Hi All,

I am trying to get my XJ Sport healthy after it has been sitting for a while. The other day I started her up and the upper radiator hose blew off. I also had a cracked expansion tank bleeder hose. I replaced that today and reconnected the hose and topped off the coolant. Everything seemed normal for about 20- 30 minutes. I noticed steam from the front end and opened the hood. I was overheating but had no signs while driving. Heat worked normal and temp gauge was also normal. The upper hose felt tight with a lot of pressure. I noticed my fans were not operating.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

 

The steam you noticed was likely the coolant burning off from the upper radiator hose separation. See my post further down the page.

If your OBD II reader shows temperature, you can get an accurate reading of temp. The fans won't come on until temp passes about 200*F. The lower hose must be hot showing thermostat opened.

Also check for water in oil, and large, constant bubbling from overflow tank if it is a blown head gasket.

 

Change your thermostat.

 

Get those fans working. The hoses will blow off. Happened to me in traffic. No fun.

 

Thanks for the help everyone!

Here's an update...Last night I kept poking around the forum and starting reading threads about bleeding the coolant system. I forgot that this happened to me before. My thermostat went a couple years ago and I replaced it and ran hot until I bled the system. I'm reading that the system should purge itself but I did and had her running this am for about 2 hours. I was having this problem after about 30 minutes yesterday. The fans operated normally and noticed them turn on and off a few times. Radiator hose felt normal and not like it wanted to burst.

I did check the tank and it wasn't bubbling.

Phew!! didn't need another issue. Still trying to fix the passenger door warning issue, a gross evep leak that I'm dreading bad news and front bearings!