2003 Liberty Sport overheating

[Al in PA]

Hello, I’m new here and just acquired a nice 03 Liberty sport from a trusted friend. The first day we had it we set out on an errand of about 100 miles round trip. About 25 miles into it, the engine started to overheat. We successfully got it home by making frequent stops. The friend never had problems with it except that heat did not work. The next day, I drained the coolant, replaced the water pump and thermostat and flushed the system twice chemically and three times with plain water. I drained the water, added the proper coolant with distilled water and everything seemed fine. The heat began working also. The next day we made the 100 mile trip with air conditioning on and it ran great, the temp gage stayed in the middle and never went higher. The next day we went to the grocery store and on the way home, it overheated again. I replaced the radiator the next day but they did not fix the proble and there is not heat again. I noticed the fan did operate while i was running it after each of the things I did to it. I’m at a loss as to why it would work fine for a long trip but fail the next day. I should add that when I tried to drain the system at the radiator when I replaced the pump and thermostat that it had a lot of thick gunk that was blocking the drain valve. I thought that perhaps it had something to do with why there was no heat, like that gunk had blocked the heater core. Anybody have any ideas what else I should look for? Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[Billwill]

When you state that you re-filled it with the correct coolant I presume you mean "HOAT"?
If a previous owner used any other coolant it would have "gunged up" the system hence why no heat from heater.
This could take a lot of flushing out of the system to clear things although you have done this several times.

Also burp the system to get all air out and check if the radiator cap is maintaining pressure...maybe replace the cap in any case.

Strange that it worked fine for a while.

You sure you put the new thermostat in the right way?

 

[LibertyTC]

Welcome to the forum Al. Did you install the right thermostat?
Only the 195 degree Mopar thermostat with gasket & air bleed should be installed.

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The Cap ..

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As Bill mentioned the Hoat or Zerex G-05 in critical, using the wrong coolant is unacceptable & mega flushing required.
Once filled correctly, check the coolant reservoir the next AM after sitting overnight, & re-fill the reservoir back up the cold line.
Once the system gets hot, slightly crack the air bleed screw, to allow air to escape and close the hex again.

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[Al in PA]

Thank you all for the replies.

To answer a few things:

I used Zerex G-05 coolant mixed 50/50 with distilled water.

The thermostat I used was a Duralast brand from Advance auto. It was a little different physically but did have a small bleeder hole in it. I did orient it correctly.

The original coolant I drained was orange in color, the G-05 I put in is almost clear. Is HOAT coolant orange? I remember the GM Dex-Cool was orange. I’ve been away from working on vehicles for several years simply because I didn’t have the time so I’m not up to date on all the various coolants.

My thoughts are to do the following:

1) Drain the system and check that the coolant mix is still clean and free of “gunk.” Flush the system again to try to open up the heater core and clear out gunk or anything else that may still be in the system.

2) Replace the Duralast thermostat with the proper Mopar brand.

3) Replace the reservoir cap

4) Refill the system following LibertyTC’s directions.

I’m tempted to try to flush the heater core separately prior to refilling the system using some other hoses and a small utility pump so that I can observe anything that may come out. Basically, pump water and radiator flush from a clean bucket through the heater core and back to the bucket. After I feel it’s been properly flushed, run clean water through it to remove any of the radiator flush.

 

[Al in PA]

Hello everyone and once again thank you to everyone who offered some input on my problem. I have an update that I believe explains the source of the problem. Tonight I intended to drain the radiator, flush the system,replace the thermostat and reservoir cap and most likely separately flush the heater core. Well, I had to work a little late and then a thunderstorm hit so I was delayed in getting out to the driveway to start my work. When I finally got to it, I decided I would only drain the radiator with the amount of time I had. When I opened the drain plug, I immediately felt debris. Take a look at the pics of what came out of the radiator. I’m not quite sure what caused this debris but I’m guessing when I flushed the system I caused this stuff to dislodge. Then either I did not adequately flush it clean or it only became loose after driving a period of time. Either way, I’m sure this is the culprit. I’m wondering if it was from someone topping off with the wrong coolant, as billwill noted will cause the “gunk” or using plain tap water with the coolant or perhaps even both. The water here in Lancaster County PA is known for higher limestone content which causes scale build up in just about anything that involves heating water- coffee makers, water heaters, etc. My new goal now is to do repeated flushes until I am positive that there is no more of this gunk in the system, and then complete the job with a new thermostat and reservoir cap.

Thank you all again for your insight and knowledge and I will update later when I am either successful or pulling my hair out.

 

[LibertyTC]

Wow keep flushing is right! That looks like someone's also used stop leak before.

 

[Billwill]

HOAT is normally orange.

I hope that junk did not damage the water pump!

Hopefully it stayed out of the way at bottom of the radiator.