brand new 3.6 overheated with 319 miles on odo

[Village Idiot]

3 days after buying our new JLUR, my wife was taking kids to school. 44° outside. Fan went into ludicrous mode. Towed 65 miles to dealer. Temp maxed on her and she pulled over immediately. Shop said it was a bad thermostat. It never boiled over with my wife, but they got it to in testing. Smells like coolant after we got it back. How much damage was done to the engine? I was going to mod it the thing, but I have no confidence now.

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[jeepdabest]

Coolant will inevitably spill when removing hoses to change thermostat. The smell eventually goes away. Your Jeep should be fine.

 

[johnparjr]

there would be no damage unless you had no coolant and sounds like you did and it didn't boil over I wouldn't worry about it

 

[GtX]

Replace thermostat, move on. Not a big deal.

 

[BLACKMOAB]

I would take it to a do it yourself car wash (the kind that used to be a quarter for 5 minutes) and spray the engine and the undercarriage off with soap and then rinse with water. Then you’ll know that what they spilled and didn’t clean up is all gone and you’ll have a new clean start. I wouldn’t worry about it overheating as the coolant protects the engine from being damaged.

 

[Village Idiot]

Thanks. The engine seems to run great. Appreciate the comments.

 

[multicam]

Yeah, I agree with all of the above. I’ll illustrate why you should be fine with a story:

Driving my old YJ up a minor hill at about 35 mph and the fan clutch on my 4.0L sraight six decides to take a shit. That throws the fan out of whack; I didn’t have a fan shroud and even if I did, I doubt it would have helped me. Fan tears apart the radiator and drops coolant EVERYWHERE. Steam all over the place, temp spikes. Of course, I’m immediately pulling over and shutting off the engine as fast as humanly possible.

Ended up just having to replace the radiator and fan clutch (fan itself was fine). Despite losing half my coolant before I got a chance to stop (or so it seemed), there was still enough in there and I reacted fast enough to not cause any damage.

Given that you didn’t even lose coolant I’d say you’re gonna be fine

Just keep an eye on the coolant level!

 

[jeepdabest]

Push in all of your fuses!

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