terzdesign

Hello Everyone.

I've been looking at a 1999 Cherokee Classic that I found on CL. I want to get some feedback on what a reasonable offer would be for this vehicle.

The Good: The body is in good shape with no accidental damage indicated. No Rust on the rockers or wheel wells and exterior rust only appears above passenger window. New battery. Runs well, no knocking or hesitation. The vehicle seems to drive well and shifts fine into 4 wheel drive.

The Bad: Valve cover leak, Rear Main Seal leak (or so it looks to be), one of the joints is leaking (not sure if it's the ball, pinion or something else), front Diff leaking minimally. The drivers side floor pan is rusted through and def. needs to be replaced. 221,000 miles.

The seller is asking $2750. I was thinking less. He doesn't seem to know much about the vehicle (imagine that :P) Thoughts? There are alot of these on CL in Indiana right now. How much to repair these things?

rnmcguire

Welcome to the forum. I'm from Indiana too and just purchased my second XJ about a month ago. Mine is a 2000 Sport with 183,000 miles. Mine has no body rust and is in great condition but it had the same leaks as yours. I paid $3500 at a local dealer. To give you an idea of repair costs I was quoted $750 by the Jeep dealer to have the rear main seal replaced. I decided to have the work done at an independant shop that I trust for $450. Actually my shop recommended pulling the engine and replacing all the seals, head gasket, water pump, oil pump and thermostat. They also repainted the whole engine for me for a total of $1200.
The 4.0L is a great engine as long as you take care of it. If I where you I'd offer the guy around $2000. The floor pan concerns me as I hate to mess with body work. Of course you can do all the work yourself and save a ton of money but that's up to you. I've bent a wrench many times on my old XJ that I used to own but anymore I'm just paying someone to do the work. Good luck with the Jeep if you get it!

XJwonders

Welcome to the forum. Most often when it look like rear main seal is leaking, it's usually the valve cover gasket or oil filter adapter that's leaking.
As cruiser54 always say, ***** flows down.

Check the valve gasket first and clean the engine and keep an eye on it, u can see if RMS is leaking

salad

Are you interested in doing your own work? If so some of those items are pretty easy to take care of, others require dedication and perseverance. For all of them you can find plenty of help here

As for the leaks, like XJwonders said, it's easy to be fooled. The 4.0L engine in XJs is tipped upward slightly, so all leaks eventually run down to the back of the engine. Most claims of RMS leaks are in fact from something else like the valve cover or oil filter adapter.

Biggest problem with XJs is body and frame rust (single unit called uni-frame). That's more hassle than it's worth. Leaks and wear items like joints are par for the course on a 16-year-old Jeep.

DieselDaze

few question I always ask (and you may have already)... how long have you owned the vehicle? any maintenance records? and major work? why are you selling it ??

I'm sick when it comes to negotiation and try to back the seller in the corner, when my entire spiel is done I make the owner feel like I'm doing him a favor when I make my offer..

Don't make him feel stupid or like you're picking apart the vehicle, always bring up the good points and grunt over the negatives...

my only concern is the extent of the rust, sometimes it grows further then you see.. and some people think surface rust is a tragedy, so it depends on who's inspecting it..

If you've already been there and are coming back to buy its in the sellers favor, most deals are sealed right then and there...

tell him you want to see it again, give it a peek and offer him $1500 to make his problem go away

terzdesign

Thank you everyone.

The last thing I forgot to point out is that it took a lengthy amount of time to start up, around 4-5 seconds I would guesstimate. Once it was running it ran well however. Should I be concerned with this?

BimmerJeeper

Do not buy it.
The owner didn't put any money into it, and let it go to crap.
There are tons of XJs out there.
For $3k you can get much better and 100k fewer miles.
You'll spend another $3000 into this XJ, and still have a crappy Jeep.

Stupid people are impatient.
Smart people wait for the right deal.

BimmerJeeper

How much to repair?
$500-$1000 for the rusty floor.
This link says RMS is 9 hours labor, so figure $1000 total.

terzdesign

Im in no hurry. Theres a ton of cherokees on Craigslust alone to warrant more looks. Are there any years I should avoid? I read somewhere that 97's were a nightmare for their wiring. Btw, i plan on doing alot of the work on this myself.

Turbo X_J

It's a buyers market. What should be your major concern is rust, rust will turn a Cherokee into a lawn ornament in short order. Any rust that is visible means a lot more if you really start to look for it were talking about a minimum 12 year old vehicle after all. Everyone on this site will have their favorite years and what not. If you don't know how to properly appraise a used vehicle, pay $100 to a trusted certified mechanic to look it over for you, it's money well spent.

DieselDaze

just shop it out... something will come along....

btw I have a '97 and have zero problems with wiring... every car has personal quirks though no matter what year, its called personality

hard really to recommend a year seeing how maintenance weighs in heavily... some would say '97-99... but I personally would consider anything from '91 on... even the earlier (renix) years are highly dependable and some people prefer them... I had one and loved it for 190K flawless miles...

Demonoid369

It's not a 97' problem, it's possible for all years. I have a 97' and all I have had with electrical issue was the wires going to the ign. Coil had split open and were shorting because of just age and wear(just like any other vehicle) heck I prefer the 97' over any year and think it should be the prefer year if you want to make it a off road rig.

salad

Be extremely wary of the latest models, 2000 and 2001. There's a manufacturing defect which means the heads crack easily if overheated. XJs are cheap and plentiful 4x4s, which means that at some point everyone's had one for a winter beater. They also run a lot longer with a complete lack of maintenance than other cars, increasing the likelihood of neglect. A big problem for a 2000/2001 XJ would be if you find oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil... if it's been bad enough for long enough that the seller is trying to get rid of it, you basically need a new engine.

x97845987134

HiPoint

Is that why you clicked on the first link after you Googled 4.0 liter Rear Main Seal labor time and believed it as truth?

Labor time is 4.3 hours for rear main seal.

DieselDaze

LOL... your right just looked it up, right there at the top....

he is just cautious and likes to play it safe and do it right, so he sometimes has the tendencies to double the labor times..