Hi y'all!
My name is Taytos (name redacted), and I'm a new Liberty owner currently! I come from Connecticut as well, wondering if anyone else on here is from there as well! Couldn't be more excited to be part of this community, and very happy I found a site/forums as such to reach out while being part of the community.
Story behind me getting my Liberty: I bought my 2007 Liberty when my Corolla pretty much started ******** the bed. I have been a Jeep owner before (Corolla being my second car. A 2001 Jeep Wrangler Sahara TJ being my second), and fell in love with everything jeep since getting my first automobile. When I pulled into my mechanic's shop (which is also a mini dealership of used vehicles) to see what he could do with my corolla, I started just prancing around the cars for sale to see what he had. When I saw the Jeep liberty I was like "woahhhh, what's this?". To be quite honest, I had not seen a KJ model prior (now I notice them all the time), and fell in love with it. He gave me a good deal on it seeings that it still needs a new radiator, water pump pressurized, and driver's side window motor (all being fixed a few days from now), and I love driving it a ton (trying not to drive it alot however seeings the radiator/coolant leak is getting worse, which they are fixing for free when I take it in next week). Quite honestly & bluntly I actually enjoy driving this more than I did my Wrangler TJ & some are saying I'm crazy for saying that, but to each their own I say.
So far the only "mods" I have done on it are adding an after market stereo, trim restoration, and LED interior lights for just looks. Really cannot wait for the engine parts to be repaired so I can take it offroading (lightly), and camping trips. My apologies for the ramble/story, but I'm very happy about stumbling upon this Liberty. Seeings that I'm a huge horror fan, I've named her Jeepers Creepers. Will be adding a roof rack soon, and a possible lift kit down the line... Now just gotta wait for my Michael Michael's & Misfits decals to come in for the back windshield.
Would love to hear the story of your Liberty(s) as well. Ramble on!
- TAYTOS
Since you asked for rambling, here goes! I'm on my 3rd Libby. The first one we bought new in 02 when they first came out. My wife really wanted one in Steel Blue and with antilock brakes (she needs them, lol!). We lived in TX at the time and there were none in the state, so we drove to Orlando to pick it up since my family is there and it was an excuse to visit. It was a Sport 4x4 with ABS and sunroof, cloth seats and premium Infinity sound system, kind of an unusual options mix. We sold that one to Carmax in 05 when gas was pushing $5/gallon, but she missed it so we bought an 03 used a year or so later. We kept that one until around 115K miles and gave it to my Mother In Law who needed a rust free 4x4 in Wisconsin. They still have it and it has about 200K on it now and it still has all the original drivetrain components. It was very reliable aside from the common issue of front ball joints and power window regulator issues, but nothing major outside of that (the first 02 we had never had any issues). I installed the ebay metal regulators on the windows which never failed again.
My current one is a project and a bit of a basket case. It was sold cheap as "non-running", but started when I went to look at it. The owner said it kept randomly dying and not restarting and he got tired of throwing sensors at it with no improvement. I found a very bad ground terminal that fixed most of the issues, ran some injector cleaner through and thought maybe I got the deal of the century. It was a Northern Jeep though so once I got into it I found badly rusted rear upper/lower control arms, one bad ball joint up front, bad rotors and a somewhat lazy transmission (3-5 seconds to go into drive from park, then a **** into gear). I changed a pressure sensor per the code and it greatly improved, but has shifted weird once or twice that could indicate other issues. I have some Sea Foam trans de-gunker in it now for 100 miles and it's been pretty normal, so I'm hoping a fluid and filter change will solve it for good. The 02 has the more robust transmission shared with the Ram of the same year, so hoping it has lots of life left in it. Unfortunately, I suspect that I may have a head gasket issue as I get a few moments of a little sweet steam from the exhaust after it sits overnight. It must just be a few drops each night into the intake as it doesn't contaminate the oil or dump exhaust gases into the cooling system (tested) and doesn't overheat even with the AC on in a Florida Summer. Per recommendations of the friendly members here, I will be flushing the cooling system and putting good coolant in to see if it potentially clears up along with a compression leak down test.
I plan to finish all of the maintenance and then stress test it to get an idea of whether the engine/trans may be in need of any potential major repairs. If both are having $$ issues I'll probably have to sell it cheap and take the hit on all of the new parts I've installed as I am not up for any major mechanic work anymore.
Other vehicles include a 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit with the 3.0 Ecodiesel, which will make the worst KJ look like the most reliable vehicle in the world! Love the Ecodiesel in many ways, but it has major design flaws. It had a pretty bad oil leak around 50K that warranty covered (front main seal and timing cover). Unfortunately, the VM Motori 3.0 was never really designed to accept US emissions and EGR, so the oil passages tend clog up and spin the lower end bearings. Because of "dieselgate" the EPA made FCA retune it for more EGR and then things went downhill. They had Rams and Jeeps catching fire because the plastic intake manifold would soot up and then overheat due to the hot EGR gases dumping into it, along with leaking EGR coolers reacting with the soot. I took it in for an EGR recall this June and they found that the intake manifold had started to melt and the turbo CAC hoses, injector tubes and one valve cover had heat damage so all was replaced under the recall. The tech also confirmed that my front main seal and timing cover were again leaking (13K miles later), which hit my extended warranty for $1700. A month later, it died abruptly on me on a road trip and violently threw a rod when I tried to re-start it. It had 64K miles on it and had never been abused, had oil changes every 5K (manual states 10K intervals), fuel/air filters changed on or before schedule, etc.. Now I am really glad I bough the extended warranty, it cost me $100 for a $13K engine swap. Now the new one runs great, but has been using a quart of oil every 800-1000 miles, when I never had to top it off before, so back to the dealer it goes next week. My dealer treats me well and has a good diesel tech, so I'm confident they'll take care of me. It's a shame as it really drives amazing, is super quiet and luxurious and has every gadget you could want. It will propel this very heavy AWD Grand better than the V6 and return 28-30 mpg freeway if you keep in around 65. I towed a lifted Toyota Tacoma with 31.50x12 tires on the freeway (car dolly) at 65 and still got 23 mpg. It has a killer Harmon Kardon sound system, 8.4" touch screen, electronic rear locker, quadra-drive II (directs power to all wheels as needed), air ride suspension and the tech package (HID lights, accident avoidance, auto-cruise control that will maintain distance in stop and go traffic, blind spot assistance, etc.). It's more powerful than my long gone 99 Grand Cherokee Limited V8 and gets almost twice the fuel mileage
. I also have an 03 F150 Harley Davidson Edition with the factory supercharged Lightning engine. I teased my dealer service advisor that I had to drive my 18 year old 200K mile Ford while my expensive newer Jeep is on the fritz again. The F150 has about 75-100HP in mods including throttle body, bigger injectors, CAI, headers, overboost pulley and custom tune. It doesn't leak any oil and still has the original A/C, water pump, alternator, engine/trans and has never let me down. The only non-maintenance repair it's had was the rear axle/diff bearings were replaced as it developed a howl. It had some water intrusion (I bought it used) and there were some rust pits on the bearings. Didn't even need new gears! The supercharged models came with F250 diesel rated transmissions and rear ends, so they hold up well even with mild mods, and are known to run past 300K on the original drivetrain. No chance mine will as I drive it like I stole it and it is starting to show some fatigue, but it still always starts right up and goes. It's mostly relegated to Home Depot runs and to satisfy the occasional urge to burn rubber as it is very thirsty and only takes super unleaded. It's not even super fast by today's standards, but it's a fun, useful truck anyway.
You asked, I rambled!
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