96 Grand Cherokee antifreeze leak

Nov 02, 2004 5 Replies

My wifes 96 Grand Cherokee has decided to start leaking antifreeze. I believe it is coming from the lower radiator hose, looked a little wet. I have noticed a little antifreeze smell lately, and last night while I was waiting idling for her while she ran into a store it left a good little puddle under the front drivers corner. Then drove it to my brother-in-laws shop and let it sit and nothing dripped.



How hard is it to replace the lower radiator hose? In a quick look, it looked like it was buried under alot of stuff.


If it is a leaky hose, it will likely keep on leaking when it sits.

If it is a waterpump starting to go, it will leak when running and stop leaking when shut off. It will be leaking out of a weep hole under the front center of the pump. You should be able to get you hand in there and feel under the nose of the pump for any moisture. If you finger comes up damp or wet, it's the pump.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

aGraham wrote:

Water runs....

If it is only leaking at the clamp, then I would just add a second screw clamp to it.

Mike

aGraham wrote:

aGraham did pass the time by typing:

Lower hose isn't too hard. I changed mine out by removing the lower plastic shroud and getting to it there. Note that even if you drain the radiator that lower hose will still have a lot of coolant in it.

Since I was just removing it my solution was to cut a hole and let it drain.

Check the upper hose and the heater coil supply/return. They do a real good job of looking like a lower hose leak.

DougW proclaimed:

Sadly, so does a cracked cheap plastic radiator. Try to wipe everything dry and look for new wetting.

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