Reliability Questions

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kj705

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Hey all, my 03 KJ V6 4X4 has 145k miles on it and the previous owner always took it to a mechanic who maintained it at the proper intervals. The water pump, ball joints and a/c went bad on the previous owner. Interested to hear how reliable and other people's experiences with more miles on it.
 
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Hey all, my 03 KJ V6 4X4 has 145k miles on it and the previous owner always took it to a mechanic who maintained it at the proper intervals. The water pump, ball joints and a/c went bad on the previous owner. Interested to hear how reliable and other people's experiences with more miles on it.

I got mine at 184K miles, And it ran fine after i pulled it out of my neighbors yard after 8 months of sitting. Now it did need work as my neighbor had neglected it for YEARS, so it took some effort to get to true "Road worthy" levels, but so far, no complaints. Mostly just suspension components, ball joints, brakes and an engine tune up.

Ball joints, water pump and AC components are all wear parts, so they're bound to go out at some point.
 

kj705

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I got mine at 184K miles, And it ran fine after i pulled it out of my neighbors yard after 8 months of sitting. Now it did need work as my neighbor had neglected it for YEARS, so it took some effort to get to true "Road worthy" levels, but so far, no complaints. Mostly just suspension components, ball joints, brakes and an engine tune up.

Ball joints, water pump and AC components are all wear parts, so they're bound to go out at some point.

thanks for your reply! I got lucky mine isn't that rusty. How is the transmissions reputation?
 

tommudd

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Bought my 04 brand new , now over 235,000 miles, my only vehicle for 12 years
no real issues at all and has been lifted over 215,000 miles
Just regular maintenance
My 03 bought from one owner ,at 78,000 now over 165,000 no issues at all
My 05 same bought from original owner at 80,000 now over 15,00 , replaced radiator , WP etc nothing else
Even all the window regulators work great
 
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thanks for your reply! I got lucky mine isn't that rusty. How is the transmissions reputation?

As far as I know the previous owner stated they got the Jeep at 36,000, and ran it all the way until 182,000.

Jeep still has the factory 42RLE, and to my knowledge hasn’t been rebuilt.

Only thing I’ve rebuilt was the NV-231J transfer case that came with the Jeep.
 

kj705

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Bought my 04 brand new , now over 235,000 miles, my only vehicle for 12 years
no real issues at all and has been lifted over 215,000 miles
Just regular maintenance
My 03 bought from one owner ,at 78,000 now over 165,000 no issues at all
My 05 same bought from original owner at 80,000 now over 15,00 , replaced radiator , WP etc nothing else
Even all the window regulators work great

That's so awesome to hear! Did you do a lot of preventative maintenance on the 04? Looking to make things last as long as possible on mine.
 

tommudd

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That's so awesome to hear! Did you do a lot of preventative maintenance on the 04? Looking to make things last as long as possible on mine.
Yes, all 3 of mine get extra preventative maintenance ( or at least that is what friends tell me ) LOL
I hate breakdowns of any kind so replace most things before its even due.
I drive a lot of miles a week and have been known to do 6-800 miles on a weekend or more just for the heck of it.
Plus I run mine hard , none are babied , none are puttering around like Grandma Moses , found they like that revlimiter a lot ha ha ;)
 

kj705

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Yes, all 3 of mine get extra preventative maintenance ( or at least that is what friends tell me ) LOL
I hate breakdowns of any kind so replace most things before its even due.
I drive a lot of miles a week and have been known to do 6-800 miles on a weekend or more just for the heck of it.
Plus I run mine hard , none are babied , none are puttering around like Grandma Moses , found they like that revlimiter a lot ha ha ;)
haha, what kind of preventative maintenance do you do?
 

Duster

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Well, it depends on how you look at reliability as a whole, and what you might be measuring it against.

Mine is at 212K of hard miles. Very grateful it has never stranded me yet and needed a tow for a mechanical issue or failure. That for me is one important category for reliability as far as my needs are concerned. It's my work truck, I make my living in it. It has been extremely reliable in that respect.

The next category would be what repairs have had to be done so far and what was the complexity involved in the repair, the expense involved, and the time involved in the repair? So far I have had to do all the same repairs you listed, plus rear upper and lower control arms. The upper twice now. An o2 sensor. An injector. PCV pipe. Currently hunting down some leaks. And I assume before long I will need to do drive shafts and CV axles. Nothing has been all that complex so far. These are pretty simple in design in comparison to other vehicles and relatively easy to work on. Some of it might be time consuming, annoying, etc. What has been fixed so far gave me reasonable warning to get prepared and none of it has been outside the realm of amateur hours of repair labor at home. I apprecaite things being designed in a way that I can fix it myself, and with that being the case I would say the maintenance cost has be low so far. Nothing has really been unreasonable outside the normal wear and tear repairs either.

But as you can see it has not really been trouble free either. I have owned vehicles that were much worse. But I have also owned vehicles that faired much better to this point and beyond.

So to be completely open about it, I can say my 2007 with 212k has been more reliable than my buddies 2016 Tacoma and 2020 Tacoma, as well as several vehicles I have owned. But at the same time I can also say that it has not been nearly as trouble-free as a few Fords I have owned to beyond 300K, just to name a different brand. I had a car I drove 348k with zero repairs. And I had a truck I drove to 313k that replaced starter, alternator, heater core, clutch, water pump, timing chain cover gasket, and I did the timing set while I had it open for the gasket. That was the extent of the maintenance repairs.

So like I say, it depends on what you are measuring it against. Very reliable, simple, reasonable to work on. But at the same time, I have owned vehicles that lead me to believe some of the wear items could have been better like ball joints, bushings, a/c components, etc. But I also could be being unfair because I don't own anything newer than 2007 and it could be that material sources just aren't as good as they were on my older vehicles.

If I could pick up another 2007 in great shape with 145k I would do it in a heartbeat and not worry at all about it. I am actually way more concerned with what I might have to settle for one day when the one I have has a major major failure. That is for sure.

At the rate things are going, I am afraid it might be a 1:1 scale barbie jeep that I have to plug in every night when I get home from work.
 

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