savanahlee

Hello! I bought my first cherokee today from a private owner. It's a 2000 4 door, sport I6 4WD automatic, chili pepper red. Has 88K on the odometer and is in pretty good shape. I got it for 4500, which I hope is a good deal but it was in a minor/moderate accident in 2004. Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't cause me any problems down the road. It needs some minor work, such as rotors, a hood latch, hydraulics for the rear door, etc. It also needs an AC evaporator but my mechanic can do that cheap, and the tires have about a year left in them. So I got into it knowing it needs some love, but nothing out of the ordinary... and the guy just did a total engine overhaul with receipts to prove it due to coolant leaking into the oil... Cracked cylinder head. While they were in there they replaced serpentine belt, tuned it up, etc etc. (I hope so far you're all nodding in agreement with my buy).
Now for my real questions. The cruise control and front speakers don't work. Cruise control is no big deal to me, I've never used it on any car I've owned. The light comes on, but no functionality. I just want to know what causes this and how much it runs to fix it. If its cheap I'd like to fix it anyway.
Speakers however... I need those. I've read this is a common problem. I'm by no means tech savvy, (thus far i cant really do any of my own maintenance aside from "checking" fluids, although I want to learn!) and would be hesitant to start taking off bolts/ripping up carpet. Does anyone know about how much it would cost me to have them re-wired at a store like best buy, etc?
Also, I don't plan on modifying the jeep heavily or taking it off road any time soon, but I would like to know if there are any especially useful mods that can make it more functional and/or increase its life as a transportation-only vehicle.
Finally, I'd like to know if there are any problems I should look out for in the near future given the current mileage.
Thanks in advance for all of your help and advice... I look forward to reading through the threads and I am way pumped to be an official member of the jeep community

Radi

Sounds like a decent buy to me. Relatively low miles, reworked motor..
Do you have the stock radio or an aftermarket? I assume the rear speakers work? Not to point out the obvious, but you checked the F/R fader I assume?

I'd start with the simple stuff with the cruise, anything obviously disconnected around the cruise servo under the hood?

savanahlee

It's a stock radio with CD/tape. I did try the fader, it's sitting at center now and when you set it to front only there is no sound at all. The rear speakers are working.
For the CC, I don't know if its disconnected and wouldn't know where to look, but I can ask my mechanic when I have the rotors done this week. I wasn't sure if this was a well known issue with one solution, that's why I thought I'd ask.

Michael952

yeah cherokees are notorious to have wiring problems.
Depending on the actually shape and your location I'd say you did pretty good

salad

Yeah - guaranteed you can look forward to wirign issues hahaha.

Typically the front speakers' wiring running through the doors is where the fault is. You have to remove the door panels to get at this stuff and trace it back into the cab a ways. Its all color coded - someone may have a wiring diagram (I think I might... somewhere...)

The cruise control servo is located on the passenger side fender near the Power Distribution Center (main fuse & relay box). It has a cable that runs straight across the engine bay, snaps into a guide on top of the engine itself, and hooks onto an arm with two other cables. This arm is attached to the throttle body and actuates the throttle itself (the rearmost cable is the accelerator pedal).

The cruise control in these beasts is vacuum based. If the Jeep was in an accident, then a vacuum line probably was popped off somewhere. Commonly people have issues with the vacuum reservoir, a ball looking thing that lives in the bumper. If you throw "cruise control vacuum" into a search you'll see what I'm referring to.

Congratulations on the purchase! You'll find the XJ is a great vehicle to learn how to do work on and this site is a great resource. Cherokee Forum actually helped me make a decision: originally I wanted something newer than my '99, but after looking here I figured I could handle anything that comes up. There is a plethora of info on here already, but the in-site search is kinda crappy. If you include "site:cherokeeforum.com" when you search on Google you get results from here! Also the term "XJ" will be your friend.

Muaddib420

Changing your own rotors would be a good easy place to start getting your hands dirty with your new XJ IMO. Just need a decent jack tire iron and ratchet set.

As for the speakers, your head unit is OEM so probably on its way out. I'd trace the speaker wires first to rule that out though. Pull the door panel (it's easy, just three screws and use a putty knife to pry the panel back until it pops off and disconnect everything) disconnect the speaker and gently pull on the two speaker wires. If one is severed, it'll pull right out like mine did. Trace it back into the door boot and splice together. Google how to do that.

$4.5k is pretty good for such a low miles XJ. Welcome to the forum.