Overheating JK CRD 2.8L Manual

[jkwranglertdi]

Hi Guys,

Scratching my head over this one. My car has 5000kms on it and I have been building her up over the past 3 months. The modifications have all been external, no engine work has been done, so the weight has gone up on it with side bars, aluminum fenders etc.

My front bar finally arrived from the states along with my winch, I have installed this without any thought, however, first thing i noticed was that my cars temperature gauge went up as i was coming up a hill, it had never moved before.

Upon further troubleshooting i have narrowed the symptoms down to the following.. If I am driving and keeping the revs under 2000rpm it is fine, as soon as i hit a hill and i try and maintain my speed and its over 2000rpms then the temperature rises, this i assume is related to the turbo constantly working and getting hot, once you let go off your foot or ease up the temp comes back down, it hasnt hit the top bar of the guage which is red but it has gone 3 quarters of the way up and thats without the AC on.

The new bar I ordered basically covers the entire front of the intercooler/7 slots of the jeep along with the winch.

I am now thinking that the yanks designed this because they only have petrols over there, the diesel is not available, perhaps the intercooler requires the air flow and this bumper is the cause.

Before i pull it all off and see it it returns to normal i was wondering if anyone could provide some insight.

A Mechanic i spoke with mentioned that the CRD is shit on towing and overheats but surely its not that bad, and i wasnt even towing.

[BrendanK]

Sounds like you tranny is overheating. Time for you to order transmission cooler .

[Hayesio]

You have completely blocked in your radiator, intercooler and trans cooler. It can't get any air past it to disapate the heat. Remove all that stuff and I think you'll find its as good as gold.
By the way, diesel engine produce less byproduct heat than petrol engines - thats the reason the CRD takes so long for the heater to warm up on a cold morning...

[JasperJ]

The CRD tows just fine. The problem is hanging on your front end.

In colder climates than Australia this wouldn't matter as much, where it snows they'll block the airflow with cardboard. You need to have airflowing through the intercooler to reduce the charge air temp or you'll get heat soak through to your radiator.

[chris0375]

The mechanic you spoke to should really think before he speaks. A well maintained crd with a transmission cooler will tow fine. The problem is there is a radiator, air con, trans cooler and intercooler all at the front and you have almost completely blocked it with a really badly designed bar. Also the radiator does have a habit of getting quite dirty, a little maintenance will fix this.

I am not sure if you bought it in Australia but I would be returning it if you did. It is not fit for purpose.

[BrendanK]

Btw i saw you nick as jkwranglertdi isnt a tdi mechanical pressure feed at crd is electronic.?. Did they make tdi version

[jkwranglertdi]

No sure Brendan I assumed tdi was an acronym for turbo diesel injected..