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Hello All,
A couple days ago my better half calls me and says her check engine light came on. Since I don’t have an OBD scanner, I told her to take the car to autozone and have them scan it. Code came up P1281 – Engine cold for too long. So tomorrow morning I am going to replace the thermostat. Seems simple enough after reviewing the Haynes manual. It says to drain the cooling system prior but what I was going to do was put a catch pan under the truck and just pop the hose off and let it catch the coolant. I do however think after doing a lot of reading here and research that I should bleed the cooling system. I am a bit confused, I just watched Eric’s 6 minute video on bleeding the cooling system. Seems to me all he really did was top off the coolant and run the engine a few minutes, I never did see air removed from the system….am I just over thinking this? I am a bit nervous about doing this because of bleeding the cooling system. Mechanically it’s a few nuts and bolts, I’m confident I can do that part, but I”m worried about overheating due to air in the system. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I watched the video and I just still don’t get it. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I plan to get to work on this tomorrow morning first thing before the car is driven at all. I appreciate any help anyone can give.
Thanks,
Brian
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watch the video at about 5:09 minutes.when the coolant bubbles
and goes down.Two things happen.T-stat opens allowing coolant flow.
#2 air escaping allowing solid coolant flow.http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/what-to-do-when-your-engine-overheats#SolvingCoolingSystemProblems
Got it all put back together. No leaks. No over heating. Lost a lot of coolant but I caught most of it in a pan. Topped it off after the first start up. Went for a test drive. All seems well! Just want to say with Eric’s plain language in depth videos I felt confident enough. A few months ago I would’ve never attempted this! Many thanks to everyone here!
Brian
Some engines are worse that others for getting air trapped in the cooling system. A jeep like yours is not one of them. When you complete the repair add coolant until it’s at the full level. Run the engine until the upper rad hose is hot to the touch (being careful not to burn yourself) Top up as necessary. You should be good to go.
The general principle is that the air is going to collect at and has to exit from the highest point in the cooling system.
Now if you have a setup where the engine is low and the top of the radiator is above the top of the engine, then there is no need for a bleed screw, the air can exit through the radiator cap opening.
But if the car has a low-slung radiator, then most likely then engine cooling system has points that are higher than the top of the radiator, so they have to put a bleed screw at the topmost place, often where the top radiator hose connects to the engine.
So look around the place the top radiator hose connects to the engine. If you don’t see a brake-caliper-like bleed screw, eyeball the top of the radiator opening, it’s probably above every point in the cooling system and so that’s the bubble bleed location.
[quote=”grg88″ post=74044]The general principle is that the air is going to collect at and has to exit from the highest point in the cooling system.
Now if you have a setup where the engine is low and the top of the radiator is above the top of the engine, then there is no need for a bleed screw, the air can exit through the radiator cap opening.
But if the car has a low-slung radiator, then most likely then engine cooling system has points that are higher than the top of the radiator, so they have to put a bleed screw at the topmost place, often where the top radiator hose connects to the engine.
So look around the place the top radiator hose connects to the engine. If you don’t see a brake-caliper-like bleed screw, eyeball the top of the radiator opening, it’s probably above every point in the cooling system and so that’s the bubble bleed location.[/quote]
That’s pretty interesting. My other car is a 2006 Ford Fusion V6. There is a bleed screw/valve in the top radiator hose and an expansion tank. The jeep just had an overflow. I can already tell if I ever have to do this in my Ford there will be a greater degree of difficulty. The car comes in a 4 cyl model too. I swear all they did was shoehorn a V6 in an opening fit for a 4cyl. and it’s transverse mounted. It’s very hard to get to almost everything. Even the headlights. Matter of fact to change the drive belt you have to jack it up, take the wheel off and peel back the fender liner to access the tensioner because there is a huge motor mount on the top right in the way of everything! Yuck!
I’m glad you got it sorted. Bleeding a cooling system after any cooling system repair should be common practice. It prevents other issues in the future. I can’t tell you how many times people have come to me saying that their head gasket has failed only for me to bleed the air out of their cooling system and send them on their way.
It’s great to hear that my videos have helped you. Thanks for keeping us up to date and for using the ETCG forum.
a little hint I saw somewhere,for bleeding a cooling system and it works great go buy or find an old rad cap remove the the over flow retrieval valve from the cap just break it off on a cold engine swap out this cap for the one on your car now run your engine till your fan cycles you will
see bubbles in your overflow tank let this happen a couple of times turn off your engine let it cool
a little and put your regular cap back on this works great and its CHEAP stay dirty folks and happy cooling[quote=”dave1645″ post=75127]a little hint I saw somewhere,for bleeding a cooling system and it works great go buy or find an old rad cap remove the the over flow retrieval valve from the cap just break it off on a cold engine swap out this cap for the one on your car now run your engine till your fan cycles you will
see bubbles in your overflow tank let this happen a couple of times turn off your engine let it cool
a little and put your regular cap back on this works great and its CHEAP stay dirty folks and happy cooling[/quote]Thanks! I’ll keep this in mind for next time. Thanks to everyone here. You guys are awesome!
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