EHarris

Im headed on a long trip in Baja mid july. I want to get my coolant flushed. I always keep the overfill tank full of HOAT and at 118k it does not appear that I am leaking at all. Just following proper maintenance procedures according to the manual. I would also like to change my upper and lower hoses, along with maybe the thermostat? Finally was thinking about having a shop do an Air Condition tune up. I have the lifetime power-train warranty and would like to ride this to the end if at all possible. Not sure what millage that will actually be but was always hoping for the 200k mark would be really cool. Got it with 8 miles on in 2008.

First question, if taken to the dealer do they do anything to flush the radiator different than a smaller local shop would do? Ive heard of everything from the dealer using a pressurized air system or fluid exchanger along with smaller shops just using a chemical cleaning agent to the forum posts of people doing it themselves with distilled water to even a few freaks who got a good deal on a junk yard radiator and just put a new one in. So Im wondering what the correct procedure and option would be for getting this done. I don't mind doing it myself but if a chemical agent or pressurized system is the way to go then I would gladly pay to not get stuck this summer.

Do you change the thermostat in the 3.8 as proper procedure? Common sense tells me at 118k to change the hoses.

How about the AC tune up? My AC is still pretty cold but at 118k once again should I do something or stop looking for problems? Thanks in advance.

resharp001

One thing that would worry me about a small local shop flushing it would be not using mopar coolant. I know you can flush and then put in something other than HOAT (since that is what you have in it now), but I think I'd constantly worry if it got completely flushed or not. If it were me, I'd make sure Mopar HOAT is what went back in. In that case it would mean providing your own coolant to the smaller shop.

Depending on what your dealer charges for a flush, it might be worthwhile. I did the process a while back and it was a bit of a pain. After buying a couple gallons of coolant, several gallons of distilled, and spending a lot of time jacking with it, it probably wasn't worth the effort.....not to mention I still have several gallons of old watered down coolant sitting in the garage cuz there's not a convenient place to dump it responsibly. If I had to do it again, I'd just let the dealer do it......and I avoid the dealer at all costs. If you were going to replace hoses and thermostat/housing, I'd maybe just purchase those items online ahead of time and take them with you so you're not paying their price during the process.

I wouldn't worry about the a/c unless it was giving you some indication of a problem. Others might have a different opinion about the flush. Maybe I was just making it 10x harder than it needed to be.

EHarris

I appreciate the advice. Im not sure how much the dealer charges but I want to say its like $150. The dealer will not install supplied parts so I would have to pay their insane pricing on the thermostat and hoses. I was definitly planning on supplying the smaller shop with the HOAT myself but then he started talking about 50/50 mix and adding a chemical so I wasn't sure what the deal is. Maybe the chemical he is talking about is the dye to see infrared leaking?

Could I maybe just install the thermostat and hoses and then drive it to the dealer and have them flush it? I think they sent me a summer coupon also.

resharp001

You could definitely do this and it would be an easy task. Since you'd just then be taking it in for the flush, you could just top it off with distilled water. Just make sure you bleed the system before driving it to the dealer.

When you compare costs between doing it yourself and what the dealer charges....you're probably looking ~$45 for 2 gallons of coolant from the dealer, and $10 in distilled water (some people would say you could just use the hose but I'd stick with distilled).....and then factor in your time and disposal of old coolant. It could be worth $100 for the convenience aspect.

EHarris

Ok I will replace the thermostat and hoses myself. Can you explain the bleeding of the system? I have a gallon of HOAT coolant sitting here that I can top it off with. Just not sure how or why to bleed if I'm taking it 10 miles to dealer to do the full flush.

resharp001

If what you'll save by buying the parts and installing yourself is significant, then buy 4 gallons or so of distilled water. You'll lose almost all coolant when you remove the hoses and thermostat. In the process, you're going to end up with air in the system. Simply will with as much was as possible, turn jeep on with heat to high and blower to high. Keep radiator cap off.....as the thermostat heats up and opens, eveyrthing will start circulating. as air works it's way to the radiator cap, the fluid will drop, continue pouring water in until no more air bubbles are coming out and the fluid level stops dropping. If you don't bleed the air out of the system, you could overheat. 10 miles doesn't sound far, but when you have a hot engine it could be.

If the savings isn't significant enough to offset your time and effort, just let the dealer do it.

EHarris

I have the hoses already. I was keeping them in my vehicle just in case because of the amount of time in Baja. So I would just have to go buy the thermostat from the parts dealer.

resharp001

If they are actual Mopar hoses, that would be pretty lame if dealer wouldn't install them while doing the work. Litterally 4 clamps and 2 minutes. I could see if they were aftermarket hoses. If they are Mopar parts, I would smooze the service rep and say "look, i know the policy, but i have these two hoses, can the guys just slap em in there?"

EHarris

lol I thought about that but then he is gonna want $100 for the thermostat. You know how these guys work.

resharp001

They told you $100 for the thermostat alone? What a joke. Ok, that alone is worth a few gallons of distilled and your time.

Ugh, now I'm sitting here thinking that as much fluid as you'll lose taking the hoses off and doing that. May as well drain, flush best you can, refill with new and not worry bout it. you're gonna have the same mess either way. I'm leaving tomorrow at 4am for a trip. If nobody else responds, I'll circle back around on Sunday.

What I did was run the engine for a bit, let it heat up (heater on hot, blower on high). let the thermostat open. then, drain the radiator via the petc0ck. Not a whole lot comes out. undo the upper hose at the radiator. pour distilled down that hose (towards the thermostat/block) till clear water comes out backwards) through the petc0ck. You prob are not getting the heater core totally flushed at this point, but in the big picture not a huge deal. now you have a lot of distilled in there. fill with concentrate coolant. Look up your capacity and keep track of what goes in so you are not going past a 50/50 mixture. Bleed the system as previously discussed. Others might chime in, but this is what I did. there are a couple vids on youtube, but nothing that is super great.

It's kinda your call since you have that warranty. It adds a small monkey wrench in to your situation.


apparently you can't say "petc_ck".