Front differential dripping

[ADK Tiro]

Hi.
I just bought my Rubicon JT. There is a puddle under the front differential. It seems to be just water - is this the air conditioner runoff? I took the Gladiator for a ride yesterday - about 200 miles pavement and 50 miles dirt roads, nothing too strenuous and no scraping at any time - just a mild shake down. We rode with the air conditioner on for most of this, maybe the last 50 miles my wife turned it off. We also had breaks here and there - it was an all day affair. This morning I ran it for a few minutes and moved it from driveway to driveway - about 30 feet. Air conditioner was off, but the drip from the diff started dripping like crazy. It eventually tapered off. Still seems to be mainly water - no gas smell or oily residue.

I called the dealer and their service guy wouldn’t give a definitive answer, and I can’t get it in before next week - unless it becomes an emergency. Should I worry, or is this where the air conditioner usually drips? My CJ7 never had a working air conditioner, so I don’t know. Is there a way to trace the leak to its source?

While I’m at it, what are the normal running temps for the oil and coolant In normal traffic (light in a small town) the coolant temp reading jumped up to 220 while sitting at a light - not quite noon on the temperature gauge for the off-road app. Could this be related to the dripping?

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[hjdca]

Validate if it is water, anti-freeze, or washer fluid. If it is water, then, it is air conditioning condensation that probably got trapped somewhere when you parked - no trip to the dealer required.... Anything else -- back to the dealer... Even if it is coolant overflow, I am not convinced you should be getting that. I have 12K miles and live in a hot zone and never got coolant overflow.

Regarding coolant temperature, mine is still around the middle of the gauge at 100 degree outside temps... When it gets hot, the fan runs full bore and you can really hear it. Can you hear your fan ?

 

[ADK Tiro]

Validate if it is water, anti-freeze, or washer fluid. If it is water, then, it is air conditioning condensation that probably got trapped somewhere when you parked - no trip to the dealer required.... Anything else -- back to the dealer... Even if it is coolant overflow, I am not convinced you should be getting that. I have 12K miles and live in a hot zone and never got coolant overflow.

Regarding coolant temperature, mine is still around the middle of the gauge at 100 degree outside temps... When it gets hot, the fan runs full bore and you can really hear it. Can you hear your fan ?

Thanks for the quick response. I definitely heard the fan run. It was around 90 degrees yesterday when I did all this. The normal temp gauge (across from the fuel tank gauge on the driver display) always stayed in the middle. Even when the coolant temperature gauge (in the off road pages) ran up to 220, it didn't hit the middle of the gauge(noon). It stayed at eleven o’clock or lower.

Guess it’s time to taste the fluid

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