The 30-day fix-me list

[jantrit]

I went out to give the seats a cleaning and noticed a small wet spot under the new XK. I crawled under it (never could have done that with the mini) and found a small amount of coolant. Bummer. Its coming from the front of the engine. :-(

Pulled off the funky air box/tube part and saw that the throttle body had a little oil in it. Opened the valve by hand and holy cow that is nasty on the other side. Double crap! A few forum searches later and I see that the Hemi is notorious for blowing oil into the intake so I'll be buying a catch can sooner rather than later for it.

The coolant leak looks to be coming from the water pump area. Since I still have the 30 day warranty I don't feel a burning need to start tearing apart the engine to look for it. Its going back to carmax on Wednesday for the headlight/wiper issue so I'll just add this to the list of things that I find wrong in the first 30 days.

I also may have a power steering pump going as that is where the whine is coming from. It was either that or the AC compressor and when i turn off the AC and can see that the compressor isn't turning the whine is still there so I'm thinking power steering pump may be weak on it.

While I was under the jeep i noticed some rust on the under body and on the suspension parts. Not too worried about it as it didn't look too bad. Do you guys go back and treat the under carriage for rust? Thoughts?

So far:
1. Auto headlights...no work in auto
2. Wipers don't work in delay
3. Coolant leak
4. Whine from power steering pump

[Sal-XK]

If the coolant leak is coming from the weeping hole on the water pump that means failure is coming sooner then later.


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[Gotterdid]

The whine on mine was the AC compressor... it was there with the AC on or off. I put a reman on it I got off Ebay and no more whine.

[jantrit]

If the coolant leak is coming from the weeping hole on the water pump that means failure is coming sooner then later.


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That is why I just put it back together because I knew that I wasn't going to mess with changing out a water pump this weekend especially when its under their warranty.

[jantrit]

The whine on mine was the AC compressor... it was there with the AC on or off. I put a reman on it I got off Ebay and no more whine.

Good to know. I'm guessing that it starts as a whine and ultimately ends as a seized bearing and smoking belt? I'll try to get them to take a look at the compressor and see if that is what it is.

[Gotterdid]

luckily i got to mine before it got that bad. I am pretty sure it went out from being submerged then no running for 2 weeks while my new Hemi was installed...DOH!

[AJeepZJ]

For the underbody... you can sand the rust off and paint it, this is what I do. For some parts, you can send, paint, and/or plastidip them. I may actually try this for some things.

Also, what if you have a very subtle whine in steering (in one direction) that seems to go away after it warms up? I noticed this after my last trip to the Uwharrie. There was no steering fluid, so I topped it off.

[jantrit]

Checked fluid levels and it doesn't seem to matterif I am turning the wheel or not so I am leaning toward AC compressor. I ll update this when I find out more on Wednesday.

[jantrit]

Dropped the Hemi off at the dealership tonight and picked up the loaner....its a Nissan Versa. :eek: I didn't realize how much I liked the commander until I drove that pop can home. I'm pretty sure that the hamster under the hood will forever hate me. I'm reminded of the old geo metro's. :-(

[Sal-XK]

LMAO

[jantrit]

Went out to the rental car this morning and said hello to the hamster who just glared menacingly at me...he knew what was coming. So I get in and start the thing up and have a coolant light staring back at me. WTF!?! I mean seriously? Late for work already, having to deal with a pi$$ed of hamster for and engine and now a warning light? Then I noticed that, well that's odd the light is blue. What the hell does a blue coolant looking warning light mean? I figured maybe it was wiper fluid out so threw some washer fluid in it...nope. So there I am in in the drive way with my iphone looking up the owners manual for a Versa. It is a "Low Temperature indicator Light." What the hell were they thinking? Lets put in a warning light that comes on under normal expected conditions. I mean I can't think of a time when I'd be driving down the road and be worried that my engine has suddenly gotten too cold.

Ugh...round two with the hamster in the morning. :-(

[cico7]

If it starts, drive it. Call the rental co after you get to work and let them figure it out.

[jantrit]

If it starts, drive it. Call the rental co after you get to work and let them figure it out.

Was working as designed. Someone thought it would be a good idea to put a warning light in for something that is totally expected.

[jantrit]

Thought I'd throw an update out there. Got the Hemi back on Friday. They are replacing the windshield with a factory one that will have the rain sensor and think that will fix the headlight issues. The parts get here on Monday. The coolant leak was coming from the thermostat housing, they fixed that. They found a leak in the rear pinion seal and fixed that as well. Carmax had to send it to the local Jeep dealership to figure out the headlight issue and Jeep did the other work as well.

Now the more interesting part. The Carmax service rep said that there wasn't anything due at 60k miles. There was no need to replace the dif fluid, trans, transfer case until 90k unless it was a fleet use vehicle or heavy towing / off road. I'm having it all done anyway since I have no idea what the previous owner did with it and it would give me peace of mind knowing all the fluids are fresh. That and I have to give it back to them on monday to put in the windshield anyway. What do you guys think? 90k before a fluid change in a QD-II system seems like a lot of miles. What are your thoughts?

[Sal-XK]

Change the fluid he is on something that guy. he's must be assuming all the maintenance was done including your 60k mile service and the service is all up to date.


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[jantrit]

No they didn't do the 60k when they took the car in. He said the website they use to determine what maintenance is needed didn't recommend to do change the fluids etc. To be honest though I can't fault them for following what their information said. They have been very good in fixing my other issues and putting me in a rental / loaner when they work on the car. Overall customer service has been great but they are just off a bit on what the maintenance schedule should be.

[Sal-XK]

Considering all there doing paying for some fluid changes is no big deal sounds like your coming out on top.


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[superacerc]

You guys are hillarious..... All the new small cars have a "NOT WARMED UP JUST YET" blue coolant light. It's pretty silly. When it goes out after a few minutes of driving it's just telling you it's done warming up the engine. If it turns red you have a problem. Just another thing to fix I say. Hope everything turns out ok with the XK.

[jantrit]

Thought I'd give an update.....

Took the XK back to them on Monday so they could put the new window / rain sensor on it. Also told them to do the 60k service. They didn't have a loaner again so Hertz picked me up and I've been in a Nissan Altima since Monday night. Tuesday they got the windshield in but then didn't get it back from Jeep in time to do the service. They did the service on it today except they had the wrong fluid for the diffs so they ordered in the right fluid and will finish that up tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be back in my XK tomorrow night.

[Sal-XK]

Well good news is you should be in good shape when you finally get it back.