Well, I picked up a 2001 White XJ on Sunday. It showed up on the local classifieds for a great price. It is very clean, one of the cleanest I have seen in a while. It does have a check engine light on but I took a chance anyway. It runs pretty well, and seems to occasionally have a bit of a rough idle. I am guessing a misfire. I tried plugging in my code reader (Elm Bluetooth adapter and Torque Pro) and it couldn't connect. I need to investigate that further, I am suspecting the OBD plug might be loose or not getting good contact. There seems to be power available but no data is flowing.

I obviously took a chance on it due to not knowing exactly what was wrong with it but it drove well, oil pressure is good, leaks less oil than my JK. It has virtually zero rust which is shocking. Upon further inspection, I noticed no rear sway bar so I suspected it had the Up Country package. I pulled the build sheet off the vin and sure enough it is an up country. It was originally sold in California as a fleet vehicle and it has a couple of interesting adders. It has a front tow hitch as well as heavy-duty wiring to the front and back hitch that goes straight to the battery. I suspect the business that bought it had it set up to handle a receiver winch front and back. The wiring work on it was all done professionally, high-quality wire, loom, wrapped, etc. It also has one of those tracks for a cage divider thing and a super heavy-duty tie-down point in the back.

It is 22 years old so it isn't perfect but most of the issues seem pretty minor. I need to do the key dance and read the codes, and figure out why the OBD port isn't reading. The PO said the local shop read the codes and replaced the gas cap last year, so the port was working a year ago.

This will ultimately be for my daughter who will start driving next March. It was cheap and I am going to use it as a way to teach her a little about cars and maintenance. I am going to start out by changing all the fluids and doing the plugs and wires. Sounds like motor mounts can be an issue on these? I should probably look closely at those.

Anything else that is a must on these? Looks like it has a slightly leaky valve cover so I will probably do that also.

I did have a 95 cherokee for a few years, in between a YJ and my current JK.

 

Make sure your cooling system is in full working order. Its not that much work to pop in a new water pump, tstat, radiator and hoses. While its apart, flush the block.

Since its an 01, do some research on the 0331 head. Its prone to cracking. If you have coolant disappearing but no apparent leak, you may have a cracked head. (or a leaking heater core). May be a good idea to catch some of that oil and send it in for evaluation.

https://www.blackstone-labs.com/

The 0331 head isnt the end of the world, Ive put 265k miles on my xj with that head and she's still going strong.

 

I am aware of the head issues and honestly expect to do that someday. I had thought about doing the water pump, tstat, and hoses when I do all the fluids. The water pump is pretty easy on the 4.0. I will catch some oil when I change it, be good to see what it says
What oil are people running in these older engines? I seem to remember just using 10w30 but thought I had seen people suggesting a heavier oil in the old engines.

 

You'll probably get 100 different opinions on this. haha

I am running napa high milage 10w30 full synthetic with a napa gold filter. I change every 3333 miles, basically three oil changes every 10k. But I am at 265k miles.

 

I was kind of planning to run castrol gtx high mileage in it. Was just curious what the consensus was. I am sure there will be a 100 opinions.

 

Back in my BMW motorcycle days, an oil thread on the club forum was always good for 50 or so responses.( There are some oil fanatical people riding BMW's, I tell you what) And it always boiled down to this....no oil?, bad. some oil?, good. change it regularly?, great! Me, cheapo Super Tech from WalMart. And now that I am changing my rear seal, and previously did my front seal, I may even try some of that new fangled synthetic blend stuff.