Hello fellow Commander lovers...need your help please. Hope it's ok to bundle all these things together ...just wanted to give the reader all other symptoms and info they may need to make the best educated guess or deduction.
So all I've done to my truck is replace the alternator and serp belt ( I have been driving another vehicle.)
Ok so ...
My latest issue is that I discovered the inside passenger side tire and pretty much most any metal suspension components down there, covered in "oil"(?)
I have traced the leak to what I believe is the CV Axle boot.
Here, for your dissemination are facts that have occured and that I have witnessed, which I feel may be useful to a diagnosis, in the last few weeks of minimal to and from work, and some highway driving under 5 miles each way about 5 or 7 times in the last 3 months.
Please help me figure out what problems I am facing as I believe there are a few of them.
•I have the roaring engine sound that I believe is due to the fan clutch being bad (starts cold and wakes up the whole neighborhood ...put it in Reverse and it drops to 500rpm and sounds perfect other than what I believe is an exhaust leak which I haven't tracked down yet.
•I have had overheating at idle (and ONLY at idle or when I come to a stop light)
>Needle goes to 'H' and immediately starts to drop as SOON as I hit the gas ...settles to normal by the time I am at 20mph+
>Found a slow coolant/radiator leak coming from (as best as I can tell) black, tubular, plastic piece under the rad. cap that looks like it has some sort of removal cap that has what appears to have 5 or 6 sided recess/hole ... Almost looks like it would fit an Allen key??
Of course, it could just be as simple as the cap being bad and the water pools under it at that plastic piece. Then again, I notice that the leak goes ubtil the reservoir tank is empty and the water level drops below the level of that plastic piece ...in other words, there is fluid in the radiator but not enough to keep res. tank filled; make sense?
>Also, leak doesn't seem to occur when car is at running temp. but constantly drips when parked if res. tank is full. . . A drop evwry 10 seconds or so.
•A/C is "ice cold" (for Jeep anyway) while driving and slowly goes to "luke warm" at idle or in park
•Passenger side A/C is noticeably warmer than Driver side at idle or in park, and only at idle or in park -leads me to believe blend door or motor is broken and stuck in "outside air"mode because a) that happens and b) I smell all outside fumes and odors
•On 2 individual occasions, separated by about 8 hrs (the first after driving about 3 miles to work and the second after sitting in the parking garage all day and leaving work), a tapping sound coming from the front of the vehicle, down toward the wheels.
It sounded at first like a light tap, sort of like a faint sound of a playing card on bicycle wheel spokes...it occurred only when pressing the brakes at very, very slow speed.
The second time it happened it was more noticeable in that same scenario but it was now worse, way worse, when accelerating (??)
The sounds varied from someone doing a drumroll with drumsticks on metal to a mini jackhammer or empty Gatling gun.
The more I accelerated the worse it would get til it would go away. Them go back to the playing card on spokes and back to drumroll ...then it just disappeared and hasn't come back once (did it for like 2 days worth of driving, which is not much)
>This occurred about 1 week before I found the oil all over the place on the passenger side tire etc
•Car clunks into gear (harder into reverse than Drive but into both)
•I have found the Power Steering pump gauge on the cap bone dry on two occasions now (I filled to more than correct level with Mopar fluid from dealer both times ...lasts about a week each time thus far
I can not find a leak ANYWHERE when inspecting the lines of the PS reservoir. Not able to see if the cooler has a leak BUT, there has been ZERO evidence of PS leak in my driveway
•Whole vehicle seems to rock like a cradle/bounce from left to right slightly when at idle (imagine your passenger shaking their leg or tapping their foot while at a red light or parked and you can feel that very slight rocking back and forth ...like that)
•When I first started driving the vehicle, she would give the sensation that she wanted to accelerate/drive off ever so slightly, on her own, even when brakes are fully depressed. As I've driven her more, that has gone away
•Brakes don't exactly stop like champs ...o have had a couple of occasions when I had to stop hard and short and I actually had a split second thought in my head "Well, here we go, we're not gonna stop before we see what's inside this person's trunk, brace yourself"
They feel what I guess could be characterized as "spongy"(??) or as though they need to be bled.
•As mentioned above, I found a mess of oil (?) under most of the steering/suspension components and the right front tire
>Theories are:
*Power Steering fluid is somehow leaking on that side and splattering onto the axle and it goes all over the place when it is spinning. This would explain the power steering loss and I thought that maybe this was the leak but it still doesn't explain why I never saw anything in the driveway until this 'catastrophic' level of fluid loss presented itself
*Radiator leak has been falling right on top of axle and it somehow diluted the gear lube in there to the point that it began to leak out
Notes:
×Fluid on ground and on most components has the consistency of PS fluid
×Oil like fluid does not come from any higher than the highest boot so it has to be coming from there
Ok, I think that's everything that could possibly help anyone come up with some theories
I'd like to resolve these issues so that I can move on to more cosmetic and maintenance type stuff
Questions & Request for your Thoughts/Opinion/Insight:
-Would you replace the PS pump?
-Do you think PS pump is bad and it killed the Fan Clutch since that pump runs the fan clutch?
-Would you replace tensioner?
-Is leak from boot only possibly or is it axle seal that I know can happen on these things. What would the difference be?
-How do I fill the axle?
-Where is the fill hole?
-Is hard clunky shifting due to needing a trans flush or drain and fill job with fresh fluids and not something more serious like UJoints? (Rides pretty darn smooth for an 11 yr old truck so I'm thinking maybe not UJoints)
-What would you do (that I haven't either mentioned or maybe thought of) if your commander had 165K Miles?
Thank you SO much for your help in advance, and sorry for my super long post and any typos.
Your insight and advice is greatly appreciated. Really love this truck and want to keep it for many years. Want to turn it into a truck that can off-road AND win a little local car show or two ...hey, a guy can dream right? ?
So all I've done to my truck is replace the alternator and serp belt ( I have been driving another vehicle.)
Ok so ...
My latest issue is that I discovered the inside passenger side tire and pretty much most any metal suspension components down there, covered in "oil"(?)
I have traced the leak to what I believe is the CV Axle boot.
Here, for your dissemination are facts that have occured and that I have witnessed, which I feel may be useful to a diagnosis, in the last few weeks of minimal to and from work, and some highway driving under 5 miles each way about 5 or 7 times in the last 3 months.
Please help me figure out what problems I am facing as I believe there are a few of them.
•I have the roaring engine sound that I believe is due to the fan clutch being bad (starts cold and wakes up the whole neighborhood ...put it in Reverse and it drops to 500rpm and sounds perfect other than what I believe is an exhaust leak which I haven't tracked down yet.
•I have had overheating at idle (and ONLY at idle or when I come to a stop light)
>Needle goes to 'H' and immediately starts to drop as SOON as I hit the gas ...settles to normal by the time I am at 20mph+
>Found a slow coolant/radiator leak coming from (as best as I can tell) black, tubular, plastic piece under the rad. cap that looks like it has some sort of removal cap that has what appears to have 5 or 6 sided recess/hole ... Almost looks like it would fit an Allen key??
Of course, it could just be as simple as the cap being bad and the water pools under it at that plastic piece. Then again, I notice that the leak goes ubtil the reservoir tank is empty and the water level drops below the level of that plastic piece ...in other words, there is fluid in the radiator but not enough to keep res. tank filled; make sense?
>Also, leak doesn't seem to occur when car is at running temp. but constantly drips when parked if res. tank is full. . . A drop evwry 10 seconds or so.
•A/C is "ice cold" (for Jeep anyway) while driving and slowly goes to "luke warm" at idle or in park
•Passenger side A/C is noticeably warmer than Driver side at idle or in park, and only at idle or in park -leads me to believe blend door or motor is broken and stuck in "outside air"mode because a) that happens and b) I smell all outside fumes and odors
•On 2 individual occasions, separated by about 8 hrs (the first after driving about 3 miles to work and the second after sitting in the parking garage all day and leaving work), a tapping sound coming from the front of the vehicle, down toward the wheels.
It sounded at first like a light tap, sort of like a faint sound of a playing card on bicycle wheel spokes...it occurred only when pressing the brakes at very, very slow speed.
The second time it happened it was more noticeable in that same scenario but it was now worse, way worse, when accelerating (??)
The sounds varied from someone doing a drumroll with drumsticks on metal to a mini jackhammer or empty Gatling gun.
The more I accelerated the worse it would get til it would go away. Them go back to the playing card on spokes and back to drumroll ...then it just disappeared and hasn't come back once (did it for like 2 days worth of driving, which is not much)
>This occurred about 1 week before I found the oil all over the place on the passenger side tire etc
•Car clunks into gear (harder into reverse than Drive but into both)
•I have found the Power Steering pump gauge on the cap bone dry on two occasions now (I filled to more than correct level with Mopar fluid from dealer both times ...lasts about a week each time thus far
I can not find a leak ANYWHERE when inspecting the lines of the PS reservoir. Not able to see if the cooler has a leak BUT, there has been ZERO evidence of PS leak in my driveway
•Whole vehicle seems to rock like a cradle/bounce from left to right slightly when at idle (imagine your passenger shaking their leg or tapping their foot while at a red light or parked and you can feel that very slight rocking back and forth ...like that)
•When I first started driving the vehicle, she would give the sensation that she wanted to accelerate/drive off ever so slightly, on her own, even when brakes are fully depressed. As I've driven her more, that has gone away
•Brakes don't exactly stop like champs ...o have had a couple of occasions when I had to stop hard and short and I actually had a split second thought in my head "Well, here we go, we're not gonna stop before we see what's inside this person's trunk, brace yourself"
They feel what I guess could be characterized as "spongy"(??) or as though they need to be bled.
•As mentioned above, I found a mess of oil (?) under most of the steering/suspension components and the right front tire
>Theories are:
*Power Steering fluid is somehow leaking on that side and splattering onto the axle and it goes all over the place when it is spinning. This would explain the power steering loss and I thought that maybe this was the leak but it still doesn't explain why I never saw anything in the driveway until this 'catastrophic' level of fluid loss presented itself
*Radiator leak has been falling right on top of axle and it somehow diluted the gear lube in there to the point that it began to leak out
Notes:
×Fluid on ground and on most components has the consistency of PS fluid
×Oil like fluid does not come from any higher than the highest boot so it has to be coming from there
Ok, I think that's everything that could possibly help anyone come up with some theories
I'd like to resolve these issues so that I can move on to more cosmetic and maintenance type stuff
Questions & Request for your Thoughts/Opinion/Insight:
-Would you replace the PS pump?
-Do you think PS pump is bad and it killed the Fan Clutch since that pump runs the fan clutch?
-Would you replace tensioner?
-Is leak from boot only possibly or is it axle seal that I know can happen on these things. What would the difference be?
-How do I fill the axle?
-Where is the fill hole?
-Is hard clunky shifting due to needing a trans flush or drain and fill job with fresh fluids and not something more serious like UJoints? (Rides pretty darn smooth for an 11 yr old truck so I'm thinking maybe not UJoints)
-What would you do (that I haven't either mentioned or maybe thought of) if your commander had 165K Miles?
Thank you SO much for your help in advance, and sorry for my super long post and any typos.
Your insight and advice is greatly appreciated. Really love this truck and want to keep it for many years. Want to turn it into a truck that can off-road AND win a little local car show or two ...hey, a guy can dream right? ?