Ryanstemarie

She was shipped from Puerto Rico by a used car dealer, bought by a woman three weeks ago at 3690 then realized her son can't afford the gas with his two hour commute. So she sold it to me for 2400 dollars. It has 84,000 miles, was involved in two accidents while in Puerto Rico, and had several cosmetic problems. Glovebox fell to floor(fixed), busted cooling fan cover(fixed), air intake assembly was damaged in accident I'm assuming so they duct taped a cone filter to the end of the existing hose running from the engine(replaced with stock intake assembly today).

According to the carfax, it sat for a year before being shipped to jersey. What steps should I take to prepare a car that sat for regular use? The engine and transmission seem to work beautifully, but I'd rather do a little work to ensure it stays that way rather than deal with bad oil or fluid in some location later on.

The steering is loose when it comes to minor adjustments. Once I turn the wheel 1/4 of the way, it seems to respond accordingly. But there's a lot of give from the straight position to that smooth spot. Suggestions there would be awesome.

Any suggestions are welcome. I plan on adding some seaafoam to the tank and possibly even performing a hard start using the sea foam. Other than that, I'd appreciate your opinions.

Ryanstemarie

From the exterior, you can't tell there was an accident. So don't let that deter your opinion of my purchase.

95Cherokee

2 hour commute? Puerto Rico is only a hundred miles long, must be driving halfway across the country.

tssguy123

Read the post harder..

95Cherokee

Ryanstemarie

Haha thanks.

Rogue4x4

I would drain and replace all fluids, and do a tuneup at a bare minimum. It may run well, but a basic fluid service and tuneup is a great start, and that way you know everything's good. Even if the car is clean, go over it with a fine tooth comb, especially since it was in an accident. Check all the nut/bolts/bushings etc., make sure everything's there.

Ryanstemarie

Alright thanks for your response. After the lady bought it two weeks ago she had an oil change and had the spark plugs changed as well as a few other things.

Once the weather warms up I'm gonna drop the pan and change the transmission filter and drain that. As for the power steering and brake fluid, should I just change the fluid in the reservoir every three weeks for a few cycles or should I completely bleed the lines?

After that, I have to try and locate the source of the play in the steering wheel. Other than that everything seems to be there. The hoses probably should be changed so I'll do that when I flush the cooling system.

Rogue4x4

Yeah you're on the right track...belts, hoses, easy low cost maintenance items I would replace, power steering fluid use a turkey baster to remove fluid from res and replace with new, don't touch the brake fluid unless you do a full flush, then yes, you will have to bleed. When doing your transmission fluid, you'll need to do successive drains and fills to get mostly good fluid in there, (auto trans, yes?) because of all the fluid in the rest of the system (lines, cooler, torque converter) just drain and replace, drive a few miles, drain and replace, etc....check coolant condition, all that stuff. Check your spark plugs and oil just to be sure, unless she gave you receipts for that work, don't just rely on somebody's word. People will say anything to make a sale, LOL

Ryanstemarie

She showed me a receipt for the plugs, coilovers, and oil. I don't remember seeing oil filter and the oil filter looks to dirty to be 1000 miles old so I'm going to change that again. I may even replace the plugs again. It seems to have very little top end power and when I tried to give it a little more gas the engine started running really rough and making a strange popping sound and was shaking. Seemed like it wasn't getting enough gas. Turned it off and on and it ran normal the whole way home. Any insight? I've read the hot soak things but it was 30 degrees out and the car sat for three hours between runs.

Gonna order a whole tune ups worth of parts and let it sit till I can get to it this weekend. Anywhere else to look at that is a source of the low power and rough ride today would be very helpful!

Ryanstemarie

Actually, upon doing the reading, I realize there's not much more to a tune up in 2001. I'm gonna replace the plugs cause I bet he used Bosch and I've read the jeeps sometime don't like them very much. So I was thinking of going ngk or champion.

As for the other issue, I'm gonna start with a seaafoam gas and oil treatment and then once a couple other things are changed im gonna put some directly into the vacuum hose. Hopefully the cleans up the slight rough ride in the higher rpms. As well as speed up start up time, but I never knew what a fast starting jeep sounded like lol

Rogue4x4

Clean your TBI and IAC as well. Cheap and easy to do.
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/tb...eaning-179079/

no rdplz

For plugs, just go with good 'ol Champion Coppers. The 4.0 likes the basic stuff. Instead of doing a Seafoam run through, pull the parts and clean them your self properly. Pull the injectors and flush and clean each one. Pull the throttle body and clean it along with the sensors on it. While the TB is off, check the intake for carbon build up. There's going to be some, but it shouldn't be too bad if was taken care of.

Ryanstemarie

Awesome right up thanks a lot man. You've been very helpful

Ryanstemarie

I'm not familiar with what it would entail cleaning each plug location individually. The biggest reason I'm goin with a seaafoam run to start is because it's still quite cold out and I was gonna wait till it got a little warmer to get into the real dirty work. I'm starting with a fluid and hose change to start.