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.
Yeah, in general I like the interior and exterior design. I thought about doing an engine swap on the one sitting here. They did come with 2.4L and 5spd manual at which point I'd be pretty dang ok with it. 2wd only in that trim, though.
I know where there's one with the 3.7, 5spd manual and 4x4. I didn't know that combo existed until I saw it.
bobzilla said: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 stampings is why the Liberty rear arms failed. It wasn't purely from salt intrusion, the way the swaybar bolted to it would flex and crack the paint, and then the metal, and then it would disassemble itself.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:bobzilla said: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 stampings is why the Liberty rear arms failed. It wasn't purely from salt intrusion, the way the swaybar bolted to it would flex and crack the paint, and then the metal, and then it would disassemble itself.
Nah, that wasnt what it was.
They did not allow sufficiently large drainage holes on the initial design, they became plugged with road schmutz and retained moisture (if not water, damp schmitz).
They initially recalled in salt belt states only, but more recently expanded the recall to include all of them because they were that susceptible.
In reply to Apexcarver :
Oh yeah, forgot that part.
Just a crummy design all around.
They were also part of the "free tow hitch to prevent fires in rear impacts" recall as well as a few other recalls.
I ordered mine direct with tow package in 2002, the first gen.
After two ball joint recalls and a minor transmission problem, it was good for 8 years and around 80k mile.
It had a 5k lb tow rating and handled my 3900 lb. trailer quite easily. Towed all over the NE to various race tracks for track days.
The tow package included an electric fan so I removed the clutch fan. Never over heated even with a screen in front of the radiator.
The Goodyear tires sucked in the winter but wore like iron. Snow tires fixed that. The Trak-Lok was good and bad, depending.
When not towing it was nice family tripper. After i stopped towing and i started making long trips I got tired of the 19 mpg and traded it for a Fiesta
Vigo (Forum Supporter) said: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.
Yeah, in general I like the interior and exterior design. I thought about doing an engine swap on the one sitting here. They did come with 2.4L and 5spd manual at which point I'd be pretty dang ok with it. 2wd only in that trim, though.
Hmmmm, could you install SRT-4 Neon turbo bits to the engine in that application and make some ungodly sleeper?
NickD said:Vigo (Forum Supporter) said: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.
Yeah, in general I like the interior and exterior design. I thought about doing an engine swap on the one sitting here. They did come with 2.4L and 5spd manual at which point I'd be pretty dang ok with it. 2wd only in that trim, though.
Hmmmm, could you install SRT-4 Neon turbo bits to the engine in that application and make some ungodly sleeper?
That's part of a recipe used to make RWD 2.4L powered projects. Not many bother with the Liberty outside of using it as a donor. Often they are swapped into older Jeep chassis or similar.
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.....
This speaks VOLUMES. Any vehicle that you trade for a Rover to get increased reliability is really saying something 
"I traded my couch for a pile of horse poop because it smelled better."
I kid
Sorta.
I'll threadjack this... is the VM 2.8 diesel any good? Thinking about it for a swap project.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I haven't heard of any specific problems with the engines. The Liberty diesels had a problem with the destroying torque converters.
Toyman01 (Moderately Supportive Dude) said:In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I haven't heard of any specific problems with the engines. The Liberty diesels had a problem with the destroying torque converters.
Large four cylinder Diesel makes big torque impulses, which breaks the berkeley out of things.
Notice the new 2.8 turbodiesel is a six, not a four.
My aunt had one, I drove it once. For all the bitching people did about replacing the xj with the ifs liberty, Jeep sure did work hard to make it ride like it still had a solid front axle, and I mean that in a bad way.
I own a 2003 3.7 w/ both off road and the towing packages that I ordered new. It's been a reliable ( well, except for blowing its trans at 7k miles) truck that I ran fire calls with for years . It's good in snow, but will spin fast in rain... use 4wd then. It only gets 14 mpg, and the only real prob it has is the A/C reliability just sucks... it's the worst car I've ever owned in that regard. At 17 years old the rockers are bubbling, but I still smile when I drive it.
Apexcarver said: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.
In 2006, I got an airport rental that happened to be a Liberty - and since they were relatively new then I was excited to check it out. After 2-3 days of driving, that wobbly, underpowered, POS I couldnt believe that a major auto maker would/could sell turds like that in the 21st century United States. By far, it was one of the worst pieces of crap I have driven. I wouldn't own one if someone gave me one.
My only Liberty experience: I had a guy from Outside of Toronto bring one down to Maryland to tow the Dodge A100 van I sold him home. He was much more confident in his setup than I was... I'm assuming he made it back....
FatMongo said:In 2006, I got an airport rental that happened to be a Liberty - and since they were relatively new then I was excited to check it out. After 2-3 days of driving, that wobbly, underpowered, POS I couldnt believe that a major auto maker would/could sell turds like that in the 21st century United States. By far, it was one of the worst pieces of crap I have driven. I wouldn't own one if someone gave me one.
And yet Jeep decided to build the new Cherokee to prove they could still make massive turds.
If I were in the market for a smallish Jeep SUV I'd find an XJ and skip over the entirety of the Liberty era. Everyone I've talked to about one swore they were the end of Jeep in their lives. The front subframes rot out. Just abysmal vehicles.
The latest example of FCA seeing how big of a turd they can make and still sell is the newest Wrangler... Frame weld issues requiring roving welders to come to dealerships to reweld them, massive amounts of steering complaints... They will still sell because Jeep.
In reply to noddaz :
I considered doing that to my XJ.
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