My wife and I are looking around before figuring out what kind of vehicle(s) to get. We currently have a 10 year old boy and my wife will give birth to our 2nd son any day now. We plan on having one more in about 3 years.

So we are looking for 5 passenger vehicles. I'd much prefer go the route of a newer 5 passenger sedan for the fuel mileage since my wife has 2 years of school to go thru. And getting ourselves a mid to lates 90's Jeep Cherokee or similar 4 door SUV as the vacationer vehicle.
It will have to be an automatic and have power locks, windows and air conditioning. And I prefer the 4.0 to the 4cyl.

My questions are regarding Jeep Cherokee's:
1) How roomy are these years of Cherokees for travel, perhaps an 600 mile trip?

2) What kind of fuel mileage do these trucks get in 2wd form?

3) How about fuel mileage on a 4wd truck?

4) Besides the basic maintenance stuff and the well known cracking exhaust manifold and leaky valve cover, what problems do these trucks have?

5) Anything else?

Avoid the 89-93.5 - it has a bad cooling system - just look in the box and there
is a HIGH preasure bottle up on the left corner of the engine box - look for a XJ
with a radiator cap.

All six(s) need there oil pumps changed out between 100-150K OR ELSE...
The other accessories are cheap 220 for the AC, less than a hundred for
everything else. The hose kit for the XJ depending on the year costs alot
but you want to avoid those 89-93.5 ones anyway.

The six is a strong engine and if you maintaine it - it will last forever - I have one
with 265K and on it and it still runs.

Mileage on my XJ runs 17 around town and up to 20-22 on the road - depending on speed.

I'm not sure I'd call an XJ big - I have a crew cab truck with four doors and I use it
for long distance trips - not the jeep. Mostly I use mine for light off-roading
hunting and camping when I need to take alot of gear.


There are 2WD XJs - they are cheaper and get a little better mileage.

That being said - you can get a 95+ 4x4 - for under $2500
which is alot less than buying a new SUV for $35K+.

If you can wrench - you can save alot of cash -...

My mileage is very high - I have detailed my entire ignition
system and do great mainteance - most folk are lucky to get
15 around town.

quote:

Originally posted by azjeeper:

All six(s) need there oil pumps changed out between 100-150K OR ELSE...

Hi azjeeper;

The oil gauge on my 4.0l seems to wander around the scale at random - has been for some time.,

I kinda assumed it was the sender going AWOL, but do you recognise it as a symptom of a failing pump?

TIA - Steve

MyJeeps20.JPG (39 Kb, 2 downloads) Little and Large !

What kind of wandering - you should have at least 20 psi at idle and 40 running
at 55.

Sometimes the oil presure will pop to 75 for odd reasons - there are more filter failures
than I'd like to see - and this can cause their bypass valve to break and give either
a low or high reading.

I have been looking at 89-95 cherokees for the last two months and half of them
have oil pump failures 100-150K+.

If you were having a pump failure it tends to fade and the stop entirely.
If you have crud in the engine - slop - slime - metal parts - the oil
presure will surge sometimes.... Check your magnetic drain - and examine
your oil drain for stuff.

Do you have a magentic oil drain plug - if you do - have you been seeing metal
in the plug ??? If you don't have a magnetic drain - GET ONE .

Every once in a while I will take my magnetic pic-up and insert it into the
pan to see whats in there . One one of my older junkers - I get some supprising
stuff... Once fished out a metal shaving three inches long.

If for any reason you are in the pan - oil leak - main seal repacement - change out
you oil pump to a HIGH VOLUME unit. Get a high quality pan gasket if you are in there.

Thanks for that; as I have been running this for about 10k miles it gives me some hope it's not the pump. However, as its done 120k, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to do it anyway from what you originally posted!

What happens is, starting from cold is as normal, in that the gauge goes straight to the middle and stays there (maybe 3/4 of the way at idle after I've moved off).

Once it's warmed up and done a few miles - say 10 - and the revs drop, it will go back to the first mark; thereafter it will indicate anywhere between 10 - 40 psi virtually at random (although always low at idle). Re-starting when hot, will get nothing until fast idle at over 1500 for several seconds, then as above.

All this looks typical of a pump problem, except there always seems to be plenty of oil in the rocker box. Puzzling to me, suppose I should at least get a pressure test. Steve

That kind of action would have me worried - I'd test it ASAP - and if I was
in the pan I'd just change it.

I never like any oil presure that is lower than twenty. I always put the
high volume pumps in - my 90 has 240K and still pulls 38-40 psi at idle
the high volume pump and the twin oil filters got it there.

I see alot of sixes with oil presures below 20 at idle - 17-20 - with 150K
miles on them - I think they are all suspect.

Cheers for that az; it's weird because it started happening suddenly, having previously been fine. It's as if the filter is intermittently blocking - except that it was exactly the same after I changed oil and filter last time.

My idle pressure has always dropped towards 10 since I got it at 88k, but I think you're right that it would be sensible to investigate ot I might end up with a major rebuild/replacement!

Thanks for your advice - Steve

I just pulled the pan and oil pump on my 250K XJ - the main seal and the pan
gasket were shot - there was over two table spoons full of debree in the oil
filter and in the bottom of the pan. Normal for one this old.

To take the pan out you need to pull most - or all of the axle - so the pan
can be reomoved easily. Get a high quality gasket and do the main seal also.


And I have 38-40 psi oil preasure - guess what you have with 10 ?

Cheers az;

Having hijacked the thread, I ought to put back on-topic:

HighDesertRanger; how are you geting on in your search? The back of a Cherokee's fine for kids, but not much space for adults.

High-jack away - this thread seems to be dead anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by HighDesertRanger:
1) How roomy are these years of Cherokees for travel, perhaps an 600 mile trip?

I had an '87 XJ a few years back, bone stock, it was our family hauler/daily driver. Plenty of room for me, wife, 2 boys, and our boxer if we used the roof rack for our luggage. My only complaint about ours(and maybe they changed it on newer models)was that the accelerator and brake pedal was offset slightly to the left from the seat which kept me sitting at a slight twist, really aggravated already existing lower back problems on long trips(300 miles or more). That's my only complaint about my old XJ, it was a great vehicle, never should've sold it. We got it with 60k on it and sold it with 225K and it consistently got 16-18 around town and 20-25 on trips. IMHO, I'd look at WJ's, their price is coming down(at least around here). My wife has a '00 WJ w/4.0 and it's great, more room, more comfort on long trips, and better fuel economy than our old XJ. We bought it with 50k on it and it now has 155k on it, it's been a great vehicle for us.

Back to the low oil pressure - I had the problem, ignored it and bought a new engine for my trouble. I found out it was not the gage, it was the bypass in a cheap filter failing. I cooked the rods and had to change out the engine. Change to a premium filter and if that doesn't do it quickly, then check the pump, or remove valve cover and check valve seals.

The failure of a twenty cent bypass valve is a filter is a know issue - we have talked about it here on the boards many times - sorry you had to learn the hard way.

One of the other unique ways to toast an engine is for the user to put one of those aluminum seal from a oil can into the valve cover and have it
lodge in the oil drain in the head - killing the
cam under the drain ... Found that last month.

The oil pump on the six should be changed any time the pan is off and or at 75-100K with a
high volume pump.

I credit some of the 250K engines I have with dual filters and new oil pumps.

One of the things I did not realise when I put the dual filter setup on my six was that it had an
independant oil bypass setup - so if I had a fitler that failed it would bypass and go to
the second filter and then if that one failed it
would hit another mechanical bypass and still run the oil.

Even with good high quality filters this can happen - with the dual filters the chances of it happending to two filters is amost impossible.

I monitor my oil preasure and watch the oil
all the time - and change oil and fitler before
any major off-road trip.

Since the rear seal and/or the main pan seal on
all old six die - I always put a new oil pump in
and really clean the pan.

Added a magnetic drain plug and magnetic oil
filter bands also.

Well I finally decided to retire Rusty - my XJ with 300K on it - same engine - the AC died and I
don't want to put $300 more into him...

Since he is worth about two tanks of gas I figure
I have worked every penny of GO-JEEP I can out of
him.

I'm thinking - custom hybrid jeep - with a target of 35 mpg ...

sry to cut in the hyjack lol..

2 kids alone was enough for me to sell my xj for lack of room. as a second less frequently used vehicle it may work but it wasn't enough room for us to take a vacation with...

but i drive a tj for the second vehicle and for hauling 2 kids without much gear it works fine and an xj is even better.

you can now return to the regularly scheduled hyjack...

I had the same problem with the XJ size - when I got my first one
I got it for the room - but I found that it was just not that big
and I ended up using my F-250 for most of my big trips - if you are
driving to Alaska - do you go in an XJ or a F-250 SD ? No big choise
there - I dieseled to Alaska twice - but the XJ has been a supper
cheap jeep for me - I don't remember paying more than 150 for any part
every and it is stupid simple to fix .

Since I live in rock crawler zone I need a frame so after this one is gone
I am moving to an LJ for crawling and a Duramax for recovery and long trips.
Run a Prius for around town stuff - until I figure out how to get a diesel
in the LJ.