kyle-jeep

Hi All, good morning. My 2013 Jeep Wrangler is a bit below the Min line for coolant, which has caused the car to run a bit hot. I have purchased the proper coolant from the dealer and plan on doing a flush and fill next week. Is it okay for the time being to fill the overflow tank with distilled water to get me above the Min line? I feel like I am getting mixed answers due to the coolant type being OAT.

Also the thermostat was replaced a few years ago, would you recommend replacing that while doing the flush?

Thanks everyone and have a nice day,
Kyle

resharp001

distilled water is always going to be ok regardless of coolant type. Water is better in general but the real issue is, you know....it freezes at a higher temp in the winter, which is why we use antifreeze.

two ways to look at the thermostat question. 1) it is preventative maintenance of a common failure point, or 2) it's not that hard to access and change if it ever does fail in the future, and you can sway it with little coolant loss, top off and burb the system, roll on. I'd probably suggest that if you are going to do a drain/refill or flush, it's just easier to remove the thermostat to do that. in fact, easy to remove the old thermostat, get it out of the housing and resintall the housing so that there is no obstruction in cycling water through the system. definitely go with a factory replacement thermostat/housing unit.

the bigger question i would have is why is the resi low? before doing anything i'd probalby top off and monitor over a couple weeks. if you're losing a bit out of the resin over time then you likely have a pinhole leak somewhere in the radiator. no sense flushing things now if it turns out you have to break into the system again in the future. so, top off and monitor it for a bit would be my suggestion.

a64pilot

I just flushed mine. The way I did it was to pull the T-stat and leave it out but replace the neck, let the rad drain of course and refill it, let it drain, refill it and run the motor for 30 sec or so with the heat on. This circulates the water of course, rinse and repeat until you only have clean clear water with no antifreeze taste in it coming out. Get all the water out you can. Some motors if run without a T stat for awhile will throw a code because they aren’t warming up, unsure if this one will that’s why I kept my run times short and 30 sec is plenty to circulate water without a T stat
‘I believe our coolant capacity is 10.5 qts, so I put 5 qts of straight coolant in the system and then topped off with distilled water, this 10.5 qts includes the expansion tank so put half coolant in it and top off with water.
Don’t forget to open the bleed vent on the T stat neck to let the air out, I did but on starting mine quickly wanted to overheat and I had to re-bleed it, not much air came out so it doesn’t take much.

Be sure to remove and clean / reinstall the tank too of course. I had a little of what looked like casting sand in my tank, odd I haven’t seen that before.

I replaced my neck and T stat for an aluminum one you can get on Amazon. search this and you will find it. Plastic is fine I just like metal better

Upgrade Aluminium Thermostat Housing Compatible with Dodge Jeep 3.6 3.6L