Wife’s Jeep Liberty is driving me nuts

I haven’t had much luck on the internet so I thought I would try my luck here. I’ll try to keep this short.

My wife bought a 2008 Jeep liberty about 4 years ago. About a year later her driver side rear brakes were dragging. She was on her way to Virginia from the outer banks, NC so she pulled into a shop and had both rear calipers replaced.

Six months later the front passenger side brakes started dragging. I replaced the caliper and rotor myself. Then a few months later the driver side front brakes started dragging. I then replaced that caliper and rotor. Then about six months later the passenger side front brake started dragging again. I replaced the caliper, rotor and this time the whole brake line (including the flexiable brake line that connects to the caliper). months later the driver side front brakes started dragging....again. And now just recently the rear driver side brakes are now dragging. This just happened on our trip down to Florida so I did a complete brake fluid flush hoping that might be a temporary fix because I’m inclined to think all the brake lines have rust or debris in them. Which when I did the flush there was a small amount of what looked like rust particles.

So I guess my question is would someone who is More mechanically inclined then I am agree with that assumption? Couldn’t it be the Brake Booster Push Rod Length? Wouldn’t that cause all the brake to drag at once though? And what are some other things That may be causing the brakes to stick/drag/overheat that I’m not thinking of?

I apologize for this post not being about my Toyota but come on...it’s a Toyota ain’t nothing wrong with it.

 

How often does she drive?

I know sometimes if vehicles are not being driven regularly the brakes can develop corrosion and they start sticking when they do get used.

The bracket holding the calipers could be bent but why would that happen on all four corners?

The rotors aren’t the issue if they have been replaced. And again.. why all four?

Make sure you are not over torquing your lug nuts, that will screw up your brakes.

When my F250s suspension started to really go, I had alignment issues. I’ve heard suspensions that have lost most of their support can put strain on the braking system as well. If her suspension is original this may be a contributor?

My husbands 2004 Jeep Grand Cheroke started to develop a trans rough shift.
We are shopping for a new car. I’m not touching it LOL.
Car aint worth enough.

If I can’t trust a car on a road trip I can’t trust it enough to keep it but thats how I see it.

 

She drives the jeep a lot. But It does have a lot of rust under the jeep. Suspension looks good though. Did some research and I’m thinking it’s the shoes or the emergency brake. I can freely move the emergency brake handle up and down. But why the front brake keep dragging?! We are in the process looking at a new cars for her. We still owe a little bit on the jeep but at this point the gas mileage blows and it’s up on jacks every 6 months or so. I’m over it.

 

Not trying to derail.. What are you looking to replace the GC with? I know five different people who got rid of there 99-04 Generation Grand Cherokee's this year and none of them replaced it with another Jeep.

 

Honda Accord or Subaru Forester.

I don’t buy new vehicles (for now) and pay in full cash.
My focus right now is trying to pay off my house early and then starting a family soon after.

Those two vehicles are better bang for their buck and I think will be more reliable than another Jeep. Although the GC is 15 years old and for all I know this is the only major issue. Thats pretty good.

When the house is paid for and the future kids get older and we have some fun money I would like to buy a Wrangler and mod it.

Right now I don’t feel the newer GC are reliable enough to buy when I’m trying to be cheap lol.

 

Good choices. We liked the Forester, we were gung-ho gonna buy a lightly used one till I talked to a few people and the transmission in them the last few years was the general concern for me. My one co-worker literally has a Subaru family (minus him he has an Audi) and his daughter in law works for Subaru. We were looking at 2013-2015's (this was in 2017)... He said his daughter in law said to get a 2016 or newer. By then my wife was too hesitant (she is nuts when it comes to car purchases, which i can't blame her when you figure the money you're putting out). I agree totally with you to pay off the house early that's the true money saver in life. We bought a new Hyundai, she insisted on used but I paid cash and with all the rebates we stacked up and if you financed part of it you got another rebate and could pay off early it made more sense to buy new since the price was only like $400 more for a new one. That was a stressful week between her not liking anything we looked at, her driving my Tacoma to work all week since her G6 was shot at this point, and me having to drive my S10 to work and it decided to have a U-Joint problem along with developing an exhaust leak all the week before Christmas with all the parties/family events and stuff happening.


My sister in law had an 04 GC developed a rough trans shift and then the transmission went on her, she paid $3500 to replace it. I told her just take that money (from the repair) and buy a different used car and needless to say that Jeep was a money pit over the next five years she put over $8,000 in to it and it was in the shop for weeks to a month at a time for whatever reason. The engine was terrific (she had the I6) but everything else on that thing was problem after problem. It was scrapped two months ago.

I'm in the same boat one day after we have kids and have some money I'd love a Wrangler, my wife always says I can't picture you owning a Jeep since you hate Chrysler so much but I would love something you can take the top off of and have fun with like that.

A good friend/co-worker of mine leased cars her entire life. Went through a ton of Chrysler/Dodge minivans leased a 2014 GC, then decided I may retire turns in her lease early and buys a 2016 GC for $42,000. Its been in the shop so many times I thought she'd blacklist Chrysler. Still has it but I think its depreciated so much thats why.

 

Don't think you'll get reliability from a Wrangler.

It may be better than a GC but that's just because it doesn't have as much stuff on it to go wrong.

I got rid of my 2017 Wrangler because at only 12k miles it was starting to remind me daily that it was a Chrysler product.