Today our WK got its first oil change since we purchased it back in March, having put roughly 3,000 miles on the clock since then. I used Mobil-1 5W20 (it takes 6 quarts!) and a Mopar “090″ oil filter. I also topped off the washer fluid, lubricated hinges and latches with spray-grease, and replaced the air filter.
A couple of notes:
- Removing the chin spoiler makes it a lot easier to crawl under the front of the vehicle. Six quick-release fasteners are all it takes to buy yourself about 2-3 inches more room under the fascia.
- You can indeed change the oil on this vehicle without removing the skid plate under the engine, but a small amount of oil does run along the skid plate and drip out at a different spot under the driver’s side of the ‘plate. A 2×4 placed under the driver’s side front wheel might help with that.
- The oil drain plug takes a 13MM wrench or socket.
- In a REALLY nice touch I discovered there is a chute built in under the oil filter that routes used oil directly to the drain pan, instead of letting it run all over the place on the skid plate and undercarriage. That was one of those surprises that just delights the DIYer, and probably goes unnoticed by 90% of the owners, but what a fantastic little piece of thoughtful engineering that is!
I was thinking about doing a tire rotation tonight, but I wanted to measure the tread depth on all of the tires and see where I wanted to place them, and decide whether or not I wanted to rotate in the full size spare. It started getting too dark to get that done, so I did a quick clean-up of the interior and glass, reset the service mileage counter and called it good. I’ll rotate the tires before the snow comes.
It is SO NICE to have such a beautiful, low mileage vehicle to drive, but there were some things that happened about a month after I got it that haven’t been mentioned here yet.
- One day, I hopped in, turned the key, and nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. I gave the starting system a quick going over in the driveway (it was already dark) and when I didn’t find anything, I drove the minivan instead.
- There was a serious water leak in the front passenger footwell.
- The passenger side front window would not auto-return to the up-position due to binding — it would stall then go back down unless you held the switch up.
- The passenger side rear door would not open via the interior handle.
All of these things were the occasion to bring the truck to the dealer for service under warranty. Sometime in early April I took it to Jim Riehle’s Friendly Jeep on 14 Mile and Van Dyke with the above complaints. It took two or three days for them to wrap everything up, but they did fix everything:
- In a surprising, shot-gun repair, they replaced the ignition switch, battery harness and starter motor to repair the no-start issue. In several months the problem has not reoccurred, so they must have fixed it, but I gotta say, wow, that was one expensive approach.
- The water leak was due to a void where two body panels meet, someplace under the exterior sheetmetal. The technician sealed it up with RTV, and then noted the carpet was mildewed. A complete one-piece interior carpet was ordered and put into the vehicle.
- The passenger side front window regulator was replaced to fix the window issue. Surprisingly, they also replaced the driver’s side front as well. Whether this was due to a TSB or some other known issue was not made clear, but it did fix the problem with the passenger side.
- The interior handle was reconnected to the latch mechanism on the passenger side rear door, fixing the problem.
Since these repairs, the Jeep has been trouble-free. Now it could be that these were left-over problems that should have been caught by the two dealers that had the car before it was sold each time — and they should have been. It could be that the build quality of the Grand Cherokee is not up to snuff, and according to somebody I know who works at Jefferson Avenue North, the water leak issue is well known, so I think that’s the case.
Either way, it was a little disconcerting to have these problems with a vehicle this new. It was even more disconcerting to watch the dealership replace virtually everything except my ignition key to fix the no-start problem, although admittedly the problem cleared up before I brought it to them (I was going to have it towed the next day, and just on a lark I hopped in and turned the key only to see it start right up.)
Obviously this thing is an excellent truck. It is better in almost every way than the WJ that it replaced with the minor difference that it accelerates almost imperceptibly slower than the old truck did; this has got to be because of the extra 600 pounds it’s carrying around. It is much smoother, much quieter, much more responsive to steering input, and feels much more stable than the WJ. I enjoy driving it. But I have to say, I just hope it’s got the longevity I need it to have…
