Okay, first off, long time reader, first time poster. Thank you guys so much over the past 8 years since I owned my KJ. Helped me out immensely and saved me so much cash.
So here's the deal, I am parting ways with my Liberty 2003 and moving to a Grand Cherokee 2014 or 2015. But the KJ has had some issues and I can’t seem to get this off my mind, so at your earliest convenience for anyone with some knowledge on this, I have a few questions.
I’d like to trade in the KJ and use that as additional leverage when haggling the price. But there’s issues with Liberty.
1.) Steering wheel now makes a moaning noise badly whenever I turn it, either way. Like it’s struggling (still turns the wheels relatively easy though). This is probably the power steering pump, correct? That's a quick fix as I've read, $70 - $120 for the part and free if me and my mechanic friend do it.
2.) This is the bad one. I am almost positive it’s a cracked head. Two years ago, I replaced the radiator and found a bit of oil in the coolant when draining it. We flushed it, and it ran pretty well for about a year. January 2016 my crankshaft cracked, got that replaced, and we noticed oil in the coolant again. Flushed it three times till it was clear. It ran alright till this past winter. I stopped driving it much because the heat stopped blowing even warm air. But now that it’s getting warmer again, I started driving it and the temp gauge is getting hotter and hotter now. I continually put coolant in and it's gone from the reservoir within a day. Exhaust at first start of engine is white, cloudy for a few minutes. Positive this thing is just burning the coolant right out. Yesterday by the time i made my 45 minute commute home, my temp was 3/4’s from the cold, almost redline hot. I immediately pulled in the garage popped the hood and the coolant is bubbling in the reservior....soooo, my question is this.
Should I even bother trying to ‘fix’ this so I can use it as a trade-in? Blue book is between 1100 to 2700 for it, 170k miles. But last time I traded my Nissan Altima for the KJ, it was worth about the same (1-2 grand) but they gave me 4k in trade because they couldn’t take off the sticker price of the KJ. I just want to get the KJ to point where it’s not overheating. Temporary fix, just so I can give it to them, they go ‘okay, looks good’. Doesn’t need to last more than a month, plan to buy at beginning of May. You guys think it’s worth it? I just don’t want to spend more money than the damn thing is worth since I’m getting rid of it in a month. Thank you in advance, will miss you now that I'll be heading over the Grand Cherokee forum.
So here's the deal, I am parting ways with my Liberty 2003 and moving to a Grand Cherokee 2014 or 2015. But the KJ has had some issues and I can’t seem to get this off my mind, so at your earliest convenience for anyone with some knowledge on this, I have a few questions.
I’d like to trade in the KJ and use that as additional leverage when haggling the price. But there’s issues with Liberty.
1.) Steering wheel now makes a moaning noise badly whenever I turn it, either way. Like it’s struggling (still turns the wheels relatively easy though). This is probably the power steering pump, correct? That's a quick fix as I've read, $70 - $120 for the part and free if me and my mechanic friend do it.
2.) This is the bad one. I am almost positive it’s a cracked head. Two years ago, I replaced the radiator and found a bit of oil in the coolant when draining it. We flushed it, and it ran pretty well for about a year. January 2016 my crankshaft cracked, got that replaced, and we noticed oil in the coolant again. Flushed it three times till it was clear. It ran alright till this past winter. I stopped driving it much because the heat stopped blowing even warm air. But now that it’s getting warmer again, I started driving it and the temp gauge is getting hotter and hotter now. I continually put coolant in and it's gone from the reservoir within a day. Exhaust at first start of engine is white, cloudy for a few minutes. Positive this thing is just burning the coolant right out. Yesterday by the time i made my 45 minute commute home, my temp was 3/4’s from the cold, almost redline hot. I immediately pulled in the garage popped the hood and the coolant is bubbling in the reservior....soooo, my question is this.
Should I even bother trying to ‘fix’ this so I can use it as a trade-in? Blue book is between 1100 to 2700 for it, 170k miles. But last time I traded my Nissan Altima for the KJ, it was worth about the same (1-2 grand) but they gave me 4k in trade because they couldn’t take off the sticker price of the KJ. I just want to get the KJ to point where it’s not overheating. Temporary fix, just so I can give it to them, they go ‘okay, looks good’. Doesn’t need to last more than a month, plan to buy at beginning of May. You guys think it’s worth it? I just don’t want to spend more money than the damn thing is worth since I’m getting rid of it in a month. Thank you in advance, will miss you now that I'll be heading over the Grand Cherokee forum.
