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View Full Version : New to the XJ thing...



psujeepguy
11-07-2015, 11:34 PM
Just picked up an 2001 XJ with 151,000 miles cheap. After having the frozen ball joints replaced and the front passenger U joint replaced; it seems ready to go. This is my first XJ. Going to be mainly a DD vehicle with some light to moderate off road usage. Any advice on common problems, stuff to watch out for, needed upgrades, etc?

Thanks in advance.

muddeprived
11-09-2015, 09:36 AM
I have the same year and model with 120k. The 2000 and 2001's are nice jeeps but have a few issues.

One is the head is prone to cracking so a head replacement would be a good idea to prevent a big headache down the road. I replaced my head with an aftermarket one from Clearwater Cylinder Head INC.

Another thing to watch out for is the dreaded misfire. Sometimes the jeep will start bucking and misfiring after you drive for a while, shut it down, and restart. This will last for a minute or two and the jeep barely has any power to move. The CEL will pop up displaying P0303 or similar code telling you a misfire occurred. This is called the heat soak misfire and is SOMETIMES fixed by wrapping the injectors with heat shielding. I have my injectors and fuel rail wrapped up and it still does it. The only fix I could get to work was the e-fan mod that keeps the fan running after you shut down the jeep. This cools the problem spot and prevents the misfire.

Your oil pressure gauge will be moving ALOT and sometimes drop to zero or below 10 which triggers a CEL. For some reason the oil pressure sending unit likes to fail. A quality mopar unit would fix this if you are luckier than me. I'm on my second.

One issue I've seen pop up alot with this particular model is a thunk sound when stopping. This is the rear driveshaft making that noise and the fix is as simple as re-greasing the rear driveshaft slip yoke.

If rust bothers you then keep an eye out on the front of the gutters, the roof, and bottom of the doors+rockers. They are the main rust spots.

Other than those things, the 2001 is a pretty tough jeep and easy to maintain. Stick a mild 2" kit (coils and springs, not the cheap shi$ cuz your leaf springs will be tired and inverted) with some Bilstein 5100's, a locker, 31" tires, and you'll be able to go everywhere.

psujeepguy
11-13-2015, 01:08 AM
muddeprived - you hit a couple of the issues I've noticed right on the head! The "thunking" sound when stopped was puzzling to me. I'll try greasing. My oil pressure gauge is quite erratic. Sometimes mine goes all the way up over 80 - if I turn the vehicle off and restart it usually corrects the problem. I appreciate the advice. I gotta say, I'm really loving the 4.0 so far; my old TJ was a 4 banger and the new Jeeps just aren't the same.

muddeprived
11-13-2015, 09:26 AM
muddeprived - you hit a couple of the issues I've noticed right on the head! The "thunking" sound when stopped was puzzling to me. I'll try greasing. My oil pressure gauge is quite erratic. Sometimes mine goes all the way up over 80 - if I turn the vehicle off and restart it usually corrects the problem. I appreciate the advice. I gotta say, I'm really loving the 4.0 so far; my old TJ was a 4 banger and the new Jeeps just aren't the same.

You ain't kidding. My other TJ is a 2.5L and it's SLOW and way underpowered compared to my 4.0.