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Love my new Wrangler LJ

5K views 31 replies 23 participants last post by  Sasquatchewan 
#1 ·
I've wanted a Jeep Wrangler ever since I played with a zebra striped Hot Wheelz wrangler as a kid. I put a picture of that below. Family had multiple jeeps including a rock crawling beast TJ, a Liberty, and now a 2013 Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon.

My last car was a 1997 Grand Cherokee I picked up for $1450. I drove this car for a while till I blew the head gasket on a camping trip. I decided to sell it and find something newer and nicer. After looking for months on Craigslist and other sites I found one that had my name all over it. Picked up an 2005 Wrangler Unlimited with a hard top, big ole tires, and some other goodies. Couldn't be more stoked on it!! Joined this forum to ask questions and learn more about maintenance and all things "jeep".

She's a manual with 74,000 on the dash, Mickey Thompson 33s, 12,000lb winch, aftermarket rear bumper, aftermarket stereo unit, trunk mat, and a full size spare. The exhaust is upgraded to a very nice sounding one I believe is 3" piping.

Found a small leak on the radiator and after doing some research I learned this is fairly typical of the stock ones with the plastic. Ordered a Griffen replacement and will be installing this week. I plan to install an alarm system, new speakers that don't sound like crap, and cabin lights (previous owner took them out for some reason). If you have any suggestions as far as alarms, or other upgrades you recommend please let me know! I'm looking for any help I can get to make this Wrangler a reliable and fun ride. Also if you have any general maintenance suggestions for a jeep with this many miles go ahead and post them!
 

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#4 ·
Lifted? Looks like it isn't, make sure to check your flex before you play too hard.

Great looking rig!!
 
#5 ·
Welcome to the forum! The LJ is tied with the scrambler for my favorite jeep. Yours looks like it's in great shape! Motors are cheap, drive it as much as you can!
 
#11 ·
Hi, I have a 2005 Rubicon which is also black. Looking at your pictures, I did notice the larger tires. I couldn't be sure, but is the spare still connected to the tail gate? If so, I would suggest a rear bumper that you can mount the spare onto. I also went with gas in the tires which smoothed out the ride, added a cold air intake, and then replaced the stock headlights with Truck-Lite 7" round (yes they were expensive). I have neopreme custom seat covers (yes we've been caught out in the rain with the top off and they have saved our seats). I recently added to the hard top the Boom Mat Hard Top Sound Deadening Headliner from Quadratec. We had a notice sound difference after installation (too about an hour). I also ordered from a site on ebay, a Molle Rear Latch cover which also folds down as a small table. Hope this helps.
 
#12 ·
Great looking rig. I recently picked a nifty LJ too. It's in great shape, '04 with 45,000 miles, new soft top, interior and paint excellent. Bedlinered the fender flares, running boards,front and rear bumpers and mirrors and door handles. Look g to do the same too the stock rims and switch to 31x10.5 Michelin ltx. Added a rod holder to the front bumper too. A decent LJ is hard to find, let alone a rubicon LJ...definitely no regrets here.
 

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#15 ·
Welcome indeed! Mines an 06 manual, had about 52k when I got it. The PO took good care of it but man does it have some sun damage on all the plastics on the outside. Oh well, guess it just means I'll have to upgrade :D

Your LJ's previous owner probably took the cab lights out for when the doors are off, lol. One of my co-workers did it too. If that's the case, I guess they didn't know about just pulling the fuse

 
#16 ·
I just bought a black LJ Rubicon auto with 105,000 miles. The cooling system upgrades I found per Hesco are high flow thermostat housing, 2-3 core radiator, high flow water pump, 180 high flow thermostat and aux transcooler (for the auto). I installed all of these within 2 weeks of ownership and my LJ runs cool and temps are steady.
 
#23 ·
Good looking LJ!
 
#31 ·
rear bumper appears to be a Warn with the swing away stub in place. I traded my stock bumpers to a guy for that same bumper (he wanted to go back to stock) and gave it to my son in law for his LJ and he had a friend fabricate a swing away. Or you could buy the swing away from Warn but last I looked they were $400 or better.
 
#32 ·
I just picked this LJ up about a week ago , always serviced & taken care of 105,000 mi 6sp , trac loc rear 373 gears , 3tops Hard top & two fastback soft tops. Looks like a BB 2" or 1 1/2" 31" tires I plastic dipped the rims.
 

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