Fans, temps

[Danlea83]

Hi all. New to the forum, thanks for the bucket load of info! I’ve searched but haven’t found anything that specifically related to what I’m experiencing so hope someone can help.

My 2013 my14 3.0 crd overland was perfect for years but in the last 12 months has given me a hell of a time. I bought it in 2017 with 50k kms. We’ve troubleshooted a bunch of issues, but now the only thing out of the ordinary is the radiator fans are running a lot harder than they ever were. My coolant temp sits pretty solid mid 90’s. The fans kick up a notch when my oil temp hits 105, at which point my oil temp continues to climb, hitting 120 on a normal freeway run. When I get off the fans are screaming. Even normal city driving will push oil temp up to 110 and I can hear the fans working hard sitting in traffic. From what I can see on here these oil temps look normal so why are my fans working so hard?

For some history, The oil cooler went a while back and my whole cooling system was filled with a sludge. New cooler, thermostat and system flush sorted that. After that multiple hoses gave me grief with corrosion. Constant slow coolant drops in levels. Recently the water pump was done. Also recently my oil life indicator went from about 90% to 0% percent before my eyes which the mechanic couldn’t explain. It’s smelt a bit fumey from the pipes so forced regen has been done, but retrospectively I have never had the dash notify me the car was performing a regen. I’ve also read that any stored fault code would not permit the car to perform a regen, is this true? It’s had so many fault codes in recent history related to 4wd, tpms, parking sensor faults, etc, would this have any bearing?

At the end of my wits. The mechanics next punt is to replace the radiator in case there is still blockages from the initial oil cooler sludge issue, but I feel like there was a period it ran fine after that, also coolant temp is fine. Just seems the oil temp is triggering the fans. Hoping the brains here can help but this out!

[bjm]

Those coolant and oil temps look around normal.Are you putting in at least 5w40 viscosity oil? Some are owners now using Penrite 10w40 Enviro which has correct CJ4 specs.I presume the coolant has been bled correctly through the bleed screw on the thermostat!are you still losing coolant ? Temp sensor ?dirty thermostat .Did you fit a new thermostat?There are numerous owners who complain about the fans on these,hope somebody has a few more ideas. Is it throwing any codes,these two speed fans are working off the ECU have you done a reboot ie neg lead off for say 30 minutes.Is yours an actual 2017 build or2016 .
Did the engine overheat when the oil cooler failed,?

[drover]

If your cooler has let go and the system has had oil thru it all the hoses are probably rotten by now or close to it, may be shedding particles, the radiator really need to come out and get a decent flush as well, the oil will hang in the galleries forever, its not just a radiator reverse flush job ........ these can be a pain in the arse to fill with coolant as well... coolant should be a nice red colour in header tank with no goobers in it, though you may get some gunge from the oil dump .

My coolant temp with normal driving sits around the 95-101c mark when dragging the rig behind (2.8t) much the same, only ever see 120 when Im really working it hard dragging van up some monster hill ......... oil temps normal runs is in the 98-102 mark and 105-8 area when dragging the rig, when they do climb up they drop back quickly as the load drops off.

There was a TSB a long, long time ago about fans going crazy but with an oil temp of 120c it could be why it fire up on high .....................

If you have Alfa OBD app you can turn on SRT gauges and get a coolant temp and oil pressure on the screen, very handy.

[67HR]

Drover,
There was a TSB a long, long time ago about fans going crazy but with an oil temp of 120c it could be why it fire up on high .....................

Wasn't that after they did the gear selector into park update when the drivers door opened?

Trev

[Jeeper6]

...sounds familiar...here is my story...I am in my 2nd WK2 diesel as my previous one met with a sad ending...that was a 2014 build.
But, that engine would run really good coolant temps and oil temps...when not towing oil temp would sit anywhere between 85c and 95c depending on terrain....coolant was always around mid 80's as well.
Towing the "magic" temps for that engine was oil at 104c, coolant at 94c, never varied much beyond that, maybe a degree or 2 higher on grades.
This was after an oil cooler failure where oil filled the cooling system and had to be flushed a few times with replaced oil cooler.

Anyway, after the demise of that poor thing I secured another WK2 diesel but a 2015 model but pretty much identical with a few extras.

When I drove that one the temps seemed ok, higher than the previous engine but didn't concern me too much. It did not have a tow bar when I bought it, which was why I bought it, so on went the towbar to drag the van.

First trip away towing my caravan I was horrified when the coolant temp sat in high 90's on the flat roads with oil temp pushing 110c most of the time.
On a reasonably long grade heading into Biloela the oil temp hit 128c with coolant at 115c...not pushing at all so backed off some more dropping a gear.

Anyway...chasing the temp issue, I fitted new radiator cap...made no difference. Had the radiator flushed and new coolant...no discernible difference.
What I did note was the cooling fan wasn't coming on when it should...but it was coming on flat out screaming when ever the DPF was doing a burn.

I decided to try replacing the thermostat with a brand new Mopar $400.00 special, hoping that might fix it...it didn't...it actually made is worse...temps went higher.

There was a recall carried out onmy Jeep among others to reprogram the TCM...which yes, I think it had to do with the vehicle throwing itself in to Park if you opened a door, it was the S49 recall I think, the offshoot of that was a glitch in some Jeeps that affected the cooling fan where it would go ballistic when doing a DPF burn but was not coming on to cool the engine when it was supposed to.

I spoke to the local Jeep Dealer service manager, he was an OK guy, had dealt with him before...and he also drives a WK2 and tows a camper.

I took the Jeep in, they reprogrammed the fan operation so it came on when it was supposed to. It was much better after that but still not ideal temps.

I decided to pull the thermostat out of my old WK2, and put it in my current WK2. Before putting it in I had 3 thermostats on the bench so I hot water tested them. They all read 98c on them as the opening temp.
The one out of the old Jeep would start opening around 80c, both the others were at least 95c before letting water in.
After putting the old thermostat in I now have the temps I was chasing...towing 104c oil, 94c coolant, not towing oil will be as low 80c along with coolant...but it took a good radiator flush, new radiator cap, the Jeep Dealer recall correction, and replacing the thermostat to fix the problem.

(On a side note, I know of 2 high profile Jeep CRD owners that had experienced oil temp as high as 135c when towing up long grades...way too high for me to be comfortable.)

[FARWEST]

The regen issue you mention may be a point of interest...the fans always kick in when a burn is in progress and in my old bus, with the use it gets, if a decent burn isnt achieved the fan will scream....had that happen after a self induced overfill at oil change....elephant nose had around 3mm of oil sitting at the low point....fitted a catch can...thanks again to Jeeper6....filled to correct level and only time it screams now is after 4-5 burns have been initiated but not completed....in mine....its a sign of a burn in progress..if your dpf is blocked/semi blocked....the fans are a symptom....workshops mentioned on this forum could assist with an 'over the phone' diagnosis....your location isnt mentioned so hard to recommend which workshop to contact/take the vehicle to for a full assessment....Ormeau Qld, Coffs Harbour and Hornsby NSW and Springvale in VIC are the guru workshop locations.
Good luck.

ps: the 'funky' smell from the pipes is definitely a sign that a burn is in progress

[Danlea83]

Thanks all. Interesting. I’m in Sydney city, when you say Hornsby I hope you’re not talking about the local “Jeep Specialists”? They had my car for 10 months last year. Most horrendous experience I’ve ever had with a mechanic. Appalling.

The DPF is of concern to me being that I’ve never seen a notification saying regen in progress. Assuming it comes up on the dash screen? Also noting that my transmission does stomp into park if a door is opened. Who does the software upgrade? Only a Jeep dealer?

The running of the fans is consistent, and it only happens when the oil temp creeps high. Driving aggressive around town or doing a freeway run. Prior to these issues I’d never followed all of the temps too closely so have no baseline to refer to. It’s annoying because if the oil temps are considered normal, why are the fans acting like they’re not? The different opening temps of the thermostat is very interesting.

I’ll check what oil the mechanics have been using. My coolant has always been green not red as far as I remember? It’s always been bled properly. It’s nice and clear in the reservoir now. The bottle itself is quite dark and stained so was thinking of putting swapping that out with a new cap on the list.

I have a Bluetooth OBD with JScan. I’ve sniffer around it and made a few basic changes and used it to monitor things. Haven’t noticed anywhere for oil pressure. What’s considered normal?

Thanks a bunch all.