Let me state up front that I am not an accomplished mechanic by any means. I have had a jeep of one kind or another for nearly 40 years and through the years I've done all the basics for myself... replacing fluids, suspensions, radiators, water pumps, thermostats, etc.... so I'm not a complete neophyte either. That said, I've been known to have to do things a few times before i learn enough to before I get it right.
My current jeep is a 2003 Wrangler Rubicon that I bought brand new and now has 120K miles on it. I've never had to do anything but the regular service items on the suggested intervals. It was my daily driver for many years and when the death wobble crept into the picture years ago, it stayed parked most of the time and I would use it to beat around town from time to time. I recently was motivated to address the problems and make it fun to drive again. Once I replaced the suspension and tires, I rediscovered how much I loved my jeep. Since then I've been working on various things that have aged out over time... new radio, new soft top, etc.
A water flush may be all you need - The cooling system had never been touched in all that time and I don't remember ever even topping off the antifreeze. The overflow tank level is still right there where it was when I bought it. I decided it was time to do a full cooling system replacement. First decision was chemical flush or just regular water flush. I decided to do a chemical flush using Thermocure. I followed the directions but I think the Mississippi heat was a little too much for it. I drove around a little as directed but when I parked it for the night, I think the water+Thermocure boiling point was too low and some vapor developed in the system and it found some weakest points in the system. The gaskets for the thermostat housing and water pump started leaking, as did the radiator. No matter... I was going to replace them anyway. I retrospect, I wish I had just done a "cold water flush" rather than the chemical flush. My cooling system was remarkably clean and there were no signs of buildup or deposits anywhere. I can understand using the chemical flush if you've got evidence of problems, but if not... just a good water flush will do the trick IMHO. The discharge from my chemical flush was discolored, but nothing like what I have seen on youtube videos. If I weren't already going to replace everything, it would have forced me to do so. There may have been some operator error involved so take all that for what it's worth.
Mopar replacement parts can be hard to find - I had such good luck with the OME cooling system that I wanted to go back with Mopar parts if at all possible expecting that they would be of similar quality. Bad assumption.
Radiator - First off, you cannot find a new Mopar radiator for a 2003 Rubicon. They have discontinued them and I wasn't able to find a NOS anywhere. I scoured this board for opinions and settled on a Koyorad A2102. It seems OK. Installation was easy. One tip... before installing, drill out the mount holes for the fan cowl and use your original hardware to mount it to the radiator. The self tapping hardware that comes with it leaves something to be desired.
Fan Clutch - I went with the Hayden 2771. It seems OK so far. I will say that it seems to be engaged at much lower temps than the OME fan clutch. Sometimes it sounds like I'm driving a concrete truck in low gears. You can really hear the fan spinning up. So far, it is keeping the temp right at the 210 operating point that I have always seen. Maybe this unit will perform better at low speeds. I haven't done any low speed crawling with this jeep. Just riding and hunting in the woods and fields in the Southeast. We will see how it works long term, but all is well for the moment.
Thermostat - The new Mopar thermostats are nowhere near the build quality of the original thermostat. I bought a Mopar thinking that it would be the same or similar. The new Mopar thermostats are just cheaply built Motorad stats. If I've got to do it again, I'm sure not about spending the extra money just so it will come in a Mopar package. Might try the RobertShaw stat if I need to replace it
Water Pump - Similar story with the Mopar water pump, but worse. Like I said, I was trying to go back with Mopar just because I had had good luck with the original. The new Mopar water pump that they are selling for this application is the 68382492AA. It supercedes the 5012366AG or earlier models that I was looking for. What the heck, it's a Mopar... it will be OK. Not so. The 68382492AA water pump arrived and I was disappointed that it had a cheap plastic impeller. Not just a plastic impeller, but cheap plastic. You know the feel I'm talking about. I spun it around and it was working so I went ahead with the install. Turns out that the part of the impeller that makes contact with the shaft was damaged but not where it was evident... until later
I buttoned up the whole system, added new Zerex G05 coolant, and started her up. All was well as I was burping the system so after a while, I took it out for a shakedown. I made it about a mile when all the alarms started flashing. I parked it and let it cool off. I got a P0118 code and cleared it. Once it cooled off, I drove it back home. I spent a couple of days with an infrared temp gun trying to figure out the problem. The clincher was that I was getting no hot water to my heater core. It could only the the pump. I drained the system, took off the shroud and fan, then took off the Mopar 68382492AA POS water pump. Right away, I spun it and the impeller didn't spin. I looked and the cheap plastic collar that was supposed to spin the cheap plastic impeller had broken off. Luckily, I found all the pieces in the engine block. I made a trip to my local parts store and got a Gates water pump. It has a metal impeller so that made me feel a little better. It was half the price as the Mopar. I installed everything back, filled her up, and have made a number of shakedown runs and everything seems to be well.
In retrospect, I have heard of ordering OME parts off of Amazon (which is where I got the Mopar water pump) and them sending some cheap knock off. That could have been what happened to me. In either case, it was damaged in transit in such a way that you wouldn't find out until you installed it.
Thus ends the lesson.
My current jeep is a 2003 Wrangler Rubicon that I bought brand new and now has 120K miles on it. I've never had to do anything but the regular service items on the suggested intervals. It was my daily driver for many years and when the death wobble crept into the picture years ago, it stayed parked most of the time and I would use it to beat around town from time to time. I recently was motivated to address the problems and make it fun to drive again. Once I replaced the suspension and tires, I rediscovered how much I loved my jeep. Since then I've been working on various things that have aged out over time... new radio, new soft top, etc.
A water flush may be all you need - The cooling system had never been touched in all that time and I don't remember ever even topping off the antifreeze. The overflow tank level is still right there where it was when I bought it. I decided it was time to do a full cooling system replacement. First decision was chemical flush or just regular water flush. I decided to do a chemical flush using Thermocure. I followed the directions but I think the Mississippi heat was a little too much for it. I drove around a little as directed but when I parked it for the night, I think the water+Thermocure boiling point was too low and some vapor developed in the system and it found some weakest points in the system. The gaskets for the thermostat housing and water pump started leaking, as did the radiator. No matter... I was going to replace them anyway. I retrospect, I wish I had just done a "cold water flush" rather than the chemical flush. My cooling system was remarkably clean and there were no signs of buildup or deposits anywhere. I can understand using the chemical flush if you've got evidence of problems, but if not... just a good water flush will do the trick IMHO. The discharge from my chemical flush was discolored, but nothing like what I have seen on youtube videos. If I weren't already going to replace everything, it would have forced me to do so. There may have been some operator error involved so take all that for what it's worth.
Mopar replacement parts can be hard to find - I had such good luck with the OME cooling system that I wanted to go back with Mopar parts if at all possible expecting that they would be of similar quality. Bad assumption.
Radiator - First off, you cannot find a new Mopar radiator for a 2003 Rubicon. They have discontinued them and I wasn't able to find a NOS anywhere. I scoured this board for opinions and settled on a Koyorad A2102. It seems OK. Installation was easy. One tip... before installing, drill out the mount holes for the fan cowl and use your original hardware to mount it to the radiator. The self tapping hardware that comes with it leaves something to be desired.
Fan Clutch - I went with the Hayden 2771. It seems OK so far. I will say that it seems to be engaged at much lower temps than the OME fan clutch. Sometimes it sounds like I'm driving a concrete truck in low gears. You can really hear the fan spinning up. So far, it is keeping the temp right at the 210 operating point that I have always seen. Maybe this unit will perform better at low speeds. I haven't done any low speed crawling with this jeep. Just riding and hunting in the woods and fields in the Southeast. We will see how it works long term, but all is well for the moment.
Thermostat - The new Mopar thermostats are nowhere near the build quality of the original thermostat. I bought a Mopar thinking that it would be the same or similar. The new Mopar thermostats are just cheaply built Motorad stats. If I've got to do it again, I'm sure not about spending the extra money just so it will come in a Mopar package. Might try the RobertShaw stat if I need to replace it
Water Pump - Similar story with the Mopar water pump, but worse. Like I said, I was trying to go back with Mopar just because I had had good luck with the original. The new Mopar water pump that they are selling for this application is the 68382492AA. It supercedes the 5012366AG or earlier models that I was looking for. What the heck, it's a Mopar... it will be OK. Not so. The 68382492AA water pump arrived and I was disappointed that it had a cheap plastic impeller. Not just a plastic impeller, but cheap plastic. You know the feel I'm talking about. I spun it around and it was working so I went ahead with the install. Turns out that the part of the impeller that makes contact with the shaft was damaged but not where it was evident... until later
I buttoned up the whole system, added new Zerex G05 coolant, and started her up. All was well as I was burping the system so after a while, I took it out for a shakedown. I made it about a mile when all the alarms started flashing. I parked it and let it cool off. I got a P0118 code and cleared it. Once it cooled off, I drove it back home. I spent a couple of days with an infrared temp gun trying to figure out the problem. The clincher was that I was getting no hot water to my heater core. It could only the the pump. I drained the system, took off the shroud and fan, then took off the Mopar 68382492AA POS water pump. Right away, I spun it and the impeller didn't spin. I looked and the cheap plastic collar that was supposed to spin the cheap plastic impeller had broken off. Luckily, I found all the pieces in the engine block. I made a trip to my local parts store and got a Gates water pump. It has a metal impeller so that made me feel a little better. It was half the price as the Mopar. I installed everything back, filled her up, and have made a number of shakedown runs and everything seems to be well.
In retrospect, I have heard of ordering OME parts off of Amazon (which is where I got the Mopar water pump) and them sending some cheap knock off. That could have been what happened to me. In either case, it was damaged in transit in such a way that you wouldn't find out until you installed it.
Thus ends the lesson.
