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DC/MD/VA Jeepers, BEWARE THIS TJ

1K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  she116ames 
#1 ·
Good morning, all.

I crashed my YJ a couple years ago so and I never posted much on here when I had it, but I'm coming back to the forum since I'm looking for another Wrangler (TJ or preferably LJ at non-ridiculous price - as if those exist :lmao: . I figured my first post back should be useful :)

Test drove this Jeep yesterday... https://www.darcarsoffairfax.com/us...er+X+4x4-d19eb7240a0e0a6b19ca8adcc286ee4f.htm

Engine and trans seem to be just fine, if not a little bit of clunking on the trans upon shifting (manual), brakes worked well, and the frame seemed to be in good shape, but the list of stuff it needs isn't short. I also pulled up the carpet to check the floor and it is in good shape.

It has been on their lot for over five months, so I figured I could get it at a steal... However, from the limited amount of time I spent with it, I saw the following:

  • Rear main seal needs to be replaced (I think this is what it was - motor oil was beading at the front of the transmission bell-housing/rear of oil pan - slow leak, not major, yet)
  • All four tires and spare need to be replaced (spare had hole in the sidewall)
  • All four rims and spare need to be replaced (at least that's what I would do
  • Jeep started wobbling a LOT above 35-40mph - it probably needs a new steering stabilizer, tie rod ends, maybe ball joints, who knows what else - definitely a lot of front end suspension issues... FWIW, the shocks seemed to be ok when I pushed down on each corner and released
  • Lots of deep, flaking rust on driveshafts and other underside components... not sure if U-joints are bad because I couldn't get it going fast enough to see if it had the typical bad-u-joint vibrations
  • Bad ignition cylinder - turn to ignition and it turns over right away, but doesn't click back on its own to the ON position --- so, I drove it for 15 minutes thinking A/C and heat and radio didn't work. Went to turn it off at the end of my test drive and did it slowly enough that it seated in the ON position and A/C started up ice cold and heat was hot - radio and speakers all in good shape, etc. I guess this means
  • Seats were in ok shape, but driver's seat support is pretty much gone
  • Soft-top leaks somewhere, but so does every Jeep, so whatever. It was a newer Bestop top in good condition
  • Airbag light on - probably clock spring - at least that's my guess based on how many clock spring issues I've seen in the forum over the years
  • Turn signal worked intermittently
I only drove it about 15 minutes, and no codes came up when I did the key check (just went straight to "done" on the odometer, so I imagine they had cleared any codes it might have thrown previously before I test drove it and I didn't drive long enough to get the computer to throw the codes again.

I told the sales rep (who was a nice, reasonable guy) I would offer $2,500, or maybe $3,000 if they were lucky, and that I knew his sales manager would just yell at him if he even tried to bring him the offer. We laughed, I went through the list of stuff that I could see, and told him if anything changed on his end he could shoot me an email.

Anyway - for those of you in the DC area looking for a used TJ - the pictures are nice and the description reads nicely, but it needs a lot of work, so I would recommend avoiding for now at their current pricing and unwillingness to negotiate.

Cheers!
 
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