The Cherokee Gets a Younger Brother

The Cherokee has been proving itself as very dependable and comfortable to drive. Gas mileage isn't incredible (averaging 16.72 mpg since I got it, and 18.72 mpg for long trips), but considering my wife and I both work 10 minutes from home and average about 15 miles of driving per day, it's not overly expensive to operate.

My wife has liked driving it enough that she wanted to get rid of her daily driver (a Nissan minivan) and get her own. We found a great deal on a '98 Grand Cherokee, so we bought it. She didn't like the lack of power options on my Cherokee, but the Grand Cherokee had the features she wants. I figure it's just more crap to break in the future, but it's the price I pay to keep her happy I guess...

So far, mileage is almost exactly the same as the Cherokee - 16.67 mpg over 1,100 miles. The first tankful was spent hammering the vehicle a little more than we would normally do to make sure it was going to survive, so if I take that tankful out of the equation we'd be averaging around 18 mpg for mostly country road driving.

The Jeeps have the same I6 4.0L engines, but the Grand Cherokee has overdrive so it cruises much more easily on the freeway at 75. I'd guess this also adds a couple of mpg, but no idea exactly how many. Maybe if we take the Grand Cherokee on vacation next year and put some heavy mileage on it we'll find out for sure.

Before winter hits I want to give it a full brake job, including turning the rotors on all 4 corners. That and an oil change should be all it takes to be ready for a fun winter of 4wd driving.

Yellowstone Road Trip

Last night we got back from a roadtrip vacation to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I was through the park once years ago, but only for a few hours driving from California to Wisconsin. This time we stayed for 3 nights.

On the way to Yellowstone was some time spent in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Custer National Park, and a few other stops along the way.

We had originally planned to drive the minivan, but the Jeep has been proving itself so reliable that we decided to drive it instead. Plus, the air conditioning works - a big plus when driving the freeway for 12 hours straight to get away from Wisconsin.

Before the trip I did the typical "pre-trip" stuff, like changing the oil, flushing the radiator, checking the brakes, etc. The brakes were good enough, although if they were much more worn I'd at least have replaced the back shoes. The front pads have plenty of life left (at least they did before the trip).

A while back I changed the instrument cluster from idiot lights to gauges a while back, and I'm glad I did, as it really allowed me to keep an eye on how the engine was running while cruising at 70 mph for hours on end. As the day got hotter the engine temp would rise, and then towards night it would fall again thanks to the cooler air.

Oil pressure was pretty steady between 60 and 70 pounds. Voltage varied between 12 and 14 volts.

I tracked the mileage for the entire trip, and was surprised with what I found. I was transporting two adults and two kids, along with luggage for 9 days, some food, water, games for the kids, and a couple of monitors mounted to the backs of the front seats to keep the kids from killing each other. I still had a good view out the back window, but the Jeep was still pretty heavily loaded. With all that weight, I still averaged 18.72 mpg after using 163.5 gallons round-trip of 3,062 miles.

Around town I have been getting around 15.5 mpg, which is mainly back and forth to work.

I expected to get better mileage while driving the long flat freeway between Milwaukee and western South Dakota, and poor mileage driving through the two mountain ranges.

Reality is that based on looking only at how many miles I got per tank, I can't tell when I was in the mountains or when I was staring at the mind-numbing dullness of Minnesota. The weirdest thing is that my best mileage appears to have been while in Yellowstone, where I burned through an entire tank over the 3 days we were there (it's a HUGE freakin' park).

The only reasoning I can think of for that is that I was driving a lot slower on average - most speed limits in the park are 45 mph. Plus, there are a lot of areas where you coast downhill for a while and don't need to use the gas. On the other hand, there are a lot of uphill areas where you really need to stand on the gas to keep moving (7% grades). Plus there are a number of times where you're just sitting and waiting for a buffalo to get it's ass off the road so you can keep moving.

I also averaged about 2 mpg better during the trip back compared to the trip out. The weather was about the same, the load in the Jeep the same, and my driving habits hadn't changed. Again, weird.

Overall, the Jeep ran great. Only once in the mountains when I pulled over at a rest-stop after some long up-hill driving did it seem to run a little rough. After we got back in to get rolling, it ran fine again and never happened again.

The air-conditioning worked OK, but I think the compressor is going bad. If I ran the A/C on high it would kick out and stop working. On lower settings it worked great about 95% of the time. When it kicked out, I turned it off for a few minutes and then it would work again. It wasn't real hot outside for the entire trip so it worked well enough and was well worth the money spent to get it running

Only once during the drive (heading into Wyoming from South Dakota) did we hit rain to clean the vehicle. After getting back last night, here's what the front of the Jeep looks like. Yum!

Frosty Air on a Hot Day

I've owned cars now for about 23 years, and I can remember most of them: a '78 Firebird, a Chevy Caprice Classic, a '72 Cutlass Supreme, a '89 Geo Tracker, a '92 Plymouth Neon, a '96 Plymouth Grand Caravan, another '72 Cutlass Supreme, an '84 Pontiac Fiero, a '97 Nissan Quest, a '92 Honda Civic, a '88 Chevy K5 Blazer, and a '95 Jeep Cherokee.

Some have been constant headaches, like the Neon. 3 leaking head gaskets in 3 years, along with a multitude of other issues. That car should have been crushed, but I found a dealership that wanted it in trade for a minivan for my wife. Within sight of the dealership as we were driving it for the last time the power steering pump failed. The fucking car was trying to kill the trade-in deal. Luckily nobody from the dealership was there to hear the pump squeal. I parked it quickly and never looked back.

Other cars have been fantastic to own, such as the Tracker. 150,000 miles and I NEVER had to take it to the garage for any work. Easy to maintain, to the point where I was able to swap the clutch plate in my garage over a weekend by myself, for the first time. Same with doing a valve adjustment and timing belt replacement. It went through an alternator every 18 months for some reason, and left headlight bulbs every 6 months, but they were easy and cheap to replace so I couldn't complain too much. That vehicle was easier to work on than any car I've owned before or since.

One thing all but one of these cars have in common is that they either didn't come equipped with A/C or the A/C failed shortly after I bought it.

The Blazer I bought from my brother in California, and we drove it back to Wisconsin in the summer heat. The A/C was super cold the whole way back and for the rest of that summer. The next summer it was dead. Possibly from the shock of it's first real winter - who knows. Either way, it was back to windows-down for me to keep cool.

The '92 Civic sort-of worked when I bought it, but each season it got worse and worse. Probably just a small leak somewhere, but the cost of repairing it kept me from having it taken care of.

Fast-forward to today and the '95 Jeep Cherokee. When I bought it, the window sticker said it was equipped with A/C, but it was inoperable. The owner of the place said they didn't look into it because the cost of repairing it could get to the point where they couldn't make money selling the vehicle. This, from a place which is a service garage as well as a used car lot. Since I'm used to not having A/C, that didn't bother me much so I bought it as-is.

Now we've got a trip to Yellowstone planned for July, and the more we discussed it, the more we really Really REALLY didn't want to make the trip without A/C. Hot wind blowing dusty air inside the Jeep would make for a long, sticky drive.

I took the Jeep to the garage which recently did the work on it for their $50.00 A/C check-up. I was expecting to find that the compressor was shot, or all the lines were cracked and brittle, or something else that means big-bucks.

They called later that day and told me that the valve on the high-side of the system was bad. Essentially it's similar to a valve stem on a tire. A freakin' valve, which was letting out the air-juice. Probably a $10.00 part for a garage, plus an hour or two time and a couple of pounds of freon. $230.00 got me frosty air, just in time for a summer road trip.

This makes me wonder what kind of idiots they have working at the garage I bought the Jeep from, if they didn't even look at it to try and figure it out.

I was told that all of the A/C components looked to be in good shape, so hopefully next year I'll still have cold air.

The only problem I ran into was that the serpentine belt was old and cracked. When I turned the A/C on it would scream pretty loudly as it dragged on the compressor pulley. Not quite how I want to drive 3,000 miles, so I dropped $25.00 on a new belt this morning and spent an hour replacing it.

That brings me to my observation of the day: Haynes manuals leave a LOT to be desired. The manual doesn't say jack-shit about a tensioner bolt hidden under the power steering pump. Without this little tid-bit of knowledge there was no way I was going to be able to get the old belt off, much less get the new one on. I did a quick search on a Jeep forum after struggling for a while and found the info. With the new belt on, the Jeep runs quieter, except for when the A/C is running, because that kicks on the auxiliary electric fan. With the windows closed I can't hear that, so no big deal.

Mmmmmm, frosty air.......

Jeep Mechanical Problems Continued

A while back I posted about how the Jeep was running poorly and had to be taken to the garage.

When I got it back it ran fine. For the first day.

For the next few days it got progressively worse to the point where it was running worse than when I took it to the garage in the first place.

Back it went for two more days of testing.

I got a call at the end of the first day telling me that they think they found the real problem this time (the fuel system wasn't it, evidently).

The tech working on it was pulling the plugs to look for any additional signs of what might be causing the problem, and he noticed a small crack in the porcelain by the tip of the plug. This was letting the plug's spark arc all over inside the cylinder instead of where it should be sparking.

A new plug was installed and all the problems went away immediately to the relief of the garage which was sick of searching for problems, especially considering I was not paying them by the hour - it was all part of a single diagnostic charge.

4 days of garage time plus a fuel injector flush cost me $211.00, all because of a faulty $3.00 Champion spark plug which I installed a few months ago.

The fuel system has probably not been touched in years, so I guess the money wasn't completely wasted.

A week after getting the Jeep back it's still running strong, and is now officially running better than ever. We've got a trip to Yellowstone planned this summer and I've got no hesitation in driving the Jeep for the trip, even though it'll be around 3,000 miles.

Oldsmobile, Meet Sea Foam

Early this Spring I ran some Sea Foam through the Jeep. It seemed to idle and run a little better after that was done. In theory, the Sea Foam works to break up the carbon build-up in the intake.

I only used half the can, and kept the rest for the Olds.

Today I took a half-day from work to get ready for the weekend trip to my dad's place, and had a little time to kill while working on the minivan I'm going to sell.

I removed the air cleaner to expose the carb and with a fully warmed up engine proceeded to slowly pour the Sea Foam into the carb. After about 80% of the half-can was in I noticed the smoke starting.

This is a normal part of using Sea Foam, so I wasn't worried. I was able to find some exhaust leaks I wouldn't otherwise notice - leaks which were causing the smoke to come up under the engine and into my face.

Again, no big deal as it looks like they can be taken care of by either tightening the clamps at the joint where it's leaking or by just ignoring it and enjoying the rumble of the engine.

So once the smoke started I quit adding more and shut the engine down for 10 minutes so the Sea Foam could do it's work.

When I started it up again I got a pretty heavy smoke-show as expected. The next step in the process is now the hardest to do thanks to $4.19/gallon gas prices. I had to take the car out on the road and beat it like a baby seal. I probably went through a gallon of gas in the process, but it does seem to idle a little more smoothly now so it's money well spent.

If it continues to run better I'm going to put off replacing the carb for another season. The Quadrajet is in need of either a full rebuild (or replacement) but it still works well enough for now. A better tuned carb might net me a few miles per gallon. Not a big issue with a limited-use vehicle, but every bit helps.

The Cost of Driving

Around here, gas is pennies from hitting $4.00 per gallon.

I remember my dad freaking out when it hit $1.00 per gallon, and prices around $.79-9. Back when that extra 9/10th meant something.

Since I got the Jeep I've been tracking the miles per gallon, mainly to see what kind of improvement I get from doing simple stuff like giving it a tune up.

Most of my driving has been 35-45 mph going back and forth to work, with the occasional trip on the freeway. Mileage has been pretty steady at 14.46 mpg.

The Jeep is no Prius, that's for sure. If I drove more than 10 miles round-trip for work each day I would be more worried about the cost of driving. The way things are, having the ability of carrying the whole family in safety and comfort is worth it.

Speaking of the cost of driving, over the past 4 fill-ups I've not only been tracking the mileage on a spreadsheet, but I've also added the cost per gallon to the chart so I can see how much each mile costs to drive.

No, I don't take into account things like oil changes, tire wear, and other expenses (like the recent work at the garage to get the fuel injection fixed). My goal was just to see how much the gas costs to drive a single mile.

Prices of gas since I've been tracking cost have ranged from $3.679 to $3.929. Mileage has ranged from 14.79 mpg to 15.31 mpg. Cost of driving one mile has ranged from $.24/mile to $.27/mile.

The lowest cost per mile was when I drove 245 miles on 16 gallons, netting 15.31 mpg. The $57.94 spent for those 16 gallons resulted in $.24/mile cost.

The highest cost per mile was when I drove 206 miles on 13.9 gallons, netting 14.82 mpg. The $54.71 spent for those 13.9 gallons resulted in $.27/mile cost. It was also during this fill-up that I started having problems with the fuel injectors, so this tank-full was possibly very skewed. Either way, with the Jeep running like crap it only added $.03/mile to the drive, which is about $.30 round-trip to work.

I realize that 4 fill-ups isn't much to go off of as long-term data, but it's a start and it is showing me that the Jeep is pretty consistent in performance.

It's also giving me good data to base my upcoming summer trip to Yellowstone off of. Just by changing the price per gallon I can get a good idea as to how much I'll end up spending to drive 2,500 miles round trip.

Guessing at what gas might cost in a few months, I've found that if gas goes up to $4.50/gallon it should still "only" cost around $.30/mile in gas, only $.03 or so more than I'm paying per mile now. And that is based off of the lower gas mileage I get driving around town. Freeway driving has been adding a couple miles per gallon to my average.

Off to the Garage the Jeep Goes

A few weeks ago the Jeep started running a little rough upon startup. It seemed like it was missing on one cylinder until I gave it the gas a little to get rolling to work.

This was only when the engine was cold.

I figured that it might be a bad plug, wire, cap, or rotor, since I did a full tune up and replaced all those components not too long ago. It's not out of the question that a new piece goes bad.

So I check it all out, and can't find any sure sign of problem with those components. That leads me to figure that it's either the computer or fuel injection system. Possibly the coil, but that didn't seem to fit with the way it was running.

Either way, I don't have the time or tools to check either one, so I take the Jeep to the garage a block from work and drop it off this past Wednesday.

They were to look at it Thursday, and they did.

They also looked at it all day Friday as well, trying to find the problem.

They checked everything I checked earlier and no luck. They did a compression test and found nothing. They pointed at the computer as the problem, but that along with the coil didn't seem to make sense to me.

Last, they checked the fuel injectors and found the problem. I'm not sure if only one was causing problems, but I expect that to be the case or the Jeep really wouldn't have run worth a crap.

Either way, I picked it up tonight and it runs as good as it did when I bought it. They said it might run a little rough cold for a little while due to the cleaner they used.

Fine with me, as long as it clears up and runs better. Now the big question is whether my mileage improves. I've been logging the miles and gas usage since I purchased the Jeep so it should be evident over the next few tanks.

While the Jeep was in the garage I needed something to drive, so I put the insurance back on the Olds for the season, picked up a new battery for it (the old one was dead and really too small for a 350 anyway) and hit the road.

The Olds is running a little rough and doesn't idle as smoothly as it should, most likely due to the carb needing a rebuild (or replacement). I'll probably run it as-is for now and take care of that next season, unless the funds present themselves for it to be done this year.

Driving it to work for a few days has introduced me to gear-heads I've never met in my building. Today I talked to a guy I've seen around there for 5 years, who came up and asked me how long I've had the '72.

Since he knew it was a '72 I could tell he knew what he was talking about, so I avoided work and talked cars for 10 minutes. Always a win-win in my book. Turns out he had a '72 in the past so he knew by looking at the taillights.

Later in the day, as I was pulling into the driveway, my neighbor (who is also a car guy) flags me down so his buddy could take a look at the car. I'm not sure if he was 100% serious, but the buddy told me to let him know if I want to sell it.

Thanks, but no. It's not leaving the family any time soon. My brother and my dad were kind enough to hand it over to me instead of selling it outright and maybe one day I'll be able to hand it over to my son.

Assuming gas isn't $68.00/gallon by then....

Speaking of gas prices, I'm starting to log the mileage and gas consumption on the Olds now for shits & giggles. I don't know what kind of miles-per-gallon the Olds gets, and I'm not really sure I want to find out.