By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
I know that sounds crazy and I couldn't believe that when I read it myself.
I've only had the JGC V8's, so I can't speak for the I6. I tried premium gas in 2 of my JGC's and I can honestly say I didn't notice any performance improvement and actually had a slight drop in gas mileage.
That was just my experience... give a tank or two of premium a try in your I6 and see what results you get.
On the fuel economy. 02 JGC I6 I do 17 consistent average. Better on long trips. I did 360 miles last week and was home with over a 1/4 tank left and I drive 75 ish. Hope this helps.
I would appreciate any feedback from jeep owners that have experience with this engine.
Thanks
'00 needed rotors at about 14,000 miles. Dealer and DC would not stand behind them (brake warranty is only 12,000 miles.) Dinged them on service survey and service manager called whining.
Ended up replacing rotors with aftermarket for less than $100 (from AutoZone with 24/24000 warranty.)
DC can kiss my a**. I will never buy another product from them once this one is gone.
dismal fuel economy - this is not good for commuting. I got 13 mpg and was drinv 75 miles a day plus
large with huge turn radius. makes parking in mall lots, parallel etc difficult.
I had the suicide doors, but I understand thats be changed to regular rear doors which is good. It was very difficult to load into the extended cab with the old doors especially when parked between cars.
maitenance - I had the 318 MPFI in mine and had some minor issues but it was very dependable
tires - the truck responds very much to road crown as most full size trucks do. this can be annoying on long trips . get the LSD with lock up, tires like to spin on the wet road
utility - hauled, towed and pulled very well for me - never got stuck etc.
height - I had trouble in state/commercial parking garages with the height of the vehicle
extras - would recommend heated mirrors and seats, fog lights, tonneau cover
I realize you didnt ask for this info but I felt compelled to share. Good luck - its a great truck.
BTW before I came to Jeep I had driven a full size 4wd pick up for 10 years of various makes and models Chev. GMC and Dodge - never a Ford-just dont like them and their reliability.
I doubt it was designed or intended for commuting.
"large with huge turn radius. makes parking in mall lots, parallel etc difficult."
Who cares, it's a truck? Then again, these features do come in handy when between trees or rocks or on construction sites.
"
tires - the truck responds very much to road crown as most full size trucks do. this can be annoying on long trips ."
Who cares? It's a truck. Take the car for long trips.
"extras - would recommend heated mirrors and seats, fog lights, tonneau cover"
NEVER!
The 4.7L is a very smooth, powerful engine. Fuel economy and power is better than the 5.3L.
You didn't state what style of 02 Ram you were considering. I've driven a regular cab, short box 02 Ram with the 4.7L engine and it seemed to have plenty of power. However, I can't vouch for this engine in a Quad-cab. That's an awful big truck for an engine this size.
DC was supposed to be offering 2 new hemi V8's with the new Ram, but they weren't ready at first production. That's why I didn't buy the Ram. When they do come out, I'll take another look at the truck.
Had AAA come and jump the vehicle. It started up OK and the man said he was getting a good "charge back" on his battery starter, indicating that the battery was OK. Drove straight to dealer's lot (after hours) and after shutting it down noticed the whole thing starting over again. Dash lights flashing, needles wavering, remote keyless would not work when we tried to lock it up.
I think I have heard about this before on this board, and I have the impression it is not so uncommon. Vehicle has been in service for three years with 27,000 mi. Anybody have this problem also? What was the fix and approximate cost? How common is this problem?
Thanks to the board for any help you can give. This is a great forum for chasing down these JGC issues and becoming better informed about how to handle them.
"This is a great forum for chasing down these JGC issues and becoming better informed about how to handle them."
It's too bad that all those "award winning 5-STAR" dealers weren't as helpful or as knowledgeable. Things would be a lot better. If you had 27,000 trouble-free miles, you are very lucky.
Wish I could offer some advice, but Chrysler products are no longer in my garage.
fastdriver
As for 'fastdriver', Confusious say "If one has nothing good to say, don't say it."
Just trying to keep everyone AWARE of what happens AFTER you sign the papers, so they don't make the same mistake I made!
Better to be informed than quiet- I always say!
fastdriver
http://www.lovewellfence.com/zj/towhook/
1st Week-Replaced Windshield Molding(outside)-ripped off on the highway.
3rd month-Wheel Alignment-Jeep was (and still is) pulling to the left constantly. Problem never corrected. After bringing in car for same problem 3 additional times. Dealer convinced me that it is the highway crown. Yeah Right.
7,200 Miles-New Rotors and Brakes (covered under warranty)-Squeeking alerted me.
14,000 Miles-New Rotors and Brakes (dealer tried getting me for $350-not covered after 12k miles). I convinced them that 12k mile warranty started when the brakes were replaced at 7200 miles). They nailed me for fuel injector cleaning ($80).
Off the record with the repair shop supervisor (who was the salesman when I bought the jeep), I was told that the rotors are crap and actually fall apart in areas that see a lot of road salt, etc.
By the way I get about 17 mpg using 87 octane always.
I will never by another Jeep. Dealer assured me brake problem was fixed in '99 year.
Just finished driving 2002 GMC Envoy for a week while on vacation. I wished I bought that.
Repairs - the rotor issue that wont die. Personally I think its horrible to have such constant repair issues for brakes, which clearly have a safety element. This was obviously a Jeep error but I have 6K so far on my Jeep and no problems/issues. Just rotated the tires and the rotors and brakes look brand new.
Envoy - See my other posts on the Envoy. Nice truck, but a close friend whom is a GMC mechanic at a busy dealership says the truck has many many repair issues and quality problems.
If you are that unhappy with the Jeep - perhaps GMC is not the way to go.
With 140K miles, there probably will be some issues as that's quite a few miles worth of wear and tear. Nothing out of the ordinary compared to any other engine at that mileage though. Do you know the service history of the vehicle?
I also assume this is a 4WD model? If so, you need to consider the 140K miles of wear placed on the entire drivetrain. Transmissions (which were already prone to failure), transfer case, driveshafts, u-joints, differentials, bearings, etc. could all be near replacement or rebuilding by this time. There's nothing cheap here... any one of these major assemblies fail and you'll easily be looking at a 4-figure repair bill.
I'd think long and hard about this and have it inspected by a mechanic you trust. That "good buy" could really cost you and arm and a leg if there are any hidden problems waiting to happen.
After some hard thinking, I decided to replace my '99 JGC Laredo, F pkg, V8 with a new '02 JGC Laredo, T pkg, V8. I actually enjoyed driving the '99 despite the drive shaft noise, ghost bump while breaking and warped front rotors. It never broke down on me, the problems were always addressed by the dealership where I had it surviced and everything was covered under waranty. The V8 has great power and the vehicle suited my needs perfectly. The only thing that came close to preventing me from replacing my '99 was the warped rotors. Having only driven the '99 just 30,000 miles, it was on its forth set of front rotors and third set of front break pads when I turned it in.
The 2002 JGC is quieter and rides much better than the '99 I had and so far I am pleased with my decission. In expectation that I may again experience warped rotors with the '02, can anybody remomend a quality aftermarket replacement?
The big thing is to stay away from the Mopar replacement rotors your dealer will use. They're as bad as the OEM rotors and you're doing nothing more than starting the problem all over from the beginning.
I will voice one minor gripe I have with the '02 JGC over the '99 is with the sunroof. On the '99 you were able to open the sunroof all the way beyond the express stopping point. The sunroof on the '02 only goes back to the express stopping point, 7/8ths open. I would gather they did this because of the wind pressure that was created when all the windows were up and the roof was fully open. I still would much prefer to have the option of being able to open the sunroof on the '02 all the way back.
Of the 4 JGC's I've owned, 2 had the warped brake rotor problem (still waiting to see what's going to happen on my 02). Of those 2, I replaced the rotors with no-name, generic local part supplier rotors. They worked great! Never experienced the problem again in the 50K+ miles I drove each vehicle after the replacement.
Now today, you could very well be right, and even these kind of replacement rotors are in the $100 apiece range (it's been awhile since I had to replace brake rotors). That's still less than what the dealer will charge.
My main point is that it scares me to read some of these posts and hear people recommend to others that they should go out and plunk down $1000+ for a set of exotic cross-drilled or slotted H-P rotors to solve this problem.
This is an excessive amount to spend for brake rotors and it's totally unnecessary when any decent local parts supplier "brand" will do just as well. That's just my experience with the rotor problem. If someone wants to spend the big bucks, well, that's their choice.
But like I said earlier, stay away from the Mopar replacements! I think many of the JGC brake rotor "veterans" out there will agree.
I have 7 days to return the vehicle for a full refund, so I want to know (quickly please) if everyone else noticed this.
Also, I had the rotors checked and they are perfect (independent service). Has the brake/rotor problem been fixed in this year?
Thanks in advance.
The differentials, whether in the axles or transfer case, aren't opening fully to allow for the difference in turning speed between the inside and outside wheel.
The question is how "normal" is this for a JGC? I guess a person could debate this forever.
I've had 4 JGC's. My first (a 93) never did this until about 30K. The dealer replaced some of the transfer case viscous coupler parts and the problem went away.
This hasn't been a problem on the other 3 JGC's I've had (a 98, 99 and 02). Some JGC's seem to have this, others don't.
One of my friends bought a used 94. From day one, that thing growled, jerked and you could actually see the right front jump like crazy when he turned sharp. He put over 80K on it like that and nothing up front or in the drivetrain ever failed. Amazed the hell out of me!
If you keep the vehicle, my only advice would be to try not to make too many tight turns, and when you do, do them as gently as possible. Can't say what kind of strain this puts on the drivetrain, but it obviously puts more wear on the tires if they have to fight rotational speed against each other.
Your call as to whether you want to live with this or not. I know they had TSB's on this problem in the earlier model years, but they went to an entirely new drivetrain in 99 (which had their own peculiar set of problems). I'd have a serious talk with your dealer about this. Good luck!
The noise seems to ease up if I let of the gas.
Any comments would help.... Thanks
A good place to check for TSB's and recalls on this model year is at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/
The price is fair but the mileage is up there. Any service history on this vehicle? A transmission failure alone could cost $2500+ to fix.
Looking at Edmund's and Kelly Bluebook will give you a good idea of what price to pay.
Get the VIN# from the vehicle you are considering and check carfax.com for the vehicle history.
Let's say you're interested in buying a used vehicle and you want to check to see if it's a lemon. Before you spend the money, please consider this...
Most states maintain a database and require vehicle titles to be "branded" if a vehicle has been flood damaged, salvaged, reconstructed or is a lemon. Who wouldn't want to know this before buying one of these, right? Well, there are a couple of holes in this system...
One problem is that not all states share this info between themselves or make it available to private parties, like Carfax. Despite what Carfax advertises, they do not have access to vehicle history databases in all 50 states. They don't tell you this either. They make it sound like they do because they're trying to sell you their services.
For instance, let's look at a lemon vehicle because there are probably more of these floating around than the other types I've listed above. I can speak with firsthand experience on these.
There's a problem here too... not all lemons end up being "branded" as a lemon. If you initiate lemon law action against a manufacturer, and it gets settled through arbitration (or out-of-court so to speak) and the manufacturer is willing to buy back the vehicle or replaces it with a new one without being ordered to by a court... well, not all states would brand the vehicle as a lemon. This is a "manufacturer's buy-back."
True, some states will indicate this on a vehicle's title also. But they treat a buy-back differently from an actual lemon. How so?
I had a 98 JGC bought back by DC because of a major drivetrain vibration that couldn't be found or fixed. Within 2 minutes of me turning the car back in to my dealer for a new one, they stuck a big sign in the windshield that said, "This vehicle is not available to be sold at retail. Vehicle to be sold at dealer wholesale auction only."
Because my vehicle was a buy-back and not actually taken back under our state lemon law, DC was free to turn around and resell the vehicle as they saw fit. They sold it to some other dealer, probably out-of-state, or at least out of our immediate area. Care to bet whether some unlucky person is driving it today?
Several months after I turned the vehicle in, I ran a history check on the VIN through Carfax. It came back with a "clean" title. 3+ years later, it still comes back with a "clean" title today.
Now if my vehicle can slip through the cracks, what about all the other lemons, salvaged and flood damaged vehicles out there? Can you truly believe anything you see in a Carfax report?
In all fairness to Carfax, they can only report the info they have access to. Just because they find nothing indicating the vehicle is a lemon doesn't mean that it couldn't be. The system is far from perfect, but probably better than nothing. Your best bet is to always try to contact the previous owner before buying. If you can't, or have any doubts about the vehicle... walk away!
I like GC's looks. I am not able to decide between GC and a Honda Odyssey. Also worried about GC's mechanical problems. Is the 02 JGC more refined and major problmes solved? Experts please help, in my decision making process. Thanks.
At least give it a test drive, you will be amazed at how good it is.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
Ed
Ed