley and it didn't fix it, I also bought a new belt but it was too small. But I can't find the screech. I think it's a bearing but I could be wrong. Please of you can help out please do so!
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Are the 2001 4.0L’s a closed coolant system? You have to bleed the air out of the system if so. I’m not sure when they switched to open system.

As for the squeal, could be the idler. The bearing goes out in those often. Easy to change.
 
Herzog

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Jaden Stookey said:
I replaced the idler pulley, the tensioner/idler pulley are the same on that vehicle. The thermostat opens at 195°
Click to expand...

Well, by open/close system it either has an open overflow or a sealed bottle reservoir. I've had to pull the temp sensor out of the back of a block once to bleed air out.
 
astjp2

astjp2

Active Member
Location
Riverdale/Alaska
Pull the serpentine belt, then spin each pulley (except crank) by hand, a lot of times you will feel and hear it. It is a quick and easy thing to do to troubl
 
4

4x4_Welder

Well-Known Member
Location
Twin Falls, ID
Usually belt squeals come from a flat pulley that is misaligned. The water pump may be worn (that'd contribute to the coolant puking as well), if that one has a separate fan drive pulley that may be bad as well. Any play out of the fan and water pump pulleys is bad.
 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
mine has always slowly overflowed when the t-stat is open so I don't fill with water (while running) unless it's cold. I let it cool, fill it while it's off, run it until the thermostat opens with the radiator cap off while squeezing the hoses to get bubbles out. rinse and repeat until it's full.

you could have a pulley misalignment issue or just a bad belt. I spray a little water directly on the belt and if the squeal goes away that means it's one of those two and not a bearing.

for what it's worth '00-'01 had the lousy 0331 head...
 
N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
rholbrook said:
In the older days, my FIL used to spray a belt dressing on his old 50s Ford to stop the squeal. I like the idea XJ_Nate made to spray the belt with water to see if it goes away.
Click to expand...

the water trick works surprisingly well. in fact I just used it on my Ram's squeaky belt a couple weeks ago. it was just the belt.
 
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