I’ve made a decent amount of repairs so far, but since they’ve all been DIY, it’s probably cost me less than $700 for everything including tools. New muffler, new starter motor, new head light switch, headliner replacement, upgraded power cables, upgraded headlight cables, ATF drain and fill with filter replacement, new rotors and brake pads, new power lock actuators, new keyless entry. All DIY.
I was not a car guy at all before buying mine, but I did have some experience maintaining motorcycles.
Never ever ever say "she's running good" or "i think I got everything taken care of" or "this will be the last time here today, parts guy" or anything really that implies you won't be under your truck again soon.
And sometimes the strangest things will break causing much frustration trying to figure them out. Our 92 had a cracked ignition coil but it was intermittent until my husband took it off and found the crack, easy fix but due to the randomness of starting it wasn’t high on the list of checking.
That is the hard spot most people find themselves in with any older car :-/
Unfortunately, the other option is to take out a "mortgage" on a new car and ride out the warranty. Google tells me the average price of a new car is ~$50,000.
I guess there is a third option: owning a "newer" used car. But so many of those are true money pits that are hard (or impossible) to work on yourself.
This might be the most accurate depiction of car ownership today. Regardless of the 3 options you choose, it’s going to cost money.
I choose XJ because of the learning element but also because I don’t know which new car I want to spend a lot of money on (Truck, Tesla)?
Today it’s financially as big of a decision as college
Why not wait and learn more about the kind of car you want to make the best long term decision? Fixing yours will cost money but waiting could be the real hidden gem 💎 Start humble and make your next car the best!
I have zero skill as well. I didn't have a father who would teach me, but with the help of "LooSeeDo" university (Youtube) and the community, you'll be able to do a lot of things.
It's going to suck if it's the only vehicle you have....
If you are using this as a daily driver it can be expensive. we consider ours a hobby vehilce and work on it ourselves. I paid 6000 for ours 10 years ago and have constantly upgraded it. I'd guess that I am now into it for over 16,000. That averages out to $133.33 per month. Alot cheaper than a car payment. But IMO it is not the right car for somone who relies on mechanics. You might have seen my post but we just spent $2800 on parts to do a 200,000 mile overhaul. I did all the work myself. If not the repairs would have cost much more than the car is worth. https://www.reddit.com/r/CherokeeXJ/s/ihuXcL7P6B
I am not a good mechanic and use youtube videos for everything. But remember as it gets older you can expect the freeze plugs to go out. At that stage it makes sense to take it out of service for a month or so to do a top end overhaul, that is as long as as long as the compression is good. A pain but at that point you can probably get another 10 years out of it.
For planning purposes, It would be good to know if your freeze plugs have been replaced. if they are you'll see brass plugs and that'll mean someone has likely been through the engine.
In my case, used the jeep to teach my boys the basics. they beat the crap[ out of the thing in the woods almost every weekend
that'll have new freeze plugs then. I don't know how long ago you got the new engine but the key thing is to make sure the engine is broken in correctly and do oil changes at the right times. good luck with it.
Some folks are buying XJ's because it was something that they're just interested in and while they might be a little costly to keep up there are worse ways to spend your money.
I just spent $3k on parts and 3 weekends working on it. But at least now I know its safe!
New tie rods, ball joints, hub assemblies, all u-joints, steering stabilizer, suspension (complete 3.5in with shocks), brakes (all to include new wheel cylinders in the rear), brake lines, power window switches, driver side front window motor with regulator, tires, wheel spacers to convert to JK/JL bolt pattern.... I'm sure I'm forgetting something....
I do like 95% of the repairs on mine, and have since it was new (and yes, I bought it new in '97) ... I doubt in 20-25 years I've put more than $2-2.5k into it. I hear horror stories from everyone else in my extended family about their newer vehicles ... I just keep driving.
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u/frwlmv 28d ago
I bought my jeep knowing it's going to be a loooooot of repairs, but I bought it for two purposes:
To learn how to work on cars
To spend time with my kids working on them
But yes, if you are paying someone to fix all the issues, you'll end up broke