What did you do to your jeep today?

[Johnny O]

Hit a rough patch out on the interstate today, got the dash lights and codes for the infamous wheel speed/abs sensor. Self cleared after a shut off and short drive. Time to find some moogs.

Took advantage of unseasonable weather to start the spare tire delete. Should be finished tomorrow.

 

[sota]

You’ve torn apart some engines in your day, and put them back together too.

more than I've detailed here. far far more.
I did a complete engine rebuild, top to bottom, almost 2 decades ago now. just because I wanted to do it. (ok it was a good donor core motor that needed work, but still. )
air conditioning transplant from an A/C equipped car to a non-A/C one (former got ***** by a tractor trailer, so I stole all the good bits.)
i've grafted wiring harnesses together to add things that were never on a vehicle to begin with.
pulled rear cradles to refurbish them, because I can't put rusty parts back in.
list goes on...

 

[sota]

This bugs me - shops just looking for the easy stuff - LAME!!! I only turn down work in my shop if it is a F550 service truck as we don't have a hoist big enough to pick them up. I run a shop at a Ford dealer and the newest truck in the shop today was a 2010. This isn't normal for us but I don't turn down work - get it in and get it fixed! If you are worried about working on the old stuff just add an hour or 2 to the estimate for having to deal with rusty bolts and such.

I get it though.
a shop needs to make money.
you're always trying to maximize profits.
if the numbers say, don't take on the Big Jobs if you want to make the best profit, then you don't take them on.
plus to make the numbers work, you have to charge more.
now you get pissed off people when you give them a big number, and even if they pay you they're still disgruntled.

maybe it's different at your dealer, but most around here wouldn't know what to do with most of my cars.
and don't get me started on the Parts Cannon jockeys.

 

[sota]

I have a couple of options for good shops that can do this work, recommended by work colleagues and friends. I have been calling around today and reading google reviews to figure out which shops have the best chance of doing this right the first time. I will probably make a decision tomorrow.

Please make sure whatever shop you chose will invest a little time into DEFINITIVELY determining the problem, rather than just going through the expense of pulling the head, only to find out it's trashed and took the piston/block with it.

 

[lfhoward]

Good advice

The shop that is currently at the top of my list is run by a friend of one of my work colleagues. He writes,

Yes we can do that. would need to check it out and make sure That is what is wrong with it. then give you a price to fix it.

Sounds like the right approach to me.

 

[derekj]

I get it though.
a shop needs to make money.
you're always trying to maximize profits.
if the numbers say, don't take on the Big Jobs if you want to make the best profit, then you don't take them on.
plus to make the numbers work, you have to charge more.
now you get pissed off people when you give them a big number, and even if they pay you they're still disgruntled.

maybe it's different at your dealer, but most around here wouldn't know what to do with most of my cars.
and don't get me started on the Parts Cannon jockeys.

Most of my career has been working in independent shops where we didn't turn work away unless we were just too busy or the car was a real pos. So coming into a dealer environment after that was a bit of a shock. Usually dealers don't like working on anything that is more than 10 years old, but this shop had a bit of a bad rep in town before I came on board, so my goal is to turn that around and if that means we have to bust out the torches and the air hammer I'm all for it! Plus we are a smaller town land locked by ferries on either side so word spreads quick if someone isn't happy.

 

[Billwill]

My battery is dead again.

What year/model is your Jeep and how new is the battery?
What actions have you taken so far as regards this problem?

 

[Luke]

Most of my career has been working in independent shops where we didn't turn work away unless we were just too busy or the car was a real pos. So coming into a dealer environment after that was a bit of a shock. Usually dealers don't like working on anything that is more than 10 years old, but this shop had a bit of a bad rep in town before I came on board, so my goal is to turn that around and if that means we have to bust out the torches and the air hammer I'm all for it! Plus we are a smaller town land locked by ferries on either side so word spreads quick if someone isn't happy.

Fixin’ rigs out there in Blubber Bay?

 

[sota]

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starting at 2:52 (in case it doesn't translate on the link correctly) is exactly why some shops turn away complex work.
never mind a problem like @lfhoward 's probably isn't going to be solved all in-house...
there's probably a machine shop involved for the head.
various possibly not frequent used parts vendors involved.
heterogenous timing jobs aren't common at a lot of independent shops any longer. (aka, someone there probably could do a SBC in their sleep, but toss anything else at them and it's like greek.)
then if it doesn't go right, who's at fault? now you got a bunch of places pointing fingers, and again a pissed off customer.

heck one of my major reasons for disliking auto transmissions is, the ridiculous hit or miss nature of them doing good work. don't even get me started about the sh*t show that was the AA *honk* *honk* mco chain shop near my mom's house. Used to be a parts runner and paint mixer for a local independent parts supplier, and the number of fails that ****** shop had... their numbers would have been marginal as a baseball stat.

sadly, the auto repair is a dying industry. replacement parts are crap (dorman) if they exist at all. repairs are complicated. prices are sky high. skilled people are retiring and replacements aren't coming into the industry. car manufacturers are making it damn near impossible to fix even the simplest things without it being an engine out job, and are making components out of the stupidest of materials.

and with that, i'm off to see if I can't fix the clock spring in the #2 silver liberty, as I really don't want to spend $120 on one.

 

[Johnny O]

Started the spare tire delete. What should have been a simple pop and swap has become a multi-day project due to my deeply conditioned requirements for Mil-Spec wiring connections.

Am absolutely shocked at the flimsy nature of the factory mount...and the poor quality standards for parts of the harness exposed to the elements. More evidence of how low standards have become in American manufacturing. Don't know who inspector 415 is, but they should be fired.

 

[ltd02]

Probably inspected Friday afternoon around 3pm

 

[lfhoward]

Got it down to one of two shops to do the cylinder head R&R. Waiting for additional info from one shop and then we can get this Jeep back on the road.

 

[Johnny O]

First time in history I actually had to plug a tire... Of course it happens the day after I pulled the spare off the swing gate.
I kid you not, this has never happened to me before.

Good news is I got the delete done-ish.
Will wire up the mini light bar reverse, running and sequential turn circuits at some point in the future. Third brake light and plate illumination bolts look great.

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Edit: No, I ain't worried about the plate number being visible. I am just easy to find as everyone else these days. Thanks to those that messaged.

 

[Jeremy-WI]

First time in history I actually had to plug a tire... Of course it happens the day after I pulled the spare off the swing gate.
I kid you not, this has never happened to me before.

Good news is I got the delete done-ish.
Will wire up the mini light bar reverse, running and sequential turn circuits at some point in the future. Third brake light and plate illumination bolts look great.

You must be registered for see images attach

I plugged tires on my uncles Chevy truck and Jeep Cherokee in the same week, both objects bearly made it through the tire, one appeared to be a rusted drywall screw and the other may have been a fancy thumbtack

 

[derekj]

Fixin’ rigs out there in Blubber Bay?

Close - Powell River

 

[sota]

hey I got my water back.

 

[CherokeeLiberty]

I stopped at the hardware store after work and couldn’t not take a picture.

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[Johnny O]

My months long tire fiasco has finally come to an end. Khan had three 285s and two 265s KO2s on when I bought it. Didn't like them much. Then I put 4 285 toyo AT3s on and hated em- great for Bert, lousy for Khan. Then I got a second full set of Rubicon wheels.
Last night I put a full set of 285s of the new BF Goodrich KO3s on.

They are perfect. All the goodness of the KO2s with less road noise.

So Toyos around town and KO3s for adventure mode.

Win-Win.

 

[lfhoward]

Glad to hear a good review of the KO3’s. I have KO2’s on my rig now and at 50,000 miles they are pretty loud.

 

[lfhoward]

I have some preliminary info from the engine shop about my 3.7. Good news is there is no damage to the cylinder/piston in #5 where the valve spring broke this time. However, other valve springs on both sides of the engine are getting weak also and one on the other side is very weak and is about to break. So we basically need to fix both sides. That entails pulling and refurbishing both cylinder heads. They would probably replace the timing chain and/or tensioners to make sure that the engine runs smoothly and keeps time. The timing cover and chain would have to be off anyways to remove the heads. But Jeepy has been noisy at idle lately especially when cold started. Lash/play in the valves etc. can explain that.

I will get an estimate shortly and then I can make the call on whether to go ahead. This is going to be