Hello all,
name's Roger, otherwise known as Fatcharlie. I'm British but I live in the South of France (in Europe ;-P)
I've just bought myslef a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. It's the 4 litre version. I already love it and I've only had it 2 days. It's called Jezebel.
Like all 2nd hand cars it has shown a couple of quirks.
Most urgently, it appears to have a slow oil leak in the rear diff - I bought her in England on Friday, did some local shopping on Satuday and yesterday (Sunday - maybe today for you guys in the USA) I got on the ferry to France.
About 2 hours into the trip and I can no longer pretend the noise from the rear diff is normal 'wear and tear'. I stop and have a look. Any paint which had been there has gone and there is quite a smell of burnt oil. The diff sounds like a bag of spanners. I think most of the oil has gone. I has certainly gotten very hot!
So - here I am in the moddle of France, about 400 miles either way from the UK or my appartment on the Riviera. Questions:
Once I discovered the problem, I waited an hour for the diff to cool then continued at about 45mph for about 30 miles to the next viable stopping point on the Franch freeway. At 45mph, the noise didn't get any worse and the box was not steaming when I arrived. Soooo...
1) How much damage am I likely to have done to the diff?
2) How difficult is it to top up the oil - I want to get home under my own steam if possible - even if I have to stop every 100 miles and top up the diff.
3) I know the answers to 1 and 2 are likely to be 'how long is a piece of string?', but give me worst- and best-case scenarios.
4) If I have to change the diff, is it complicated, or simply large bolts and lots of muscle?
Nice forum and site!
Cheers,
Fatcharlie.