Looking at an '02 Liberty Tonight - Advice?

[Seadweller]

Greetings,

Brand new to the forum...I'm going to look at a 2002 Liberty Sport 4X4 tonight for my son, and this will be his first car...It has 112K miles, original owner, all service records since new...Carfax is clean and also indicates an extensive, excellent service history...

Other than awful gas mileage, is there anything I should look for? Most of my research shows it to be a solid, trouble-free vehicle, with a couple of minor maintenance issues (pinion seal being one, but this was replaced on this vehicle)...There's also an outstanding recall for an airbag sensor where I guess the parts are not yet available...

Any input would be most appreciated...

 

[Luke]

Sounds like you've done your home work

Rusty door bottoms, and area around the 3rd brake light, front drive shaft boot at transfer case, those are some of the usual suspects. Can't think of anything else :shrug:

Because of the fact that to most people "Jeep" means drive off into a field whether you know what your doing or not :happy175: I crawled right underneath mine and looked of anything bent or damaged.

Happy hunting!

 

[mongo]

look around the spare tire mount as well for rust

 

[Porkchop]

Check the Trans pan and oil pan for rust also check Trans lines if auto and power steering line for weeps. Oh and it's not a car it's a Jeep calling it a car will kill a puppy or kitten and your Jeep will rebell. Good luck

 

[profdlp]

I bought my '07 in May and am not in a position to help with any useful advice since I am still in the learning stage myself. Two things I can tell you:

1) Your son will love it!
2) You will not get it home before he is already thinking of stuff he wants to add to it!

:bufferlibbgreen)

 

[TheSauce05]

Not sure if it applies to many Liberties other than ours, but we had an issue with rusting somewhere around the windshield and cause a bad leak. Didn't get to see it because we dropped it off to a guy to have it fixed and he told us what the problem was. We didn't know why it was leaking, just that it was leaking. Where the carpet was soaked it has caused some rusting of the floorboards. So if possible, check under the carpet to see if it has happened. Not too difficult to do. Just pull the kick panels and pull up on the carpet. Also, check the edges of any body metal. The clear coat seems to "deteriorate" in those areas. The only other thing I would suggest is checking for engine codes. Even if the CEL isn't on, there might be a trans code or something in there. All you have to do is turn the key to the run position 3 times without starting and the codes will flash on the instrument cluster where the odo is. Our '02 has/had an intermittent transmission problem that we haven't had sorted out yet because it happens so rarely and it would always throw a code when it did it. Good luck and hope it works out! Sorry for the long post.

 

[Billwill]

Check the recall for front ball joints has been done.

Early 2002 KJs had drum brakes at the rear and no ABS.

2002 KJ was well made and has the least problems compared to the later models...electric windows for instance seem to be more reliable than later models.

 

[CGN Abman]

All you have to do is turn the key to the run position 3 times without starting and the codes will flash on the instrument cluster where the odo is.

I've tried this a number of times and can not get the codes. Does this apply to all Libertys, mine is a 2002 Sport 4x4 3.7L

 

[yellocoyote]

It works with my 2002 Sport.

Starting in the off position: on-off-on-off-on... and then if you leave it in that auxiliary on position, the codes will read in the odometer window, like stated above.