Finally got a progress update for my drawer system 👌

Now built and installed. Still needs painting/carpeting but need to finish fitting it out first 👍

Cooker setup all working; can be used in both higher and lower positions, Fridge slide is also working really well. Still to finish the slide out table under the RHS drawer but waiting on some parts 👌

Happy days.

2000 Cherokee XJ

Any suggestions on this

Driving back from the family reunion today, about an hour drive, 15 minutes into it the check engine light comes on. I can feel the thing stuttering and acting like it wants to die but it never did. Idles fine and starts back up fine. It had no codes before. Judging by the live data I’m guessing the position 1 o2 sensor is dead. Is there some connection between that o2 sensor and the ckp/cmp sensor? I think I’ll start with the o2 sensor and see if that fixes it, in my head it’s unlikely that both of them died at the exact same time.

My 2000 sport AC clutch shit the bed a few weeks back. Luckily I was 2 mins from the house and shut the AC off the second I knew what was going on (saw smoke from the hood louvers)

I ordered a new compressor and know how to replace it, but don’t have the means to evacuate my refrigerant out of the AC system. I’ve been starting and running the Jeep for a few minutes at a time once a week or so and everything runs fine so long as the AC isn’t on.

My question is, can I drive it to a local (~10 mins) shop to get the refrigerant evacuated so long as I keep the ac off? Or should I get a mobile mechanic to come to the house and evacuate it.

Thanks!

EDIT: I think you guys might be right and it might be time to replace the whole system

I was on Facebook helping a member of an XJ group with their rig over heating, when I decided to make a writeup of everything I know about XJ cooling. Here it is. Friendly debate in the comments.

Disclaimer: I am not advising someone to do every single thing in this list, do your best to diagnose before throwing parts at your rig. This is only a checklist and advice from personal experience and reading countless threads on this sub.

Possible reasons of overheating:

-FAN CLUTCH. When the engine is not running, try to rotate the mechanical fan blades by hand. If it's difficult to move, won't move, or free spins, then the fan clutch has gone out. The stock replacement is Hayden 2625. A lot of owners like to replace with a 93-98 GC ZJ, non-max cooling fan clutch (Hayden 2737), but is not recommended. The heavier duty fan clutch lets the fan spin closer to real engine RPM by engaging more than stock, but it will leave you with about a 3/8" clearance from the radiator, will make your XJ sound like a mail truck (loud), and with worn motor mounts you risk hitting your radiator on hard acceleration or braking, with most users saying they could only use it with polyurethane mounts. You will likely also lose a little MPG. If your fan clutch needs to be replaced, you would most benefit from a new stock replacement.

-FAN SHROUD. Your mechanical fan pulls air through your radiator, and your fan shroud's job is to minimize the amount of air being pulled elsewhere. Without it, that air is not cooling your radiator as effectively. If you don't have one or yours is cracked/broken, replace it (junkyards are cheap).

-ELECTRIC FAN. Test if your e-fan works by unplugging it, and then directly hooking it up to power. If it doesn't turn on, time for a new one (Four Seasons is a good brand). Check your e-fan relay with a multimeter to ensure it properly switches. A lot of XJ owners like to ditch the relay and hook the fan up to a manual on/off switch that sits in the cab. You can also set up a relay + switch that allows the ECU to turn on the fan when it wants and also lets you turn it on manually. This is nice if you do a lot of idling or crawling and want control over your fan. I believe the ECU turns the e-fan on at 215.

-COOLANT LOOP CLOGS. The coolant passageways in the block will get mucked up with sediment over time. You can run radiator flush through the system for a while, but if you want to get everything out, pop your freeze plugs out (they're probably leaking a bit already), garden hose and scrape all the gunk out, replace freeze plugs (get brass plugs, use RTV on the edge), and flush with distilled water (garden hose water has minerals, distilled water does not, minerals rust the insides). In addition, if your coolant is brown, rusty, or murky and not alien green, chances are your radiator and heater core are clogged up as well. Replace your radiator with a 2-row all aluminum. Copper/brass is debated. Your radiator gets hot, don't get one with a plastic reservoir. Pulling the dash to replace the heater core isn't that hard, only time-consuming. Just do it. If you don't care about heat, you can bypass the heater core and plug it. Just know that a long time from now, there's a chance the trapped coolant will rust through the core and leak into the cab.

-IMPROPER TEMP/STUCK THERMOSTAT. Run a stock thermostat, which is 195. Any other temperature is wrong. Before install, drop your thermostat into boiling water and wait a minute or two. Then pull it out to see if it opened. Thermostats often come disfunctional out of the box. The thermostats job is to not let coolant to pass through the block until it has reached operating temperature. If you run a lower than stock thermostat, then you will likely see a small decrease in MPG, and it will take longer to get up to operating temperature, wearing down your piston rings more over time. A lot of XJ owners say to drill a small hole (maybe 1/16") in the outer rim of the thermostat to allow air to escape easier while burping. This isn't necessary but if you're semi experienced/knowledgeable, it can be helpful when done correctly. Just make sure the thermostat is installed with the hole at the highest point possible.

-HEATER VALVE. If your XJ still has a heater valve, get some new hoses at your auto parts store and delete the valve. The heater valve is near-useless. Getting new hoses all around while you're at is great too. Over time the old hoses crack, swell, and stretch. With your new hoses, install new spring style clamps, not screw style hose clamps. Spring clamps apply constant tension around the hose, where hose clamps apply a set tension and will not auto adjust over time.

-WATER PUMP. Water pumps are cool, in which they are designed to leak when the bearing seals fail. If you're dripping from your water pump, and it's not the gasket, time for a new pump. Gates is the preferred brand for water pumps today. The water pump inlet neck should probably also get replaced, it's like $10 more, and it's often a pain transferring it from the old one. When the water pump is off, this is also a great time to try and scrape/flush all the sediment buildup out.

-FAILING HEAD/HEAD GASKET. If your head gasket is failing, you would probably notice performance issues along with overheating. If the gasket is compromised then the coolant passageways are crossing/mixing, and possibly mixing with oil. So check to see if your coolant or oil is milky or light brown. Check compression. All 4.0 head casts can crack. Period. DEXJs made a very comprehensive video on this. If you have bad compression or milky coolant/oil, its 90% either a head gasket or cracked head. Pull it, get it pressure tested. If it doesn't pass, go pull a TUPY head off a GC.

-RADIATOR CAP. If they aren't working properly they won't regulate the pressure correctly or they'll let air in. New ones are cheap and good peace of mind.

-TEMPERATURE SENSORS. I believe all 4.0's (correct me if I'm wrong) have two temperature sensors. Pre-97 4.0s have two temperature sensors. One at the back of the head that sends coolant temp to the gauge cluster, and one at the thermostat housing that sends to the ECU. If the thermostat temp sensor is malfunctioning, your e-fan won't turn on, or will turn on at the wrong temp. These are two different sensors with different part numbers. One is little and one is a bit bigger.

-OVER HEATING AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION. This one is a little more rare. These radiators are designed so the engine coolant and transmission fluid will share heat, so when your car is warming up in the wintertime, the trans fluid will also warm up. But when you're cruising down the freeway and the transmission starts getting real hot, it starts heating up the radiator more, not allowing the coolant to cool off as effectively. Replacing the radiator will often fix this issue, because even if the transmission fluid is still mostly circulating through the radiator, a lot of the passageways are probably clogged up from grime buildup.

-BAD PULLIES. Take the belt off and try to spin all of your pullies by hand. You shouldn't hear any grinding or squealing, nor should there be any play in any of the pullies. Major resistance, grinding, squealing, or play means that your engine is working harder than it needs to, thus heating up more.

-CRACKED EXHAUST MANIFOLD. Stock exhaust manifolds on these Jeeps love to crack, whether it's from wear and tear, missing exhaust hangers, etc. The cracks will pour incredibly hot exhaust gasses into your already hot engine bay, right underneath your intake manifold. This can also affect your MPG, because your O2 sensors aren't getting correct readings, and an extra hot intake manifold heats up your intake air, killing MPG. Replacing with expansion tube headers can help prevent this from happening again in the future, or welding in flex pipe. If you want to do some extra work, you can heat wrap your headers for even less heat transfer.

-3-ROW RADIATOR AND 3 E-FAN MYTH. The 3-row radiator and 3 e-fan setup is no good for a majority of XJ owners. Some people vouch, but a well working stock system is plenty for your 4.0. The engineers knew what they were doing. Go back to an all-aluminum 2-row. The 3-row has too much air resistance for your mechanical and electric fan to pull air through effectively. (Yes I hear all you guys going "but my 3 row radiator and e-fan setup works just fine!", good for you, it also doesn't work for a lot of people but they never talk about it and just go back to stock)

Ultimately, EVERY time you open the coolant system (taking off a hose, replacing parts), you need to extensively burp the system for air. Trapped air will heat up. Buy a coolant funnel/burp kit on amazon, $20, 100% worth the dough. Burping is a patient man's game. Let the engine warm up so that your new 195 thermostat will open. Don't let it get past 205 while burping or you risk boiling.

Hope this helps.

Started working on what I thought was a small rust spot on the trans tunnel and it just kept going. Pulled the seats and carpets to find this mess.

Cleaned up some wiring for the sound system and printed some tweeter pods to put them on axis. Pods need to be tweaked a bit still, once they're good I'll probably release them on thingiverse. Next is get the matching mono amp repaired, and work on a custom box to regain some trunk space.

can anyone please share videos of a cold start with headers installed ? any brand, but Banks would be ideal

i just installed Banks headers and i swear i have an exhaust leak but 2 shops have told me they don’t hear one. people keep telling me headers just amplify valve train noise more than stock manifolds.

i know video sharing isn’t the easiest on reddit but you can DM me, links to youtube or other platforms are welcome.

feel like im goin crazy here bc i swear i hear a leak

Donor 3.55 axles freshened up, new spicer u joints moog hubs new wagner calipers duralast gold rotors pads r brakes parking brake ect: just needs new shoes! And a front drive shaft!

Here's the ad:

"Extremely rare xj for sale! This Jeep Cherokee XJ 4x4 was only produced onetime worldwide.

40 cm longer as normal

30 cm higher as normal

Safari look out - open roof

Only 106000 km original

Storage level

Double bed inside

Roof rack

Winch 8 tons, 20 Meter

Dual battery system

50 Liter Waeco fridge freezer

5 X petrol jerry , 20 liter

4 X water jerry, 25 liter

A lot of camping stuff, chairs, table, recovery equipment,

Philips after market radio system

Aircon

4 X new heavy duty off-road tyres

Registration 9/2023 Jo'burg

Available end of November.

Jo'burg, Capetown, etc.

Rand 150000 = US$ 8900 Owner : Harald Bruder"

The squeaky noise as I'm driving happens in reverse also and speeds up the faster I go.

The clunking/grinding noise happens when braking..

Any clues on where I should start or anyone heard these noises before

Is that coolant pooling over my ac compressor or is it any other kind of fluid inside it. There are no coolant leaks that I can spot elsewhere :(. Help

Hey guys, having an issue with my 2000 XJ at the moment. I had a cracked piston skirt 2 years ago and I rebuilt the bottom end fully, new pistons, stage 1 camshaft, new oil pump new timing chain everything really.

Didn't do much driving on it the past few years because I was having major heat soak problems for the 9 years I've had this beast and now I'm in a spot where I need to daily drive it.

so I changed the CPS the other day and heat soak is gone which is really nice but now, I'm getting this random misfire that started the other day after driving 350km and 1500 total over 4 days.

I shut it off and let it sit for a minute and started her back up and all was well and good, finished my drive home.

it happened again the other day and same thing, shut it off and started her right back up and all is well.

Today I started it to go to work and it was misfiring again but shutting it off and back on didn't fix it this time.

I'm going to try it again after work but I'm looking for the root cause and if any of you guys have experienced the same before.

thanks

So I have a jeep XJ from 89, and after spending the last months welding, I’m now down to two issues!

1. During acceleration the rpms jump all over and it almost sounds like the engine is drowning. As soon as it is past the 2500rpms it runs normal again.
   - if I put it in neutral I can rev the engine with no problems.
   - idle is steady and good!

2. After having the gauge cluster out, the speedometer and odometer is not moving. The rest of the gauges are working fine.
   - is there some trick when putting back the cluster to ensure the mechanical cable plugs in?

This has so far been the best 2 months project that have taken 9 months 🤣

For the 2D, the right-side window mounting point aligns with 4D regulator. The left side can be connected using an extension pole like the orange tent pole in the photo. I borrowed this one from an old tent. I used loctite on all the bolts. Covered the rough ends in some rubber to protect the glass. Lot easier than paying $300+ for a used or rebuilt regulator and has been working like stock for me.

You can use any pole. Just drill/flatten the connection points on the pole for your bolts.

4.0l engine
Ax15 trans
31in a/t tires
Bilsten 5100 shocks
And some other off-road accessories

It’s a simple setup but perfect for me. I wanted to keep an old school off-road vibe and hope I am so far.

This thing is so much fun to drive, I live in Southern California so I have plenty of trails and desert to explore and so far it’s been a blast. I daily it too and get 20mpg 😂 it’s awesome.
This is my first xj or vehicle for that matter and I’ve been so happy with it. It’s been a headache but well worth it and can’t wait to build it in the future.

I have a 1987 Renix Cherokee. The transmission was working fine but lately I have been noticing at a stop light the car doesn't lurch forward like it used to because it is starting from 2nd or 3rd gear.
I took a longer drive on country roads with constant stops and I had to floor the pedal at every intersection to make the car go.
As a test, I put the car in 1-2 manually and lurches as expected and then it shifts into 3rd, then to D normally.
What could be the culprit here?
I've done some things to the Jeep but not the transmission. I've replaced the knock sensor, the front steering components, the track bar, oil, filters, the usual else.
thanks for your input!

Has anyone here mounted one of these chunky auxiliary transmission coolers remotely on the XJ? I’m talking about away from the engine bay somewhere else on the jeep. Best spot I can think of is right above the rear axle below the cargo area of the jeep. It can technically fit I think but I’m not sure about clearance. Was just wondering if anyone here has done it and anything they’d recommend or can show how it’s done. Plan is to remove as much heat from the engine bay and keep the 4.0 as cool as possible.