My wife's XLt is getting quite warm on the long hill to our house. It just started about a week ago. She had said that it only happened when climbing the hill, but now it's warming up after about 5 miles at 50 MPH. The is the 4.0L SOHC with 55000 miles. My guess is that the fan clutch is bad, since she gets plenty of heat out of the vents. More thoughts on this?

 

My money is on your thermostat. Yours is about where they seem to go, maybe even a little later. My '97 SOHC thermostat went about a year ago when I had 55K on it. Last year I saw a lot of '97 SOHCs that had their thermostat fail. This year I am seeing a lot of '98s. I bet next year there will be a lot of '99s. When mine went, I first noticed my idle wa a few hundred RPM higher than normal once the engine warmed up. About a week later my temperature guage went up to 'H' every time I accelerated.

 

It was the Tstat. And they are not cheap either. $24, plus the labor to install. Just glad that it was not something else.

 

Where did you get that job done? That is a $4.00 part from Discount Auto Supply, one hose connector (sometimes 2), a squirt of RTV and 2 bolts. Even with topping off the coolent, DIY for less than $8.00 and 30 minutes of time. Some shops really take advantage!

 

I priced it myself at a local parts store. Such a typical story with the last few vehicles I've owned. I get half way through describing the make/model/year, then they ask me for the VIN. My VIN did not indicate the $6 Tstat. They changed the design about half way through the year. This one actually has two springs to it. The tstat housing has two hose connections to it. Quite different from any I've ever seen. But it's Murphy's law, if I had time, I would have done it myself. Unfortunately, both Wife and I drive about 100 miles/day round trip and can not afford to have one of our vehicles down for a day.