87Warrior
GP'er
I owned a very nice ’06 WK for about 3 years. It was by far the most comfortable Jeep I had ever had (in comparison to my history with YJ, XJ, TJ, and MJ). The ride was great, the 5.7 Hemi power was phenomenal and the QDII with ELSD seemed to work well. The leather seats were firm yet comfortable, the stock stereo was easy to listen to and the dual climate control worked much better than any of the WJ’s I had been around. We bought this Jeep at 55K miles and was to be the replacement car for my wife who was driving an aging Camry.
I put 25K miles on the WK in the 3 years we owned it. After 1 year of ownership issues started to arise. I had to replace the radiator twice (both Mopar), replace the spark plugs (16 of them threw me for a curve) and replace the EGR valve (this was very frustrating). Since we were planning to keep the WK for many years, I changed the differential and transfercase fluid and flushed the power steering/hydraulic fan fluid. The WK came equipped with the factory tow package so I attempted to pull a small utility trailer and found the trailer noise through the unibody to be unbearable, far worse than an XJ (which I pulled the same trailer with).
Around the 2nd year or ownership we received the N23 recall notice. Since my wife was driving the WK more and more, we decided to quickly jump on the recall (she doesn’t start vehicles with her foot on the brake). The WK spent a lot of time at the dealership following the N23 programing because it would not shift into 4-low. My wife started to express disgust in the visibility around the A pillars and lack of storage within the drivers reach.
The dealership finally seemed to get the N23 bugs worked out with a new wire harness and maybe a P73 recall as we turned over year 3 of ownership. The WK was going into 4-low no problem in the driveway so my wife and I loaded up for a trip to the San Juans. At the base of Cinnamon Pass the blasted thing wouldn’t go into 4-low again. I knew pulling the FDCM fuse would temporarily let me use 4-low, but the worry of the WK being stuck in 4-low was constantly in the back of my mind. We ran a few of the roads in the San Juans and the WK creaked and popped anytime the road was not level. This trip was the straw that broke me. I sold the WK and my wife’s Camry, bought her a GMC Acadia and myself a Land Cruiser. I still have a TJ and MJ, but the WK left me with discontent for modern Jeeps that I haven’t been able to shake.
I put 25K miles on the WK in the 3 years we owned it. After 1 year of ownership issues started to arise. I had to replace the radiator twice (both Mopar), replace the spark plugs (16 of them threw me for a curve) and replace the EGR valve (this was very frustrating). Since we were planning to keep the WK for many years, I changed the differential and transfercase fluid and flushed the power steering/hydraulic fan fluid. The WK came equipped with the factory tow package so I attempted to pull a small utility trailer and found the trailer noise through the unibody to be unbearable, far worse than an XJ (which I pulled the same trailer with).
Around the 2nd year or ownership we received the N23 recall notice. Since my wife was driving the WK more and more, we decided to quickly jump on the recall (she doesn’t start vehicles with her foot on the brake). The WK spent a lot of time at the dealership following the N23 programing because it would not shift into 4-low. My wife started to express disgust in the visibility around the A pillars and lack of storage within the drivers reach.
The dealership finally seemed to get the N23 bugs worked out with a new wire harness and maybe a P73 recall as we turned over year 3 of ownership. The WK was going into 4-low no problem in the driveway so my wife and I loaded up for a trip to the San Juans. At the base of Cinnamon Pass the blasted thing wouldn’t go into 4-low again. I knew pulling the FDCM fuse would temporarily let me use 4-low, but the worry of the WK being stuck in 4-low was constantly in the back of my mind. We ran a few of the roads in the San Juans and the WK creaked and popped anytime the road was not level. This trip was the straw that broke me. I sold the WK and my wife’s Camry, bought her a GMC Acadia and myself a Land Cruiser. I still have a TJ and MJ, but the WK left me with discontent for modern Jeeps that I haven’t been able to shake.