Jeep coolant system bleeding

[bkdunha]

Vehicle in question: 2008 Jeep Liberty 3.7L

My daughters water pump went out yesterday afternoon. After loading the car on the trailer (in the rain) and getting it home I spent the evening installing a new water pump. I hate newer cars. I had to remove the washer/coolant resevoir on top of the fan shroud, the fan shroud/fan combo, battery, and horn just to get enough room to get to the pump. It only took 20-30 minutes to change out the pump and another hour to put everything back together.

At 11:30 PM filled the system back up and started it up. Well you know the story now. I have an airlock in the system and need to bleed it out. The bleeder screw on the thermostat housing is locked in solid. I broke an 8 mm allen wrench trying to get the bleeder loose. At that point I quit last night and went to bed.

Any recommendations on bleeding the system without getting the bleeder screw out?? I saw a video this morning where they jacked the front of the car up to get the radiator to be the highest point and let it run with the rad cap off. Should that get me the venting I need for the whole system and not just the rad?

Thank you.

 

[mikleins29]

There are special funnels with attachments you can buy and fill the funnel run the car when thermostat opens it will suck it down so you keep it full and not let it drain to empty then run the engine about 3500 rpm in intervals it will burp air out. You do that with the front end jacked up and the process can take up to an hour. I remember the quad 4 engines taking around 80 mins to get the air out once you feel you got it all out test drive then let rest and take cap off when safe and run it in your driveway and watch to make sure before and after the thermostat opens that you have no air bubbles and the coolant level stay where it should be and by now you should really have great flow to the heater core and great heat the temp gauge should read where it normaly does also

 

[bkdunha]

Do you know where I can get a funnel. NAPA, Autozone, Carquest typically?

 

[mikleins29]

I got mine through a tool dealer but napa, r one of the parts stores may have them, they have a attatchment that looks like a radiator cap with a hole in the center that the other attatchment goes in, it comes with a assortment of attachments to fit different applications.

 

[bkdunha]

Found one at Napa. $34 is a little pricey for a plastic funnel. I might try tackling it with just jacking the car up and adding fluid as it warms up.

i

 

[Tnfastbk]

found this on lost jeeps

STANDARD PROCEDURE - REFILLING

COOLING SYSTEM 3.7L ENGINE

(1) Tighten the radiator draincock and the cylinder

block drain plug(s) (if removed).

CAUTION: Failure to purge air from the cooling system

can result in an overheating condition and

severe engine damage.

(2) .Fill system using a 50/50 mixture of ethyleneglycol

antifreeze and low mineral content water.Fill

pressure bottle to service line.and install cap.

NOTE: The engine cooling system will push any

remaining air into the coolant bottle within about an

hour of normal driving. As a result, a drop in coolant

level in the pressure bottle may occur. If the

engine cooling system overheats and pushes coolant

into the overflow side of the coolant bottle, this

coolant will be sucked back into the cooling system

ONLY IF THE PRESSURE CAP IS LEFT ON THE

BOTTLE. Removing the pressure cap breaks the

vacuum path between the two bottle sections and

the coolant will not return to cooling system.

(3) With heater control unit in the HEAT position,

operate engine with pressure bottle cap in place.

(4) Add coolant to pressure bottle as necessary.

Only add coolant to the pressure bottle when

the engine is cold. Coolant level in a warm

engine will be higher due to thermal expansion.

NOTE: The coolant bottle has two chambers. Coolant

will normally only be in the outboard (larger) of

the two. The inboard chamber is only to recover

coolant in the event of an overheat or after a recent

service fill. The inboard chamber should normally

be empty. If there is coolant in the overflow side of

the coolant bottle (after several warm/cold cycles of

the engine) and coolant level is above cold full

when cold, disconnect the end of the overflow hose

at the fill neck and lower it into a clean container.

Allow coolant to drain into the container until emptied.

Reconnect overflow hose to fill neck.

 

[imusa76]

My dad has a 2002 jeep liberty, that had the same issue after changing the water pump a few years ago, he said he found a youtube video that showed ways of clearing up the asir lock, and refilling the system.

 

[TheJ]

Same thing happened to my 93 dodge shadow. I had to raise the front of the car until the radiator cap was the highest point of the cooling system. This may also work on the Jeep but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[bkdunha]

Thank you for the input everyone. I went with the method of jacking the front end up to get the radiator to be the highest point. I am glad I also put a tarp down under the car before I jacked it up as it was spitting coolant everywhere as the bubbles worked there way out. After about 30 minutes it seemed to have cleared the system and all is well.

 

[will e]

I just swapped out the 3.7 in my wifes 2002 liberty. Just finished it before Christmas. 'Swapped out' isn't really correct, we had the 3.7 it came with rebuilt due to a bad bearing.

I did not have to do any burping procedure. What problems were you having? I saw the burp spot but noticed that it wasn't even the 'highest' point in the system.

 

[bkdunha]

I just swapped out the 3.7 in my wifes 2002 liberty. Just finished it before Christmas. 'Swapped out' isn't really correct, we had the 3.7 it came with rebuilt due to a bad bearing.

I did not have to do any burping procedure. What problems were you having? I saw the burp spot but noticed that it wasn't even the 'highest' point in the system.

I had to replace the water pump which neccesitated emptying the radiator and draing what fluid was upstream from the pump (This all came out when the pump came off). I replaced the pump and filled the rad and overflow tank. The 'burp' plug looks like a set screw in the thermostat housing and mine was locked solid in the housing. I broke an 8MM allen wrench tool trying to loosen it late Monday night. When I started the car I could feel the top rad hose was not heating up and was very soft. I new I had trapped air but without getting the bleeder out I was not sure how I was going to remove the trapped air. Well by jacking the car up to get the radiator to be the highest point I was able to bleed the system. The overflow design is different between an 02 and an 08. The washer/coolant tanks sit ontop of the fan shroud and they are bugger to get off.

No call from my daughter yet indicating she has had any overheating. The interesting thing is that this is a 36K mile vehicle and the pump went out??? Darn that it is out of warranty based upon years and not mileage.

 

[TheJ]

Glad you got it running and bled. That is kind of strange that it needed a water pump at only 36k miles.