Hello all,

I have been lurking about this and some other forums the past week or so. I am considering purchasing a 2005 Liberty Limited CRD with 66,000 miles on it. I briefly had an '05 3.7, but it lost a cat 2 days after purchase and was returned to the dealership as they did not want to pay to fix it.

I have looked around and there is quite a lot of great info here on the CRD, but I could not find exactly what I was looking for. As a potential buyer, what can one expect from CRD ownership as far as reliability and cost of ownership? By cost, I mean just regular running about bone stock. What kind of reliability issues is one to expect? What should one look out for when purchasing?

Thanks in advance.

John

Judging only by your questions a 6 or 7 year old limited number vehicle might not be for you.
First at 100k miles that most or many are at the timing belt needs replaced and it's not a 2 hour job and you need special tools.
Seconds most dealer tech's never have seen a crd and if you can't do things yourself your on your own.
Parts if available for the engine are expensive.

Now if you can get by the above a CRD is a one of a kind very capable vehicle the likes of has not been sold on the North American shores.
There were only around 14,000 equipted for the NA market and many have been LOST since then

_________________
Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

I am quite capable with tools and am not afraid of getting my hands dirty. I have built and helped build more than one vehicle from off-roaders to drag cars. I just do not want to get in to a vehicle and find out that every 5,000 miles the injectors need replaced or the doppleganger is known to explode at 75,000 miles.

For the most part the engines are holding up very well with good care for most. Thermostats at least the originals fail early, before 50k miles, and they are over $100. The original fan clutches were from a gasoline version and not really suited but there's an aftermarket one that operates at the right temperatures and that could possibly (hopefully) increase thermostat life
Original fuel filters are a 10 micron paper and are not good long term. A 2 micron filter is a good update be it as a second filter or a replacement for the original.
The alternator has a overrun clutch pulley that fails, mine was replaced at 55k miles. It's available seperatly but can be a bear to remove. The easy route is the whole alternator and that's how the dealer did mine.
Flow control and or EGR valves fail often but a tune can resolve that

dopplegangers have not started to fail yet but some have had turbo problems but that may be because of maintence or driving driving habits.

_________________
Atlantic Blue 06 CRD Limited (his)
Joined by a 2000 XJ Classic (hers)

Doesn't sound like anything out of the ordinary nor should it scare me off. I appreciate the advice, I think I will go test drive one this morning.

I'm at 110K miles with mine.
Just did the timing belt and in-line thermostat and got new tires.
Everything works great. Never have any major component failures.
Just routine maintenance.

Here on the forum you will read about those who have had catastrophic
engine failures and other major problems with little evidence as to the cause.
The biggest problem comes from lack of support from the manufacturer.
Too few of these Jeeps were made for anyone to give a crap.

I just did some quick math on my cost of ownership:
I do my oil changes every 6 months and budget myself $60 per.
(its usually less than that)
Diesel is about $4 gal X 20 gal about 3 times per month.
So thats about $250 per month with my routine driving.
Of course that does not include less routine stuff such as:
timing belt
tires
ball joints (done last year)
brakes (done last year)
diff oils + transmission flush and filters (done last year)
shocks (still need to be done)

Your mileage may vary

_________________
U.S. Army Retired

The other thing to ask yourself is if you could cope without the vehicle for a while.

It's not unusual to see dopplegangers out of stock and on back order for a few weeks.

_________________
Share your ideas freely at https://www.facebook.com/groups/libertydiesels/

Dopplegangers are tough to get fit my Tacoma too.

Good point about the backorders, i had not thought about that.

The routine oil changes aren't much different than my truck now. 5000 mile drains on the engine, 10000 on the diffs and fuel filter.

I just drove the 05 with 66,000 miles. Powertrain warranty to 80,000. Drive really nice, great power.

Sent via telegraph.

Well, then GO FOR IT! Use good quality diesel fuel, change the filters frequently and with good units and enjoy it. Oh and make sure you use the proper motor oil (hint: see sig)

_________________
FWIW,
Hoosier CRD

#1 Liberty: '05 CRD Limited Stone White
(SOLD Dec. 2013)
#2 Liberty: ???
"Why guess when you can know?"- Carroll Smith

Haha! I was just looking at motor oil for the CRD. I used Amsoil in the Tacoma and got awesome Blackstone reports with it.

Waiting for loan approval now and need to squeeze another $500 out of the dealership.

Well...There is a silver 2005 Liberty Limited CRD sitting in my driveway. I love it so far, very comfortable, plenty of power. Thank you all for your help. I will continue to be around, I look forward to seeing you all on the forum.

I would look into a GDE Tune from Green Diesel Engineering if you want to eliminate the EGR issues. Go to their website and contact Keith. They're in Michigan, and they're very helpful. I suspect that they were part of the Chrysler team that worked on this vehicle before the company went bust.

Many people on this board have claimed to like the product, and I'm one of them.

_________________
2005 Black KJ Sport CRD,
GDE Full Torque ECO TUNE, GDE Transmission ECO Tune,
Samco British Racing Green Hoses
Build Date 1/05
200k miles.
Original Owner