So my old roommate has a 98 XJ with the rough country 4.5" lift and I always thought it was awesome. When the time came for me to look for a new car, an XJ was really all I really wanted. I ended up finding this gem! It's a 96 XJ classic. It has a lot of miles (204,000) but it's a one owner XJ, and the older couple that owned it did maintenance religiously. I know it's 2WD but I plan on still at least raising it a little and making it look cooler than stock. I didn't really need 4WD because it will be my daily and have a babyseat in the back so it wont see anything other than open road very often. I have an accel tune-up kit coming along with a new fuel filter, Lucas 10w30 full syn oil, and I plan on doing a flush and recharge on Trans, coolant system, and Brake system. Is there anything that I may be missing on this ole girl? I live in North Alabama so the weather in the spring and summer is hot and sticky, and in the fall and winter its cold and dry but still not like it is up north. I know how tough these engines are so I'm hoping this thing will keep chugging for a long time, but I want to start it off right. Any suggestions are appreciated, and I'm glad to be in the forum!

 

It has a lot of miles (204,000)

Objection to the misuse of the phrase "a lot".

Tip one: Go to Cruiser54 page http://cruiser54.com/ and do all the electrical suggestions he has (even though his are for slightly older Jeeps). You will need some dielectric grease and some Ox-Gard. Go through every electrical connector you can find, clean it, open it, put grease in the cylinders and lube the gasket, put back together. Ox-Guard is for all the ground connections an Cruiser54 has some tips for improving the grounds.

Same site, download the 1995 and 1995 XJ manuals. He doesn't have 1996, but 1996 was a transition year, so most of the stuff on it matches either 1995 or 1997 anyway.

If it has original lug nuts, replace those with solid 1/2" chrome lug nuts.

Happy commuting!

 

Thanks for the tips! And I say “a lot” in the common sense. I’ve been reading a lot since looking at them and found several with 350k plus and still running great! I hope I could end up there one day, and maybe pass it down to my little one.

 

Welcome to the forum and family...

 

Yeah 96 was kind of an Odd Duck year. It still had the old body styling but carried over the airbag and steering column from the 95 (that mechanical airbag and switch gear was only used in the XJ for the 95 and 96 model year) and 96 was also first year for ODB 2. They're still solid Jeeps though. Hard to go wrong with an XJ as long as it's not riddled with rust.

I'd be cautious going to full synthetic oil on one with that many miles unless it's been on synthetic it's whole life. Older engines like that can have a little blowby (caused by ring wear over time). It's a crap shoot you may or may not have some oil burning and if you have some small leaking going on already it may or may not make those worse.

 

Thanks for the oil advice! I may call the service station they always took it to and see if they can tell me what was usually run in it. I’ve always used full synthetic so I didn’t really think about that... I’ll may run it this one time and see how that goes.

 

Forget the Ox-Guard. Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT conductive. Not one bit more than silicone dielectric grease. The zinc powder in it is for preventing corrosion on aluminum power connections. (As in, AC power systems like your house.)

It's not a good thing for 12v systems.

Here's some good reading on it.

 

Ox-Guard has zinc. ZINC MAN! Magic zinc.

Zinc is good.

 

Zinc can be used as a sacrificial anode to keep steel from rusting when in contact with copper or aluminum. The electrolytic or galvanic corrosion will attack the zinc first and not the steel. That's why they use zinc primers to paint bridges and ships. They mount zinc blocks on ship's hulls for the same reason. They have to be replaced occasionally however because they tend to disappear!

 

For the oil, see if your favorite synthetic brand comes in a "high mileage" viscosity package. I switched Mobil 1 "high mileage" 2 oil changes ago and the random drips stopped. This oil change (1 year, 3,000 miles) was the same stuff with UV dye. Still no leaks detected. Benefit from that blend also, it has the highest level of phosphorus/zinc allowed by API and the feds.

Note: The way that engine sits, if any oil at all is spilled on the valve cover, it eventually ends up running down the back of the engine and can easily be mistaken as a rear main seal leak. Putting dye in the oil and checking with a good UV light can narrow down where an oil drip came from.

Mine is a 1996 Sport 4x4, only owner, 352,000 miles.

 

15w40 or 5w40 diesel oil works best for the 4.0, it has higher Zinc content that helps prevent wear on flat tappet cams. For oil filter Motorcraft, Mopar, Wix, or purolator are the best. No need to flush the transmission either, just drain and refill a few times.

 

My 1996 owner's manual specifies 5w30 for cooler OAT, 10w30 when warmer out.

I get my WIX filters at O'Reilly when I am doing my own oil change, Walmart has MOPAR and I use those when I have them do it an grease all the fittings. Mobil1 high mileage oil has been $22 and change there for a couple of months now. Bonus: When they break off your oil sending unit, they pay for a new one an install, lol.

 

That's the absolute lightest weight oil you should run In a 4.0, you can run as high as 20w50 if you want to, also that was printed before they started taking a lot of the zinc out of gas engine oils. Read this for more info. https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/rot...essing-188168/

 

I used to work in the oil industry and all the studies I read showed Lucas and Amsoil as the two leaders with Valvoline not far behind when it comes to wear protection and longevity so I’ve always run Lucas oil full syn. I actually found a 6pk of 1qt jugs for $25 on Walmart’s website.. I was curious about the filter to use though. I’ve been reading a lot of folks on here saying they run a Wix, but I’ve thought about a mopar or ACDelco.. any thoughts on those?

 

All of those should be fine, above and beyond what is needed. Even FRAM meets vehicle manufacturers tolerances and I ran those most of the 352,000 miles on my 1996 XJ, but WIX and MOPAR seem to have fewer horror stories. I did read some forum post where a MOPAR filter came apart and wrecked an engine, but don't know how truthful that was.

The engine wear meter on my dash confirms all this stuff worked fine for me. Hot idle oil PSI is about 14, top PSI under load is between 40 an 50ish.