Anyone also own a Jeep Wrangler?

2016 JKU Rubicon 6spd manual. Have had it since new off the lot, still going strong.

I also had a 1992 YJ Renegade for 10 years.

 

2021 wrangler JLU nacho orange with a 2.5 lift on 35” tires. Probably the worst thing I’ve ever done! Seems like I always have to putt something on it to make it more capable off road.

 

They're always in the shop

The steering feels like a shopping cart. Freeway handling is downright terrifying

The amount of space they take up in a parking spot (rather large) compared to the interior space (tiny) is ridiculous

Terrible choice for a daily driver in my opinion but they can fit 35s easily and kick ass at low speeds crawling around trails

 

So when are you doing lockers?

 

Says who? maybe the newer JL or JT's?
I have had my JK for over 9 years at this point and the only time I have had it in the shop is for self induced things from wheeling and ball joints from running 35" mud tires as a daily driver.

Won't argue the other points. It is a terrible daily. But I find it substantially easier to park in parking lots than the taco. Corner visibility is much better.

 

I agree. That must be a JL comment. I just had a family member burn up the alternator in the 3rd year of owning it. Probably from the start stop.

I’ve had my TJ for 20 years and it’s never been in a shop. I’m just now rebuilding the engine myself. Auto trans burned out like a decade ago. Also rebuilt it. 2 doors fit anywhere. Especially a TJ, with that shorter wheelbase.

Jeeps don’t ride any more rough or anything that people complain about if you have a proper suspension and geometry. That matters on any lifted vehicle.

That said, the L6 4.0 gets horrible gas mileage. Especially with 35s. I probably get 13-14 even with 5:38s. 12 hole injectors. My 3rd gen Tacoma isn’t that much better really. I get like 16 mpg on 33s.

 

20 year full-time technician

Jeeps have been buying the groceries for a while now..

Sorry to hurt your feels

 

Wait till you gotta put a heater core or evaporator core in one of the newer ones, it will make you reconsider your life choices...

 

It’s not great in the older ones either.

Got to pull the whole dash and the accumulator, so you have to disconnect the AC. Then some of the guys that got a cheap one at autozone or such would have to do it all again 2 years later.

 

It's cake on the older ones compared to the new ones.
You have to pull the dash on pretty much everything nowadays to do heater cores, evaporator cores and sometimes blend door actuators, I do it pretty often.

It's generally not that difficult once you have done a few but I did a 17 Wrangler (only 16k miles) a couple weeks ago and that has to be the most poorly thought out conglomeration of stuff slapped together I've ever seen, it's like everything was an afterthought.
You have to literally take everything apart just to get the dash out then take the dash apart some more to get the HVAC box out of the dash.
Definitely not a job for someone new to pulling dahses.

Here's some pics.

 

I find this discussion interesting because I really wanted to get a gladiator when I was truck shopping, but I didn’t because of the terrible experience I had with my Ram 1500 combined with all the bad things I hear about jeeps. I vowed to never buy another stellantis product.

This video is obviously about a Gladiator, not a wrangler, but I found it really interesting because I didn’t even know you could put this many miles on a jeep:

https://youtu.be/EUiYT17A5SE?si=WN_3TILQ99UvuTVd

 

I have two Tacomas, an '06 and a '15...

...and I also have a '98 Wrangler TJ, 4.0 and 5 speed.

My Jeep was my daily driver from 2011 to 2018 (yes, this was while I owned my '06 Tacoma). In 2018, it was totalled when a lady pulled out in front of me. In 2023, I rebuilt it and had it inspected and applied for a rebuilt title. It currently has @285,000 miles... the engine is original, but the transmission has been rebuilt.



-Bear

 

Oh the original Jeeps with the 4.0L and even the 3.8L were tanks that would run forever, still not something I would want to own or work on but they did last.

Then Chrysler decided to put one of the worst engines ever created in them and stuff everything in around it like it was an afterthought.

 

There’s easier ways to get to it than taking out the seats. If you’re a shop and you’re doing it by the book, I get it, but that’s the owners fault for hiring you haha.

The TJs there really no short cut, but, a lot of guys cut an access panel to make it easier in the future.

 

There is no short cutting this one unless you want to completely hack the dash to pieces because they literally built the box into the dash.

I take the seats out on most stuff because it opens up a ton of room and it takes 5 minutes, had to pull the carpets and wash them on this one anyway because they were both soaked in coolant.

I don't know why anyone would try to short cut an older one either, you can have the dash out in an hour just like the Ram trucks no need to hack it.

 

Im 6-3" and I take a lot of front seats out to do dash work

 

I don’t think it’s that big a deal to cut a window either, but I get it, because people have stuff to do besides work on our jeeps heater core.

It’s not cutting the dash per se, but yes, the method I was referring to involves cutting that bar down there. It’s non structural as far as anyone can prove. The heater core pulls out sideways, just splice into the input and outlet lines. Then weld the bar back which is optional really. It also takes like 30 minutes.

Wait until you see what guys do to their fenders fit 37s+ and their control arm brackets for long arms.

 

Well it's your vehicle, do with it what you wish I guess but I won't be a hack.
It really burns me when I see shops do that kind of hackery, I'm constantly amazed by how someone can take what should be a simple job and turn it into a nightmare.
I'm usually the one that gets stuck going behind and fixing other people's/shop's f-ups.

Oh I've seen just about every kind of hackery you can imagine.

 

Might be a hackery compared to the service manual, but as an owner, most certainly is an option. It works. Very often it beats going to a stealership or risk getting scammed by a random shop.

As far as long arms and fenders, it is what it is.

If you take it to a shop to clear big tires while trying to correct suspension geometry with long arms, there’s no way around weld on new long arm (and other) brackets and cutting stock fenders for high lines too.

If someone can weld, has tools, and the desire, why would they pay another man, or more likely a shop that outsources the jobs to a welder they work with when we are all going to be doing the same thing?

Especially if you’re going on trails. You ought to know your jeep in my opinion. If my jeep breaks on a trail somewhere, the only people there are the people you’re on the trail with. Not a shop.

Ain’t no one here finna be a special guest on Matt’s offroad.

 

These are beautiful cars. I love the articulating suspension