Have you ever owend 2 completely stock XJs at the same time? Well right now at the moment i do...mine and the wifes. mine is a 99 sport with 116xxx and hers is a counrty with 179xxx. there is a night and day difference between them two. i mean everything. mine (sport) rides like a well a Jeep lol. hers on the other hand rides so much smoother. my steering is stiff hers is smooth and easy. mine makes all sorts of noises suspension wise going over bumps. to the point she hates to drive it compared to hers. its like riding in a jeep vs riding in a car really.

just wondering if anyone else noticed that no 2 XJs are created equal thats all.

 

i would have to agree i have a 90 sport and my wifes is a 87 pioneer

the only thing different between the 2 is that mine has 31s and different rims

hers
the skinney pedal feels slugish like it dont want to get up and go
the brakes are stiff
stearing is as good as my 02 lancer i had
makes some noises but not like mine

mine
has all the power in the world
stering sucks of course the blown pressure line doesnt help (fixed today)
rides so smooth it feels like a cady on air ride
makes all kinds of noise
the ride feels like im 10 foot tall hers feels like your in a lowrider

 

my 99 has more overall power than the 96. but with that said, the pedal has to be squeezed. the 96, i just tap it with my toe and it does a quick jolt, while a tap on the 99 makes the rpms jump up slowly then back down slowly. only thing i can think of is the high flow exhaust on the 96 from the engine back?

 

The 97-99 had more low end torque(it peaked 225 lb ft at 2,800-3,000 rpm versus the same at 4,000) and peaked hp 200 rpm earlier(4600 vs 4800), the 0331 heads/ignitin coil 99-01 had even more low end torque(and peak, 231 lb-ft @ 2800 rpm, 193 hp @ 4,600 rpm). BUT, I raced my friend's 1995 HO with twice as many miles as mine but with 4wd(260k vs 130k, plus he had a passenger) and the front of his bumper was at my front wheel to 60. This was when I was stock.

 

you know i think the 97 feels like it has more power than the 99 which is weird to me. especially since the 99 doesnt have a clutch fan. i would have thought that when i deleted the clutch fan for an electric fan it would have helped but i havent even noticed it being that much faster off the line than before.

 

Could just be condition ? I raced my friend's 1999 Cherokee with hi flow cat and FM 40 with my stock Cherokee, we both had 130k miles, and I beat him by a car to 60 mph.... We both aren't sure how(he is 4wd, I am 2wd, but he has those mods and I have tow package which adds 100-200 lbs; we concluded it was condition).

-Some 99 XJ's had ignition coil and 0331 heads and where slower than 97-(early-mid) 99 XJ's too.... They had new emissions crap on them.

 

so, your wife's country is a '97? i hope so, cuz that's what i have haha.. but mine's doesn't really feel all that peppy. was wondering myself if it was slower because the extras the country pkg got.

 

oh i havent raced them against each other but hers (97 country) feels much peppier than my sport. maybe you are right 99classic maybe my 99 has the crap of crap put into it. but i wasnt just talking about the engine in my OP either. just all around. maybe the country got better shocks and springs maybe not. it was just a general overall statement that these 2 are so different in about every way its not even funny. plus these are my first automatics ive owened too so maybe thats different. not sure how i feel about wheeling an auto though as i never have.

 

I think that change to the torque peak happened in the 96

 

only thing difrent feelling in my two is the 2000 has way too easy steering, the wheel just spins on its own. really need to get that looked at...

 

Sorry, crappy cell phone but thats $1100 worth of jeeps right there.


I have a 96 sport, black, 2dr, auto and fully loaded pulling my current 95 sport, black, 2dr, manual and bare bone model home. The 95 was much nicer vehicle even though it had more miles and less options then the 96. MI winters did not treat the 96 well. The 95 was much lighter being 2wd, much faster being a manual (especially when i swapped 3.55 gears in) and got alot better gas mileage. I do miss driving the 96 for all its options and 242 as a DD but it had rust, electrical and transmission issues. Cant beat 20+ mpg in a jeep tho

 

i had that same issue with one of my old wranglers. i think it was the steering box was bad. would be a good time to swap to a durango box

 

Reset the ECU programming and drive it like you stole it. That'll make a difference. After the 50 first startups on a empty ECU it learned the driving patterns and adjusts to that.

 

seriously? so what if you drive it like a granny for them first 50 will it learn to be a better gas sipper? also how do you reset the ECU?