Some additions and repairs
I haven't posted anything in awhile, as there hasn't been much to report. But a few updates...
The Jeep has had a check engine light on since I got it home. Literally. I went to a dealer about 70 miles away to get it, drove it all the way home, and when I exited the highway about a mile from my house the CEL came on. I got it home, hooked up my scanner and it pulled a P0420 code. Bank 1 catalyst efficiency below threshold. That was at 76K and change on the clock, so still under federally mandated emissions warranty. I also have the extended warranty. I took it to my local dealer, Don Davis Jeep in Arlington. They had it for two and a half days, and I called down there and they hadn't done anything to it yet. I was MAD. I went down and picked it up, and the service guy said, "Well, the mechanic cleared out the CEL and drove it around for a few minutes and it didn't come back on." I replied with, "Yes, you ************** idiot! As I told you when I dropped it off, I cleared it out myself in my own driveway and it came back on about 40 miles later. That's why I brought it here. I told you most people report that the catalytic converter ultimately had to be replaced to fix the issue, so why have you wasted over two days of my time to do 10 minutes worth of stuff I already did myself?" They also said that there were no updates to the radio, when I knew that there were. I was super mad and left.
That was March of last year. I got not one but TWO firmware updates to my radio online and installed them myself\ that weekend. No updates available, my butt... But here I am almost a year later and my inspection and tags run out at the end of January, and even though I have a $100 deductible on the extended warranty, I didn't want to deal with Don Davis again. So over the weekend I paid a muffler shop $350 to replace the passenger side cat and was in and out in a little over an hour. It passed inspection today, so I'm good to go, and the remote start works again (it won't work if there's a CEL on).
Also, my wife was really great at Christmas and bought me a 2 gallon Rotopax gas can and their universal mounting plate. I added a 2-gallon water tank to it and some locks and up they went on the roof rack. I also picked up some XBull traction ramps, and those are up on the rack as well. Hopefully this Spring I can get my LED light pods mounted to the rack, a wiring harness built and installed, and my switches in the dash.
I also picked this up as a nice trail jack. It's a bottle jack with a wide base and a built-in safety jeck stand. It fits inside the spare tire/wheel and allows the floor panel to close fully!
https://www.amazon.com/Powerbuilt-620470-Unijack-4000-Capacity/dp/B00GJJZ5YC/ref=sr_1_1?srs=3039007011&ie=UTF8&qid=1485228685&sr=8-1&keywords=powerbuilt+unijack+4000
That's all for now!
It would be fantastic to see Mopar develop a Pentastar crate motor program self-contained engine management to retro into older XJ's and Wranglers.