Decisions, decisions,, Help!

No problem Sasquatch, all this is info for me to look at. Specially since I am looking at a 2005 wrangler x 4.0 with 122000 miles, auto tram, new top, new wheels, new cooper a/t3 tires, new belts, hoses, plugs, oil. Ready to roll, clean as a pin all over and under. Drove it everything is great. He asking $13,500. What you guys think? Thinking I can get it for $12,500 - $12900.
 
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I would pay 12,500 if it is tip top shape, last year here in texas I found my LJ (TJ Unlimited) with 112,000mi they were asking 13,500 & I got it for 12,200 so it depends what area you live in.
 
I agree that 12-12,500 would be great. I paid 12k for my '06 unlimited with 110,000 miles that was also very clean under and all around with decent aftermarket rims and worn 31's. I was hoping for a Rubicon Unlimited but at the time they were all going for 20K+

Be sure to ask the seller if he changed or inspected the OPDA. You can have issues without having the "laughing monkey" sound.

Sasquatchhewan-I also ran my VIN# thru the Mopar site and it came up with no recalls. However I would guess my time was getting short with my OPDA- maybe 15,000 miles?. The Crown unit was only $109 and is a much better design so I was glad I changed it. You really will not know for sure unless you pull it but be careful to mark the timing so you will not have issues.
 
StG58 said:
Be aware that there are more mods that need to be done to a 4 banger jeep than a six. Also almost all mods are set up for the six, so your results with the four will vary. This is especially true for things like lift kits. The four is sensitive to weight, if you plan on adding a bunch of stuff or carry a lot of gear it will show. Like I said, I love my four and actively sought a good one out, but my usage is a corner case not typical.
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I don't want to hijack this thread, but I'd be curious for some explanation. What other mods do you feel need to be done to a 4-cylinder and not the 6-cylinder? And, what mods do you feel were designed for the 6? I've done a lot of significant mods to my 4-cylinder TJ that were neutral of engine specification/size. I really can't think of anything I've done where that would've made a difference...
 
Hello @JFjeld , good to hear from another owner of four angry squirrels. Looking at your sig line it looks like you have done a pretty extensive list of mods to your four banger. I'll start out with the explaining my reasoning for all mods being targeted to the six bangers. It has to do with the weight difference on the front suspension between the four and the six. The four weighs in at about 340 pounds and the six weighs in at about 515 pounds. If those weights are close to being accurate, and I believe they are, that's 175 pounds difference. Jeep put the lower spring rates into the SE's as a general rule as a consequence. All of the after market springs that I have seen so far, with the exception of OME springs, have spring rates that seem to be targeted at the heavier six cylinder engine and produce noticeably more lift than advertised with the lighter four. Does just shy of 90 pounds of weight difference on each front spring make a ton of real world difference? Probably not. When you talk about front suspension components like track bars and control arms there are TJ track bars and control arms, not TJ four banger or six banger track bars and control arms.

...so I'll concede the point on parts being engine specific. Other than engine specific modifications, there is no difference in parts, and probably shouldn't be from a real world perspective as anything engineered and built for the six will be plenty strong and work just fine with the four. My perception was that to get the strength to make my SE rock solid reliable over the long term in fairly harsh off road usage, the Dana 35 and LP 30 should be replaced with something stronger, the AX5 should go away for something more robust and more reliable under harsh usage, any lift kit that I selected would give me additional lift over advertised on the front and when I plug in gears for a tire size change I need to go an additional step lower at least to compensate for the lower HP and torque numbers of the four. I know going from a 235 sized tire to a 215 sized tire was very noticeable. Going from a 28+" diameter tire to a 27" diameter tire with everything else remaining the same put me pretty much where I needed to be for the stock 4.10 gearing and a loaded TJ.
 
Phil Younger said:
I agree that 12-12,500 would be great. I paid 12k for my '06 unlimited with 110,000 miles that was also very clean under and all around with decent aftermarket rims and worn 31's. I was hoping for a Rubicon Unlimited but at the time they were all going for 20K+

Be sure to ask the seller if he changed or inspected the OPDA. You can have issues without having the "laughing monkey" sound.

Sasquatchhewan-I also ran my VIN# thru the Mopar site and it came up with no recalls. However I would guess my time was getting short with my OPDA- maybe 15,000 miles?. The Crown unit was only $109 and is a much better design so I was glad I changed it. You really will not know for sure unless you pull it but be careful to mark the timing so you will not have issues.
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Thanks I am going to order the OPDA from Quadratac since its so Cheap anyway, I'll pull out the old one to check it , but the Crown should provide a peace of mind.
 
Oh and be sure to check the exhaust manifolds. They tend to crack on the 4.0s. And the 05/06. ( may be others too) the precats are prone to fail with debris flowing down stream and plug the main cats. Don't ask me how I know this---it still pisses me off.:(
 
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Sasquatchewan- Be sure to reuse the original sensor from the current OPDA in place of the one that comes with the Crown unit. While Crown seemed to engineer out the bad lube issue the original one has many have reported the Crown sensor gave them issues within a month or so once they got revs up. I did not take a chance with it and swapped immediately.
 
Stinger said:
Oh and be sure to check the exhaust manifolds. They tend to crack on the 4.0s. And the 05/06. ( may be others too) the precats are prone to fail flow down stream and plug the main cats. Don't ask me how I know this---it still pisses me off.:(
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I'm throwing P0421. I used a spark plug fouler to "modify" the O2 sensor that was throwing the code and it went away.

With that said, do you think it's my O2 sensor or the cats? The previous owner had replaced the O2 sensors with some aftermarket ones (not NTK/Mopar) and I've read that anything other NTK/Mopar is likely to throw codes.

I have no performance suffrage so I'm not sure if it's the cats.
 
badlieutenant said:
I'm throwing P0421. I used a spark plug fouler to "modify" the O2 sensor that was throwing the code and it went away.

With that said, do you think it's my O2 sensor or the cats? The previous owner had replaced the O2 sensors with some aftermarket ones (not NTK/Mopar) and I've read that anything other NTK/Mopar is likely to throw codes.

I have no performance suffrage so I'm not sure if it's the cats.
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If performance and fuel/mileage has not suffered I would not suspect cats.
 
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I had a neighbor that had a Chevy truck O2 sensor went bad , so he replaced it & the truck looked at the old one & thought it was bad because the new one was so much better. It took a while to catch this.
 
Huh?
Sasquatchewan said:
I had a neighbor that had a Chevy truck O2 sensor went bad , so he replaced it & the truck looked at the old one & thought it was bad because the new one was so much better. It took a while to catch this.
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Huh?
 
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