Last week, my husband was waiting in a drive-thru and noticed the engine temperature gauge was 3/4 up. It started going back down when the vehicle started moving (he was very light on the gas so as not to create more heat). About 10 prior, I had driven home from work (15 minute drive, no freeway), but hadn't been paying attention to the temp, so we have no idea if it was happening before I got home and turned the Jeep off and before he turned it back on 5 minutes later. Since that one incident, it hasn't happened again. The dealership couldn't find anything wrong. Has this happened to anyone else? This isn't one of those automatic Jeeps burning to the ground issues since we have a manual.

 

Did you wheel in mud recently? The only time I had overheating issues was when mud was packed in the fan equipment and burned it out.

 

The engine heating up when still, then cooling down when moving, makes me think the fan failed to turn on.

The thermostat may have stuck, too.

People have had problems with the gauge, too.

All I can say is keep an eye on the temp gauge.

 

We had already washed all the mud off the engine and the fan prior to this happening.

 

Any mud in the radiator fins? It can be hard to see, and hard to clean it all out.

 

fan should kick on right around the mid-way point on the temp gauge. Real easy to check if you idle in the driveway for a few minutes. If that's not the culprit the thermostat might be going out. Thermostat is easy to change too

 

The fan kicks on at around 215°F, then shuts off around 195°F.

The gauge needle remains straight up during normal temperature cycling.

 

The fan definitely still works and the temp has been normal since that one incident.