disaster

[unariderKJ]

Hello ,
I am jeep proud owner from Bosnia ,i had xj 90. 4.0 i lost it in accident last year in may,:icon_sad:,in novembar last year i bought kj 02.:smoke2:arty36:,but today when i want to back from shopping i started engine i heard ugly noise
from engine.I stop immediatelly ,my engine is probably hardly damaged .I am bad luck with jeep vehicle :icon_sad:,126k miles
So i will repair my 3.7 engine ,i have friend good mechanic and some parts i will order from USA some used parts i will :icon_sad:buy in Bosnia .But i need your sincere answers.I really enjoy driving and like kj but can i believe more 3.7 engine ,and tell me is it possible to drive 100 k miles with repaired engine.
I find on web this : 2002 Jeep Liberty Engine Failure | CarComplaints.com

This is very discourage me ,i want to drive jeep but tell me how to avoid big damage and is 3.7 really crap ,i think this are just case ?Oil sludge ???*??' :2002 Jeep Liberty Oil Sludge Resulting In Engine Failure | CarComplaints.com.
Is it real ?

Pls help me with answers i am really depressed and disappointed.

 

[unariderKJ]

I will write here whats demaged i how reparations progress

 

[Ry' N Jen]

What exactly is wrong with your engine?
Tell us more info.

 

[HoosierJeeper]

3.7 can last over 350k miles!

 

[sota]

not 2002's
as much as some people won't admit it, 02's for some reason like to break. not all of them, but compared to other years a frighteningly higher number of them.

 

[Dave]

Unarider, maybe the prior owner abused it by not changing the oil or something? When you find out what went wrong, let us know.

Sorry about your troubles with it.

Dave

 

[yellocoyote]

not 2002's
as much as some people won't admit it, 02's for some reason like to break. not all of them, but compared to other years a frighteningly higher number of them.

I think that's a vague statement. It's not isolated to '02's. I've read about the same engine issues in the 2003's just as much as 2002's. Take into account that they're obviously older than the rest... :shrug:

The history of the engine is a huge factor. It plays into how the engines were used (abused?), if they were ever overheated (like mine was), general oil maintenance, age, and the aluminum on steel construction of the 3.7L. Had talked to a fair amount of techs when my engine misbehaved, all with the same consensus on the weaknesses of the 3.7L.

 

[unariderKJ]

3.7 can last over 350k miles!

THX god on 350 k miles i expect100 k more from my repaired kj screwy.gif,today we start with reparation .I am 3th hand and is there anything could happen.I hope this just case poor maintenance prior owners .

I will post some picture after .

 

[sota]

I think that's a vague statement. It's not isolated to '02's. I've read about the same engine issues in the 2003's just as much as 2002's. Take into account that they're obviously older than the rest... :shrug:

The history of the engine is a huge factor. It plays into how the engines were used (abused?), if they were ever overheated (like mine was), general oil maintenance, age, and the aluminum on steel construction of the 3.7L. Had talked to a fair amount of techs when my engine misbehaved, all with the same consensus on the weaknesses of the 3.7L.

I've spent alot of time over the years perusing various sites (ebay, carfinder, craigslist, copart, etc.) looking for a used one for a project i have in mind that doesn't involve the need for a working engine. the VAST majority of broken ones I see are 02's. the complaints vary from the vague to the specific but they all fit into the following categories (as stated in the listings)...
miss
tick
noise in engine
dropped valve
blown piston
bad valve seat

nearly all have had failures around the 100k-120k mark. not to mention the ones with the listing stating the engine was replaced around the same time frame, for ones with working motors. literally several hundreds of them listed like that. and that's just the ones I'm finding locally (NY/NJ/CT/PA). while I'll grant you people in general do a poor job of maintaining their vehicles, the number of broken 2002's is disproportionately higher than any other model year. Like I said I know there are people that don't believe it but I can only base my opinions on what I see in terms of statistics.

 

[unariderKJ]

I've spent alot of time over the years perusing various sites (ebay, carfinder, craigslist, copart, etc.) looking for a used one for a project i have in mind that doesn't involve the need for a working engine. the VAST majority of broken ones I see are 02's. the complaints vary from the vague to the specific but they all fit into the following categories (as stated in the listings)...
miss
tick
noise in engine
dropped valve
blown piston
bad valve seat

nearly all have had failures around the 100k-120k mark. not to mention the ones with the listing stating the engine was replaced around the same time frame, for ones with working motors. literally several hundreds of them listed like that. and that's just the ones I'm finding locally (NY/NJ/CT/PA). while I'll grant you people in general do a poor job of maintaining their vehicles, the number of broken 2002's is disproportionately higher than any other model year. Like I said I know there are people that don't believe it but I can only base my opinions on what I see in terms of statistics.

The worst thing that all happened without any warning,before yesterday all working properly no any indication .

 

[sota]

there's that. there never seems to be any indication that something is about to happen. or at least none that anyone has correlated to the event.

 

[tjkj2002]

not 2002's
as much as some people won't admit it, 02's for some reason like to break. not all of them, but compared to other years a frighteningly higher number of them.

I've spent alot of time over the years perusing various sites (ebay, carfinder, craigslist, copart, etc.) looking for a used one for a project i have in mind that doesn't involve the need for a working engine. the VAST majority of broken ones I see are 02's. the complaints vary from the vague to the specific but they all fit into the following categories (as stated in the listings)...
miss
tick
noise in engine
dropped valve
blown piston
bad valve seat

nearly all have had failures around the 100k-120k mark. not to mention the ones with the listing stating the engine was replaced around the same time frame, for ones with working motors. literally several hundreds of them listed like that. and that's just the ones I'm finding locally (NY/NJ/CT/PA). while I'll grant you people in general do a poor job of maintaining their vehicles, the number of broken 2002's is disproportionately higher than any other model year. Like I said I know there are people that don't believe it but I can only base my opinions on what I see in terms of statistics.

Some of the highest mileage KJ's are '02's and just from the fact that '02's are older and there was twice as many '02's built then any other model year(production run of 21 months) there naturally will be more failures.It's just a number game that looks bad but is no worse then any other model year of the KJ when you take into account the higher production #'s.Wait till 2017 and the #'s will look bad for '07 KJ's also.

 

[ThunderbirdJunkie]

ThunderbirdJunkie's KJ puked its motor at 194k and some change. However, that poor, maligned engine had also been drowned, overheated, starved for oil, and just generally hammered on from 50,228 miles till its demise. Pretty impressive ITBJHO.

 

[unariderKJ]

ThunderbirdJunkie's KJ puked its motor at 194k and some change. However, that poor, maligned engine had also been drowned, overheated, starved for oil, and just generally hammered on from 50,228 miles till its demise. Pretty impressive ITBJHO.

Excuse me,my english is so poor ,but how i can understand your KJ is overheated ,hammered and at 194 miles.
Its very good for my ears,i had immortal 4.0 ,i 6 no dead for this engine .
I rather expected SAME FROM 3.7 ENGINE ,i hope my repaired will blow over 100 k.

 

[ThunderbirdJunkie]

Excuse me,my english is so poor ,but how i can understand your KJ is overheated ,hammered and at 194 miles.
Its very good for my ears,i had immortal 4.0 ,i 6 no dead for this engine .
I rather expected SAME FROM 3.7 ENGINE ,i hope my repaired will blow over 100 k.

Unarider, ThunderbirdJunkie has owned 4.0 I6s that died before 100k miles, so it's all in how you take care of it. If the 3.7 had never overheated it would still be running today.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[yellocoyote]

The worst thing that all happened without any warning,before yesterday all working properly no any indication .

Same with mine. Fortunately all it took was less than $450 for a rebuilt head and corresponding seals/gaskets to correct the dropped valve seat and get it back up and running again. That was over a year ago, and it's been doing great since.

I've always been great on OCI's, but I did have a mud incident which caused a few occasions of brief overheating... that's what I think caused it. When the head was removed, there was really no sign of sludge. Everything was pretty clean for the age/mileage of my KJ... so the oil wasn't the issue.

When that happened, I was sitting at about 175K-ish miles. It'll roll over 190K on my way to work tomorrow.

 

[rockymountain]

I'd say these engines because of their design just can't take overheating very well at all. A lot of engines are like that these days with aluminum heads and cast iron block. Makes me just want to get a water pump and change it right now. I have 70K.

DON'T LET IT OVERHEAT. :whip:

 

[JIberty02]

My 02 KJ just went through major repairs:
I can probably say its my fault though. My P/S bearing started making noise and well I figured I could go another day..
Nope, don't figure on anything! It went, then Hell, I figured I coudl get her home, afterall its only 4 miles!
Now only two miles , but gotta shut her down for awhile. wait an hour. try to drive. NOPE.. well over heated!120,000 miles

Get her towed, change out the P/S pump/ Fire her back up and OFF we go.. Two weeks later. hmmm white smoke from the tail pipe..
OK rebuild the motor, shes done!

But Other than that, my KJ with 120,*** miles was GREAT never any issues and after the rebuilt upper motor I expect another ten years of good times!

 

[unariderKJ]

I living in small europe country with Thousands europian cars ,where is fuel consumption the most important and drive something other than the favored germans here causes consternation and taunts .WITH 3.7 215 HP and 330 nm tork I enjoyed making the complexes audi ,vw drivers .:smokin:I had before toyota land cruiser and mitcubishi pajero diesel ,when i try xj 4.0 it was it.One time jeep always jeep .
But i am here Lonely Rider with jeep ,i have big headache how to find parts.
Waiting for call from mechanic, ,first forecasts is bad ,i just hope big block will miss me .p:

 

[unariderKJ]

There are big chances that big block is ok , and for sure oil is ok .