Topic: I Hate Jeeps

[stan98tj]

well, i loved them actually, used to...until i finally bought one and realized what unreliable, poorly built hunks of crap they really are. bought a 98 tj for $5500, runs for a week and dies. needs a new engine which will run me about 3k after all the work is done. shoulda seen it comin when i read up online on the opinion polls which boasted about 65% customer disatisfaction with their jeeps. i read all the horror stories about the money pits they were and the endless problems and i told myself, that won't be me. i always loved these vehicles but the bottom line is that they are what they are, poorly built, unreliable chrysler products....if i had the money i woulda bought a defender 90 lol
and i type all this as i ready myself to purchase a new engine for it, partly because its worth about $700 right now, partly because my pride is crushed, and partly because somewhere deep down i believe maybe, just maybe this can work...of course i expect a multitude of problems in the future. But maybe by then ill be able to afford a defender...cant go wrong with them, they won 20yrs worth of camel trophies afterall.

[oldjeep]

Don't know what to say, other than I currently own 2 jeeps with 130,000 miles on one and 170,000 on the other.

You want a POS that eats parts, then the defender is a great choice.

[neale_rs]

I'm sure yours was an isolated case of bad luck.  Jeeps last a long time and are fairly reliable despite the thrashings we give them.  Hang in there and you just might come full circle to likeing Jeeps again.

[Jeffy]

Seeing as it's a '98 and you bought it for $5500, you had to have known there could be problems.  New, that Jeep should have cost over twice that.  $3000 is still a small price to pay for buying used.

So how'd it die?  Punched a hole through the cylinder wall?  I'd imagine if it was the rings you'd have noticed the smoke when you bought it.

Either buy a new or reman block and rebuild it or find a NOS engine from Omni-Ada and drop it in and have many trouble free miles.

[aw12345]

As far as Landrovers go they are for ever breaking pieces of junk. I remember when I worked for a British leyland/ rover dealer in Holland some people bought a new landrover to travel through the Sahara. The new pieve of junk broke so much they sold it after 6 months bought a Volkswagen bus and took their changes with that in the sand.
British cars and reliability never went real well in the same sentence

[dexetr30]

Hmmm, join a Jeep forum to bash the Jeep you just bought? Sorry you got such a bad deal but you got what you paid for. I bought mine with 56K on it for $15,000 and it's got over 80K on it now with no problems. Routine maintenance is important. Maybe the p.o. Didn't take care of it. Get it rebuilt and take care of it and I'm sure your mind will change.

[chardrc]

ok my family has
cj2a (no motor in it but 4.3lv6 in garage waiting for time to install)
49 cj3a
90 yj (mine)
97 grand Cherokee
2003 grand cherokee
2006 tj rubicon
2008 jk rubicon unlimited
 and we have had praticaly no problems with any of them. except the cj3a after we had it 3 inches over the floorboards with water and didn't change the oil fast enough th yj has 159k on it and the 97gc has 160k and both have had nothing but rutiene matinence to them. you must have gotten a fluk. and usually they are money pits because you cant stop putting more upgrades on them.

[omnisi]

well, i loved them actually, used to...until i finally bought one and realized what unreliable, poorly built hunks of crap they really are. bought a 98 tj for $5500, runs for a week and dies. needs a new engine which will run me about 3k after all the work is done. shoulda seen it comin when i read up online on the opinion polls which boasted about 65% customer disatisfaction with their jeeps. i read all the horror stories about the money pits they were and the endless problems and i told myself, that won't be me. i always loved these vehicles but the bottom line is that they are what they are, poorly built, unreliable chrysler products....if i had the money i woulda bought a defender 90 lol
and i type all this as i ready myself to purchase a new engine for it, partly because its worth about $700 right now, partly because my pride is crushed, and partly because somewhere deep down i believe maybe, just maybe this can work...of course i expect a multitude of problems in the future. But maybe by then ill be able to afford a defender...cant go wrong with them, they won 20yrs worth of camel trophies afterall.

Sorry for your trouble, but that can happen in any used vehicle purchase when the vehicle wasnt check out well beforehand.... and sometimes , even when it is.

Ask for help, or sing your sad song somewhere else.  Ive been pouring $$ into Jeeps for 20 yrs, sometimes out of 'need', but mostly out of 'want'....

We (I) do it because we like it.   Its supposed to be FUN, and its definitely not an investment...

YMMV

[brian674]

BAN!!!!!.....I'm sure that there is another site somewhere that this guy can wine about his problems on, I'd rather listen to people who really have a serious desire to be a Jeeper that some guys who just wants to complain.


    

[dexetr30]

BAN!!!!!.....I'm sure that there is another site somewhere that this guy can wine about his problems on, I'd rather listen to people who really have a serious desire to be a Jeeper that some guys who just wants to complain.


    

X2. He can go here: http://www.landroverforums.com/

[stan98tj]

sure, ban me lol. i don't care. i still love em and always will. but loving a car as a kid and dreamin about it is far different than owning one. and i did the research before hand and i knew they tended to be money pits and i knew many people complained about multiple problems..but i still bought one cause i loved em...and i still do, otherwise id of towed it to the guy who i bought it from set it on fire and left it on his lawn...instead im buyin it a new engine....and as for rovers....well i cant argue with 20 yrs straight winning the camel trophies....an event jeep tried for the first time and failed...but thats really not important.  it's getting a new engine and im ready for more problems (by the way, the #4 piston blew-thats what started this) and i decided to vent...cause being a student doesnt allow me to spend much money here and there so i guess there was a bit of desperation somewhere in my comments...take it how ya want

[garydubf]

I'm guessing that being a student means you can't afford a Land Rover!  So you went bargain Jeep shopping   Shame on you!  My 2000 Tj has 113k on her and still Blue Books for $8000.  ($5000 for your purchase and $3000 for a new engine=$8000 )  Sounds like somebody new exactly what they were selling and you researched the wrong data!  Complain some where else, like at a" I got screwed by the guy who sold me a rig he never took care of " forum!  I think that there are support groups out there for people like you.

[Jesse-James]

Please correct me if I'm wrong here but it sounds like you bought a Jeep that sounded too good to be true only to find out that it was. Then you replaced the #4 piston without finding out what the problem was that caused the lean condition in that cylinder. Then you took it to a dealer to get an engine swap done? And you're mad at the Jeep?

I think it's time to step back and take a good look at how you got to this point and the decisions you made and stop blaming the Jeep.

[stan98tj]

to respond to jesse-james: when you have a half inch hole in the top of your #4 piston and the spark plug to that cyl is blown apart, i think it is a clear indicator to replace it. no one could tell me the cause of it. dealerships and mechanics checked all sensors and it all came back good. they even thought the fuel pump was shot. but in the end the jeep dealership looked at it for a day and found the compressions to be way under norm and fuel pump/sensors to be just fine.  engine needs to be replaced. and i plan on replacing it. but the jeep only has 85,000 miles on it...sorry if i expected the engine to last a bit longer.

[dexetr30]

The fact that the dealership didn't find a reason does not mean that one doesn't exists. It's like spontaneous human combustion. Nobody can pinpoint a reason for it but it happens... doesn't it? I don't think your Jeep experienced spontaneous (without a reason) cylinder blowout, did it?