'98 4.0 Coolant Color

[glennco]

'98 Cherokee 4.0 102,000 miles.

This evening I got my oil changed at a quickie lube place and the coolant in the overflow was so dark you could barely see through it.

(First I'm living in an apartment now and have no place to change my oil).

If the coolant and the dark color were separated I would have thought it to oil, but they were mixed quite well, with no tendency to separate, even in the coolant checker.

The coolant also tested fine.


It has been 2 years since I had it flushed so I could see that being an issue, but I blew a radiator hose this summer, and had to nearly replace all the coolant in the radiator.

Any thoughts as to what could cause the problem, where should I start checking?

thanks

[jeepguyxj]

when you blew the rad-hose parts of the hose could of got into the radiator as time goes buy the pieces of the hose are desintagrating changing the color of the coolant darker. i would suggest a really good flusing and completly new coolent. hope this helps

[capt. apathy]

where they the same type of coolant. the orange isn't compatable with the regular green, and makes a greassy brown color when mixed. it also makes a jell-type crap that mixes with debris and clogs radiators and heater cores.

same fix for this problem as for the one above.

[spooleffect]

Just hope your coolant isn't black because its been eating away at your engine or that there is air in your system. Black usually means lots of tiny peices of your engine.