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The good
Loving the Jeep. Already been digging around the forum here for the last week and a half or so. I've found lots of great information about how to keep the thing running well.
(I'll get some better pictures soon and edit the thread)
Purchased the Jeep from a dealer in Forest Grove, OR. It has been in the same family and never left Forest Grove. 98k miles and the dealership replaced all 4 tires, completed a tune up, replaced all spark plugs, replaced upper track bars, sway bar bushings and drag links, aligned the suspension, replaced valve cover gaskets, power steering flush, coolant flush, front differential service, and rear differential service.
It has a 2" lift, nothing too crazy, and seems to work well as my daily driver (4 miles each way to the train and back for work during the week).
The engine bay is *clean*, I couldn't believe it, it looks good. I'll add some pictures tonight.
The bad
It's a limited, I guess that's not bad, but I would have preferred a manual transmission, manual windows, and less electronics to deal with. 98k miles on a 14 year old car is hopefully worth the trade offs.
Some of the usual things have gone wrong -- passenger window controls don't roll down their windows, the drivers side speaker doesn't work, and the horn isn't working.
This weekend I'm planning on taking the door panels off and fixing the wiring in the door boot (
) with a soldering iron. I've also purchased a pair of Kicker 40CS654's to replace the factory speakers in the doors while I'm in there. If the windows still don't work after doing the wiring fixes, I'll re-solder the window lock button (
The horn is a bit trickier and feel a bit stupid for not trying it out while at the dealership. On the bright side it has been a good way for me to learn a lot about the XJ in a short amount of time. Work has been crazy this week and gotten in the way of my troubleshooting, but so far... The horn itself works and the ground is good, hooking it up directly to the battery honks nice and loud. Hitting the horn on the wheel clicks the relay, so I don't believe my clockspring is bad- I don't have an airbag light (still need to check cruise control). I'm hoping something is disconnected between the relay and the horn itself, or maybe a bad fuse? I'm procrastinating tracing the wires
The ugly
Heat soak. Has only happened once so far and I didn't even feel the misfire (CEL came on though). I've learned what not to do- I had been driving for 2 hours in stop and go traffic, then sat for 20 minutes at costco waiting for gas, and as soon as I started back up the CEL came on w/ the cylinder 3 misfire code. I've ordered the recall parts (a new heat shield and the silicone boot for cylinder 3), and plan to install them as soon as they arrive.
Hopefully the previous owner took good care of it, I'd hate to have a cracked head after only a few thousand miles of use. If the recall parts don't help, I may add the fan timer delay mod, and Banks stainless headers to help with heat dissipation.
All in all, I enjoy the projects, the horn is frustrating, but the finger works for now.
It looks very close to mine I have an 01 60th anniversary edition the date on the door that says when it was made shows it was built on the last day that the xj was in production my parents bought it new I was 6 I grew up with her she was my first car and given to me as a graduation present
Good news, the horn was an easy fix! I picked up a FSM pdf for $7.95 and was able to decipher some of the wiring diagrams -- fuse 20 and 21 in the junction box looked to be related to the horn relay, and sure enough fuse 21 was completely missing from the junction box, popped a new fuse in, and the horn works again.
And the windows not working one thing that I have people do that sometimes works is when I have the windows unlocked have them just their switch up then down to lower the window I don't know how it works but it does
And here's how you deal with the heat soak its heat from the exahaust boiling the feul in the injectors and causing it to turn to vapor and it then injects the vapor and feul intermittently for about 30 seconds if you rev the engine when this is happening the computer panicks and throws the car into limp mode just let it idle for a minute or 2 and it will even itself out
I re-soldered the speaker wire connection in the door jamb / rubber boot last night, put in the new speakers, and thankfully that solved the window issue for the passenger doors. As promised here's a few more photos.
She's beautiful mine hasn't been that clean since June I need a new head cover gasket oil pan gasket and I blew up my transmission right before thanksgiving (that one was my fault) what I think happened is a bad leak started and I simply didn't notice when I lost the fluid it ate itself up I bought a low milage replacement I recently took it in for inspection and they replaced the serpentine belt they overtightened it and that caused the crank pulley bearing to fail so I now have to replace that my jeeps just going through her mid life crisis I guess I love my jeep too much to care
01-22-2015, 09:19 AM
New 01 XJ owner
