96 XJ

im looking at buying a 96 XJ with 153,000 miles...a 4.0L...4x4 4 door...automatic...the body is clean....the interior is perfect looking...the motor ran great when i drove it...the tranny shifted hard into second gear....the jeep is completly stock...original size tires, not lifted and no aftermarket stuff under the hood...the blue book on the the jeep is somthin like $3500 and i got the guy down to $2000...is there anything that i should take a second look at before i give the guy the cash? i understand that things wear out and have to be replaced eventually...but....any input would be appreciated...

Floors. If you see rust, forget about it.

That sounds just like mine. That's less than I paid for mine, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. If it looks good, I would say go for it. I had some transmission issues when I first got mine, but do a search here for how to do a "poor man's transmission flush," that fixed all my tranny issues.

Now it's become my permanent weekend project as I add to it and "improve" it.

Welcome to the forum!

when i looked at it the other day i didnt see any rust on it anywhere...now...theres got to be some somwhere...but it looked really clean...ill look up the the poor mans tranny flush and do that and see if it helps...thanks

Only prob ive had with the 2 XJs ive owned is rocker rust......as my name says, lol......both Jeeps have had wasted rockers....but other than that, they are fine....as long as i can get an inspection sticker every year, the rust doesnt bother me one bit, lol.....my frineds think im an ass, but oh well, why pass up a killer Jeep, due to a little rust? My 89, i got it to pass the inspection for 4 years, my 92 has passed twice so far.....my rockers are almost GONE too, lol.....

SoCal XJs tend to rust a lot less than those in other parts of the country.

Definitely look under it real good: oil leaks(rms, filter elbow, oil pan, valve cover, tranny). Check under the driver's and passenger's side floor pan for rust(I could've gotten my 94 for at least $300 cheaper if I would've done that when I bought it, but it was raining). You can even remove the two screws holding the kick panels so you can lift up the rug and see. Definitely take it off the street and verify that all the 4x4 gears work. I got my 96 2-dr, 2wd, ax15, 4.0 w/60K for $1200(down from $1800) from a young doctor that didn't know $#!+ about it(other than his dad bought it new 10 years ago and averaged 6K a year on it and just wanted to get rid off it.

well i bought it for $2000...didnt find any rust, havnt seen any oil leaks...ive parked in the same place the last two nites and no mysterious oil spots have developed....the first nite i had it i took it out to play in some mud just to make sure everthing workd of course...=) and it dose just wut it should...the tranny though...it dose still shift hard into second gear and it sometimes hesitates goin into second...like i really have to let off all the way to get it to shift somtimes...