Hello everyone, my father is facing a problem with his Durango. It all started today after we took a trip up to Harrisburg. The car was fine on the way to Harrisburg but all of a sudden began to overheat on the way back home. So, we pulled over to the side of the road and the first thing we checked was the coolant, and there were no coolant. After seeing this we drove a few more miles and stopped by a nearby Wal-Mart to buy a thing of coolant. We filled up the radiator reservoir and it seemed to help a little bit but the temperature started climbing again once we hit the highway. We drove for about another 10 mile and checked the radiator reservoir again and saw that it was empty. We refilled it and waited for a few minutes and hoped that it would cool off. We started for the road again and like before the temperature started to rise again, however, this time we let the hot air blow in and it seemed to help. We drove for a few more miles and stopped again to check the reservoir but this time it was full from the last fill up. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions to what might be wrong?

Additional Info.:
- The car did not loose any power on the road, it drove the same as before
- We didn't see or smell any leaking coolant
- Turning the hot air on seemed to help cool it down and once we started a/c again the temperature started to climb
- The liquid in the radiator felt like it was boiling when we touched it when we first stopped, and the radiator is still hot after about 4 hours of sitting in the garage
- The car has about 115k miles on it
- There are no smoke coming out of the car
- Not sure if this is normal but there was a good bit of water (not coolant) laying on the ground (after we drove with the hot air on)

I will greatly appreciate any suggestions at this moment!

 

I will moved this thread to the correct section.

 

Jaymin:

First off, has the cooling system ever been serviced as in flush/refilled with fresh coolant?
The factory stuff is only good for 5 years OR 100K miles..... which ever interval comes first.
Hopefully you got the proper coolant to go back in.

The coolant should be added to the radiator also, not just the overflow tank. You must be careful as we know to allow the system to cool enough before opening the radiator.

The fact that you could bring the temp down by activating the heat tells me there was at least some coolant in there.

I say its time for a good flush and fill and a hunt for the leak while you are at it.
If your D has the rear heater, there is an electric auxillary coolant pump on the passenger side front under the hood that is known to leak as the system ages.
This may be your culprit.

Don