Why would the reservoir be full and the radiator low on fluid?

250

Asked by Rick Dec 06, 2014 at 08:06 PM about the 2009 Jeep Liberty Limited 4WD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

My 2009 Jeep Liberty wasn't throwing any heat. The answer I got here helped me find out why and the heat is going great. The radiator was low on fluid. Problem is the reservoir was full so I didn't bother checking the radiator at first. Why would the reservoir be full and the radiator so low on fluid that the heat quit?

6 Answers

103,745

Is the small return hose from the reservoir to the top of your radiator plugged or punctured?

1 people found this helpful.
11,065

I'd say the radiator cap is faulty. When the cap is sealed, as the engine cools it forms a vacuum that pulls the coolant back from the overflow bottle

1 people found this helpful.
85

I'd say, more generally, that in normal operation, as the engine cools it forms a vacuum that pulls the coolant back from the overflow bottle. If there are any air leaks into that system (e.g., the radiator cap leaks, one of the hose connections between the reservoir (aka overflow bottle) and radiator leaks, or the hose(s) itself leaks) the vacuum is lost and the coolant in the reservoir won't get sucked back into the radiator. I've also read that air pockets in the radiator can cause problems, and it makes sense to me that this could be one of them. The vacuum formed by the cooling would reduce the size of the air pockets, but perhaps (depends on their size) not enough to create sufficient vacuum to suck the coolant from the reservoir to the radiator. And if the hose is plugged, no coolant will flow unless the vacuum is sufficient to break the plug (which isn't the case; if it was, you wouldn't know it had happened, because the problem would have gone away).

4 people found this helpful.
80

Since I have a resiver and no cap on the radiator how can I check to see if the radiator is full with water? Plus were is the fill line on the resiver? And last question if I fill the radiator will the heat work again?

8 people found this helpful.
10

I found out the hose from radiator 2020 keep liberty to overflow can be new and after several years on the overflow tank can start leaking an not transferring coolest. I fought this forever and finally put a clamp on both ends and no more problem.

1 people found this helpful.

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