Wayside Charlie wrote:
Wasn't getting heat from my 2012 Liberty. Took out the actuator for the blend door. Got a little more heat, but not much. Decided to flush the heater core. Didn't believe it could be needed with only 33,000 on the machine. Flushed in from both the in and out pipes three times. Flushed water was a little murky, and I found metal particles in the bottom of the bucket. They can be picked up with a magnetic.
Does anyone have ideas on where they came from? Could be left from the engine manufacturing or the pump is slowly dying, but I can't find any reports on that.
Heat is now normal, like it should be.
To flush I used a drill pump, connected to a 5/8 in hose. Pumped from one bucket, into the core, and out, into another bucket where I found the particles. Pump and hose cost me about $38.
Iron or steel particles. Dont think there is any other weird alloys in there that would be magnetic.
Dont know if the impeller in the water pump is steel. otherwise it maybe casting dross from the engine block casting.