2001 Xj Opinion

[kobrien]

Im in the market for an XJ because my Dak bit the dust a couple weeks ago.. I drove by carmart a little while ago and saw this jeep there. What i know from just looking at it. it is a 2001 Sport. has almost brand new Discoverer ATR tires which are small.. they are 215's. paint looks really good there is some scratches here and there which im not worried about. there is a little bit of surface rust on it. looks like the trip might have fallen off on the driver side door so the PO put some drywall screws on it to fix it (stupid) It looks like it leaks oil but the only place i can figure is from the drain plug (easy fix) in between the tranny and the oil pan is a little bit of oil and i think that might have happened because the drain plug is leaking and when driving and the oil blows up on to it from the wind (sound possible?) I couldn't actually look at the motor because the jeep was locked. if someone knows how to get the hood up without going inside that's be awesome to know! from what i could find out is in Dec it had 77K miles on it. the way i found that out was i could see the oil change sticker and it was dated for 12/6/10 and it said 77,111 so probably close to 80K by now. I went to KBB it says suggested retail is $8550, does this look like a 8500 jeep to yall? but sorry for the long post... here are pictures of it.

(crappy cell phone pics)

 

[bob91yj]

Check for a rear main seal leaking (almost guaranteed), and check the motor mounts, especially the driver side (again, almost guaranteed to be cracked/broken). Both of those can be used to your advantage when bargaining the price.

Price seems a little high to me.

 

[Hill Bill E.]

Looks more like a $6K XJ to me.

KBB says $8K+, but they made so many XJ's, that they are all over the place for sale.

The oil leak, chances are good it's not the plug.

The 4.0L are known to leak from 2 places, the rear main, and the oil filter adapter.

Since the oil is running down between the pan and tranny, my guess is that the rear main is starting to go. (usually do around 100K miles)

Not a bad job if you have to tools and can wrench.

Rust is also common. Can't tell where on the XJ that pic is??

They tend to rust on the roof, where the pillars from the windshield attatch, and around the bottoms of the rear windows.

And if you're in an area that uses road salt, the rockers and fllorpans rust bad.

In '00 and '01, they had some problems with head's cracking, although I don't know what the casting #'s are for the bad heads. Probably find that info out on NAXJA.

XJ's are reliable, and if maintained well, it's easy to get 200-300K miles out of the 4.0L engine and AW4 transmission.

 

[kobrien]

Check for a rear main seal leaking (almost guaranteed), and check the motor mounts, especially the driver side (again, almost guaranteed to be cracked/broken). Both of those can be used to your advantage when bargaining the price.

Price seems a little high to me.

to check the main seal do i just look between the tranny and the oil pan from? as for the mounts im going to check those here in a little bit and then take some better pictures to post up. The price I have is what KBB says for it I have no idea what carmart wants because its on the side lot and doesnt have a sticker on it yet.

Looks more like a $6K XJ to me.

KBB says $8K+, but they made so many XJ's, that they are all over the place for sale.

The oil leak, chances are good it's not the plug.

The 4.0L are known to leak from 2 places, the rear main, and the oil filter adapter.

Since the oil is running down between the pan and tranny, my guess is that the rear main is starting to go. (usually do around 100K miles)

Not a bad job if you have to tools and can wrench.

Rust is also common. Can't tell where on the XJ that pic is??

They tend to rust on the roof, where the pillars from the windshield attatch, and around the bottoms of the rear windows.

And if you're in an area that uses road salt, the rockers and fllorpans rust bad.

In '00 and '01, they had some problems with head's cracking, although I don't know what the casting #'s are for the bad heads. Probably find that info out on NAXJA.

XJ's are reliable, and if maintained well, it's easy to get 200-300K miles out of the 4.0L engine and AW4 transmission.

how much would you think those repairs would run? besides the head. I Know that if that cracks then you need a new engine. and for the rust it all looks like that one picture of where the paint is chipped. its nothing to serious looks like a little bit of surface rust. ill have more pics in a little bit. the pic of the rust is the passanger side rear window.

 

[kobrien]

I checks the motor mounts and from what i could see they looked good. I took a bunch of pics of under the jeep. the pic between the tranny and oil pan isnt that great. if theres anymore pics you want to see to see if everyone looks half way decent just let me know and ill try to get them.

 

[kobrien]

im on the jeepforum too and they are saying that the rust under the little gutter is because it was in a major accident and for me to walk away from it... does that sound right?

 

[BKCowGod]

That 9 year old jeep has more rust than my 30 year old Alfa Romeo. Ruuuuun!

 

[kobrien]

That 9 year old jeep has more rust than my 30 year old Alfa Romeo. Ruuuuun!

That sucks... because it looked really good to me. I didnt think surface rust like that would be such a big problem.

 

[bob91yj]

I'd pass on that one. Nothing to make it stand out from any other XJ, plenty of rust free XJ's out there. D35 rear axle in that one is the least desireable of the XJ offerings.

 

[kobrien]

that sucks. I did find a rough XJ today that had the select-trac in it. they wanted 1400 for it and it was pretty rough.

 

[AeroSynch]

That's not a D35, that is an 8.25 which is good. However, for that price and condition, I would pass. Best year to look for is 1999.

I have a 1999 XJ Limited.

It was $3170 registered out the door with taxes etc. 128K when I got it. Currently at 132K, and trouble free so far. Only oil changes and air filter.

 

[kobrien]

I wish i could find something like that at a dealer.

 

[bob91yj]

I should have looked closer, and remembered the year. I saw the rubber plug, jumped to the D35 conclusion.

 

[kobrien]

I should have looked closer, and remembered the year. I saw the rubber plug, jumped to the D35 conclusion.

At first when you said it was a D35 i thought it didnt sound right. When I saw it i thought it was the 8.25. but I dont know that much about jeeps to second guess you lol.

 

[BKCowGod]

I wish i could find something like that at a dealer.

Why you sticking to dealers? Private party is enough savings that you could easily afford the cost of a pre-purchase inspection...