XJ□|||||||□Life

Hello everybody!

I just joined this forum tonight, so I thought I would introduce myself.

I'm from Eastern NC, I live about two hours from the coast.

I've been a Jeep Girl since I was fours years old, and my daddy pulled in the drive way, with his newly purchased Jeep Cherokee. While other girls were dreaming about fast and fancy cars, I was dreaming about XJs!

I bought my first Jeep In February of 2014, when I was 19 years old. It was a Moss Green 1997 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4x4. Unfortunately (this is a totally awesome story about Jeeps), two months after I bought it, I was driving home (lived on the back roads) late at night after we had a real bad storm, It was extremely dark and I didn't see that the road was flooded until it was too late. Next thing I know, water is flowing inside from my door speakers. My boyfriend at the time was driving in his car behind me, so when I hit the water, he got out to try to help push it out, but we didn't have any luck. Finally it ended up cutting off, and by the time I climbed out of my Jeep, the water was up to the steering wheel. So there I am standing in waist deep freezing cold water, for atleast 5 minutes freaking out while watching my precious Jeep drown, when a diesel truck drove up. He stopped pulled my jeep out. We opened all the doors and water just came rushing out. My guy is talking to the man with the diesel, when I hop in the driver's seat of my Jeep. Turn the key, pump the gas, and the damn thing started right on up! I drove it home, got all the standing water out, then drove it 20 minutes down the road to my grandparents house to start drying it out and change all the fluids.

Of course the water did some damage. Blown head gasket, front passenger window motor was shot, and it blew black smoke out of the exhaust pipe. I had to replace the starter a few months after (not really sure if it was related or not). Surprisingly, every single speaker in the Jeep still worked lol. Andddd because of the water soaking everything, the inside of my Jeep always smelt horrible on hot days. I drove it for another two years, before I had to sell it. The guy who bought it drove it up until late last year when he wrecked it.

Moral of the story is: Jeeps are BAMF!

I went a year without a Jeep, and believe me, every person in my life knew I hated not having driving one.

Last February, I was finally about to buy the beauty I have now. My Pretty Lady is a Maroon, 1998 Jeep Cherokee Classie 4x4. She's my baby, and the reason why I joined this forum. Any true Jeeper knows that Jeeps love to spend your money!

See, When I had my first Jeep, my then boyfriend did all the maintenance and repairs on it. Now, that Jeep is gone and so is he.

For me, Owning my Jeep is a very prideful thing. It's mine. I bought it. I pay for everything that goes into it. I want to do as much of the maintenance and repairs as I can. So far, I have done all the work to it that it's needed. With the help of Google, Youtube, and Jeep Forums, I've learned quite a bit. I'm no where near as educated as I would like to be though.

When I bought my XJ last year, the seller had just given her a tune up, so I haven't needed to do too much.

But, I want to give her some TLC pretty soon and I'm also looking to start adding a little personal touch, upgrading and adding accessories.
I would love to hear some recommendations on what you use in your Jeep and ideas on how to beautify my Pretty Lady!

Do you recommend synthetic oil?

opinions on oil filters? I was thinking of getting a Mopar.

I have always heard to use Champion sparks plugs. They were used in my first Jeep, and plan on using them again. I was thinking copper?

I'm replacing top and bottom radiator hoses. Opinions on whether it's okay to use the cheaper brands or is it worth it to spend a little more money?

Best battery?

Opinions on light bars, fog lights, and upgrading my headlights.

I am completely stock right now, but hoping to change that in the near future.

I'm keeping my stock rims, but I'm looking into possibly adding a little height. Not much. Just a little.

Biggest tire size I can run and still have a good ride?

Decent but affordable aftermarket shocks?

how do you feel about wheel spacers?

These are just a few questions that came to mind. But any and all suggestions/tips are very much appreciated! Sorry for such a long post, but I'm extremely excited to learn and get to working on my XJ!


Thanks in advance for all your ideas,

- One Excited XJ Chica

Dumajones

Whats up XJ Chica..

Im the welcoming bandwagon..
Thank you for your post and thank you for joining Cherokee forum.
You will find all the info you need here to help you get that XJ in tip top shape.

Post up pics if you have them..

Once again Welcome.

TrailerTrash

Welcome to the forum from PA

Check out the How-To section
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/how-tos/
tons of info there

Browse around and you will find alot of info about just about everything Cherokee related

Lets see some pics!

Bugout4x4

Hey! A girl! And a spunky one at that! We need more of this around here! Welcome!

RocketMouse

Welcome back to the family. .... cool story too. You found the right place. We all love our 4 wheels Jeep babies here... even when they decide to be a bit temperamental at times. lol. We'll still never get rid of them.

XJwonders

Welcome to the forum. Good choice on champion plugs and Mopar oil filters are fine. I use it on all of my jeeps