My progress so far on spiffing up my Grand Cherokee

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
12/03/2013 at 15:45 • Filed to: None

I !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for my winter car last week. It was in decent shape for a '99 with 140k miles on it, and most importantly no rust that I could find. But there are little things here and there that need taking care of. Since it's a cheap winter car, I've been messing with fixing them myself. So far I have:

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11/25/2013 - installed fresh wiper blades front & rear
11/25/2013 - put on a steering wheel cover over the ratty factory leather
11/27/2013 - !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
11/29/2013 - installed tailgate lift struts
11/30/2013 - got tape deck aux adapter
12/1/2013 - installed hood lift struts

Stuff I still need to do:

Have replacement key fob I got for 15 bucks on Amazon programmed by the dealer (it only came with a regular key no fob).

Polish headlight & foglight lenses and put in nice bright bulbs (already have the supplies).

Re-attach door frame weather stripping with some adhesive (already have the supplies).

Fix a grinding noise under heavy braking caused by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , by zip-tieing the shifter cable back in place.

Replace the climate control panel with one that has intact recirc button—mine the front of the recirc button has broken off which is pretty common. These go for like $60 on ebay.

Replace the tailgate glass lift struts—I did the main tailgate lift struts but didn't want to buy the ones for just the glass.

I love late 90s Chrysler build quality.

DISCUSSION (17)

HammerheadFistpunch > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 15:47

Kinja'd!!!

Gand Cheokee?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > HammerheadFistpunch
12/03/2013 at 15:52

It's a special edition!

BACK OFF!

HammerheadFistpunch > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
12/03/2013 at 15:52

good old gandy.

Textured Soy Protein > HammerheadFistpunch
12/03/2013 at 15:53

Yes, it's a special edition G AND CHE OKEE.

I looked for cheap replacement badges but they only come in a regular chrome finish. Mine are the "light camel" sorta-gold color. I have the OEM part number but it's like $50 for all the letters, not just a couple Rs. I've got other things that are higher priority.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > HammerheadFistpunch
12/03/2013 at 15:53

I'm pretty sure they only ever made 1 or 3 of them in "this configuration"

HammerheadFistpunch > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 15:54

I think I like Gand Cheokee better anyway. Sounds native American and far eastern all at once. Paint a gold dragon on it and you're set.

Textured Soy Protein > HammerheadFistpunch
12/03/2013 at 15:56

You mean like the Dragon Edition Wrangler ?

Kinja'd!!!

HammerheadFistpunch > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 15:58

well it sure is Chinese...but its not nearly as classy as a Gand Cheokee

Party-vi > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 16:45

Damn that's low mileage!

desertdog5051 > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 17:13

Re: climate control. If you have a U-Pull type of parts yard, you can get things like that cheap.

Textured Soy Protein > desertdog5051
12/03/2013 at 17:58

I'll have to check around...don't know if there's any such place near me.

So far I've only looked on ebay but I need to check on car-part.com as well.

All I know is, you can't replace just the recirculate button because it's glued or soldered onto the circuit board of the climate control unit.

But, it's super easy to get the climate control panel out of the dash.

The only thing annoying about it is at night the un-filtered light bulb to light up the button shines through a lot brighter than the rest of the dash lighting. I'll probably put some electrical tape over it in the meantime.

desertdog5051 > Textured Soy Protein
12/03/2013 at 18:00

Tape, of any kind, is always an answer.

Mercwri > Textured Soy Protein
12/04/2013 at 22:25

I worked on an awful lot of these, when in good nick they are very nice to drive.

I6 or V8?

Mechanical or Electric Fan (I forgot what year the change over was)

We had a lot of the Electric Fan equipped models overheat after the Fan Relay cut out, it is not mounted in the fuse-box but under the Headlight assembly, it is a solid state unit (technically a MOSFET setup inside) that give the fan either a low current for low speed or a high current for high speed, often the high current/speed side would burn out and the car would overheat, its a simple fix but often overlooked. Sometimes it can also be a sign of a bad PCM, it is a matter of confirming the wiring is intact and not shorted (it does happen), and that the PCM is send the high speed signal to the relay. Two minutes with a test-light and multi-meter is all it takes.

Textured Soy Protein > Mercwri
12/05/2013 at 10:22

It's a V8. Don't know about the fan, but if you're saying they started out mechanical and switched to electric, I'd guess it's mechanical since it's a '99.

G. Homer > Textured Soy Protein
12/05/2013 at 10:57

I am also looking for a Jeep grand cherokee- prefer 2003-2004 with under 100k miles if I can find it. What kind of mileage have you been averaging? I am also looking for an inline 6. Did you consider the trailblazer at all? Any thoughts?

Textured Soy Protein > G. Homer
12/05/2013 at 11:15

I've been getting about 17 mpg with the V8.

I briefly looked at the Trailblazer but from my understanding its full-time 4wd isn't nearly as good as the Jeep.

Mercwri > Textured Soy Protein
12/05/2013 at 17:56

IIRC all the V8s of that era were electric fans, same Relay roughly the same suite of issues.

It is pretty easy to tell if its mechanical or electrical, they look completely different, a mechanical fan is attached to the water pump and an electric fan is mounted to the radiator,a 1/4 second look under the hood would tell you it.