Take it to heart from a guy that has had more than his share of maintenance woes. ^^^^
@jeep_boss .
The list is LONG
You also put over 15k miles per year on yours (I thought I read that somewhere, did I not???), have 35" tires, a long arm lift, etc... all of which aren't going to make components wear as nicely as if it were more mild build and driven less often.
I'm just pointing it out that you definitely have a unique situation. A lot of us don't even daily drive them.
No argument intended, just trying to not scare away the new guy, that's all!
Right (actually 15K odometer miles, I was off a little from the mileage when I bought it and it is adding ~17% more due to the 5.13). I agree on some of the additional wear that a setup like that can incur with a lift and big tires, but I haven't wheeled it hard and 99.8% are highway miles. I haven't had to deal with many repairs directly pertaining to those though (my pending clutch replacement is what it is).
The OP doesn't want to get into a dud, and it sounds like it may be his DD. I just want to relay my thoughts to the OP as a guy who had bought a seemingly fine TJ (and a much cleaner one than the others I checked out) only to have bought a dud that was very expensive and time consuming to turn into a solid vehicle. The approach that has to be taken is strategizing the total cost of ownership (TCO), and foguring out if it makes sense to acquire one. At best, you're looking at buying a 12+ year old off-road vehicle.
Even if you find a low mileage garage queen, there is some extra attention that needs to be given to these vehicles than others, found in the FSM maintenance schedules and instructions from any aftermarket components that were installed. These items should be one of the centerpieces for assessing whether a vehicle is lower risk or a dud, study them WELL before shopping around! Example: out of all of the privately listed Jeeps I looked at over a 3 month course, only two sellers knew what a zerk fitting was and knew about grease in general! (and one of them was a YJ). None of the other sellers could tell me definitively when they last greased anything and acted dumbfounded when I would point out the areas that needed periodic grease.
When buying a TJ, you need to realize and emphasize in your mind that there are three primary types of owners that I found out here: those that are the
reactive wait for it to break then fix it types, the soccer moms / yuppies from the eastside (that may or may not have had their Jeep maintained), and the
proactive guys like me who are OCD with preventative maintenance. Assess which type of person your are dealing with is. The latter will tend to know nearly every nut and bolt on the vehicle, and rednecks will just lie to you left and right about the Jeep being great and perfect when it is clearly not.
If you aren't able to verify that ongoing maintenance (routine and preventative) has taken place, then those items will become your problems when the keys belong to you. A well maintained TJ with some miles under it's belt also doesn't exclude it from having pending issues. A funny story - when I chose to hunt for a TJR, I did my research on the Internet. I wanted a manual transmission, and logically wondered what the average clutch life was. I stumbled across
@Jerry Bransford 's posts all over the forums saying the clutches were stout and are built to last over 200K+ miles, yet here I am replacing mine a little over 100K. I have found that the majority of clutch replacements aee happening between 100K-130K miles, so to theorize that they are a 100K part is a safe bet. Most of the "rock crawler" types want an automatic, but for me a manual was a pinnacle item for buying what I felt a true Jeeping experience should have.
This community agrees across the board that they are built more like tractors than anything else. With that, road salt, mud, dirt, and (god forbid) CLAY get into the engine bay and other areas of the vehicle much easier than with other vehicles. This does cause some higher risks for corrosion and component failure if you or the previous owner(s) do not make it a habbit to clean. Eventually, that crap can get into more sensitive areas and that is where $hit gets real. The engine bay on my last "lifted" '98 4Runner looked like it had 30K miles on it when it had 216K.
The bottom line is for your stated budget, you might have to get into something with higher mileage and with that is potential risk. I don't think there is any standard monetary figure that you should have in your reserves for maintenance, if you already have all of the tools needed and you can turn a wrench - that greatly reduces what you are going to need in available emergency funds. If you do not work on your own vehicles and if you are in fact planning to use it as your daily driver, a TJ might not be right for you in general.
I'm not trying to scare you away by any means, but I am a straight shooter / realist and unless you get incredibly lucky - you just have to be prepared for what you're getting into!
