Went on a 50 ride yesterday and noticed thetemp indicater was 2/3 up on the guage. It is usually under the 1/2 way mark. The radiator is full and everything looked normal. Upon checking the tranny fluid I found it was low. About a qt I think. Would this cause over heating?
Thanks for any opinions.

 

Check your water pump for a seal failure. I just went by 50K miles on my 2004 and found a water pump seal failure. Look for coolant dripping on the ground...

Or, climb under the D and look up through the crank damper and see if there are signs of coolant dripping on the crank damper?

 

By the way...make sure you checked the tranny fluid when the system is fully hot. If you check it cold it will be low but as it heats up the fluid really expands. You don't want to overfill transmission fluid since that can be really bad for your transmission. I wouldn't think low transmission fluid would cause overheating....

 

Guys, thanks for the replys. I checked the coolant resevoir and it is full. Could not find any leaks. Am going to have the dealer drain and flush the system and change the thermostat. Hope that takes care of it.

 

nn1nn45:
Be sure to check your actual coolant cap as well to make sure there is sufficient coolant in the system for your drive to the dealer. Many, many folks have damaged their engines because they check the overflow tank and find it full, but do not check the actual system which can be very low.
To me this is one negative to havng an overflow tank. Years back, there was no tank so you had to pull the radiator cap and check the system level. An overheated system will not pull fluid in from the overflow tank till it cools off.

Good luck Don

 

Thanks n8ech for the reply. I did check the acual radiator and all was ok. I am suspecting the thermostat is faulty. I live in Southwest FL and it is getting hot here. 88 degs at 1:00pm. I previously lived in Southern AZ and was really hot and no trouble with the Durango.

 

just wondering sis changing the thermostat help the problem....just wondering because i am having the same problem i tried flushing the raditor out but not the system and it didn't help the last thing it could be is the thermostat