What do the vents on 97-02 hardtops do?

Zedd

TJ Enthusiast
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Sep 8, 2019
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Portland, OR
What do they even do? I have a 2002 but my hard top doesnt have the vents. Was wondering what they did anyway...
 
The vents make it easier to close the doors by allowing air to escape. Your hardtop may be from a 2003-2006 model, which relocated the vent to the tailgate behind the spare tire carrier.
 
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Flow through ventilation and they help the doors close more easily when the windows are up. Not to mention easier on your ears. Early TJs had the vents on the hard top, 2003 and newer moved the vent to the tailgate.
 
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The vents make it easier to close the doors by allowing air to escape. Your hardtop may be from a 2003-2006 model, which relocated the vent to the tailgate behind the spare tire carrier.

Meaning that I probably don’t have this vent behind the tailgate?
 
Venting moisture. Switch on the recirculate function on a cool moist day and the windows fog up since there is no air exchange and moisture in the air builds up. Switch to the defrost function and air comes in thru the cowl vent under the windshield and out the rear vent. The recirculate function is only meant to be used if running the air conditioning.

They moved the rear vent to the tailgate since the soft top does not have the vent behind the rear side windows.
 
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The vents also help with buffeting when you have only one window open/partially open. Unlike sedans when only the driver rolls down the window and everyone else blows their eardrums. I think that's what @Jerry Bransford meant bely easier on the ears
 
That doesn’t make any sense. Why would vents on the backside of a hardtop determine the loudness of front doors closing?
Not loudness, air pressure against your ear drums as the air compresses inside while shutting the doors. It's very noticeable when all the windows are shut and the top is air tight.
 
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That doesn’t make any sense. Why would vents on the backside of a hardtop determine the loudness of front doors closing?

It allows air movement when shutting doors. If you've ever tried shutting the door on an old vehicle that lacked any sort of vent, you'll feel a pretty good amount of pressure when you attempt to shut the door.
 
Even the newer TJs with the vented tailgate have more air pressure shutting the full doors with the hard top on. If you crack the window down a tad, much easier to close the door. My wife was constantly having to open the door after the first attempt and shut it again, harder, with the hard top on. Then she continued to practically slam the door all the time, even with the soft top, when the doors would close easily.
 
Last week I replaced my heater fan and resistor. Fan works great now, although there is a big jump between the first 3 speed settings and the 4th (fastest). I wonder if that is normal? There is not enough difference between the first 3 speeds, and then on 4th speed it is blasting. Would be nice to have more intermediate speed. (Note: my jeep has the early style 4 speed knob with sliders.)

Also I have a hardtop without vents, on a 1998 TJ without tailgate vent. I can attest the doors are more difficult to close. If I crank the window down a bit, then the doors are much more easy to close. Also running the heater fan full blast with one of the windows cranked down a sliver, I can feel air streaming out the window. That tells me with the windows closed, there might not be enough openings in the Jeep to allow air out as the new heated air enters the cabin.

I am betting my heater would work better if the old air had a place to go (via the standard exit vents that are missing in my case).