2008 2WD 6-speed Manual

[retmotor]

We sold our KJ years ago and I miss the comfort and good ride quality. So I'm now eyeing a 2008 KK 2WD with the manual transmission with about 130k miles on the clock. Should I be concerned about common issues or potential problems?

I'm doing some late night reading on it now, and I don't see anything frightening other than that sky roof deal.

If you're booger picking bored, the following outlines my thinking. Feel free to critique and analyze. I'm not the brightest person you'll ever read so I welcome the wisdom of others.

Probably the most endearing quality of our 2004 2WD KJ was the comfort and ergonomics. It just fit me and it was a good ride, on and off road. I want that back. Obviously, I didn't rock crawl with it, but just about any dry road that was cut in was still a good time.

I like the 2WD for ride quality, gas mileage, and slightly reduced insurance costs; but mostly ride quality. My 2003 Ram 2500 4x4 is like work when I drive on the highway. I'll miss the pickup for hauling the occasional load of materials, but I do have a trailer. The wife really liked the KJ too. Had someone not given us a low mileage car, we probably would have kept it.

If you made it this far, thank you for your time. Thoughts and encouragement are welcomed.

 

[JRB]

I don't have a KK, but mines a late enough model that it shares some parts.

You'll no longer have a cable driven throttle body, that took me some getting used to at first. I feel like it's not too bad with the manual other than it seems to have more rev hang, and what feels to be a dead spot on the pedal when you first hit it (compared to cable driven, imo). I was able to find one of those programmers on amazon on sale for $50, and while it doesn't do anything for actually increasing how fast the computers receive the signal, you can control how fast the throttle body is moving which helped make it feel more comfortable. I'm currently using it on eco setting which slows it down a little, and I find I can hit the gas pedal more to avoid that dead spot, and not have it over rev on me. Will be fun to play with on trips for the gas mileage settings, and how it reacts in mud and sand through the settings.

Another one when I was looking for a short shifter for this 6-speed, there were quite a few that had reverse that would pop out of gear. I'd do a fair bit of reverse testing to make sure you don't end up with that or at least can knock the price down a bunch if it does. For most the short shifter seemed to take care of the problem, but not all.

 

[KJBrian]

We sold our KJ years ago and I miss the comfort and good ride quality. So I'm now eyeing a 2008 KK 2WD with the manual transmission with about 130k miles on the clock. Should I be concerned about common issues or potential problems?

I'm doing some late night reading on it now, and I don't see anything frightening other than that sky roof deal.

If you're booger picking bored, the following outlines my thinking. Feel free to critique and analyze. I'm not the brightest person you'll ever read so I welcome the wisdom of others.

Probably the most endearing quality of our 2004 2WD KJ was the comfort and ergonomics. It just fit me and it was a good ride, on and off road. I want that back. Obviously, I didn't rock crawl with it, but just about any dry road that was cut in was still a good time.

I like the 2WD for ride quality, gas mileage, and slightly reduced insurance costs; but mostly ride quality. My 2003 Ram 2500 4x4 is like work when I drive on the highway. I'll miss the pickup for hauling the occasional load of materials, but I do have a trailer. The wife really liked the KJ too. Had someone not given us a low mileage car, we probably would have kept it.

If you made it this far, thank you for your time. Thoughts and encouragement are welcome

I have a 2008 KK 4WD / 6-speed. I have 206,000 miles with no dead spot that another user mentioned. The problem is with that crappy Mercedes transmission. The Wranglers and Libertys have a problem with the first gear synchronizer, so that they pop out of first gear. The problem with reverse is that there is no lockout to prevent dusting reverse when shifting into 6th There was never a recall for this problem.
Still, the manual transmission is so rare, it's something we put up with.

 

[lfhoward]

Those transmissions are rare! With 200k I would be preparing for the inevitable if I wanted to keep the Jeep, which of course I would! (183k here). I saw an 08 manual transmission for sale on Craigslist up in the Lehigh Valley area of PA. $200 and still available (not mine). If you’re anywhere close by, you could pick it up and keep it on hand.

08 liberty 6 speed transmission - auto parts - by owner - vehicle...

What’ve a good 2008 Jeep Liberty 6 speed manual transmission with the transfer case for $200. Call terry at . No emails!

allentown.craigslist.org