jaaron91

Greetings! New to the forum. Not a Jeep owner at the moment, but looking at maybe picking up an XJ. I live work in San Diego, and I drive a '11 BMW 328 at the moment. GREAT car for the most part, but I would like to eliminate some debt and simplify a bit. Always wanted a Jeep, and I think the XJ would be a great option. Now on to the fun stuff.

The San Diego Craigslist has a few gems. I went yesterday to take a look at this 1995 someone was selling. It was in great shape.

Pros:
-Paint was in good shape
-No rust from what I could see
-Interior was MINT
-No evidence of rear main leak
-New brakes, water pump, valve cover gasket, shocks, plugs and wires
-8.25 rear end (?) I know the Dana 44 is preferred, but from what I understand people will take the 8.25 over the 35? Please correct me if I'm wrong
-Asking price was reasonable

Cons
-A/C was blowing, but not cold
-PS fluid smelled burnt (I think?), evidence of a leak all over drop pitman arm
-Swaybar bushings were looking pretty rough, didnt look too closely at everything else
-The Big One - 270,000 miles

Now 270k only averages out to 12K a year, but my DD only has 66K on it right now. It spooked me enough that I didnt even bother to drive it to check out the 4x4. This would end up at a DD that I'd like to do a mild build for trails and road trips. I'm in no rush to purchase. If it had half the miles I would have bought it on the spot likely. Thoughts? TIA

robertj

It's a lot of miles, and you don't mention if you work on your own vehicles. My XJ has 200k miles, but it's a second vehicle for me (winter beater) and I do the work on it myself. I'd never suggest that anyone that didn't have a garage and/or the ability to work on these old vehicles get one if they needed to depend on it for their daily driver.

jaaron91

I have done some of my own work in the past on my older cars. My base has an auto skills shop, so if I needed to do some more serious work they have tools and mechanics on site to assist as necessary.

extrashaky

A 1995 XJ is a 22 year old car. The youngest XJs are now teenagers. They're all going to have problems and need work. If you're planning to make this your only daily driver, and you don't have alternate transportation, you may not be simplifying as much as you think.

If you're handy with a wrench, they're great vehicles, comparatively easy to work on and not ridiculously expensive with respect to parts if you know where to look and how to shop for them. But they can also be expensive nightmares for those who aren't prepared to spend some time underneath them.

That vehicle has probably been repainted. It's missing the 4x4 emblems that should be just aft and below the rear side windows.

A repaint is neither good nor bad on its own, but you ought to be aware of that kind of thing when you look at one. Is that paint job covering rust? Bondo? It's a good reason to look a little closer.

And there's the big question: What did you see, and what didn't you see? Did you slide underneath it on your back with a screwdriver and a flashlight and poke any rusty spots you might have noticed? If it lived most of its life in San Diego, chances are decent that it's not a rust bucket. Even so, you should always wear something you don't mind getting dirty when you go to look at an XJ and slide all the way under there to look around, even up into the transmission tunnel. Rust is the killer for these things.

A tune up prior to sale makes sense, but any time someone has recently replaced the water pump, you really ought to make sure you take it out on the highway and get it up to 60 to 70 mph for ten or fifteen minutes to make sure it doesn't have a blown head gasket causing overheating issues they're trying to mask with a cooling system refresh. It's probably fine. This is just due diligence.

The 8.25 is a stronger axle than the D35. The Dana 44 only came in a few of the earlier XJs, and there's a lot of discussion over whether the XJ variant is really any better than an 8.25. However, the difference between a D35 and an 8.25 will never be apparent to you unless you put large tires on it and go wheeling. The D35 is perfectly suitable for a stock daily driver.

Not unusual at all. Some of us end up fighting the A/C system for years.

That's pretty far up there. You can probably find one with fewer miles. But if the oil pressure is good and the engine isn't knocking, it's not necessarily a deal killer. I think I would want to pay less than $2600 for a 270K mile vehicle, though.

A couple of other thoughts:

Arguably the best years are '97 to '99, with '99 being the pinnacle. These are OBDII and still had the distributor ignition. 1996 is also OBDII, but it has the older body style and was a weird transition year that sometimes makes working on it strange.

'91 to '95 are not bad. Prior to '91 was the Renix era, which carries its own set of quirks. The very early ones from '84 and '85 had wimpy GM V6s in them and are not really as desirable as the later 4.0L XJs.

You'll see a lot of 2000 and 2001 XJs for sale, but those should be considered with caution. There was a pretty major redesign that did away with the distributor, introduced some undesirable emissions on the California version (which was sold all over the country) and, most importantly, included the 0331 head that can crack for no reason if you're unlucky enough to get one of the defective ones. Before buying a 2000 or 2001, read up on the 0331 head crack and make absolutely sure you know what to look for and that you're comfortable with what you'll have to do if you buy one that subsequently cracks. I would buy another 2000 in a heartbeat if the deal were right, but that's because I've been through the head crack already and know what to expect. I wouldn't recommend that experience for everyone, though.

jaaron91

Thanks for the very thorough reply, i never would have picked up on stock emblems not being there. I am going to keep looking. I found a '99 about 45 mins away that only has 165k on it, has a 4.5" lift on it too, gonna take a look at that

braytonia

Another option you might want to look into if this is going to be a daily driver is find a 2WD XJ. A buddy of mine did this. (hes on the forums- "5-speed") He too wanted a daily driver but also wanted a little trail/ road trip project. 2WD Cherokees dont necessarily have less miles than the 4WD ones but they are usually in much better condition all around just because they most likely havent been off road in their life time. Anyways he ended up finding a '99 XJ with around 160k miles, 2WD and manual trans. And over the course of 6 months hes converted it to 4WD. Of course I dont reccomend the swap for everyone because there are a few things that would need to be changed but if you are mechanically inclinded and have buddies that are willing to help then its doable. Take a look on CL for 2WD XJs youll notice in stock form they are a lot less cheaper AND cleaner than 4WD ones.

Anafiel

My 96 2WD A/T has 312,000 on it, and it runs great. Just sayin'