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Comments
I'm thinking this is going to be very easy because I can reach everything. Is there anything I'm going to wish I knew ahead of time? Don't assume I have any mechanical experience because changing my oil is almost the hardest thing I have done.
Last weekend I installed the receiver hitch I bought from Quadratech. It was not too bad and would have been impossible without the bolt fishwires included with the kit. I also bought a receiver tow hook and a locking pin (came with the bike rack). Is there any reason I shouldn't leave the receiver tow hook in the receiver? It's locked there and it looks cool. Plus, it would be a shame to need to get pulled out of something and have the hook at home in a box.
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
Despite their low price, I don't think I would let them do it, if they didn't let me stand right there with the guy doing the work. It's real informal at that service department, and they are great folks. They do excellent work, but I still feel better when I can personally observe the oil change.
Anyway, there's nothing out of the ordinary about changing the oil on a Jeep. You have the X, so you have the 4.0 L engine, which takes 6 quarts of 10W-30 oil.
ALWAYS CHECK TO BE SURE THE GASKET ON THE OLD FILTER COMES OFF WITH THE OLD FILTER, BEFORE INSTALLING THE NEW FILTER!
My wife's uncle, who had a small shop and did mechanic work for a living, forget to check this one time when he changed the oil on my pickup truck years and years ago. Half way to work, my oil pressure went to zero, but I shut the engine off before any damage was done. Turned out that I lost the seal between the filter and the engine block, due to the double gasket, and I lost most of my oil.
There are seven lube points on the chassis. You probably know this already, but you should be sure to clean the zerks real good before lubing. You don't want to force dirt into the fitting. Also, go easy with the grease. If you try to force too much in there, you will bust the rubber boot, and then water and dirt can get in.
Good luck.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
I really want to do as much of the maintenance myself as possible. What's the best way for a mechanically challenged person to learn about this stuff?
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
A Factory Service Manual is what the technicians at the dealership service departments refer to. It has detailed diagrams and step by step instructions on how to do just about any repair work you can think of for the vehicle it was written for. It also tells you the types of fluids to use and the capacities for each.
Go here...
http://www.techauthority.com
The CD version for an 04 Wrangler is $90, and the hard copy version is $120.
The CD version works with Adobe Acrobat software, which can be downloaded for free (but I think that comes included on the CD too).
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Hopefully, our car is not too old.
BTW - Pls - no "hard top" suggestions. We live in hot SoCal,, and - dislike hardtop esthetics.
TIA, wilful_2000@yahoo.com
heres a website that shows the locations of the grease zerks, (little things like one way valves, let you push grease in, but don't let it come back out)
http://www.gotjeep.net/greasing.html
I use a grease gun that I can hold in one hand, most you will see are much bigger, they work fine on tractors and farm equipment, but i found the small gun easier to get into tighter spots. with the big guns you almost need 3 hands, one to hold the gun, one to hold the end of the flexible hose on the zerk, and one to pump the handle. I don't use a flexible hose with the small grease gun. you might want one if its hard to get onto any of the zerks.
as far as grease, the guy on the website says that any grease you see will meet manufacturers specifications.
and for changing your filter,, everyone probably has an opinion on this, but i like the filter wrench that looks like a giant socket for your rachet wrench.
jeff
re leaving your receiver in?? I take my mount and ball out of the receiver just to keep it from getting stolen,,
you are driving a jeep, think more of needing your hook to pull other people out, not to get pulled out yourself
just a warning, there are a few hard core jeepers on here who get really mean when someone refers to their jeep as a car. Not really, they are bunch of good people, always ready to help anyone out with questions but respond much quicker to questions about "Jeeps" rather than "cars"
jeff
Steve, Host
Stick around, and maybe someone will be able to help you.
Glad you joined us.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Steve, Host
I called my son-in-law and daughter Barney and Thelma Lou back when they had been going together for seven years and still had not gotten married.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
jts
I think it's a "guy" thing - refering to a Jeep only as "Jeep". I'd always done that, til we acquired the Wrangler, and my bride would call it her "car". It was her choice of a second vehicle, after yrs of her having the "hand me down". In 1989 she advised me that she wished to select her own vehicle and that it could be either a Mercedes 2 passenger convertible - or a Jeep wrangler "with big tires, chrome grille and bumpers and a big engine". Hence - the Wrangler.
Looking forward to any info on the glass sliding windows.
Best regards,
W.
Oil Changes-I use Mobil 1 10W-30 and a Mobil 1 filter. Yes, it's probably overkill, but then I follow Mobil's advice and only change the oil every 7500 miles. After almost 79000 the engine is clean as a pin under the valve cover and oil usage is nil. Note that I rarely use the Sahara for short trips and it almost never subjected to stop-and-go traffic.
Those of you considering an aftermarket air filter should carefully read this:
http://home.usadatanet.net/~jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm . It's an objective and scientific ISO 5011 test of various OEM and aftermarket air filter elements. Spoiler Warning: K&N takes it on the chin...
:--)
I have a 98 tj and a 91 yj with Bestop sliders and the yj are better of the two. We (wife and I) don’t care for the hard tops either as we drive with the top down as must as possible. The yj ½ doors are also without locks.
Walt
Boy, you've got that right. I know of one Liberty owner who claimed that he picked up FOUR miles per gallon by switching to a K&N! I tried to explain to him how automakers spend millions of dollars to add .25 mpg to their CAFE numbers-and thus they would switch their entire fleets over to K&N in a nanosecond if those filters were good for even a .5 mpg increase. He dismissed my argument with a moronic conspiracy theory...
Thanks for your patience with this wanabe mechanic,
Dave
Can someone give him a better answer? Heck, it is just a matter of "feel," mostly, right? I mean I think I know how to tell when to call it quits with the old grease gun, but I just don't know how to tell someone else.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
here is a link that shows what a zerk looks like inside.
how much grease??, when i worked on my uncle's farm, he and my grandpa ( who was an IH mechanic ) always told me 5 or 6 pumps, if it starts coming out under the boot, stop. ( you don't want it to PLOP on your face if you are under the tractor / vehicle / implement. )
jeff
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
i use one of those pistol type grease guns, I don't think they pump out as much grease as a regular grease gun. heck i don't count anyway, maybe its 2 or 3?? i don't know, if it plops on my head; i stop.
jeff
ps,, dave if you want to learn how to change oil and grease the fittings, come out to quincy in a month or so, I'm giving a lesson then, you likely will be the only student so you will get my undivided attention as you crawl around under my jeep on the gravel driveway in 30 degree weather.
While it has some functionality over the Roady, I miss having the number pad. I'll probably use the preset buttons more (I never used them with the Roady). If it gets to be too much of a bother, I'll get the remote, which does have a number kkeypad, I think.
The sound is so much better, and I didn't change the speakers (I do have the factory upgraded speaker system). In fact, it is a whole lot better than running the Roady off of the cassette deck in the old Taco.
Now to hook the Roady up to the Bose radio...
TIA,
Will
Had the remote start installed on Friday. It's a pain to "set" but not horrible. Here are the steps I have to take.
While the Jeep is running,
Set the E brake.
Put it in Neutral.
Take feet off of pedals.
Press one of the buttons on the remote.
(this causes the system to flash the parking lights)
At this point I have 30 seconds to exit my Jeep and close all doors.
I hit a different button and it shuts the Jeep off.
It is now ready to be "remote started" the next time I drive it :P
I'll probably just use it for our cold Northeast mornings. That way I'm just going through those steps as the last step before I'm in for the night.
Let's say I go through all the steps and then realize I left my Cell phone inside my Jeep.
You guessed it, opening the door UN-SETS the system. I have to start it up and go through the process again.
After typing this out, it sounds much worse that it is.
-Dan
I can't think of a reason that you would want to remote start it with the doors off (other than to scare someone standing by the Jeep) but from what you wrote, i'm assuming it wouldn't work with the doors off??
jeff
hoping mine isn't that much trouble,
Walt
Either I didn't hit the right line, or there just wasn't any way to run it under those conditions without slipping one side down into the deep part of the gully. This is the same gully where that little video clip that I posted a link to a few days ago was shot.
In the video, the right side had slipped down into the deep part, but Saturday the left side slipped down.
Here's a pic. I had already made a good bit of progress toward the end of the gully when this was taken. The slip occurred several yards behind the spot where I was in the picture.
You can see that the left front flare is actually making contact with the side of the gully. I drove her out of there all leaned over like that, and the only contact was on both flares on the drivers side. No harm done, they were already scratched and distorted anyway.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
P.S. Here's another view. Thought I would throw this in for no additional charge.
Chief
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
I highly recommend that you purchase the official Factory Service Manual (FSM). It's about $100 and can save you more than that the first time you use it. Worth every penny.
jeff
Tom,,
you stop being mean to Thelma Jane, or i'm going to load up a bunch of good ole boys and we are going come down there and whoop you!!. everyone of those pictures you send, i keep expecting you to say $5000 of body work needed.
i talked with delta tire here about swapping out my gsa's, asked what they'd give me for them ----
are you ready for this???
$10.
as i was returning a friends trailer yesterday, told him i was thinking of swapping out tires, and he anxiously said he was looking for a set to downsize his son's truck. (not his son's idea by any means) so I may be able to get a decent price (or a good trade) steve alway has something to trade or swap. Limo rides, trailers, use of 2 ton trucks, etc.
Don't settle for too little on those GSA's. It might very well be worth a trip down here to deal with that tire store where I got those killer trade-in allowances.
What tires do you want? Tell me, and I will check out the deal for you.
I don't know if the ebay FSMs are the real things or not.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
I can post the link to eBay it that's OK to do here.
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
How many miles on those tires now? Are the sidewalls in good shape? No gouges? White letters still nice?
I asked him what the total price would be for five brand new BFG 31 x 10.50 Mud Terrains, with mounting, balancing, and taxes... the whole enchilada, including the trade in allowance. He said it would be $468, but might be less, depending on whether he can give you more for your tires or not.
For BFG 31 x 10.50 All Terrains, it would be about $100 less ($20 per tire).
So, get yer butt down here, get some tires, and go wheelin' with me!
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
P.S. On the trade in, Chad said $375 is the low end, and $440 would be the best he could do.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
I just think it's nice to have the latest, genuine, factory fresh manual, to go with your new factory fresh Jeep!
Yours in Jeep Coolness,
Dave
It's the same one I had in my Cherokee and never had any problems. If your Jeep is manual, then you'll probably have to go through similar steps.
If you have an auto, it'll be MUCH easier.
-Dan
Yeah, stick around here with us. You'll have a Wrangler one of these days, and in the meantime, just hang with us.
Tom
Have you hugged your Jeep today?
but was thinking of going to 33's with a 4 inch lift, didn't like being the littlest jeep at the the jeep club meeting.
checked prices at Sam's club on BFG 33/10.5/15 $859 for 5 mounted, balanced, road hazard.
jeff
remembered a bit of cash i had stuck away, in a fund that isn't making anything, might as well spend it.
jeff
he's got his eye on a '92.
jeff