Help troubleshooting coolant leak (water pump?)

[SOMD-JeepFan]

After driving my Jeep, I notice an odor of what seems to be coolant. I look around on the ground, but don't find anything dripping. My Jeep is not my daily drive, so I only use it every once in a while. I noticed that the coolant level was low (about 1/3 of a gallon) the other day, so now I have significant that the odor is most likely coolant. I put UV dye in a while ago only to find out that the light that I bought at Car Quest didn't work. I picked up a Craftsman UV light yesterday and checked to see if I could detect any dye. I am not sure if I am seeing the dye or just odd colors as the UV light was highlighting a lot of different things. One thing that I noticed was it definitely looked like UV dye all over the bottom of the Jeep on the plate below the transmission. It also seems that I was seeing the dye where the engine mounts to the transmission. Once I get my pressure washer running, I plan to thoroughly spray to undercarriage of the Jeep in order to clean any fluids and run another bottle of dye through the coolant. Since I have only owned the Jeep for almost 6 months, I am still figuring things out on it. I plan to replace the coolant system, but I want to determine what else I should replace during the overhaul. I was told by the previous owner that the water pump was recently replaced, but I am not sure if they used a quality water pump. Also, I am not sure if everything was torqued down properly. If I pull the water pump, is there a way that I could inspect it to determine if it is causing the leak? Am I on the right track?

 

[Jorge Bolivar]

I will look at this;

1- How the Radiator cap looks like?

2- Removed the front passenger carpets and see if they are damp or wet. If they are try to determine if is anti freeze.

I do think if the pumps has a weakest point(not sure its correct terminology) and when is bad start to leak true that hole, but you will saw the drips there.

Keep us posted.

 

[SOMD-JeepFan]

The radiator cap looks really new - I just replaced it yesterday. The old on seemed difficult to remove. Not sure if the spring was bad.

I don't have carpet in my Jeep and the floor pan is dry.

 

[LCL-Dead]

I literally just replaced my water pump and thermostat yesterday due to the gaskets being blown.

I also had coolant leaking down and coating my oil pan and the entire bottom of my engine after driving because it would leak off the front of the block and get blown back.

Let your jeep dry completely, then refill the radiator and turn it on. Turn your heater up to max to get the coolant flowing faster and then watch the area around the crankshaft pulley (The largest pulley at the bottom of the block). I say check there because your water pump is almost entirely covered by it's pulley. So if the area around the crankshaft pulley is where your leak seems to be coming from, it's coming from your water pump.

Also, check out the thread I posted, as the forum regulars give a lot of feedback and troubleshooting tips:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/gurgling-coolant-system.18992/

 

[SOMD-JeepFan]

I literally just replaced my water pump and thermostat yesterday due to the gaskets being blown.

I also had coolant leaking down and coating my oil pan and the entire bottom of my engine after driving because it would leak off the front of the block and get blown back.

Let your jeep dry completely, then refill the radiator and turn it on. Turn your heater up to max to get the coolant flowing faster and then watch the area around the crankshaft pulley (The largest pulley at the bottom of the block). I say check there because your water pump is almost entirely covered by it's pulley. So if the area around the crankshaft pulley is where your leak seems to be coming from, it's coming from your water pump.

Also, check out the thread I posted, as the forum regulars give a lot of feedback and troubleshooting tips:

https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/gurgling-coolant-system.18992/

Thanks for the suggestion. I read through your thread yesterday, but I will "watch" the thread in order to get updates. After looking through the pictures on your thread again, it may be think about what I saw last evening when I looked at my Jeep. I noticed a decent amount of UV dye on my steering linkage. The linkage is pretty much directly under the water pump. Until I get my pressure washer up and running, I will spray down everything with some degreaser and wipe it down really well. After everything is wiped down, I will pour more UV dye in the coolant and run the engine with the heat on high.

 

[Mr. Bills]

The heat is controlled by the blend doors, not by changing the flow through the heater core. There is full flow through the heater core at all times, no need to turn the heat to "high."