I feel for you. Bad habits are hard to break.
I feel for you. Bad habits are hard to break.
In reply to Dirtydog:
Heh. I'd only be keeping it if it behaved and didn't require more work- the only real advantage of keeping it would be having a car that didn't require actively working on it so I could focus on the cars I WANT to be working on. If it started misbehaving again (or if I could get a price close to KBB for it) I'd be happy to see it gone in favor of something more fun.
In reply to Ashyukun:
If the LCA-to-Subframe nuts are captive and they broke free it's a pretty cruddy design or weld unless you really gave them the beans putting them back in. I'd personally be tempted to open the subframe up weld the nuts back in place, but I can see why you wouldn't want to do that.
Of course judging from that first front subframe they might have had sufficient time to corrode themselves free already.
I'm still staggered by the amount of corrosion on that thing for a 10 year old SUV.
In reply to The0retical:
Yeah, I don't really know exactly what happened with the subframe. If I get bored and have a welder handy I may try and fix the nearly-new subframe I just pulled out and see about getting some of my money back re-selling it, but it may not be worth the effort. Unfortunately I'm nowhere near confident of being able to even get to the weld nuts without essentially destroying the subframe in the process- or at least making it REALLY difficult to get back together in decent alignment...
So I had to run out to the hardware store yesterday, so I swapped cars around to take the Jeep on its first test run after the work. And, thankfully, it seems that the work on it has paid off and it now drives pretty much normally- meaning it doesn't try and veer itself off the road periodically.
So, I can now drive it safely... but it's still wildly uninspiring to drive. My old Saturn SL had like 3/5 the displacement that the Jeep has but felt WAY peppier, likely owing to a much lower weight and having a manual transmission. Honestly, I think if this had the manual and not the CVT it might be a tolerable vehicle. As it is, I just really don't like how the CVT behaves, and the car feels like it has just no power- not something you want in a SUV.
After driving the Jeep around a bit I jacked it back up and went around and re-torqued all the fasteners. I also jury-rigged a camber gauge from an old angle iron and a level and checked the camber on the front wheels. The driver's side is a hair negative, while the passenger is slightly less positive. Annoyingly, the only real way to change the camber without adding camber bolts is- drum roll please- to shift the subframe I just replaced over to one side. Which of course impacts BOTH sides and not just one. I tried to adjust it a bit with loosening up the strut-to-wheel-hub bolts and trying to shift the connection, but I'm not sure it did much.
Drove it on a 60-mile round trip on the highway yesterday to get something for SWMBO's upcoming show, and it did fairly well. It's obviously still in need of being aligned, but even with that issues is STILL far more drivable than it was before.
Still mulling taking it back to the auction this week and seeing if the bidding will get high enough for me to let it go so I can try and get a convertible. 
Giving the auto auction another try since I get to do it for free- have the nicer wheels on it this time, hoping it goes for a decent amount. I'll probably take less than I'd like to- with the weather having warmed up nicely I really want it gone so we can get a convertible.
So the bidding didn't even get as high as it did last time. There was a couple who were really interested in the car, but weren't willing to go even up to the price I was willing to take (at a massive loss- basically I decided I wouldn't sell it for less than I paid for it initially, so I'd have been losing money on all the parts I'd put on it).
So, it sticks around for a short while longer. Unfortunately the front CV joints are making a LOT of noise... the good news is that I have the replacements already, but had been hoping I wouldn't need them and didn't install them when I did the rest of the front end work in hopes I'd just be able to return them. I guess that was overly wishful thinking. Thankfully that should be a much easier job overall if I choose to do it.
I'm hoping the weather will at least remotely behave over the weekend for me to be able to have SWMBO drive the Jeep while I take care of the things her Mariner needs- after that I'll re-list the Jeep at a lower price and hope that it sells.
Spent Friday evening and an hour or so Saturday morning swapping front axles on the Pat. Thankfully with as many times as I've done work on the front end it went fairly quickly since I already know exactly what wrenches/sockets I need for everything. Only slight hiccup came because since I needed to refill the transmission anyway (Ugh... $10/quart CVT fluid...) since most of it drained out when I pulled the axles, I decided I should do it right and replace the transmission filter as well. When I went to put the pan back on the gasket slipped out of place and I didn't realized it so when I poured in the first quart of CVT fluid it started leaking very badly and I had to drop the pan again and fix the gasket. Thankfully since I'd just cleaned the pan and had a clean catch-pan handy I was able to salvage most of the quart of fluid in case I need more.
With that out of the way, the only thing remotely wrong with the Jeep (besides its inherent issues like a wimpy engine, less interior space than it should have, and SWMBO loathing driving it because she can hardly see out of it) is the annoying intake runner actuator that I just cannot get figured out that keeps the CEL on. Doesn't really bother me, but of course is a point people can use to try and get the price down on me too.
For the time being, I'm not going to be pushing to get it sold- as much as I do want a 'vert for the nice weather, in about a month SWMBO's non-profit will be having its annual performance and one of my responsibilities this year is designing and building a water curtain setup for the stage- and having the Jeep around to transport its components will be useful vs. trying to do with with the Riv or using her Mariner.
It seems that the older Patriots just don't sell. And in a way I can understand why. No one really wants a small, heavy, underpowered sport ute that can't get out of it's own way. No wonder people call it the gutless wonder... add 4WD drive to that and well.. It really could've done better with a bit of forced induction imo. The CVT really makes it even worse.
In reply to Bill Mesker:
Yeah, I have given some evil thought to trying to track down a SRT-4 Caliber to steal the turbo gear off of. Would make it a LOT more fun to drive I imagine!
Oh god don't give me any ideas Ash haha...... Pardon me... I'm off to go find a Caliber SRT-4 and a Patriot to turn it into the bastard child it should've been 
I'm sure there's a few Evo Xes that landed in junkyards upside down.
Heh. Thankfully I have enough other projects to worry about that I'm not likely to spend the time and money to try and fix the problems inherent to the Jeep- I'll make use of it as best I can while I still have it and keep trying to sell it. I'd far rather be doing all the work that the DMC needs or working on the Riviera for the Challenge than trying to fix FCA's mistakes on the Patriot.
Ugh.
Well, less than a week after replacing the CV axles the front end is making exactly the same noises again- so either the joints on the new axles failed in less than a week, or there's something else at play. Likely won't get into figuring it out until after the holiday weekend- but am now more set than ever that after SWMBO's show in early July (for which I may need the cargo capacity of the Jeep, crappy as it may be) I am going to actively work to dump this thing regardless of the loss.
Well, good news- Sunday evening I jacked up the front end and tightened everything remotely related to the suspension or subframe. The accursed front LCA bolts were not loose, but loose enough that I could still tighten them about half a turn with a combination wrench (and a lot of muscle). That tightening seems to have eliminated the noise I was hearing, so the good news is that it likely was NOT the CV joints. Still will be trying to dump it in a bit over a month after transporting stuff for the show.
Show is done, so I've got the Jeep back up priced more aggressively- have it listed for $2k. Annoyingly, the friend/wife's company dancer who was borrowing it hit a curb with it and destroyed two of the tires on the aftermarket wheels, so at the moment it has 2 of each wheel on it and sounds like crap at over 30mph due to the horribly worn tires on the Jeep wheels. At this point, I just don't car- I'll be happy to have it gone and a bit of money back to buy something I'll enjoy far more.
Aaahhhggg. It never ends!
jfryjfry wrote: Aaahhhggg. It never ends!
Hopefully the end is near- have someone who is supposed to come and look at it this evening who actually didn't lead with, "What's the least you'll take for it?" I've had several people offer from $1200 to $1500 for it, but given it has only been listed for about 36 hours I'm not going to jump at 60-75% of my asking price just yet. Really hoping I can get it sold in the next few days- I have Friday off due to our new 9/80 schedule, so if this POS is sold I could potentially head out and buy a BMW convertible I've had my eye on for a while...
So, in theory I'll have it sold Friday morning. Kind of curious why someone would want to drive all the way from Cleveland (or if they're here, drive all the way up there in it like they asked about doing) for a Jeep Patriot, but hey- whatever floats their boat. Was very up-front about the fact that it would be very unwise to try driving it that distance on the highway without replacing the damaged tires so all 4 tires were the same size and 2 weren't disasters waiting to happen. Still kind of hope someone local offers me more for it in the next 2 days...
Aaand, to my complete and total surprise (note heavy sarcasm...), the potential buyer backed out after I wouldn't drop the price further after he complained that I should because he had to drive so far. Sorry, but you knew from the get-go where the car was located- or at least you should have, it's one of the first things I make note of when I look at a car listing- the fact that you wanted a car 4 hours away does not in any way obligate me to lower the price for you. I did consider throwing them a bit of a bone and dropping it a bit- but then worried that they'd try and argue the price down even further once here.
Have had some other interest in it, but nothing that has gotten past them asking, "Is there anything wrong with it?" and my responding that it needs 2 new tires and has a CEL on that doesn't impact anything. Have weighed seeing what replacing the 2 tires would cost, but then have to weigh whether the $100 or so would really get me that much more than just leaving it.
I had someone try to pull the "2 hour drive" as part of their negotiations, I literally told them "the long drive is not my problem." I hate that crap.
dculberson wrote: I had someone try to pull the "2 hour drive" as part of their negotiations, I literally told them "the long drive is not my problem." I hate that crap.
Yeah, it annoys me too. Though in this case, I was halfway glad they decided to not come down for it- not only would I have not wanted to deal with their trying to whine about the drive to get the price down but were something to happen (regardless of the cause- I don't expect anything to go wrong with the car, but that IS further than I've driven it in one shot) on the long drive back it would have been even worse.
Well, it's finally gone- hopefully never to be seen or heard from again. Sold it for solidly less than I originally bought it for and likely less than half of the total I had in it- but at least it's gone and someone else's problem and I can move on to something else.
Do still have the spinning-captive-nut subframe and the control arms & hubs attached to it... haven't decided if I want to put the time in and try and get to the nuts to weld them back solid so I can disassemble it and potentially sell the otherwise-essentially-new subframe or just say Berk It and haul the whole thing to the scrapyard for a very small fraction of what it cost.
Scap. Walk the berkeley away and wash your hands of the whole damn thing.
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