New owner-Help and advice needed- 2001 xj 4.0

Hello everyone,

I am the new proud owner of a 2001 XJ with a 4.0 I6 , five speed manual and four wheel drive. I apologize for the length of the email, but please bear with me), it's all technical

This specific car is an overseas version that was assembled in EGYPT, I've got some comments / questions that i hope the experienced members in this website can help me with:

- The car's trim level is ( country ) with VIN DA4FF48P614041820. This trim level and engine/ transmission combination as well as the VIN does not match with any build history or VIN decoders that i found online, although the vehicle is completely stock and unmodified. Any thoughts on that?

- The car has got only 30,000 miles on the clock, it belonged to an old lady and was stored / not used most of its life. Maintenance she did was only oil and sparkplug changes, maybe brakepads or so. transmission / differential fluids, etc..were never drained or changed. The car has never been off-roaded or involved in any sort of accident. All other mechanical items were untouched since the car was new.

- Although the car is in excellent condition externally I have the following driving comments after 2 days of intensive driving.

1. huge harshness and vibration felt from under the driving seat at all speeds above 30mph. The noise is not a whining noise but sort of mechanical harshness accompanied with high frequency mechanical vibration. The noise drowns the engine noise at full throttle and is very annoying while cruising on the high way. It seems to be coming from the car's " belly " somewhere near the transmission area.

2. General lack of power below 3000rpm, when i floor it at say 1500,2000 rpm in 2nd gear, the car seems very sluggish ( but no backfire or hesitation )until it hits 3000rpm where a sudden release of power occurs till the redline.

3. a very loud rapid clicking noise when the steering is at full lock during parking maneuvers at slow speeds. Similar to the of noise a stun gun or electric taser.

4. strong vibration in the steering wheel and brake pedal when braking from high speeds, although the brake pedal feel and braking itself is ok.

5. There seems to be some banging noise coming from the front axle when passing over heavy bumps.

6. very heavy clutch pedal, some noise &vibration occurs if the clutch is released slowly from standstill in 2nd gear.

since i want to restore the car to 100% condition,I went ahead and had a complete vehicle status report conducted by my local dealer. The outcome is a bit puzzling.They agree that all of the car's systems are in good/ excellent condition except the follwing areas.

1. They want to take apart the transfer case and conduct a rebuild!!. According to them thats the source of the vibration / harshness from under the seat. They cannot narrow it down to more than that without taking it apart first! your thoughts please, does this make sense?

2. They say the general lack of low rpm torque/ weak acceleration is caused by bad spark plugs ONLY!

3. They say the car need a new steering gear and power steering pump. ( in reference to the clicking noise )

4. new brake disks and steering damper for the vibration felt under braking

5. 4 new control arms for the front axles . They as well say there is some sign of accident damage to the front axle housing which affected one of the control arms. The weird thing is the the front axle is visually PERFECT! no sign of even a scratch! I lifted the car and tried to inspect for any sort of odd looking damage and there is none!.

6. New clutch , pressure plate and bearing for the heavy clutch pedal.


All other car systems checked: Engine, Cooling system, suspension, drivetrain, brakes, tires/wheels, exhaust system,electrics, body condition and paint are more than good as per the report.

I appreciate the inputs , thoughts recommendations of all the technical community in this forum. I am an experienced car enthusiast but new to SUV's and off roading, and i always thought the XJ is the only proper suv). so guide me though to restore it to excellent condition

Regards
Mostafa AG

Hi there and welcome to the XJ family. There is a person not too far away from you called Dino Sava. Not too far being relative to how far you are from say, Colorado where I live... His email is [email protected] you might try contacting him for help. He might know someone closer that can help you. You need a good second opinion...

My thoughts are as follows:
1. The vibration could be a bad universal joint on the driveshaft. Does not rule out the transfercase, but a bad TC with only 30k miles is unlikely unless it was ran without oil in it.
2. Bad ignition prts aer a possibility and are easily and inexpense to replace. Shoild be done as a matter of course for any used vehicle. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor should be renewed.
3. Clicking Steering Gear? That would be a new symptom... Pumps usually whine as they go bad. Steering gear will leak not click.
4. Bad disks. This is a very real possibility. If you are mechanically inclined you can pop in a set with little effort. Same applied to the ignition parts.
5. Get under the vehicle and pull hard on the arms. If you feel ANY movement, replace them. I agree with your assesment that if there were damage, you should see some sign be it only scrahes in the paint...
6. A bad pressure plate.clutch disk has never in my experience caused a heavy clutch feel. How hard is it to depress the clucth? Have you compared it to another XJ? If not, you should. The clutch is hydraulically actuated. Master and slave cyclinders. Typical failures are leaks. A faulty master might cause a heavy feel but, again, compare to a known good vehicle.

Hope this helps.

Sounds like the dealer wants to fix everything by throwing parts at it.

First thing I would do is change ALL the fluids, including axles, transfer case, brake fluid, coolant, EVERYTHING.

Grease, oil and lubricate any moving, sliding, twisting parts; springs, ball joints, bushings, drive shaft and axle universal joints.

Do all you can yourself so you get to know your new Jeep.
After all that you might be surprised how many of your problems have been "fixed".

30,000 miles in 10 years. Part of the noise and vibration might be old, hard and flat spotted tires. At full steering lock vibration and noise could be the tires rubbing the lower control arms.

Good luck!
Mike

as far as the ignition system is concerned 2000-2001 is a distributorless ignition so there is no cap/rotor, only thing to change is plugs, and is something you can do yourself for less than 10 dollars. If that doesn't fix your power problems you have a lot bigger issue. I believe NGK brand plugs are what are recommended for that year.