Anyone aware that Stock Cherokee rear bumpers are date coded? I was working on the rear bumpers of my 90 Cherokee and the 86 I parted out awhile ago and made the discovery. If you remove the protective rubber end caps off the bumper on the drivers side and take a gander you'll see the date stamped on the bumper.Likely to find dirt build up once the cap is removed so you may have to clean it off and look.

My 90 bumper was dated Nov 16 1989 and the 86 bumper was dated something like May 1986 (can't remember the exact date)

Don't know that this REALLY makes a big deal to anyone, but I thought it was cool to see.Front bumper may have the same thing, haven't checked.

 

I suppose if the door sticker was gone and you needed to know the year model this would be a nice piece of knowledge to have.

I've never noticed it.

 

Ya know on 84-96 Cherokees they all have tail lights coded "83XJ" so you really can't use the tailights to gauge the year of the vehicle like you can on other cars. I learned that trick on older cars...don't think it works on late model vehicles.

However if the door sticker is missing, the bumper may or may not be able to tell you what year it is. I just put my 86 bumper on my 90 Cherokee over the weekend.So if the actual year of the bumper and year of the vehicle don't match, could show signs of an accident in the vehicles prior history...doesn't tell you how severe though.