I have a 2005 CRD with 110,000 miles on it. I never had an over heating issue. The gage never went past 1/2 no matter what air temperalture was or even on long mountain climbs. I just got it back from DC & took it on 100 mile trip in 95F weather. I started to smell antifreeze 75 miles into trip. The gage read a notch over 3/4. I pulled over & looker under the hood. Plenty of fluid in reservoir & hydraulic fan working electric fan was not. I had been running AC entire trip. I let it cool down & continued my trip with AC off. The gage started to climb again gradually. I check electric fan not running. I kept going and 20 minutes later gage started to drop & I checked electric fan now running. I put the AC on & gage stayed at 1/2 mark until I reached my destination. The return trip was many cycles of what a just described. I took it back to dealer. The 1st day they called & told me everything checks out fine.The air temperature that day was 75F. I had to argue with them that there is an issue & to retest.The next day was 90F & they said they saw the problem gage at 3/4 no boil over & I was down 11/2 quarts of coolant. They called back and said hydraulic fan is not spinning fast enough due to bad clutch and electric fan is ok. I have a hard time believing that fan clutch died at same time as TB WP service. I know there are clutch issues though. Is it possible they put thermostat in wrong direction ? It would explain why viscous clutch not engaging high speed & controller to electric fan not switch on ? I need your thoughts & advice please.

I posted the same thing to your question in the "trusted crd mechanics" section already: Sounds like they did not bleed the air out properly. Open the petcock at the top of the radiator and burp the air. I suspect this will fix the issue...

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Mike Rausch
Bear, Delaware
2006 Liberty Sport CRD 253K

Normally, you only smell antifreeze in the cabin if the heater core is leaking. However, the header tank is over the exhaust header. If it is leaking on the header I could see smelling it in the cabin.

Hopefully, the coolant needed was due to air that is now purged. Monitor daily to make sure you are not continuing to lose coolant. The fan clutch that came with the '05s never really worked. Yours has probably not been doing much for a very long time. The mechanical fan always spins when the engine is running, regardless whether the clutch is engaged. So, you can think it is working when it is not doing much. This fan is rarely really needed on the KJ CRD except when towing or in extreme ambient temps as you recently experienced. If the gauge never went above 3/4 and you never really ran out of coolant, you probably did not hurt anything.

If you want max cooling for extreme conditions, install a Hayden HD fan clutch. Also, read up on coolant gauge recalibration. Yours has probably not been reflashed so that "3/4" reading is really barely right of center.

You just need to figure out where that smell originated from.

Welcome to the forum.

DOC

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2005 KJ CRD Ltd Detroit TrueTrac Bilsteins G2 GDE "HOT" ECU GDE TCM "Tow Tune" "euro" TC SEGR Weeks Elbow New HG at 130K ARPs Clean CAT aFe Filter Magnaflow Exhaust EHM Cumminos In-Tank Lift Pump Hayden Fan Clutch Nylon Fan VH Enabled with GDE lower shutoff point Recalibrated Temp Gauge Tekonsha Prodigy Sears P-1 ZDDP

Does that work well for you. When I bleed my cooling system I had opened that petcock expecting to have air escaping and coolant but I've never gotten more than a couple bubbles. The valve is fully open and I've tried it in all different types of ways. From being hot to cold, after driving, revving the engine, squeezing the upper radiator hose. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I was under the impression the system self bleeds also from the return line on the opposite side of the petcock on the top of the radiator.

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'97 Wrangler Sahara with some mods.

'06 Liberty CRD Limited GDE Hot Tune, Lift Pump

Head Gasket and Timing Belt Pics

Opening the relief valve on top of the radiator never helped my overheating problem. I don't trust it. I experienced the same thing you are going through after a thermostat replacement.

I never tried this but it may work: I was told that if I had performed the following, opening the relief valve may work.

Find a really steep hill, point the nose to the sky and try opening the radiator valve to see if any air escapes. If it doesn't, then I would drain the system via the radiator petcock at the bottom of the radiator and then refill the system from the top through the expansion tank.

The dealer may have partially drained the system and never fully removed all the air out.

You have to get that air out, and I was told by a Jeep diesel tech that there is only one way to do it. By properly removing the coolant through the petcock at the bottom of the radiator and then refilling the system via the expansion tank.

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2006 Liberty Limited CRD, Deep Beryl Green, Yeti tune, Arp studs, new cams, rockers, lifters, TB. "Green Monster"
2005 Liberty Sport CRD, Deep Beryl Green, GDE Hot Tune, ARP studs. "Rocket"
1982 Fiat 124 Spider Convertible. "Fiona"