What's, uh....the deal?

Where are my zerks? What happened to the transmission dipstick? I can't even see the spark plugs! What am I supposed to do all Saturday afternoon, when I change the oil?

The 2012 KK is my second Jeep vehicle. I just sold my 2000 XJ (which I dearly loved) that I had for 10 years. Always did my own maintenance. Now it looks like, aside from oil changes, I can do nothing on my own.

And while I'm on this rant - why can't I find a service manual? I mean...not even a Haynes! I'm really not comfortable with relying on the dealership for maintenance. The more I read about the 42RLE the less comfortable I become. I know there must be other threads like this out there but, I just feel like I have to vent a little.

I know a lot of Jeep people are do-it-yourselfers. I am interested in knowing how some of you cope with this state of affairs?

You can still change the fluids, spark plugs , etc no grease zerks unless you start replacing some things
transmission dip stick , well should of bought an earlier KJ
Other than that as long as you take care of them no issues with the motor or trans , 181,000 on mine (KJ) but does great yet

Research before you buy maybe?

Most if not all vehicles are like that these days. I feel your pain.

At least mine is an 05 so I still have the ****** dip stick and the manually shifted 242 TC anyway. I still do my own maintenance except my grease gun is collecting dust in the garage. The plugs are easier to change than you think, at least on the 05. Yours shouldn't be hard. I bit the bullet and got the factory service manuals.

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

Dave

CGrant said:

Where are my zerks? What happened to the transmission dipstick? I can't even see the spark plugs! What am I supposed to do all Saturday afternoon, when I change the oil?

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No grease zerks as no one would grease them anyways and the joints would wearout faster so they went to sealed joints.

They wanked the trans dipstick since most added the wrong ATF and kept blowing the trans so they axed the whole DIY aspect due to no one able to read and buy/use ATF+4.

The drivers side plugs are under the 3 coil packs,follow the 3 plug wires to the passenger side bank for those 3.Takes less then 20 mins to change,far easier then the 4slow you had before.

Wow, that's the first I'd heard about the dipstick going away. So you can't service the trans. yourself any more? I think that's enough to keep me from buying any vehicle, especially an off road vehicle.

sevenhelmet said:

Wow, that's the first I'd heard about the dipstick going away. So you can't service the trans. yourself any more? I think that's enough to keep me from buying any vehicle, especially an off road vehicle.

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Yeah, I think the dipstick went away with the 07MY KJ. (not sure....mine is an 05MY and has a dipstick) There was some talk about retrofitting one from an earlier MY KJ that has the 42rle trans and that it was not expensive and would work. I don't know about the KK though like the OP has although it is the same ****** so it might?

Dave

Dave said:

Yeah, I think the dipstick went away with the 07MY KJ. (not sure....mine is an 05MY and has a dipstick) There was some talk about retrofitting one from an earlier MY KJ that has the 42rle trans and that it was not expensive and would work. I don't know about the KK though like the OP has although it is the same ****** so it might?

Dave

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they redid the fluid level specs for the 42RLE also so adding a older dipstick tube and dipstick will give the wrong level.

tjkj2002 said:

they redid the fluid level specs for the 42RLE also so adding a older dipstick tube and dipstick will give the wrong level.

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This is what I've read from reliable sources on other forums, as well.

I don't mean to give the impression that I'm unhappy with my purchase. I'm not. I really like the Liberty. And, yes, I did do my research. That's how I ended up with the Liberty in the first place. I'm just a little disappointed with the direction the industry has taken in general.

The only factory service manual I can find that applies to my vehicle would be the 2009 FSM on CD from TechAuthority. $206...yikes! Since the model line has reached the end of its course, what are the odds that Haynes will come out with a print manual?

CGrant said:

This is what I've read from reliable sources on other forums, as well.

I don't mean to give the impression that I'm unhappy with my purchase. I'm not. I really like the Liberty. And, yes, I did do my research. That's how I ended up with the Liberty in the first place. I'm just a little disappointed with the direction the industry has taken in general.

The only factory service manual I can find that applies to my vehicle would be the 2009 FSM on CD from TechAuthority. $206...yikes! Since the model line has reached the end of its course, what are the odds that Haynes will come out with a print manual?

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Haynes or chiltons are pretty worthless and give no good info.

You can download free copies of the FSM if you search as I can not link to them on this site.

I appreciate that you can't post links and I understand. I have done a considerable amount of searching but still have only found KJ manuals available for download. That's OK for now. The KJ manual should have a lot of the right information for the 3.7 and the transmission, etc. With the systems the way they are, I shouldn't have a lot of work to do for a long time to come anyway.
Thank you for your replies, everyone.