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Jeep Liberty: Problems & Solutions
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Comments
My "problems" experiences:
1.) I had one minor issue with a rear passenger door rattling when shutting it, but the dealer was able to fix it to my satisfaction.
2.) The first month or so of ownership, I noticed the acceleration issue around 3rd/4th gear that others have noted. It would occasionally drop back into 3rd too easily and rev up to, if memory serves correclty, 3,000 rpms when I was getting on the highway. Either it got used to my acceleration habits or I got used to it. Either way, I seldom ever notice this anymore. I've noticed weird acceleration patterns when driving my wife's Honda Accord, so I'm starting to wonder if car manufacturers are making cars too smart for themselves these days. People complain about the power window controls being on the center console. I've gotten used to it...no complaints here.
3.) My 17.5 to 18.5 MPG/city is pretty good compared to what I've seen others post, but it would be nice to get the low 20's for city and 25 highway. Maybe I'll look at a Liberty CRD in a few years, but I worry that the diesel engine option might be Jeep's myopia right now. Why don't they start designing a hybrid?
Overall, its been very reliable and solid thus far. I could go on and on about what I like about it, but since this is a "problems" forum, I won't digress. I ditto what frankc58 said...I'd buy this car again.
Scott
Steve, Host
(slooow Sat. night here <g>)
Now where did I leave my transparent aluminum chassis??
tidester, host
Frank
Are they difficult to install? How much would a dealer charge.
Thanks
Frank
When my car was waxed at the dealership (the day I bought it), they got a good deal of the white polish on the plastic exterior parts. I can't seem to find anything to get it off! Any idea what is safe that can be used to clean the tire wells, door handles, etc.? I don't want to use anything too strong but I hate looking at those white streaks and blotches!
Thanks!
In order to determine if this is the case apply some to a small area then stand back and watch for any signs of shaking, fluid eruptions and power windows moving up and down without touching the switch.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Also a tapping sound from under the hood will have that checked also.
The svc manager thinks it may be an engine rod.
The Liberty is going in Weds. Symptoms include rough idle knocking sounds
I work in the computer industry, and a lot of my job is diagnosing reported problems from users who are usually unaware of design considerations, software, or have very little knowledge about how computers work in general. Often, these users will use terms which describe their perception of the problem, but might not accurately reflect what's actually going on. Or the language used can contain symantecal subtleties which might be perceived by a different user as something else.
After reading enough reports, I began to believe that I have been affected by this same 'hesitation', but I am perceiving it as something slightly different- in my perception, I equate it to a temporary 'lack of power'. I'm going to continue to refer to it as a 'hesitation' because now that I think I'm on the same page as everyone else, I'm happy to continue to refer to it as thus. My aim in posting my perception and opinion on this hesitation is to help out those who have been seeing this problem, and possibly give them some peace of mind.
The model that I own is the 3.7l , 6 cylinder automatic transmission Sport model. After owning it only a week, I noticed that when going up hill on a freeway at speeds of around 40-50mph and often trying to accelerate, the vehicle would begin to slow down or lose speed. I would give it more gas, and the vehicle would continue to slow down- which I believe can be perceived as the 'hesitation'. The vehicle doesn't immediately take off, or accelerate, it 'hesitates'. I would give it just a hair more gas, still no acceleration- vehicle continues to slow down. Finally I push the accelerator further (not to the floor by any means), the automatic transmission 'kicks down' to the next lower gear and takes off. This set of events could easily be perceived as 'hesitation'. At first I was concerned over this performance. But then I started really analyzing the problem, and continued to read professional reviews- and here's what I think the problem (if it can be called a problem) is:
The Jeep Liberty has a curb weight of over 4100lbs. This vehicle is heavier than almost everything in its class (compact SUV). The engine is a 216 horsepower engine. For instance, the Nissan XTerra, which is a physically larger vehicle has a curb weight of 3800 lbs. And a reading of XTerra owner and professional reviews suggest that the XTerra's main flaw is that it's way underpowered, making the supercharged version a MINIMUM requirement, bringing the vehicle to what it should have been from the first place. In the case of the liberty- the engine is powerful- but it NEEDS that power because of the strength and weight of the chassis. The automatic transmission in the Liberty is indeed slightly sluggish. The vehicle is designed to drop into overdrive arguably too soon when combined with the vehicles wight and power. When the vehicle drops to overdrive and is in the 40-50mph range, the RPM's are barely at 1500. The Jeep liberty simply does not have the power (at the 4100lb weight) to accelerate itself uphill (even a slight incline)in overdrive and at 1500 RPM's. Pushing the gas far enough to force it to drop to the next lower gear will kick the RPM'S up over 2000, and then the vehicle has the power to start accelerating. But this 'waiting period' where the transmission is 'figuring this out' is a little sluggish- and I believe elicits the description of 'hesitation'. Also, I tend to not be an overly aggressive driver, so my personal problem was that I simply wasn't giving it enough gas to force the vehicle to drop to the lower gear and get the thing moving up the hill.
To conclude, this is precisely why driver experiences will differ based on different driving styles. One recent post to this board indicated that she actually took the dealer out on a drive to PROVE that this occurred, and when he drove it, it never did, but as soon as she got behind the wheel, the hesitation was noticed. That's most likely because his driving style overcomes this tendency of the liberty to struggle through the 40-50mph range.
My conclusion is that there is no physical problem with the Liberty. It's merely a design 'quirk' that exists because of the combination of vehicle weight, transmission design, and engine power. My guess is that the same engine and transmission on a considerably lighter vehicle would experience none of this described hesitation. This would probably also explain why the respective service departments are FAILING to find anything wrong- because there is nothing really wrong. In fact, a professional review I had read referred to this problem in the most subtle of ways. It spoke of the need for the powerful engine due to the weight of the vehicle and said: "Maintaining highway speeds can be difficult[...]". What I believe they were referring to in a roundabout way is the very thing I described above. That when driving on a flat road at say, 50mph (and I see it even at 60mph at times) that you'll 'lose speed' suddently when going up a grade.
I'm anxious to talk to or exchange ideas with people and possibly run through some more 'scientific' tests- and record more variables such as RPM's, current speed, percentage incline (no matter how slight), number of passengers etc. My guess is that most of you can be rest assured that nothing serious is happening.
Paul
Seattle, WA
They hear the noise but cannot determine the source.
As far as the rough idle it seems to be an issue with all 3.7.
Looking for some feedback on both points.
The engine has been a little rough since new, i have no issues if that is the way it runs.
But the noise or knocking sound does concern me.
Thanks
Frank
They found a historical miss fire in cylinder 6. But nothing showed up that day
For those of you wondering, you can get engine/computer error codes in your jeep. The way you do this is while the engine is off, press and hold your Trip Reset button, then turn the key to the ON position. Don't turn the engine on, just put the key to 'on' so all the instruments and electronics go on. Your dash will light up, all of your gauges go into a kind of 'test mode' where they move the full range in unison- then your display computer will count from 9 to 0. Following this I believe that a software revision comes up, followed by the most recent error code in the engine. I was given a link to a list of error codes, but it didn't work for me, so finding what the error codes mean is up to you. Let me know what you find.
On my 2003 Liberty Diesel I get= 'code 1.4' after all the tests are done. I don't know what this stands for, since the truck is working fine. I haven't yet come across the diesel codes. Maybe we will get to know more about them when the CRDs will be on your roads...
http://home.flash.net/~lorint/lorin/fuel/lambda.htm
It says that the onboard calculator can 'overcorrect' combustion at idle speed. This could be the cause of the recurrent engine jerk.
I believe that this is the software revision in your computer. I've heard that you can go to your dealer and get a new rev for your software- but I don't know if there are any restrictions on that.
I played a CD in my 2004 Liberty Sport this morning. When I stopped, and later restarted the Jeep, the CD player would not eject the disc nor would it let me skip forward or backward through the tracks. The radio still works fine though, when I change the play mode. Any advice on how to eject the disc or reset the CD mechanism will be much appreciated.
Thanks
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/