I know this is kind of a random question, but should the upper radiator hose have coolant in it when the engine is completely cold. After getting up the operating tempatures the hose fills up with coolant, but when cold its empty.

This is also what mine looks like

http://images.4chan.org/o/src/1325813695753.jpg

 

that's normal, it won't fill up until the engine gets warmed up

 

That is what I was thinking, but I had multiple people tell me that the hose should be filled both when cold and hot and the an empty hose is the sign of air in the cooling system. Would you mind explaining where the air in a empty hose goes too once the engine heats up?

 

it will go out through the expansion tank. If you're worried about air getting sucked in check the expansion tank to make sure it is at the appropriate level. There should be a dipstick under the yellow cover on your fan shroud for it.

 

Awesome, thanks for the info. I have another question you might be able to answer. The past few days I have noticed that car running hotter than normal when idling, maybe around 230ish instead of the normal 190's. Whenever I start moving the temperature will go back down to normal. Last night this happended and the temperature went down to about 210ish and stayed there until I got to my house which was about 15 minutes later. When I parked, there was steam coming from the hood. I popped the hood and noticed that the radiator cap was spewing steam and coolant. Let it cool down and checked the coolant levels which were still at the normal mark. Drove it fro 15 minutes and the same thing happened. The funny thing is that the tempature is right at 200ish when all this is happening. I was told it could be a number of things from a bad cap to a blown head gasket. I am hoping it's not the head gasket since there is no white smoke in the exhaust and no mixing of oil with coolant and vice versa.

 

since the temp is going back down when you start moving it sounds like you are having issues with the fan moving air through the radiator. Spin the fan by hand (with the engine off of course) and if it spins more than half a turn your fan clutch needs replaced and is a possible cause of the overheating. Does your durango have the auxiliary electric fan?

 

Not so sure on the auxiliary electric fan. It's a 2000 318ci V8 SLT 2WD if that helps at all.

 

I don't remember for sure what year they added the electric fan. If you have it you'll see it mounted on the radiator, but I'm guessing that you either don't have one or it's not working since your engine got that hot.

 

I'll have to go check it out here in a few. I am just baffled why the temp gauge is reading normal to ever so slightly above normal yet I am blowing coolant and steam out of the radiator cap.

 

check the overflow tank, air in the hose is NOT a good thing, the overflow tank is supposed to have coolant in it when the engine is COLD, if you top off that tank the system will burp itself of all the air as the engine heats up.

the reason that tank exists is that as the engine warms up the coolant expands, as it expands it no longer fits in the cooling system anymore and need to go somewhere, hence the expansion tank. Now when the engine cools back down the coolant is there (in excess i might add) to keep the system full.

if there is air in the system the truck will overheat (what has happened to you) and if you overheat it too far, or too many times you WILL blow a headgasket at the very least, at the worst you could warp the head.

as for why it overheated, part of it is because you have air in the system, part of it could be one of your fans are not working (2000 was the first year for the electric auxillary fan), check the clutch fan as described above and shine a flashlight in throught the clutch fan (dont let the light itself hit the clutch fan) while the engine is running w/t he A/C on, you should be able to see if the electric fan is working properly.