There was much discussion on this topic. Let me start out by saying a
few things:
- everything is working (ie, fan, thermostat, pump, etc).
- there is no mud inside or outside my radiator as far as I can tell.
Here's what was just done within the last three weeks in terms of
service:
I completely flushed my system per the manual by removing the thermostat
and upper radiator hose, and running water through the system until it
ran clear. I flushed it for about 5 min. I did not open the block drain
plugs.
As long as I had the stuff apart, I replaced both radiator hoses and the
thermostat with OEM stuff.
Three weeks ago, before doing this, when it was 100* and humid as heck
here in NY, my temp gauge went up some. Went as high as 3/4 mark.
I have 55k and 3 years on my KJ, so this was the first service of the
cooling system.
Today was the first time I spent any time in the KJ during 103* and high
humidity and it again, went up as high as 3/4.
What happens:
While driving on the highway (or in town) without traffic, the AC on
full blast, the temp gauge creeps up. I does come down if I turn the AC off.
I'd like to hear from the folks from Arizon and other very hot places on this next point:
Prior to my KJ, I owned a Mercedes. That car would allow the temp gauge to wander up and down as it ran under such severe conditions. According to many experts on similar forums to this, anything not in the red was normal. Mercedes confirmed this. They said that this was normal for all cars, but that many Japanese and other makes "rig" the gauges to not show this variance just to avoid customers complaining. They said the Benz was more accurate.
I never saw this variance in my KJ before. Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm wondering if I should pull the radiator and have it professionally cleaned/rebuilt.
Thoughts?
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