Hey guys,

I thought this would be a fun thread.

List the year of your Jeep, what you paid from the previous owner, and all the neglectful stories you have from the previous owners!

Mine is a 95' Cherokee sport. Paid $1,200 for it.

PO did not care for my new baby AT ALL! Leaking LOTS of oil. Needs new valve cover gasket, rear main seal. Leaking power steering fluid. Leaking tranny fluid somewhere.

Changed a couple fluids today. Drained the engine oil only to find out there was less then 2 quarts of oil in it total. Drained what I could in the coolant, and it was nothing but water. I added a quart of oil in the tranny.

I still have more to go through in this thing, but MAN.. some people are so ignorant!

So, what's your story?

 

Sorry in advance if this is more than what your looking for in this thread, feel free to edit it for length.

I am the proud owner of a white 1996 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4.0litre 4WD AX15 NP242 transfer case, crank windows,

I got mine off a friend of a friend I worked with a while back. The cat I bought it off of lived in the city, that may help explain why I got it so cheap. I only pad four hundred bucks for it.

At the time the kid wasn't driving it, hadn't driven it for at least a year or more, just sitting in the driveway looking sad. It had previously been in an accident, had four bald tires and a leaky radiator. The accident tacoed the door (it would still shut and latch) but had pushed the door sill inwards about 2". I ended up buying a decent door from a junkyard and had a local body shop weld it on for me. I replaced the radiator and bought some new rubber for it, replaced/flushed all the fluids and installed new plugs,wires cap and button.Than I drove it for a while than things started to get interesting. The XJ only had 106,000 on it but it sat for over a year outside, I think that is the reason why I had to replace so much stuff, plus it is partially a Chrysler product. The engine ran strong, no noise, transmission shifted fine, transfer case worked like it should, didn't leak any fluids, not even oil, amazing, but....

Things started to break, which was to be expected. First a caliper seized up on me, replaced both front calipers and soft lines and put on a new new master cylinder. Front drive shaft didn't sound right so I rebuilt it. Axle U-joints started popping, replaced front axle u-joint. Blow out a wheel cylinder, redid the drum breaks completely. Front end started snapping/pooping going around turns, installed new splicer upper/lower ball joints. Front shocks started to leak, replaced with four KYB Monomax shocks, kept the stock springs for now. I even invested in getting the a/c fixed, just needed to have the system recharged and the receiver dryer replaced. Than an O2 sensor went out, replaced both of those, than the cat was bad, replaced that, than a heater circuit went out on an O2 sensor, had to put a new ground wire in for the sensors. I did most of this work within the first thousand miles of it driving it so I am hoping I am done putting money into for a while. It is defiantly a Heep, but if it had a vagina, I would take it behind the bushes and make sweet love to her, I love my Heep.

Now you can drive the thing to Cali and back. I only have 126,000 on the XJ now, it is all stock still but am going to rip the carpet out in the spring and do a little PM on the floor, the floor hasn't rusted through anywhere yet, I think. Doesn't leak anything except for gas, bloody fuel sender is leaking around the bung and you couldn't find a new sending unit anywhere for it(until TeamCherokee sourced a dozen or so), the 96 has a different sending unit than any other year. The other day I ran across NOS on www.teamcherokee.com, they had managed to find a dozen or so New Old Stock complete sending units, mine should be here next week.

 

Bought my XJ this past May after months of searching for one. Payed 5k for it from a used dealership that's owned by and shares product with a Chrysler dealership where I used to work. That being the case, I knew the salesman personally, otherwise I would have never payed top KBB/NADA dollar for it with 155k miles and some light body damage. (Trail damage/scratches).

Whoever had done the initial lift on the XJ really half-assed it. 5" coils up front, Rusty's Tracbar, AAL in the rear, and that's it. Steering angles way off, bump-steer like mad, drives-haft angle was horrible, front swaybar links about to pop out of the bushings.

In the 8 months I've owned it so far, I've added longer swaybar links, transfer case drop, dropped pitman arm, new (aftermarket) exhaust, and have it lined up for a rear shackle relocation kit after the new year.

Other than that, it only suffers from pretty typical XJ issue.

 

Mine's a 1992, got it for 1400. I got it a year ago from the original owner. He got just about all the options, kept the build sheet, kept all service records, changed oil every 3 grand, kept it in the garage, etc. So it was perfect, EXCEPT FOR the fact that the previous winter his wife HIT THE WINDSHIELD WITH A BFH to clean the ice off. Huge crack, and it was the first thing I had to replace in an already growing list.

 

Mine is an 90 and I got it free from my uncle for high school graduation. He bought it about a 2 years before this for my aunt and started having problems with it from major neglect from the pos and dumped quite a few bucks into it. My uncle can turn a wrench but doesn't take on big jobs and always takes his rigs to a friend or a local shop to get it diagnosed if he has a problem. Well he was having some problem with I don't know what it was cause I wasn't around him at the time and took it to some shaddy shop and then claimed he blew the engine and they could drop and junkyard block in for him, well 1000 or more later they got it together and he had it back then pretty much gave it to me but it had major problems, it ran like ****, they did such a hack job, they had no clue what they were doing, I wouldn't be surprised if the original 6 was really fine but I never got to see it. Anyways just to name a few things they randomly cut a bunch of wiring harnesses on the engine removal, (blower motor, fog lights, grounds, and a few others) The tps was way off. And my favorite of all! The disturbor was way off, the damn thing wasn't even bolted in, it the hold down flange that the bolt sat on was pointed towards the firewall, hahaha I couldn't stop laughing when I found that. As soon as I adjusted it ran like a champ! After that was just a bunch of repairs due to being neglected from pos and still coming across po issues

 

Got mine off a cop. Had the police lights n everything...he took those tho

 

Paid 1200 for a 92 SE, no power options at all (for which I am glad) with 198k on the clock. Other than a worn out swaybar link and a cargo area covered in dog hair and nails, it was pretty decent.

 

My PO put a 97+ front clip on my 92 without changing front fenders. Also there was a high lift jack mounted diagonally across the hood. Yes, the hood was a bit heavy to prop open and i now have 2 big holes in the hood. My drivers side seat was mounted on a block of wood also. There was no way to adjust the seat but when i sat in it i fit perfectly so i know it was mine to be lol. Oh and in the craigslist ad it said all fluids were royal purple and had a racing battery. The oil was blacker than night and it had a optima yellow top battery that should be used in a lawnmower.

 

I bought it from a buddy who has blown up the past two of his cars. With this jeep it would start if you jiggled the shifter(obvious fix) & the transmission was erratically shifting during highway speeds. He drove it everyday to work for 6 months. He lived under two miles form work down an outer road. And during the last few months it developed a constant miss. I told him I would buy it for $500 whenever he bought another vehicle. One week he asked when would be a good time to drop it off. As he parked it at the top of my drive it was puking coolant. So I bought it just in time. The water pump had gone out on him. As far as the other problems. The transmission cable was frayed at the adjustment & the head had a hair line crack between the intake and exhaust valve of the #1 cylinder. I went to the Pick'nPull & bought a new cable, a few neutral safety switches & a head from a burned XJ. It was an electrical fire. The XJ was an early 90's, but had the same stamp number as my 96. So it was a rebuild. I took my chances feeling pretty confident that the only reason it was junked, because everything was melted due to the electrical fire. I had to chisle plastic off the valve cover bolts. It's been over a year & maybe 5k miles later. and running perfect.

First Jeep I owned, but I had a lot of confidence in these vehicles. Even with knowledge of the previous owners history of horrible car ownership. Drives them till they blow up.

 

My previous owner was pretty good...everything he had mentoined about the jeep was true and no hidden problems anywhere...only thing all that crazy is he traded my rusty old ford for the 92 XJ i currently have.

From this.



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That i turned into this.

 

I bought mine for a auto body shop who bought 4 NY state Cherokee's and repainted them. I paid $4200 all Dealer crap fees included, $3900 without.

Well it seemed nice. It had a fresh paint job, and you could tell they weren't hiding any rust, which it had very little for a rust belt Cherokee. and the interior was quite clean.

As time went on however, I saw more and more things that the "forgot to mention"

For the paint job they didn't take all the trim pieces off. but the ones they did were broken at the spots where the bolts were. It was like they used a BFH to take them off making it look like my Jeep was falling apart. The roof had a hole cut in top for a CB, which to hide they taped to the top of my headliner so it just looked like a nick in the paint. Which by the time I noticed caused some rust to develop. The metal around the rubber seals for the windows were solid rust, completely shot. Then I got the Cylinder #3 misfire. The timing seemed just right for resetting the CEL to sell it, so I think they tried to hide it. Then I found out that long term maintenance was not done by NY so my front axle is just in need of complete overhaul. Which also concludes that they decided they didn't need a differential vent and ripped it out? Oh and I am also pretty sure they put feces in my heat vents as well.

Also, can't quite pin this one on them cause I couldn't find out till recently when I did a cluster swap but my ABS was causing the brake pedal to push back.

So overall. It's a bunch of stupid small stuff but made me realize I over paid by about $500-600. Which is a bit frustrating.

Thanks New York!


P.S It also has California emission on it which I didn't even think to look for since it has never even seen the West Coast, and it makes me very annoyed.

 

well Its a 1999 Cherokee 4.0 205,xxx miles.

True Story.

The po of the jeep was my cousin. I think that when he got the jeep he bought a 3inch lift and some 31x1.5 bfg mt.although that was a pretty long time ago.like 5 years ago.from there he had it for an extra tewo years and it went downhill fromthere. he had gotten into alot of crashes and dwi's that he needed to give the jeep a blow job( he had tyo use a breathalizer in order to start the jeep)everytime he wnated to go somewhere.So then he became an alcoholic for a little while, and in that while my brother rolled my mom's brand new honda fit lol so my mo stayed without a car.and at the same time my cousin was selling his jeep in order to pay for beer id guess. so then my mom bought the jeep in horrible shape for 3,000. yea he jipped my mom, but that wasnt the bad part. he wanted an extra 250 for the bumper, wtf!

so then the jeep belonged to my mom for a year then when i got my liscence she gave it to me.it was horrible! the steering wheel would pop when i would turn, i needed new shocks, new motor mounts, new tranny mounts a ner exhaust manifold and a new radiator. and alot of other little things that crapped out along the way. But that was two years ago. right now she's at her prime. still looking for a bumper.lol and some new tires.

 

Paid $2000 for my 97. Clean title. 177k miles. 4-door 5-speed. Still had the window sticker and build sheet + original owner's manual.

Had a few dents in the roof and one on the hatch, but a plunger and 5 minutes of my time took them all out for the most part. It's still got a pop in the steering and I'm pretty sure the shocks are gone, but other than that I'm pretty happy.

I know it's a re-spray, but I like that I've never seen an XJ this color in my town.

 

My old 91 I traded for my K5 Blazer. The guy used lift shackles underneath the factory shackles (so I had 4 shackles) which caused it to randomly pop all the time. Also, he never retorqued everything after the lift so whenever I braked real hard there would be a violent repetitive popping from the rear end. Crawled under there one day and I could wiggle the u-bolts a good half inch in each direction with my hand. The redrilled track bar hole was shaped like a nascar track. He never bothered to track down the strong smell of fuel whenever you shut it off, that turned out to be a cracked fuel return line fitting on the pump so it leaked gas. Also he cut the tail pipe off at the muffler which coincidentally pointed directly at the leaking pump.

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