Jeep Liberty ??

Any love (or hate) out there for the round headlight Jeep Liberty?  One for sale in my neighborhood has kind of caught my eye ... 2007 model, 3.7 liter V6, part time 4wd, 154k miles, under $4k, second owner.  Would be a shortish term (at least thru winter) replacement if I sell the GTI, and until I figure out what replaces that car long term.

Sound like it’s worth a look, or run away quickly and quietly?  Known things to look out for?  Thanks in advance!

The water pump is loose.

The engine may or may not have a misfire because of tight valve guides.  It may or may not have a corroded timing cover.

The front brake hoses rust out under the protective sleeve, your first indication of trouble is when it blows apart.

The rear upper link sucks.  It rusts out, the bushings fail constantly, it just sucks.

Rear lower links were recalled due to rusting out where the swaybar bolts on.

Front end work on them sucks because of the suspension layout.

They do drive decent when they are in good order.

I literally have never met anyone who has ever owned one that has liked it. Literally

The closest I got to soneone liking it was " well....it's got a diesel that's cool but it never stays running for long. The week or so in between breakdowns is pretty cool as long as you don't mind it being slow"

My cousin has one, the seatback recline lever broke off in his hand, sheared off the shaft it's bolted to at the base of the drivers seat.  The replacement part is NLA so looks like a junkyard trip for me to find one. That's all i got.

I bought a diesel for the neato factor, and so I could tow it four down behind the motorhome.  Then I sold it and bought a land rover which is hugely more reliable.....

Having said that I have a friend who bought a gas version needing a clutch for $400.00 and it just rolled over 500,000 trouble free kilometers.  I like driving mine and it looked pretty cool with a lift, an ARB front bumper and big rubber.

I am sure there is a lesson for you in there somewhere but I don't know what it is.

The liberty is where Jeep had to switch to "Trail Rated" (causing the spinoff "Mall Rated") because their previous 3rd party rating (long running Moab guide) told them to take the liberty and not bring it back.  I had a neighbor with one and the dealer could not get the rear window regulators to not grenade.  The sold it before the warranty was up because it was thousands to fix and one would break about every six months.

My neighbor had one.  The ball joint fell apart backing out of his driveway, I jacked up the front end with my floor jack so he could pull it back out of the road and then I replaced the ball joint in exchange for his wife cooking me breakfast.  Found out there was some kind of recall on it.

A friend had one, I drove it once and realized it had a CVT and then hated it from that moment forward.

I have one. A 2003. I gave $500 for it. It may have been worth it. Ac is cold. Florida car so no rust. Buncha miles. Starts and does vaguely car things. Does not inspire confidence on the highway, but that's what I get for $500. It's not the worst car I've owned, but it's not in the top half. 

I've got a buddy that bought a diesel new, pre ordered before they were available.  Sold it within a year.

I worked with a guy whose wife drove a gas one, he did nothing but bitch about it.

I've got another buddy who bought a used diesel for $1 (one dollar) because it's got a really trick 2 piece crank shaft, and allegedly lived a pampered life...

I have a Jeep Liberty in my yard that i got for free because it overheated and dropped a valve seat. Friends' 3.7 Commander did the same thing. 

Flip side of all these problem stories. A friend had one and he and his wife drove all over the USA, central and South America over the course of 2 years while living in with zero problems. 

bearmtnmartin said:

I bought a diesel for the neato factor, and so I could tow it four down behind the motorhome.  Then I sold it and bought a land rover which is hugely more reliable.....

LOL that's a ringing endorsement if I've ever seen one. Cheap for a reason!

I guess I am one of the few people with a positive Jeep Liberty experience.

Wife grew weary of a large SUV and wanted to downsize a bit. Found a pretty basic equipped Liberty for a decent price. She drove it about 2 years, she decided she judged the large SUV experience too harshly. Sold it for what we bought it for.

I thought the driving experience was OK, nothing special to be sure. Compared to full size SUVs and trucks, it seemed nimble, peppy, and about mid-road between full size SUV and econobox driveability.

Only repair I had was both the rear window regulators. Found an online outfit that sold a repair/upgrade kit for them. Seems like it only took about an hour to repair each one.

My mother bought a 2006 new,  3.7 v6 auto 4x4, only basic maintenance till the transmission went at 137k. She had a used trans installed, then within 10k the water pump went, then the fuel pump went out.  She did have issues with the rear calipers seizing like every 2 years but that's Pa road grime and lack of washing it off I think. 
 

I did the water pump and fuel which were easy and fairly cheap. 
 

My mom gave it to me in 2016 to sell as she bought a new car. She liked it as winters in in Pa can be messy. I drive it a bunch and liked it but I had no need for it as I had a 4x4 and a daily at the time otherwise I would have kept it. 
 

Patientzero said:

My neighbor had one.  The ball joint fell apart backing out of his driveway, I jacked up the front end with my floor jack so he could pull it back out of the road and then I replaced the ball joint in exchange for his wife cooking me breakfast.  Found out there was some kind of recall on it.

 

A friend had one, I drove it once and realized it had a CVT and then hated it from that moment forward.

Liberties never had CVTs,

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Patientzero said:

My neighbor had one.  The ball joint fell apart backing out of his driveway, I jacked up the front end with my floor jack so he could pull it back out of the road and then I replaced the ball joint in exchange for his wife cooking me breakfast.  Found out there was some kind of recall on it.

 

A friend had one, I drove it once and realized it had a CVT and then hated it from that moment forward.

Liberties never had CVTs,

I think he's thinking of the Jeep Patriot... which is another rusty turd with the Jeep name on it. 

Its a pity that the Liberty was pretty rubbish, because I think that they look quite nice. I seem to recall reading that the diesels had a recall because they would blow the transmission up, so Chrysler detuned them with a reprogram. So any diesel Liberty you find either A) is a complete dog or B) runs strong but the transmission is a grenade with the pin pulled.

We had one through 220k miles. Only issues were lower ball joints and a turn signal flasher that I didn't want to remove the dash to change. 

My wife loved it. It drove pretty well. Plenty of power. 

Find a same era Suzuki Grand Vitara. It's better in every concievable way. 

fanfoy said:

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Patientzero said:

My neighbor had one.  The ball joint fell apart backing out of his driveway, I jacked up the front end with my floor jack so he could pull it back out of the road and then I replaced the ball joint in exchange for his wife cooking me breakfast.  Found out there was some kind of recall on it.

 

A friend had one, I drove it once and realized it had a CVT and then hated it from that moment forward.

Liberties never had CVTs,

I think he's thinking of the Jeep Patriot... which is another rusty turd with the Jeep name on it. 

That is what I wanted to think, but the Patriot (nice name for a Mitsubishi chassis) did not have a ball joint extended warranty while the Liberty did.  Lots and lots of blown upper ball joints.

In reply to bobzilla :

I'm a big Suzuki fan and I don't think I can agree with that statement. Given the choice between the two, I'd probably take the Liberty. It's built like a tank. 

If you want to cross shop, look for a XJ Cherokee. There are a lot of similarities between the two. They even drive the similarly. 

In reply to Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) :

We'll have to agree to disagree. All the 'zuk suspension bits are either tubular arms (rear) or cast where the liberty uses stamped steel arms everywhere. The engines are better, axlesare better and they keep running unlike the Heep.

In 10 years we never kept a Liberty for resale as a used car for a reason. 

The Liberty ball joint problem was caused by the lack of a heat shield between the ball joint and the brake rotor. The brakes would cook the rubber boots on the ball joint which would then fill up with grit and water causing them to fail.

Look at the front ball joints. If it has a heat shield, the recall has been done. If the boots are cracked, I'd put ball joints in it. They will fail if you don't. They are neither hard nor expensive to replace.

I sure appreciate the quick feedback, folks.  Sort of looking to me like near $4k is about double what it might be worth, although I might just test drive it anyway for kicks, unless I have to wear a hazmat suit in 99 degree local weather to do so.  Bummer, really, as I really like the exterior look of the round headlight version.  Wish is was designed and built with a bit higher degree of quality.

Cant remember if it was liberty, but I know there was a Jeep that was popular with flat towing that were said to have massive stability issues when used for that purpose, supposedly even with the kit that was supposed to fix the problem.

They are generally turds. 3/4 people I have talked to with them have hated them for various reasons, even remember my uncle hating one he got as a rental car.