88trailcrawler
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- OC SoCal
The XJ is my kids school/beach runner. We blew a (poor fitting) coolant cap at a gas stop about 450 miles into a hot road trip in August.
I replaced the cap, filled her up and kept an eye on her. We proceeded to wheel it up in Tahoe for the week and it made the 500 mile trip home no issues. He drove it around town, no issues. Figured the bad cap was the cause. Noticed some stress cracks in the coolant bottle.
A week or two after the trip I took it in for a smog check. It failed with high CO and NO. Plus it overheated during the test.
Today I set out to replace the coolant bottle and found separation at the top radiator hose nipple on the radiator.
So now the questions:
- I assume a new radiator is in order, is it a mistake to go with $99 plastic tank, lifetime warranty radiator? Seems most cost effective unless they just flat out suck.
- is it likely that the coolant cap and/or leak at radiator was initial cause of overheating or more likely that was resultant damage due to overheating caused by other issue?
- why didn't it overheat on the way home from Tahoe (freeway wind flow?) it made it over the CA I5 Tahone pass after 400 hot I5 miles.
- what is the likely hood that the overheating is causing to the smog fail?
- figured I'd change out upper and lower radiator hoses, is it worth changing out heater hoses.
- any other no brainers to take care of or upgrade while the radiator is out?
BTW: water pump and t stat are a couple years old. All coolant boiled out or drained so far has looked green/yellowish and generally clean.
I replaced the cap, filled her up and kept an eye on her. We proceeded to wheel it up in Tahoe for the week and it made the 500 mile trip home no issues. He drove it around town, no issues. Figured the bad cap was the cause. Noticed some stress cracks in the coolant bottle.
A week or two after the trip I took it in for a smog check. It failed with high CO and NO. Plus it overheated during the test.
Today I set out to replace the coolant bottle and found separation at the top radiator hose nipple on the radiator.
So now the questions:
- I assume a new radiator is in order, is it a mistake to go with $99 plastic tank, lifetime warranty radiator? Seems most cost effective unless they just flat out suck.
- is it likely that the coolant cap and/or leak at radiator was initial cause of overheating or more likely that was resultant damage due to overheating caused by other issue?
- why didn't it overheat on the way home from Tahoe (freeway wind flow?) it made it over the CA I5 Tahone pass after 400 hot I5 miles.
- what is the likely hood that the overheating is causing to the smog fail?
- figured I'd change out upper and lower radiator hoses, is it worth changing out heater hoses.
- any other no brainers to take care of or upgrade while the radiator is out?
BTW: water pump and t stat are a couple years old. All coolant boiled out or drained so far has looked green/yellowish and generally clean.