Any differences between '95 and '96 my?

I'm just curious if there are any differnces in the model years from 1995 to 1996?
I'm actually starting to look into buying an imported RHD XJ from Japan to be used as my daily driver. The the laws in Canada specify you have to wait until the vehicle is 15+ years old, and they measure right down to the month of production.
So, I could get almost any '95 right now, but I would have to wait for a '96 model until next year and how long would depend on when the Jeep rolled off the assembly line.

So, any significant differences between these model years?

Could be a number of them - '96 was a transition year between OBD-I and OBD-II, as well as the final year of the older body style.

As a result, there are a number of oddities in the '96 models resulting from phasing in of a number of changes/improvements over the course of the model year - earlier ones proabably are more like the '95s, where later ones will have noticeable similarities to the '97+ range.

I don't have a '96, so I'll stop here and offer the baton to those who know this particular year more intimately...

Yes, there are some.

Body/frame - no significant differences.
Axles & suspension - no significant differences.
Interior - no significant differences.
Drivetrain mechanical - rear output of transfer case. Slip yoke design changed, the 95-down design is better for those lifting their jeeps as it doesn't result in vibes quite as often.
Drivetrain electrical - many connectors changed style due to the OBD-I to OBD-II changeover, careful when ordering or buying parts (compare the connector, if it plugs in it'll work.) 95 is OBD-I, 96 is OBD-II, engine computer also changed, as did the fuel level sender unit.
Fuel system - significant changes. 95 had the supply/return system with the fuel pressure regulator vacuum controlled and mounted to the fuel rail on the manifold, 96 is returnless with the FPR inside the fuel sender assembly. 96 fuel sender assemblies are one-off, and expensive.
Exhaust system - may have slight changes, flange vs welded/clamped downpipe to catalytic converter junction, possibly changes in number of O2 sensors (I think 95 may not have had a downstream sensor but I'm not certain), maybe downpipe diameter changes. Research this further, I am not sure if any of this part is correct.

That's all I can really think of. I would personally buy a 95 unless you have a secret love for OBD-II, every change I am certain of on the 95-96 switchover results in more expensive parts and less reliability/functionality on the 96 model year. If you really want a more modern XJ I would wait and buy a 97 when they become available to you, as they have more parts interchangeability. The only one-off parts I'm aware of on the 97 model year are the transmission controller (hardly ever goes bad) and the transmission wiring harness which can be cut&spliced to make a 91-96 part work with little effort.

I would rather have a 95 or a 97, skipping the 96 for many of the reasons Kastein has already stated.

One thing I do remember about vehicles in Japan is body cancer.

Can't locate a 97 RHD in the U.S. that you could drive back into Canada?

That's another thing... I've heard rumors that the metal used on the 96 model year was more prone to rust. I don't know if it's correct, but mine certainly rusted quite nicely.

Just adding a couple of details to above:

My 95 was reliable and robust (263 thousand miles, retired in perfect running order owing to rust, failure of heater, and a few peripheral issues that would have been worth fixing for a daily driver but not for a spare Jeep that only ran around locally.

95 does have only one O2 sensor.

I think 96 has later style belt routing ( a small plus) , but not sure about this. It has later version of engine wiring harness, computer, and MAP sensor mounted on throttle body.

96 has both OBD I and II running simultaneously, which can be handy.

My son has a 96 and it's possibly even worse than my 95 in the rust department (and that's a hard one to beat!). The only thing he's done better with is the roof rust. He can still sit on the driver's seat after it rains.

If you can find a good 95, I don't think you gain anything by waiting for a 96.

You are correct about the belt routing, I had forgotten that. However, if I recall the 96 bracket for the idler pulley is different from the 97 and up, or the 96 and 97 are the same and the 98 and up are different, I forget. Either way, it is still a terrible design that is prone to seizing and rusting, but not as bad as the 95 down design and nowhere near as annoying to adjust.

Some 97s also had the OBD I code output supported, a friend of mine with an early 97 can use that trick. The codes read out on the odometer.

Another thing that may affect your decision - I have absolutely no idea how some of these year splits affect RHD XJs as I have never gotten under the hood on one. Some of this may be completely different on them.

Of the 5 XJ's in my driveway, I have two 96 XJ's and love them! 96 is my favorite year of all of them but I'm also fond of the RENIX as well.

There is an emissions recall, E22 I think, but I had it done on one 96 but not on the other, I see no difference in how they both perform.

I have a '95 and a guy I work with has a '96. Basically all the differences have already been mentioned. One thing I do know for certain is that his OBD-II is way more apt to throw up the CEL than my OBD-I is. His CEL is almost always on, and I think a lot of it has to do with the extra o2 sensor.

I don't know, if it were me, I suppose I would take my '95 over his '96, even though his has some cooler stuff on it. I don't really like all of those newfangled electronics. Just my $.02.

FYI, you don't have to import to get RHD. At least in the USA, there were many RHD XJs sold for rural mail routes.

Let me tell you, after 10 years of driving LHD XJs, driving a RHD is like being in the bizarro world.

I like the newfangled electronics (I'm an electrical engineer, so it figures.) My CEL has only ever been on for good reasons - most recently, the rear driveshaft wore through the insulation on the wiring harness for the downstream O2 sensor, intermittently shorting out the sensor/computer power and the return signal. I ignored it because I couldn't track down what the issue was and eventually it blew the fuse for the ECU, injectors, coil, alternator field winding, O2 sensors, and most of the engine sensors, resulting in a quarter mile tow... fixed it with two feet of electrical tape and a replacement fuse.

He should connect an OBD II code reader and figure out why the codes are being set. The one thing to remember while using a code reader is that the codes are just what the ECU sees, not what is actually wrong - so you have to do some thinking still. I could have replaced downstream O2 sensors till I was blue in the face and it still would not have fixed the problem, the wiring between the computer and the sensor was bad which made the computer think the sensor was bad.

Parts availability is my only real concern. I ended up putting a 97 fuel tank and sender unit in my 96 because I couldn't find a good used fuel level sender (mine was horribly rusted) and it works fine after some wire and hose splicing, the fuel gauge is inaccurate though. In an ideal world, I would like a 97 M/T XJ with a 4.0/NV3550/NP231, 99 intake manifold, 95 rear driveshaft and transfer case, 87/88/89 d44 rear axle w/LSD and fullsize spare, Venezuelan d44 front axle, full skids, cargo area cover, full leather, factory winch, police package (ext idle and 120mph speedo), overhead console, upcountry suspension, tow package with 4.10 gears and factory hitch, full power accessories w/RKE, AM/FM/tape/CD stereo, full tint, and factory tow hooks, but sadly no such vehicle ever left the factory. I'll settle for a decently equipped 95 or 99 and add the rest myself any day.

Having been through a fuel tank replacement and fun with a 96 pump/regulator/sender, the complete pump/regulator/sender assembly is made of unobtanium, NO ONE near me had one, I salvaged a functional sender for parts from a wreck I bought. The electronics are not that big of a problem, the only thing I have issues with (other than 14 year old parts wearing out) is rust, it is alive and well on my heep.

Thanks for all the replies folks, greatly appreciated.
And the concensus seems to be that it woudn't be all that beneficial to choose the '96 over the '95, so I guess I'll get the older model.

To answer your question ChicksDigWagons:
I looked online at a few internet stores (US based) that had a bunch of these XJ's and they had some significantly unfavourable aspects to them - the dash is all in miles, I'd need to change that over, and the mileage is somewhat higher than the overseas models, 150,000 miles seemed common whereas the Japanese ones were all under 100,000 km (65,000 miles).
And the cost was high, anywhere from $8000 - $13,000 for these.

I have spoken with an importer local to me and he quoted $5000-$8000 (landed cost to me) for the '95 and '96 models that he saw out there at the auctions, and all of them had less than 100,000 km. And of course they all read in km vs. miles, so that's one less thing I have to worry about.
And when you import a vehicle from the US to Canada you still have a decent amount of paperwork to fill out, and some taxes to pay, so more hoops to jump through. Also, I live about 7 hours straight north of the US border, so I'd have to either take a whole weekend to pick it up, or maybe have to take a day off of work.
If I import the vehicle from overseas the importer will take care of all of those details and I just pay the bill.
So there's the reasons behind looking overseas vs. the US market.

One benefit of importing from the US is that I don't have to wait the 15 years to bring it into Canada, so I could get a newer model, but that would be way more $$$$.

I can see why you want one from Japan then!

Make sure you post pics and list any nifty options and features you get, most of us rarely see RHD XJs nevermind ones built for the export market :roll:

I'll definitely be taking some pics when I get it!
I'm going to contact the importer again and see what specifically is out there right now in the '95 my and what sort of time frame it would be before I could take delivery.
I need to sell my '02 Durango before I put the cash up for the next XJ though...

If you're really, really set on importing a RHD XJ... Bring in one of the van models!





These were a factory model with no back seats, metal panels instead of rear side windows, flat cargo area, and turbodiesel engine. As far as I'm aware there aren't any of these in North America, so you'd have a pretty unique model.

Best place to look is Ireland (they were pretty popular there and come up on the used market fairly regularly) with the UK second; I have no idea if they were ever sold in Japan. Ireland didn't go fully-metric until 2005 and the UK still hasn't, so you'll have to swap out the instrument panel for metric gauges, but that's easy. Prices are typically pretty low - I've seen them in the €1000-or-less range.

Ok, if they made that panel in a 2-dr I now know what I want for Christmas!!

joe_peters said:

Ok, if they made that panel in a 2-dr I now know what I want for Christmas!!

Click to expand...

They also came as 2-door vans in the '97-up bodystyle, but on the day that I compiled those photos there weren't any 2-doors floating around the interwebs that I could find.

The first XJ I ever drove was a van, so it'd be nice to see at least one on this continent...

casm said:

If you're really, really set on importing a RHD XJ... Bring in one of the van models!

These were a factory model with no back seats, metal panels instead of rear side windows, flat cargo area, and turbodiesel engine. As far as I'm aware there aren't any of these in North America, so you'd have a pretty unique model.

Best place to look is Ireland (they were pretty popular there and come up on the used market fairly regularly) with the UK second; I have no idea if they were ever sold in Japan. Ireland didn't go fully-metric until 2005 and the UK still hasn't, so you'll have to swap out the instrument panel for metric gauges, but that's easy. Prices are typically pretty low - I've seen them in the €1000-or-less range.

Click to expand...

Not really a fan of the van styling, aside from rare/cool factor... but turbodiesel XJ? RHD? YES PLEASE

Ya, the "van" would definitely be unique!
I know the Canadian market had some diesel XJ's but from what I've heard they weren't that powerful, nor reliable.
However, the van model won't work for me, this XJ will be my daily driver and backup for my wife's minivan when the snow gets deep, and we'll need to have my son in the back seat.
And... well... with no back seat, that would be... ummm... difficult? lol