Dodge 2002 Grand Caravan V6 3.3 engine 121K+ miles is overheating. The top hose is cold and cold air is blowing through the vents. I've changed the thermostat but nothing changed. When checked, the radiator was empty & I noticed the heater hose assembly running from the core towards the back of the van was cracked & leaking. Could this be causing the overheating & the lack of coolant circulation? I filled the reservoir & radiator with no effect.
Replace the bad radiator hose first. Second- get you special formulated anti-freeze dye from the auto store and pour it into the radiator. Third- make sure you got all the air pockets out of your system, cause the coolant system won't work with air pockets in it. Fourth- Check for leaks by looking for the colored dye. If it's not the radiator hose, then could possibly be a pin hole in your radiator. Would suggest replacing all the radiator hoses at the same time while you got the coolant system disconnected, cause you don't want to have to come back and replace another hose in a few months.
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Yes, do the poor boy fixes first before doing the spendy water pump.
Get air pockets out by using a pressurized tool for filling it or you can do the poor boy fix by looking along the top of the intake for a coolant line that has a bleed screw. Open the bleed screw when filling with coolant and when coolant comes out of the bleed screw quickly close it back up.
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Ok, my next step was to replace the water pump, but it sounds like if I replace the hose, it may resolve the circulation problem? What is the best way to get the air pockects out?
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