Jeep Grand Cherokee 3L CRD 2 years on
Submitted: Monday, Feb 04, 2008 at 20:50
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woddonnee
G'day all
I thought I'd should do a follow up post having bagged my Jeep in the first year of ownership. The problems I had were
1. Intermittend mild vibration (occassionally moderate, once severe)
2. Occassional problem with gear change (auto) when cold
These probems both ceased completely when the vehicle was around 12 months old and done about 15k km.
Don't know what went on but happy that situation rectified, really thought I had a dud on my hands.
Am impressed with the vehicle overall, power for normal driving and towing is fantastic. 4wd and vehicle control system are fantastic.
Fuel economy is not as good as I expected, my 3.0L GU3 patrol was more economical when towing, but the jeep blows the patrol away for power and pleasure whilst towing. Sometimes miss the cargo space of the patrol.
Cheers
Rod
PS No I'm not selling it soon LOL
Reply By: sparrow - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 09:52
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 09:52
Hi Rod, Glad to hear your happy with the Jeep. We have a Grand Cherokee with the 4.7 V8 petrol and tow a 22ft Regent,about 2500kg loaded.We cant fault it as a tow vehicle .It has just done 100000 ks and all we have replaced is the gas bonnet struts. Regards Bryan.
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Follow Up By: woddonnee - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:04
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:04
G'day Sparrow
Thanks, nice to hear you've enjoyed it
cheers
Rod
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Tim_N - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 14:48
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 14:48
My Dad has got a CRD Laredo and has done about 50 000 trouble free k's in it. He loves the power.
Tim
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: woddonnee - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:05
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:05
G'day Tim
Yeah the power was what tipped me over the line,
cheers
Rod
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Reply By: jeepthing - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 15:57
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 15:57
I've had a wg V8 not a problem with it did over 120,000k and was a great tow vehicle, very comfortable and plenty of grunt. Fuel economy wasn't bad either although I did have an exhaust system on it which improved economy a little. Anyway went for a
test drive in a 2007 WH CRD earlier this year and the torque of that thing blue me away so I bought one and have done just on 32,000k, haven't had any problems with it. Recently, did a trip over to WA towing a Jayco
Penguin 13 Offroad, the vehicle was loaded internally and had spare tyres and extra fuel on the roof. I averaged 12l /100k or 8.3k to the litre. The worst I got was 16l/100k into a gale crossing the nullabor.
In terms of normal highway travel it averaged 10.2l/100k at 110k/phr. However I recently got rid of that great big exhaust and put a straight through system on it as
well as a K&N air filter.
I haven't had it on a dyno but conservatively I reckon there's a 5% gain in horsepower and torque. The techs where I have it serviced agree that it has improved performance. The engine is running more freely and not using power to push gas through that baffled standard exhaust, there's no turbo lag either.
But the big thing is fuel consumption has improved down to 9.5l/100k on the same highway I regularly travel. I've just returned from a 4 day trip in the country and got 794k on the forward journey and 765 on the return trip but I did take a different route on the way
home which included a fair bit of hilly country. Cruise was set at 100k. Not bad from a 77l tank!!
I'm surprised that your patrol was better on fuel, you sure you're not giving the jeep a bit more to feel that power!!!
They sure have some power though, I've had quite a few other brands try
mine on and I'm sure they have been severally embarrased for doing so!!
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: woddonnee - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:20
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 16:20
G'day jeepthing
The patrol used to get
11L per 100k on the highway
12L around town
13.5 towing a 1.5 tonne boat (highway long distance) which could baloon out to 15 in a headwind
The jeep similar around town but as you imply the lead foot factor can be a problem. :-)
Towing is the main area of disapointment where it uses around 2 litres more per 100k in similar conditions. This surprised me with the car being a few 100 kg's lighter, not to mention more aerodynamic.
Interesting what you say about changing the exhaust. That was another thing I didn't mention, occassional turbo lag. If I stick the boot in with idle revs its quite noticable, but generally easy to avoid. Can be annoying very occassionally though.
Overall though, as you say, amazingly powerful (and quiet) for a diesel
cheers
Rod
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Follow Up By: woddonnee - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 18:31
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 18:31
G'day again
My 3L crd has only done 27k km, any thoughts on economy improving as the engine runs in. I had the patrol for 45k km and that was consistant throughout. I've heard others say that an improvement can be expected
THoughts?
cheers
Rod
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Follow Up By: jeepthing - Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 20:34
Tuesday, Feb 05, 2008 at 20:34
I have heard that the engine is not run in till you do 100k but I don't know how true that is. I believe the sure way is to open up the engine and let it rev free er by getting rid of the back pressure...this is the first thing I have done to all my vehicles it wil certainly improve performance and fuel consumption BUT the downside is it tends to make you want to go back to your youth and be a bit heavy on the accelerator!!
I swear by fully synthetic oil I use Mobil 1 ESP 5w 30, I know Jeep issued their dealers with a service bulletin recommending this oil be used due to the C3 component which keeps the particulate filter after the headers clean. Merc use nothing but this oil in their 3l CRDs; same engine as the Jeep of course. Not all dealers use it though, so I change my own oil and filter.
If you're interested you can get it through a Mobil Distributor you can't get it off the shelf and it only comes in 20l containers but it works out much cheaper than getting it from a dealer.
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