Do you guys know how to bleed the system, is it just by turning on the car, loosening the bleed screw and wait until coolant comes out? any more to it than that?

 

That's all you do. I thought there had to be more to this also. But that's it..

 

Did it today, it was a PITA, no room for anything and no access to anywhere. After removing the cover that is to get to the radiator cowl, I removed all the bolts to no avail, everything is connected under there, cowl, radiator support... the only way I could have removed the cowl to get enough room to use the pliers would have been to remove the front bumper, forget that, so I cut the cowl to get access to the clamp as you can see in the pictures, no big deal anyway, the cover hides all that, at least there will be access for next time. I was going to use a regular clamp, but there was no room to the sides of the hose for a regular clamp to fit, so I had to use that Mopar clamp and special pliers. FYI: only half a quart came out when I disconnected the upper hose, and once I was done, I ran the engine for 15 minutes with the heat on max and I didn't need to purge the system, so that was a plus.
After all that I put the car on ramps and cleaned everything under there where coolant had splashed, and I notice that there must have been a major thermostat gasket failure before, because all the pass side of the engine, frame... was baked with old coolant, so I cleaned all that too. After that I drove about 5 miles keeping an eye on the coolant temp, and checked the level when I got home and all was good.

 

No one, wow, this forum is like the 200, done.

 

It just might be that no one, besides you, has that type of leak, much less the know how to repair it.
Either way, it's a good job and excellent write up. I hope our's doesn't leak, because it will get taken to a shop for that.

 

Had this leak along with the very common thermostat leak 6 months ago. Dealer fixed it under warranty. They did tell me that the radiator hose replacement would have cost me $450 if I did not have the extended warranty.

 

Cost me $40 + pliers (Amazon), could have reused the coolant, so I saved about $400, nice to DIY.

 

Those C clips make for an easy install, but they're bad for reliabilty, There is one like that at the bottom hose too. as if the thermostat gasket wasn't enough to worry about. Speaking of reliability, I bought my car used a year ago with 23,000 miles on it, and the thermostat gasket had been obviously replaced, there was dried up coolant all over the side of the intake box, when I checked the car out when I bought it, and shortly thereafter I smelled coolant, but could not locate the leak, and it was wasn't coming from the thermostat, only recently that it was leaking more that I noticed the drops on the frame under the upper hose, only has 35,000 miles now.
Now I wonder how long the hose I just replaced is gonna last, probably 3 year before it leaks again, and I have to keep an eye on the one at the bottom too, which I'll inspect at every oil change from now on.
My wife's 2012 kia has normal hoses and clamps, has 70,000 miles and never had coolant leak issues, bad job on Chrysler's part, I still like the car, and love the V6, but better reliability would nice.

 

Guess what, there's another leak where the passenger side hose is, I thought the dried up coolant there was from a past leak, but after I cleaned it good, I saw a few drops on the frame, because I still could smell coolant, it's coming from that stupid special clamp that cannot be tightened, and of course that hose cannot be replaced because the other side is pressed onto the metal tube, so for now I put and extra clamp, and if it's stops leaking I won't touch it until I sell the car, which might happen sooner than later, since the cooling system in an unreliable POS.

 

The extra clamp I put on didn't work, it was still leaking so I bought the small hose from Pepboys (part # 70816 for $1.99), and since they didn't have a thermostat housing or gasket, I went to Autozpne and got the the thermostat housing with gasket (902-3036 Dorman for $11.49), way cheaper than buying the whole metal tube with hose from the dealer or Moparpartsgiant.com, plus not point buying the whole tube if the hose is gonna leak every 3-4 years.

So I replaced the thermostat housing with new gasket and new hose for less than $15. Biggest PITA was cutting the pressed on clamp on the metal pipe, only shears with brute force worked.
Small hose is too short IMO, don't know why they made it like that, it should one inch longer, but hopefully it won't slide out, there is a flange on both ends, so it should be secure, I'll keep an eye on it.
Drove around for half an hour, no leaks, all good so far.
Now I have to keep an eye on the lower hose, because there is a C clamp there too.
You guys can check [url]www.Rockauto.com[/URL] to have an idea of what that small hose looks like.

 

2 things:

1) Since I changed the thermostat (OEM temp), it runs cooler, it used to always be middle to 2/3 of the temp bar gauge, now it's around 3/8, so that's cool.

2) If you replace that engine to pipe 4" hose, it's better to get the Jegs 511285 hose and cut it to fit, 4" is too short, it needs to be 4 3/8 long, on my car anyway.

 

Thanks for posting this info. I noticed my coolant tank was empty when I got home today. I will check some of these areas when I have a free moment.

 

Thanks for all the info in your thread mr. Vegas! I've been driving my car hard the last few weeks doing some tuning, and it leaked a little in the same areas. It hasn't since I've been back to normal driving but it's not like it's gonna get any better. Guess if I want to enjoy my new performance on a reg basis, I'm gonna have too make some similar mods. Lyk what I do and thanks again.

 

Keep us in the loop when you fix it to see how it goes.

On my end, I checked the coolant level in the reservoir a few times since then and it still is where it was after I fixed the leaks, between min and max, so it's all good, hopefully the lower hose won't start leaking anytime soon.

 

Cool!! You should be good you fingered the right areas! I'm first gonna try and match up a lower psi reservoir cap, see if that helps. Stock is 22 I'm gonna try 15

 

Changing the cap to a lower PSI is just gonna screw things up and is not gonna do anything in regards to leaks.

 

Yes....thanks

 

I was bored so I installed an 18 psi cap, even though I said I wouldn't. Lil expeirement too see if seepage or a leak occurs in the future. Gonna add Amsoil coolant additive in spring too get back the extra temp protection lost from lower psi and it will also add extra protection from hot spots.. I'll start a thread on how it goes so I don't clump up your thread with my shade treeness Mr Vegas!

 

Do you have a leak?

 

No leak right now. After a few days of beating it i saw a little in the Tstat area. Not really sure where it came from cause I brake cleaned the area and haven't seen since. Level was a little down and I added and it's been good. That was a couple weeks ago and it looked good today when I changed the cap. Running temp hasn't been more than 210-215 deg w the winter here. Curious too see if it helps or not down the road. I'm hoping I'm just getting seepage from the weak spots in these lines when it's hot and being driven hard. If it turns into a constant leak then.....you know!

 

just had theat hose blow off on me a couple weeks ago. the plastic around the quick connect cracked. noticed some coolant smell week prior. thought the system was just off gassing cause it was actually above freezing. luckily i caught it right away and was able to pull off before anything major happened. managed to break the rest of the plastic out of the hose and slide it back onto the aluminum pipe.

entire city was out of stock and had to ordered a new part from the stealership. was informed the part had been updated. (from 68193963AA to 68193963AB) good, hopefully the plastic isn't ****.


6 days later the part shows up and it's the same hose, only without the quick connect. FUCKSAKES i would have just kept the goddamn one i had just busted out the plastic on if i'd known all they did was glue a shitty clamp to the end.

retard at the stealership couldn't tell me if the mating part (the aluminum tube had been changed as well) some searching around has me believing it has. but trying to cross reference the part (from jeep series) shows as a part on the 200 but not on others like moparpartscanada. (68102127AC to 68102127AE)


the mating tube has a flare on it. the part ive seen has no such flare and has a small bump at the end to keep it from sliding off under pressure. i managed to use a socket to flare out the rounded end of my aluminum tube so the hose will hopefully not have a tendency to slide itself off... i may still try this other part. i kinda don't want it to blow off on me...

again.

 

There is a UView Airlift special tool the dealership uses to evacuate air from the system. It can be done without the tool, but takes time and patience and can be messy. A vacuum source (wetvac) with a rubber sealing cone can be used to pull in the coolant instead. See attached:

 

that seems needlessly complicated... it's not terribly hard to get the system filled up... at least not any harder than any other typical cooling system. basically fill it and let the system heat up and burp out.

I just filled the resi full and then unscrewed the little bleeder a few times to burp out some air.... left the resi open then started the car. let it idle.

keep adding coolant to keep it topped off. you can see the bypass tube that enters the top of the reservoir has air and coolant dumping in. unscrew the little bleeder a few times more to be sure there is no air in there. once the stuff dumping into the resi is "solid" coolant and there isn't any more air spitting in there... the engine coolant should be warming up pretty good at this point. hoses should start feeling warm. I watched the temps to see when the thermostat opened up.

I filled the reservoir to just over the max hot level put the resi cap back on and then went on some spirited driving through the neighborhood. checked the level back at home again. mine was at the cold level so i filled it again to max hot.

had some stuff to do so took the long way and i burned out on the highway at around 50 60mph (100ish km/hr) for about half an hour. checked the level (and everything for leaks) again at my destination didn't notice any real mentionable coolant level drop at all. (maybe from one side of the line to the other.) and normal looking coolant temps.

but it's been a little over a week now since the repair and refill, and the only thing i had to do was tighten the rad drain petcock, as i'd drained out the system cause i just dumped water in it to get me home. I drained it out and refilled it with proper mix coolant. but hadn't quite tightened it enough and a tiny wisp of coolant steam could be seen exiting from there. i had to add about 6 ounces of coolant due to this.

so far so good though.

 

Am doing the same thing too waiting on the other hose too 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

hey, let me know how that tube fits on the flanged side. i feel like i'm stretching the hose to reach my stock tube. that part looks a little longer there and actually has some meat to clamp onto.

if all goes well for you, i'll order up the new pipe too.

 

Yeah I ran into the same issue you did so I did just that too temporary hack with the new pipe Is working so far but I ordered part 68193963AB but haven’t had time to do the install yet. Am sure it will work is that compression clam at the Radiator that may be a you know what to get to.

 

i can confirm that after the new hose gets a few good heat cycles in it, it feels like it's stretched and formed to it's spot so i'm not AS concerned as i was when I installed it... but i'd certainly like to entertain having more than 1/2 inch of hose clamped.

for the radiator side, i just removed the clips and removed the facia trim over the radiator/latch area (pop out the center part and then pry out the clip part.) there is a fairly sizable hole on the right where you can use a screwdriver on a screw clamp so it's not too much of an issue to get it clamped on there. i just pry off the stainless clamp they put on there... luckily the clamp was oriented so i could get a flat screwdriver in the hole and pry it open.

i'd attempted to remove some other parts to try and open things up to make it easier(brackets, headlight etc...), but it's a bugger and the bumper grill doesn't look easily removable from the bumper cover itself. it was easier just to reach in from the backside and shove it on and clamp it. (orienting the clamp screw so i can get at it from the hole straight shot.)

 

I'm a little late to this, but this just happened to me today. The "radiator hose connector" cracked and the hose was completely separated. Coolant everywhere and engine overheating. Upon going to multiple auto parts stores and finally the stealership, came to find out that the part has been updated (I have an early 2015). No more crappy plastic connecting piece. However, like an idiot I bought both a new radiator hose ($52) and the newly designed metal tube that runs from the thermostat ($72). Soon as I got home I thought, ****, I don't need the radiator hose. I just installed the new metal tubing piece, and used a regular worm hose clamp to attach the old radiator hose to the new metal tube, since there is no stupid flange there. Worked perfect, and I returned the hose to get my $52 back!

 

Everyone knows about the common coolant leaking from the thermostat gasket, now there is this place to look out for.
I occasionally smelled coolant from the car since I bought it a year ago, but could never locate the leak, added about 1/3 gallon of coolant to the reservoir in the past few months as it was getting worse, and last week, I finally found out where the leak was coming from.
You can see the drop stains at the bottom, on the frame and if I shake the hose/coupler it leaks more.
Need parts #10 & 11 HERE, which I got, waiting on coolant from Amazon to replace the hose.
Crappy design of the decade IMO, couldn't they have just put a long hose all the way from the thermostat housing to the radiator, or a normal hose with clamps from the radiator to that metal hose? instead it connects by pushing it in it seems and stays there with a C clip. I'll elaborate more once I replace it to see how it goes on there. Also need a special wrench to squeeze that clamp, I got mine on Amazon.
Point of this thread is, check that connection and look underneath it to see if a few drops start showing on the frame, started smelling more around 30K (35K now), so check your car.

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same thing happened to me and now I'm looking at replacing the water pump