Im new around here, and the jeep world. I just bought my first jeep, it is a 1996 Cherokee country, it has 200k on the body and about 90k on the engine, I drove it for a little while and all seemed good, what should i watch out for?

 

Snakes!

Just kidding. 4.0 Lifter tick, electrical gremlins, cooling issues, rust, in no particular order.

 

It's safe bet the motor probably has more miles than the body.
First rule of any used vehicle purchase, the only thing guaranteed are the lies.

 

Did you get it on Craigslist? On there, it seems 80% of the vehicles have had a rebuilt motor at some time. I've had 16 vehicles and not one of them had a rebuilt motor. Chances are, it has the same miles as the jeep unless you have paperwork

 

Body rust and crackheads.

 

Yes, crackheads. They can hide almost any where on that vehicle. When you are least prepared for it, they will pop out and beg you for another hit, or some money. They'll tell you they finally got a job, but they just need a little bit of cash to get their own Cherokee running, so that they can get to work. You'll feel sorry for them, and probably believe their lies one more time. This is all pretty normal stuff.

Since you already bought it. Your best option is to go into denial for a while, and not look at anything too closely. Remember, if you don't see or feel the problem, it probably doesn't exist. This worked for me for about 2 weeks. They were great weeks.

Week 3 was full of rust repair, body work, broken bolts, broken nuts, sealant, and about 8 hours per/day of forum reading.

But she's cherry.

Seriously, probably the most immediate things to cover are changing ALL fluids (yes all). And watching carefully for weirdness in the operating temperature (should be around 205-210 and stay fairly consistent). RPMs (should not idle above 1000, and should not go up and down when idling).

If you do not have an OBD2 scanner. Get one. I have an android phone, so a bluetooth scanner and the torque app can be had for about $40 all together. This is a MUST HAVE. Because its not JUST for reading engine codes, but also provides data for other things that may not be shown on your gauges (in my case I have the simple dash that only has speedometer and fuel, everything else is JUST an idiot light, so I depend on OBD2 data quite a bit).

Then when that stuff is out of the way. Start checking the body and frame and floor pan for rust. Look carefully and methodically. Maybe some spots are too far gone, but in spots where the rust is just starting, you have the most chance to do something about it. And fixing small rust holes in the body and floor pan are not actually that bad to deal with, so the sooner your identify and locate them the better. This is especially true with problem areas on the body, especially if they are around windows. The sooner the better. Don't ignore them.

Just like a house, leaks will DESTROY the inside of that vehicle. So if you think you have a leak inside, regardless of how frustrating it might be to find, get it figured out and fix it. The dryer the inside of that vehicle is, the longer it will last.

 

Worn items in the front end and do a complete fluid change from radiator/trans/TC. differentials with new fluids to start with.