24th Mar 2010, 12:42

I have a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee with about 103k miles. Glad to see that so many people share my misery. I have had to replace both the passenger and driver side window regulators. My driver's seat just broke. Have had the same problem with the rear brake lights (It seems every Jeep I see on the road has a brake light out!). Brakes, radiator, belts... I have replaced them all...

NEVER BUY A JEEP.

The funny thing is, whenever I need to get it towed (and believe me, AAA is on speed dial) the tow drivers just laugh because they say they see so many Jeeps needing tows. I don't find it so humorous...

I say again - NEVER BUY A JEEP.

24th Mar 2010, 16:27

I drive a 1995 Wrangler - 142,000 miles - ultra reliable - NEVER left me stranded.

Never buy a Chrysler designed Jeep - the AMC designs are GREAT!

15th Apr 2010, 18:40

My 2001 Jeep Cherokee Laredo approx 61,300 original miles keeps displaying an airbag and brake light signal, plus I see on the top of the right rear wheel a start of "rust cancer". A mechanic cleaned the sensor box, and the light for the airbag and brake went away for a short period. But it is back. What is wrong?

Is this vehicle prone to rusting away? Has never been off road, is cleaned and washed more than normal.

17th Apr 2010, 10:41

So I thought it was the dealer in Panama that did not know a thing about mechanics.. But I can confirm now it is the car indeed.

I have always had a Jeep. My last one was a 1980 CJ7, never had problems, I sold it and bought a 2001 GC Laredo. It ran well for 80K km, but after that immediately came the problems.

I started changing all the cooling system, water pump, radiator, fan, electric fan for the air conditioner, then the air conditioner got damaged. I have serviced it twice. In my country this service costs USD 800.

About the windows, I have changed all the motors by now, even the locking system in the rear. I thought these things would be acceptable, because I have two other Ford cars that suffer the same thing. But it became noticeable that the engineers in Chrysler have done a very good job in calculating the life of the parts, when the transmission broke.

I sent it to the dealer, because it was not making reverse, unless the oil get warm. The dealer charged me about 500.00 for a service, and only changed the oil. After three days, the problem was there again. The man in charge told me this case was not a claim and I should open a new order. After quarreling for hours, I decided to send it to another mechanic for repair. This other mechanic charged me USD 1400.00 for a complete overhaul to the tranny.

6 months after that, there were more problems; it was staying in first gear, I had to activate gears manually, sometimes it was staying in second and did not move to any other gears. I sent to a third mechanic, this one has fixed the transmission, but it cost me USD 3000.00.

Conclusions:

I have had almost the same problems as all of you; the brake rotors (there is a recall for these, and the dealer should have changed them for free, check WJjeeps.com), windows, back door lock, transmission (we have to thank God because we can fix this one, the ones from Ford have to be replaced completely, just check the one from Explorer, you don't even check the oil level, isn't this funny?), fan clutch, water pump (not stainless steel anymore), glove compartment broken, air conditioner broken, damaged headlights, crazy rear lights, brake booster broken. By the way, my car has not reached 100 Kms yet. and it was brought to be serviced periodically.

I don't have the rocking chair, but will wait until it comes.

We are customers that keep our cars because we have had good experiences in the past, and cannot believe the new Jeeps are so bad. So it is hard for us to sell them or to accept Jeep is not delivering good cars.

Chrysler has given Jeep a bad reputation as well as all local dealers, Jeep should be independent again. But the fact is, the only cars sold by this brand are the Jeeps, not Dodge, nor Chrysler. They won't leave Jeep.

There is something called reverse engineering, where these marvelous engineers calculate the life of a part. They are trying to make a part useful for about 5 years, until you have to change it, or you are so satisfied with the car that you will buy another one. In this car business you have to learn that they will earn money, from the car sales, the workshop service, and spare parts (sometimes margins in spares are more than twice the cost). The other remaining business is the gas; they have been so reluctant to release gas efficient cars like hybrids or cars with special carburetors, I believe they share part of the gas business too.

While the American companies are thinking of reverse engineering, all other manufacturers, say Japanese, Korean and European are thinking of quality, excellence, reducing recalls and claims. This should be the way to go.

What has happened to Toyota, is common of a company that is in the top first place, and decided to take risks. But I am sure they will learn from this and become stronger.

9th May 2010, 03:04

Well well well, another 01 Jeep GCL bites the dust. I am sure everyone else that has posted about this Jeep is as fed up with all the money lost to these cars as I am. And I, like everyone else, have had the same exact problems as far as the cooling, locks, and brakes. Let me tell you how my weekend started.

Was looking at a house to buy, wasn't there more than 10 minutes, car running, A/C on, get in the car, noticed air blowing hot, looked at temp gauge, of course it is over heating. Turn it off, let it sit for about 15 minutes, turn it on, popped hood and noticed my radiator fan wasn't working. Finally figured out it was the fan relay switch, found under the passenger headlight as I removed a headlight. Noticed that the same part had been replaced prior, because it had hole already cut out.

So that is out of the way, next day get in car, go to pick wifey up from work, and what do I see; coolant leaking from under the car. Check hoses, nothing, replaced thermostat, nothing, then I get to the wonderful water pump; had to replace the pump; for now all cooling issues are resolved.

Brake lights work when they want. Noticed anytime I slightly twisted the bulb, they would work for a while. I guess after all the beating, the lights decided they had enough and want to cooperate now.

No seat problem as of yet.

Changed fuel filter, brake rotors probably need to be replaced, have rear axle both sides, assuming seals needing to be replaced, trans has been acting up lately. Put it in 4; will drive, get a nice knocking noise.

So all in all, lovely weekend and a nice piece of a car wonder. If Jeep gets enough complaints, will they ever decide to do anything about these issues? Probably not; how else would they make their money?