My wife owns a 2000 Durango (5.2L, 2 WD) my son was driving it last night and it started overheating. So they left it there overnight. I retreived it this morning, and started working on finding the cause. I went to drain the radiator, removed, the drain hose, turned the drain fitting, and nothing comes out, not a thing. What gives here? Never had a problem with it overheating before last night. It doesn't seem like there is any fluid flowing in the upper radiator hose. The coolant leak appears to be coming somewhere from the lower left side of the radiator, when the D starts to get hot. Any help is greatly appreciated. Mike in Florida.

possible waterpump, bypass hose, radiator, radiator hose.

There doesn't appear to be any coolant leaking from the weep hole on the water pump. From what we can tell there is no leaks at any of the hoses. There seems there may be a leak on the back side of the radiator between the radiator and overflow reservoir. You can hear the hissing and if you pull the reservoir forward it stops. Due to it's apparant location it can't be seen.

Still at a loss as to why we can't get the radiator to drain with the drain hose removed and the drain cock turned. The drain cock only moves 90 degress, goes from the 12 o'clock position moves counter-clockwise to the 9 o'clock position. It doesn't appear to pull out at all, so we can't drain it that way.

Thanks in advance for any and all help, Mike in not so Sunny Florida.

I'm not going to tell you to turn the rad drain cock more than 90 deg but, on my caravan the book said the same thing and I didn't get fluid out till I turned it a full turn.

You are in a world of hurt if you screw up the drain cock so I would just disconnect the lower rad hose and see what comes out.

Did your son say if when it overheated it boiled over and steamed. That could be your loss of coolant and not a leak. You may have inop cooling fans or a stuck t-stat.

Is there coolant in the radiator to drain out? Bad water pumps don't alway leak.

The wife discovered that the drain cock will turn more. My past experiences tell me if it stops don't force it or it can break. We got a little coolant out of the radiator, the overflow reservoir is full. We are going to change the thermostat here in a bit to see if it was stuck close. It appears that the coolant isn't flowing from the reservoir to the radiator.

I guess the possibilities are a bad thermostat, or a bad waterpump as a few of you have suggested. If it is the waterpump, this will be the first time I've had one go bad that didn't leak. As someone mentioned, which I was not aware of, a waterpump can go out and never leak. Learn something new everyday.

Thanks for all the great help, and I'll post back with what we find.

Mike in Florida

"It appears that the coolant isn't flowing from the reservoir to the radiator".

If that's the case the radiator cap is bad. http://www.howstuffworks.com/cooling-system7.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cooling-system8.htm Great site for basic info.

Replaced the thermostat with no luck, the radiator cap checks good. Pulled the reservoir, and went to flush the radiator and drain it. Very little water would go in the radiator, and what little was coming out was pretty nasty. We know for a fact that the radiator has a hole in it, and it appears to us that it is blocked. Ordered a new radiator for it, will post back when the final fix is completed. One way or another "Christine" the D will be fixed, or shot dead. Christine (Stephen King Novel) this D has an attitude and is possessed, hence my wifes nick-name for her D.

Mike in Florida

Well we finally got the new radiator installed. It doesn't come out or go in as easy as the Haynes Manual claims it does. The old radiator was pretty nasty, plus it had a hole in it. All the hoses check good, new thermostat installed, radiator cap checks good. Damn thing still running hot, and coolant not flowing. Last thing is the water-pump, so we'll do that this week-end. After that the whole cooling system will have been checked or replaced.

Lesson learned for myself, I kept looking under overheating in the Hanynes manual, never looked further down the list. If I had I would have saw "Poor Coolant Circulation" pointing to the water-pump. But we have none of the tell-tale symptoms ie: leakage at the weep-hole (pump seal failure), howling or pump being able to be rocked up and down (shaft bearing failure), last or not least corroded fins on the impeller (no symptoms). Guess we will see this week-end.

This has been an educational adventure for us. On top of it all, the whole household is sick with the flu. Perfect working conditions!

Mike in Florida

Christine the D is fixed. New radiator, to replace the old leaking one. New thermostat just for good measures. After shutting her down the other night and calling it a day, the cooling system under pressure pulled the coolant from the reservoir (discovered that this morning). This started the process of filling the radiator up, 2 more fill ups of the reservoir (after running the engine) brought the radiator up to the proper level, keeping the reservoir at the proper level. Now she runs great, runs cool, and hell just plain runs.

Note for those who never replaced a radiator before (like me). Unlike the old days where you just poured the coolant in the radiator and could tell if it was full. You have to allow the system to do it's job and pressurize, then start cooling off creating a suction to pull the coolant into the radiator. I guess a radiator shop might put the coolant right into the radiator. The manual tells you to just pour it into the reservior, and nothing else.

I've got a brand new (not a rebuilt one) water-pump just in case I need it at a later date, on the shelf now. For all those out there that shared their knowledge with me, a big thanks to y'all. That's what make this forum such a great place. Again thanks for all the great help.

Mike in Sunny Florida