mr72

You don't buy it, send me the seller. I will.

I can drive RHD all day long. Just got back from an 11-day trip to Ireland and England. It'll feel right at home.

BTW in my life the very WORST used car I ever test drove was an old DJ mail Jeep. Being RHD was not the problem. Having no power brake assist and scaring the crap out of you at a 15mph stop in a residential stop sign was the problem.

fliprock

Jump on it!!

daylon101

Well i went and test drove it today. Honestly it was in better shape than I thought it would be. The motor did not smoke when started and sounded very smooth. When I was driving it once it hit around 3500 to 4000 rpm it would just stall. Like it wouldn't Rev any higher. I would punch the throttle around 60 mph and make it shift to second and it would just set there and not accelerate until I let off and it shifted down to 3rd and lower rpm. Does anyone know what the problem might be? She did say she had never changed the spark plugs or wires and it has 202k miles. It also has check engine light on. Thanks again

mr72

Bring a code reader of choice and see what the check engine light is telling you. Can only speculate otherwise. Catalytic converter, maf, tps, bent valve, hole in piston, bent rod, bird in intake manifold, who knows"? At this price you plan on replacing or rebuilding the engine right? The mechanic that the seller took it to before deciding to sell it knows exactly what's wrong and that's why the seller decided to sell instead of fix. IMHO.

daylon101

Yea she used the jeep for postal delivery. Took it to her old school mechanic when it started using oil and he just told her to rebuild it. He didn't check or plug anything in to the computer so she says. From everthing ive heard and read on the 3.8 they dont start using oil they lose it. Some are helped by replacing pcv valve and valve covers. I think it has to be something with plugs/wires or injection maybe fuel pump. At this price I don't really see how you could go wrong though

JK Pleepleus

Mine goes through a quart every 2-3000 miles, I just add to it until I'm ready for an oil change. Obviously change the plugs etc. My engine light is on also and my mechanic said it was an emissions vapor line and that some of them dry out and need to be replaced. I have an '08 with 125,000

mr72

Okay.

First of all, anyone who, in the year 2016, calls himself a "mechanic", will plug a code reader into any OBD2 car with the check engine light on FIRST THING. So you can be pretty sure the mech in this case did exactly that. And if it is to be trusted that a mechanic told the current owner to rebuild the engine, then we can rule out all of the myriad stuff that can cause this running condition that would also produce a check engine light and a trouble code. That is, all of the ignition, fuel injection system, air intake, catalytic converter, every sensor, etc. etc. I mean a TON of stuff.

It's also very dangerous to assume that a 200K+ American car engine that's been driven 200K worth of constant start and stop ultra-short trip never revved above 4K rpm driving for its entire life is somehow leaking a lot of oil and not "using" oil. It's using oil, count on it.

The truth is, without reading the code, you will be completely lost. And even if you do read the code, you may still be pretty lost.

If the engine starts and runs and will run up to 3K rpms then it's not a constant misfire or bad fuel pump or whatever. I guarantee you it's not PCV or the valve cover causing this problem or the oil consumption (everyone hopes excessive oil use is the PCV valve, but it never is). What it might be is "limp" mode, if this vehicle has it (and I don't know if it does), or some other problem wherein the car quite simply cannot move air at the rate required to exceed 3K rpm. Now given the symptoms of very high mileage, high oil consumption, AND it won't rev over 3K rpms when driving, that tells me that it might be a very serious engine problem at LEAST a lot of bad rings but more likely something lots worse, or if you're lucky, it's bad rings (that you can tolerate for a little while) and a fried catalytic converter due to dumping unburnt oil into it, which will cause the car to have low power and not rev past 3K.

If you're seriously lucky it's "limp" mode, like there's an oil pressure switch or bad throttle position sensor or bad mass air flow sensor or something where the ECU just punts and only lets it run enough to get to the shop. It could happen I guess, I'd have to be an expert on these engines to know and I'm not an expert on these engines.

If you are really contemplating buying this Jeep, I would strongly suggest you plan on, and budget for, a complete engine rebuild or (easier) replacement and likely also a host of other parts like O2 sensors and catalytic converters and other sensors etc. that don't come with the replacement engine. It's a pipe dream to think you are going to easy-fix it, but that's not to say it's totally impossible. But you're fooling yourself if you think it's likely.

Just IMHO.

And BTW if it's otherwise in good condition, it's totally worth $4K even with a bad motor. $1500 will get you a very usable engine and buy a $100 hoist and get a weekend's help from a couple of friends and you can swap it yourself and be done with it. You'd be in under $6K for a good JK. Worth it.

mr72

Do yourself a favor, get your own code reader. You can get a Bluetooth code reader for $12 and run a free (Android) app to read the codes. Lifesaver. Take the guesswork out of this. It's no great mystery. Even if you had to buy/bum a used Android phone just for the purpose of running your code reader, it'd be worth it.

That's a lot of oil usage IMHO. But maybe it's not a lot for an American car. When my Miata was doing that, it had a stuck ring, had to replace the motor. If that much oil is getting past the rings, then you can bet that some fuel is also getting past the rings to contaminate the oil.

Jonathan_JK

I say jump on it!! Rip that POS 3.8 out of there and put a 3.6 in there!! Then use it as a trail beater.... Weld a roll cage to it and go hog wild.!!

ShutterBug

Screw that. Put a Hemi in it.