rgs80074

Hello everyone, I have a 1996 jeep grand Cherokee limited that sadly is not getting the attention she deserves for various reasons. I'd like to say i can do all the repairs myself but with the heat outside especially now i can't be out there for more than a few minutes at a time even when doing nothing. florida is not the place for me but its the place i am at. I have a few repairs that need to get done i thought i could wait on i think has gotten to be bigger problem now than before. I have about 4 or 5 repairs that need to get done.


valve cover gasket: I am pretty sure this is where the oil leak i have it coming from. I lost oil just while the vehicle sat at an incline and not being used for a couple of months. didn't see oil on the driveway or anything but when i started it up you could see it burning the oil off the engine. as long as i start the vehicle every so often its not that bad. I don't think its the rear main seal and the oil leak from the filter adapter has been fixed but the valve cover gasket area is not clean so i am pretty sure thats where its leaking not a major leak. out of everything to do this is one i probably could do but i am hoping to get a good deal on the repair with other repairs being done.

ac issue: the ac compressor bearing are freezing up. the vehicle ran fine as long as you didn't turn on the ac (hard in florida) once you turned it on the vehicle ran oddly, loss of power hard to accelerate not shifting in to the last gear etc. even if you turned off the ac the problems continued until you disconnected the battery for a while. today even though the ac was never turned on the vehicle started to have all the same issues and the battery was completely dead before i started it. so i was debating on getting a bypass pulley until i could afford to get the ac fixed after other issues are taken care of.

I have an issue (not sure its still happening as my glove box was left open so that could have killed the battery) where for no reason the vehicle lights turn on, sometimes its the inside lights and sometimes its the headlights. they will turn on for 30 seconds or so then turn off and might not do it again for hours or could be minutes. i read that ti was the auto delay relay under the dash i can hear it click which also indicates its bad but i looked hard but could not find it so probably will have to get the mechanic to pull it.

i have a short in the wiring think in the drivers door that keeps me from being able to roll down the windows on the passenger sides of the vehicle. sometimes if you mess around with he door enough you can get it to work for a bit. the other day the door was open and i hit the wrong button and rolled down the passenger window. the electrical bothers me i thought i ruined my 1976 duster working under the dash without disconnecting the battery (lesson learned) but since then i don't like messing with electrical. not sure how to check for this.

i have another short in the over head console. Right now it takes forever for it to fill in the mpg, temp, etc. I can also kill all the dash if i move it. if the dash dies so to speak if i move the over head console it comes back so i am assuming there's a wire that either grounding out on the metal roof or needs to be repaired.

none of my doors will lock with the buttons you can hear them try but they won't lock not a single one of them. the auto lock when driving won't lock them either not a major issue won't keep the vehicle from being driven i have a key fob but its for a different year jeep but would be able to work for this jeep if reprogrammed.

while i could get away without fixing the ac for now i miss driving my jeep (not that the kia soul is bad but) and i can't drive it during the day for long without ac not here in florida, maybe during the winter months when its not so hot. the heater works not that i need the heater only for defrosting the windshield if needed. i have new tired for it too, probably have about 600 miles on them.

heck to be honest not even sure what advice i am looking for here other than maybe the ac thing most of this is just to write down whats needed to be fixed, maybe someone has some suggestions i don't know but I am going to get a mechanic to do as much of the work as i can, have an issue with a pulley as well, its been replaced twice now but still don't seem right, one shade tree mechanic that did work decided it was bad and tightened it down all the way so it wouldn't move so the brand new belt he put on just dragged across it, he did a lot of work for me on my vehicles but the last time he did work i ended up going back and fixing a lot of stuff like why bother having him do the work to begin with, needless to say he's not done any more work even though he's asked.

get my jeep back up and running correctly then i can work on the van it needs very little work or a ton depending on how i go about it (need the brakes bleed better than i can do it), needs some way to get ac in it think repairing the ac system will be too expensive, and putting back in the correct cold air system, doors don't unlock with the button except the drivers door and sometimes the back door but most of the work on the van is minor it can be driven safely now. was driving both vehicles today and i miss driving them.

i hope this all makes sense and i'll take any advice i can get maybe something else for the mechanic to look at.

ryan

Jeepwalker

I thinnk you need to pick one and tackle it first. The door wiring issue would probably be easiest, maybe a good place to start.Try to pry the rubber wire cover (between door and door-frame) gently out and inspect the wires. If they appear cracked, then remove door panel, unhook wires, pull wires through and fix them. Solder and use heat shrink tubing. Don't use solderless wire connectors or you'll be back in there in a few months. They don't work well on door wire repairs. That's a pretty easy repair you could do in the evening when it's cooler. Or a mechanic can do that too. Tell them you don't want solderless wire connectors. That should solve your door lock and window issues. Pretty easy fix. IDK on the OH console. Could be a wire connection. Could be a failed/leaky capacitor due to the heat. I suspect it's heat related.

On the A/C bearing, how do you know it's the bearing? Are you thinking Pump bearing, clutch bearing, idler pulley bearing? Need to narrow it down some. In either case you can just buy a new clutch bearing w/o replacing the compressor. Compressor bearings don't fail very often. If you have access to a press, press the old bearing off, replace it with the new one. It's like a $25 bearing. No recharging necessary. It could also be something electrical with the idle circuit when you engage the A/C that makes it run funny. You need to figure out in greater detail what's causing it to run strange. Or just take it to a mechanic. Problem with those guys is they always want to put on a new compressor and that's expensive. But whatever....

Good luck

rgs80074

hello and thanks for the reply

hopefully this time the reply gets posted last two times i thought it had but nothing

for the ac, the mechanic said the compressor bearings was gong out. it engaged fine but after engaging ran into problems, i think now the rest of its starting to fail after all the jeep is 22 years old and being a florida jeep i am sure the ac was used a lot i know i used it every time i drove it until it started to have problems.. I don't have a press to press on new bearings. perhaps a mechanic i am going to try to get can do that i don't know.

on the over head yeah i don't know what the issue is all i know is if i move it I can either fix the dash to work again or cause it to fail and everything quits.

for the doors i was looking at the boot in the door, started to pull it off but man there are tons of wires in there, i see they bypassed that boot when they replaced the speakers as the wire is just on the outside by itself. i don't have soldering equipment not sure it would be worth buying and learning to solder for a little as i'd use it. i mean in all my years i've never soldered or seemed to have the need to solder anything.

i am hoping the mechianci can do all these at once for a decent price even if it takes a couple of days i don't care its a backup vehcile right now, would go back to being more of a daily driver if the ac worked. i like the jeep better than the soul.

after this is repaired then its just a couple of thinks on the van, think i want to get ac in it somehow without fixing up the vehicles ac system while its running just fine i am not sure how much life it has in it. its got almost 193k on it but it runs.

dave1123

I'm going to tell you something you're probably not going to like, BUT some of the best mechanics I've met were Cuban! As my friend Angel told me in Cuba, you had to fix whatever you had because you couldn't get new parts most of the time. He told me once he had to get new clutches for a GM transmission and he had to get a friend of his in Panama to order them from the US and then ship them to him! Angel is one of the "boat" people that came ashore and turned himself in. Now he's a naturalized citizen. Really cool guy! He fixed my door wires in 10 minutes!