Anyone from Southern California (Orange County area) that can recommend a 4x4 mechanic? The shop I used in the past no longer will work on my 93 XJ. Lots of good mechanics around, but looking for a shop that specializes in older jeeps / 4x4's. Let me know!

 

What kind of work are you looking to get done? Engine stuff? Suspension?

 

Flexplate replaced.

 

I don't know why a repair shop would quit working on XJs, they are one of the easiest and most simple vehicles to repair.

 

I wouldn't think that would be so hard to find a decent shop.

I had a smog test issue with my '88. Failed in several areas. After doing a ton of things (replace O2, clean egr, seafoam, replace exhaust gasket (down pipe to cat) and a few other things, it passed. I asked the smog shop (they do repairs too), who can work on these old Jeeps. He asked (something to the effect) "you mean beside you?"

 

I can tell you why. They are usually very dirty, inside and out. Very unpleasant to work on. And old stuff breaks easily. It's a higher risk for them that something will break while they are working on it, and they are stuck with fixing stuff on their dime, OR arguing with an unhappy customer about it. That's a lose-lose.

And then there's parts availability, or the lack thereof. AND add to that the fact that younger mechanics often don't know how to work on them.

There are a lot of shops that just don't want those hassles.

 

Not in OC, but there's a shop in Rialto, Inland Jeep, ask for Sean. Great guy, cool shop, knows his ****. He started out buying part out XJ's and selling on CL, his shop is now full blown custom jobs and jeep only mechanics.

https://inlandjeep.com/

 

Thats who I was going to recommend as well. I actually just talked to him yesterday while searching for some parts for my Jeep.

 

I have found that the newer stuff is far more unpleasant to work on and all the plastic crap they use under the hood these days breaks far more often. If you don't know how to work on something as simple as an XJ then you certainly shouldn't be working on newer vehicles. Also there is very few vehicles that have as much aftermarket and parts availability as XJs, you can find parts for them easily.

 

I don't disagree, but that's not how the market is going. We don't have mechanics anymore, we have "technicians", and most of them don't know how to do anything other than swap parts by the book.