Chris Saul's Blog

Monday September 28, 2009

Jeep Woes

My usually rock solid Wrangler has been causing me issues.

It had been running a little hotter than usual and overheated completely whilst being drive to the garage for a service - it had to be towed the rest of the way.

The full service went fine. The overheating was fixed with a new water pump and a full checkover of the radiator, coolant flush, etc. That cost a cool 4,500Dhs or so for everything. Ouch.

Two days later, after driving it for the second time since picking it up after the service, I came back from the shops to where I had parked to see steam coming out of the bonnet and a flood of bright blue coolant next to the kerb - the radiator appeared to have completely drained itself.

Back to the garage on the tow truck. The garage fitted a new radiator assembly after diagnosing a major leak.

I was a bit sceptical about this. Firstly, the radiator's only a year and a half old, after it had an incident in the desert last March. Secondly, I don't really see how you can fully service a radiator, but miss a leak. Still, after talking to the garage manager, who I trust, as well as some colleagues who know more about motors than I do, it seems it was just one of those things.

That was another 1,700Dhs. Double ouch.

Now things seem to be running ok. I'm a bit worried I may be losing coolant though - there was some coolant under the engine this morning, but I don't know if that was there from before. Coolant levels did seem to be a bit lower than I remember. Either way, I've topped up the coolant so I can check if it is losing any - I've also put some newspaper underneath to catch any new drips.

I'm praying this is the last thing. I want to start taking the car into the desert again, starting this Friday, so I need it working, reliable and running properly.

There's one final thing that's different - the oil pressure gauge always used to stay at '3', pointing straight up. Now its position varies a little. Apparently this is normal, although I'm sure it never used to happen before.

Fingers crossed. My fear is that I need a new head gasket or something else that was damaged when the car overheated...