An opinion on TJ SE models

On YouTube there is a channel callled TFL Car and they featured an SE. They seemed to have a good run with it, both on and off road. Their videos are kinda long and unprofessional though. Still, a good review overall of an SE. I would definetly consider one, especially b/c TJ’s are so expensive, it’d nice to save a few grand on one if I can.
 
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Adalynn said:
I have a 99 Wrangler with the 4 banger and it has done everything I’ve wanted it to for the approximate 8 years I’ve owned. I explored with a 48 Jeep in high school with a 4 banger and it took me everywhere. I specifically chose the 4 banger knowing my Jeep was for exploring and being in the woods. My Jeep is pretty simple and will stay that way because it meets my needs. A winch because I got stuck once in the snow (too old to keep digging out, not smart enough to stay out of the deep stuff) and a 2” lift with 31” tires. Of course aftermarket stereo and sound bar to listen to classic rock. The goal of owning my Jeep is to have fun and the Jeep always makes me smile, even with a 4 banger.
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Classic rock RULES!! Our rock heros have less hair, but so do we...and they totally ROCK!
80064



On subject, there are always SE's available 'round our neck of the woods and some are built out quite nicely, usually within reason, and they always go for 3 to 4 thousand less than a comparable Sport or X. If you don't need the 4.0 street guts, an SE buy can be a real deal.
 
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Greenmachine said:
On YouTube there is a channel callled TFL Car and they featured an SE. They seemed to have a good run with it, both on and off road. Their videos are kinda long and unprofessional though. Still, a good review overall of an SE. I would definetly consider one, especially b/c TJ’s are so expensive, it’d nice to save a few grand on one if I can.
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I've actually enjoyed that series quite a bit. It's a bit amateurish at times but that is part of what appeals to me about it; more real-world "I don't have an unlimited bank account or a ton of sponsors to build my jeep (i.e. Dirt Every Day)" and less "here's what you can do if you Richie Rich". Also like the Father & Son aspect.
 
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TJ Hunnicutt said:
Classic rock RULES!! Our rock heros have less hair, but so do we...and they totally ROCK!
View attachment 80064


On subject, there are always SE's available 'round our neck of the woods and some are built out quite nicely, usually within reason, and they always go for 3 to 4 thousand less than a comparable Sport or X. If you don't need the 4.0 street guts, an SE buy can be a real deal.
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Just hit me that was Mark Knopfler.
Great musician.


I can see being put down for having a 4 Cyl. as being offensive.

If it's a TJ , thus is the TJ forum , not the TJ my engine is bigger than yours so you are a fool Forum.

This reminds me of the wife who told her husband not to cry , it was ok to have a small penis.

He said , I know , I just wish you didn't have one at all .

(Hope Chris doesn't shoot me for that)
 
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AndyG said:
Just hit me that was Mark Knopfler.
Great musician.


I can see being put down for having a 4 Cyl. as being offensive.

If it's a TJ , thus is the TJ forum , not the TJ my engine is bigger than yours so you are a fool Forum.

This reminds me of the wife who told her husband not to cry , it was ok to have a small penis.

He said , I know , I just wish you didn't have one at all .

(Hope Chris doesn't shoot me for that)
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Knopfler it is, sir. One of my faves. And, BTW, that was way too funny!
 
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I have a 2.5. 35s with 5.13 gears. Cruises down the freeway at 70. I’ve done 80 plenty of times. Don’t recommend it with the “parachute” tube fenders I have. Mountain passes,sure it’s slower. If you put 33-35 tires on any TJ and expect it to excel at Daily driving you probably will be disappointed. I never really paid attention or noticed the bias. In this thread alone there is bias against engines and tire size.
Folks say 31-32 are all you need. That depends on where and how you use YOUR jeep. How well would 31s fair On the tougher trails Johnson Valley? Everyone has different needs and expectations of what their Jeep needs to be and do. Just don’t assume what fits your own needs and expectations is what suites everyone else’s.
A V8 is not going to get me over the next obstacle nor is more gearing going to make my 2.5 an ideal highway commuter.
Build it, mod it, make it your own.
It all just very silly, just go enjoy your own dang Jeep!!!!
 
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Gollywomper said:
I have a 2.5. 35s with 5.13 gears. Cruises down the freeway at 70. I’ve done 80 plenty of times. Don’t recommend it with the “parachute” tube fenders I have. Mountain passes,sure it’s slower. If you put 33-35 tires on any TJ and expect it to excel at Daily driving you probably will be disappointed. I never really paid attention or noticed the bias. In this thread alone there is bias against engines and tire size.
Folks say 31-32 are all you need. That depends on where and how you use YOUR jeep. How well would 31s fair On the tougher trails Johnson Valley? Everyone has different needs and expectations of what their Jeep needs to be and do. Just don’t assume what fits your own needs and expectations is what suites everyone else’s.
A V8 is not going to get me over the next obstacle nor is more gearing going to make my 2.5 an ideal highway commuter.
Build it, mod it, make it your own.
It all just very silly, just go enjoy your own dang Jeep!!!!
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X2! Choose your build for the purpose.

At the other end of the spectrum is the daily driver that only see's the odd gravel bush road. The bias I take issue with is the assumption that every TJ has to be trail-ready modded out judging from the standard replies I see in this forum. Wheel and tire advice especially. An SE was designed with a standard tire size of 205/75R15 (27" tall) and the 4-cyl can hold it's own quite well. Going up in size to the 215/75R15 (27.6") or another factory option, the 225/75R15 (28.3") and the 4 starts to suffer somewhat. I notice a big difference in the seat-dyno just dropping from 225 to 215.

My SE see's series miles every day. It performs quite well in our mountainous BC roads up 6 and 8% hills. It flies around corners and lane changes. One important factor seemingly glossed over is the effect of tire weight away from the center axis. IF you could find a larger tire/wheel combination vs stock with the exact same weight, it will be more resistant to steering input changes the faster you go. There's also a penalty to be paid in acceleration albeit small but perceptible. Gearing changes will not compensate for these effects.

For the performance minded, these things are important. For the ego driven, maybe not so much.
 
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Funny I bet you do not see this discussion much on a Toyota pickup forum.

I am also a member of the four angry squirrels club. Drove it up the Alcan when I moved to Alaska and it has wheeled some of the best trails that Alaska has to offer. Yep it lacks power and I cannot always generate enough wheel speed for deep mud or be in any hurry on the mountain passes but who cares. But the SE with a soft top has excellent weight distribution (no engine weight over the front axle) , and the 2.5 is a reliable as any powerplant can be.
 
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Currently... 2000 SE, ax-5, 4in lift, 32's, Dana 35/30 combo with 4.10, open/open.

Done the Rubicon twice, parts of Fordyce, drove from NV to NJ, and now the Jeep is here in AK with me and has done many trails up here.

Yes, it struggles on the freeway. I simply blame aerodynamics, and my tire size. People always tell me how slow I am on the freeway... I always put it in 4th with cruise control set at 55... Before I hit a hill I accelerate and worse case scenario I slow down and downshift. Normal manual driving.

On the trail, no difference between myself and a 4.0. I stay in 4lo and let the gears do all the work. Yet people are amazed it's a 4cyl.


Now for upgrades. Next week 5.13 gears go in. With those gears being installed and since they are already in there..... ARB and 1541h shafts in the rear. The ARB was given to me and is 27 spline. What's great about the 27 spline is my original shafts are now going to be trail spares!! Aussie locker is going into the front. 33s will be the max tire size for this Jeep!

Pic is for attention :)

DSCN0813.JPG
 
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97 TJ 2.5l 235000 miles and climbing...original engine and original AX-5

My TJ is my first, and only Jeep. I bought this as a jeep newbie, with only intentions of a weekend warrior. I run 33s, Ford 8.8(only after I destroyed the Dana 35. But, I believe this speaks for the axle itself. Not the Jeep) And the only upgrades I have made of any significance, are my 4in lift and rear axle, and my 4.88 re-gear. The rest of my components I have replaced, have been wear and tear parts, that I have replaced, with stock components. As I have grown in the Jeep community, and wheeled with rigs that have bigger engines, I have realized, that my set-up, is exactly what I want. It' s cheap to work on(speaking of the 2.5l here. Not "upgrades") and carries my wife and two boys just fine. I have struggles climbing a few steep hills, but not bad. I didn't buy it for on-road performance. Only on-road enjoyment, and off-road performance. It doesn't leak oil, doesn't burn oil(not a significant amount) and the AX5 does just fine to.

Plus, there is always that occasional satisfaction when someone looks at you funny, halfway up the trail, and they start complementing on how well your Jeep has done. Then, they start assuming what is in your Jeep....haha and then you tell them what is actually in your Jeep.....the look on their face is priceless....

Hammers and screwdrivers are both useful tools. Is one more superior than the other? No...do they both serve a different purpose? Mainly, yes. Can you use a screwdriver for a hammer? yes....but not ideal.
 
One advantage to the 4cyl "brick" is it keeps me grounded. I go to work at a comfortable 62mph/100kmh and the speed stays constant without having to watch the speedo. With the Taco and the 400hp trucks I had, the speed drifts on way too easy and I have the distraction of always checking it. The 6-speed in the Taco is a "close-ratio" tranmission with small rpm drops between 4th-5th-6th. Practically useless and a 5-speed would have sufficed. Now the AX5 has nice RPM swings for each gear - a real joy to drive!
 
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Jake kozlowski said:
Also, just hit 151k.. throw out bearing took a crap, so first clutch job. The water pump started to drip. What was nice about swapping the water pump is I stood in the engine bay! Cheap to repair :)
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Yep once you do an electric fan and a 4.0 air tube there is really nothing in the way when working on them its great.
 
StG58 said:
It seems to be time once again for me to throw my 2 cents worth of TJ opinion into the fray. There seems to be a growing body of opinion that TJ SE's are crap and a waste of a good TJ. Many disparaging remarks are throw about by people who don't drive an SE, don't get what an SE is all about and casually drop comments about the utility and / or lack thereof of the four angry squirrel powdered TJ. I find this disappointing in two ways.

One, generally, this is not how this Forum operates. Well, OK, historically that hasn't been how this forum operates. If the culture is changing, so be it. Shit happens. Disappointing, but understandable and typical.

Two. If you casually call my selection of TJ a POS, then fully expect me to either ignore you or challenge your sacred cows. Up until now I've been good, with a few minor but notable exceptions, about just ignoring the BS. I can be particularly good at cow sacrifice. ...and I'm feeling the urge to go heathen on somebodies ignorant ass right now. Not productive. Since I know for a fact that an SE is a viable if not preferable choice for a lot of uses and situations, disparaging SE's only kills the discussion of when and where and how. As a form of group think, it's poisonous. Engage in it if you wish, but expect push back.

Here's my experiences with my 1999 TJ SE, 2.5, AX-5 manual. In my area, which is the Pacific Northwest. Look at a map, it's a pretty big and diverse area with lots of different terrain.

In all the time I've owned my SE I've run into problems only a hand full of times. Twice I've wished for lower gears crawling particularly tight and steep trails. Both time pulling it into 4lo solved the problem. It was agravating to have to go into 4lo because I didn't need 4 wheel drive otherwise. One time was in the Siuslaw and one time was in the Tillamook. There is also one particular grade on Highway 6 over Mount Hood where I need to get into 3rd gear and jump over into the slow lane so as not to impede traffic. But that's only with a full load out. The rest of the time I have no issues keeping up with traffic. It's just not an issue. Highway, Freeway, trails. No particular issues at all with the proper gear selection and driving technique. I haven't done the Rubicon, and probably never will. I have done Kieger Rd. and the Steens. Tillamook State Forest and the Siuslaw. The Cascades. And about a hundred other places in Oregon and Washington with no real names and no name recognition. There's a couple of minor things I need to do before I do them again, and I will. None of those things has anything to do with my SE being an SE.

I try not to be a "collector of modifications", preferring to let my SE tell me what it needs and then providing those modifications with the highest quality parts that I can afford or makes sense. I've actually had to modify very little to get done what needs doing. The time and money not spent on mods has gone into gas, maintenance and butt time in the seat. It's actually had a higher pay back than slapping random or even planned mods on the rig. Highway, city, trail, rocks (such as they are), sand, snow, mud. Spending time in the drivers seat has offered perfectly suitable solutions to any issue I've encountered so far. All the issues have been software issues (thinking) not hardware issues (mods) with a few exceptions.

Examined in the cold harsh light of rational thought I don't regret not buying that 2004 Rubicon I looked at, and am glad that I bought my 1999 SE. The more experience that I get behind the wheel, the more it's proven to be the correct decision. The only time I have regrets is when I get on the forum and read about all the cool mods that people are doing to their non-SE's. That bums me out and gets me all fired up until the weekend comes and the little blue Jeep and I head out into the pucker brush.

The funny thing is my SE has not stranded me out back of beyond, not once. And I'm getting into places that haven't seen anything more than the occasional dirt bike in long enough that the trails are way overgrown. Not bad for a Jeep that everyone (exaggeration alert) loves to hate on.

If you own an SE I want to encourage you to speak up. Share your successes and your failures. Share your mods. Lets get the conversation going. Don't be ashamed of herding four angry squirrels around. Our SE's are just different enough that many of the mods talked about here are either not applicable or implemented differently than the 4.0's. Let's hear about them!
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Look what you started...you've got SE owners coming out of the woodwork, and they are demanding to be heard!!!
 
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