04 Jeep Liberty overheating

jolene1122

It started overheating in stop and go traffic. I pulled over noticed that the fan wasn't engaging. I've replaced it twice. It's now doing the same thing again. But now I've noticed if I shake the wires to it it will engage. 

So once I did this it ran just fine, but I sat in the driveway with it running with the ac on (which my ac now doesn't work if I'm idle, if I'm driving it works perfectly) and it started passing into the red on overheating, I checked the fan and it was still engaged but running at the low speed. 

I've replaced the radiator, had everything flushed, recharged the ac. The mechanic said that it's just the seal on the ac compressor that's causing it to not blow cold when idle. But I've noticed that right before my thermostat starts climbing it will start blasting me with hot air.


Any suggestions would be incredible thanks!!!

joejoeson

There is a problem with the wiring to the fan. When driving over about 35 MPH the fan turns off because the ram air is enough to cool the engine down, but when the car is at idle the fan is needed to cool the radiator. Since your car overheats in stop and go traffic, this means that the fan is not operating correctly. You said that when you shake the wire the fan engages, so it has nothing to do with the fan itself, it has to do with the wiring. The wiring is either getting disconnected or loose which would cause the fan to be inoperable or perform at less than its required efficiency, which would cause overheating at idle speeds.

When the thermostat is climbing, you are getting blasted with hot air because your engine is overheating.
If the ac compressor seal is bad, then you would notice leaking refrigerant, which would mean it wouldn't be blowing cold at all, or very minimal cold. If your ac works fine while driving then I wouldn't worry too much about leaks, since it is at least working fine. But if the fan is not working then that could prevent the ac from working at idle.

Check the wiring to the fans, look for any loose connections or dirt, tighten up the wires that connect to the fan and make sure the fan is running at full speed while at idle, otherwise a simple problem like a loose wire will cause your engine to overheat and become damaged.