Well I am finally the proud new owner of an 06 CRD. 93K miles. It had the TB done (along with rollers, tensioner and WP), cam shafts, and rockers. Appears they failed and PO took it into a shop where they did the work, and the PO sold it about 1k miles later. I spoke with the shop/mechanic and sounds like they did a reasonable job, Mopar parts, did not cut corners. Seems to be running well, but there a few things I am planning on doing (yes I read the noob guide) and a couple of noises/things that I am wondering about:

So after the usual change of fluids and filters, I plan on cleaning the MAP sensor this weekend (I suspect its never been done). I also want to check the glow plugs, to see if they are the ceramic ones and if so, swap them out. Flush the green coolant and replace it with the right stuff, but it's only been in for a short time, so I am expecting things to be OK. Just the usual cleanups on a new to me vehicle.

My main concern is an odd tapping/vibrating noise, which almost always happens between 1600-2000 rpms, regardless of ground speed. After the engine is warmed up, it happens occasionally at lower, near idle rpms too. It is a soft tapping, similar to what loose plastic door panel might make but louder, and it sounds like it is coming from a foot or so in front of the center of the dash, maybe a bit towards the drivers side of center. It's hard to place/locate car noises exactly, and this one could be from the engine too. Or it might just be loose dash stuff that just resonates at certain engine RPMs. I was hoping that folks here might have some guidance as to where this noise is coming from and what's causing it.

From reading the forum, there were a couple of things I had thought of as possilities:

1. Bad engine mounts, causing a vibration at those RPMs which vibrates something in the dash. Any way to test these mounts without taking them out?

2. A rocker/lifter going bad. Sure hope not as these were just replaced; hopefully I am just being paranoid on this. There are a bunch of youtubes of a CRD running with broken rockers but I did not find any with what the symptoms of one just going bad are. Any other engine noises sound like this? Thoughts on this?

3. Possibly an injector sticking and not working right at those specific rpm. Although since it is OK at higher and lower rpm, this seems unlikely.

If anyone has any ideas or things I should check, it would be appreciated.


Second thing is we have emission tests in Colorado, and this Liberty passed, but with numbers that were a bit on the high side. 20-29% opacity. (To put those numbers into perspective, it is not "fogging the neighborhood", in fact I cannot really see any cloud/smoke behind me when I drive, but on the way home my wife who was following in a separate car noticed some black smoke from the tailpipe whenever I was accelerating or going up a big hill). Again not horrible, I think, but something I'd like to fix. My VW TDIs would typically test around 5-10% when they were running well (all this on 100% petro diesel, on 100% biodiesel the TDI numbers are close to 0%).

Couple of things come to mind on this:

a. Perhaps (if I am lucky) cleaning the MAP will cure this. New air filter couldn't hurt either.

b. Bad injector(s)? leaking a bit or not atomizing well. Just curious, does anyone do the LiquiMoly diesel purge on their CRD where you run the purge directly in/out of the IP? Folks do this in TDI-land, it really does clean up injectors. Other tests, short of pulling the injectors and sending them out?

Anything else I should be checking here? Also I am curious, what sort of numbers do other Colorado Liberty owners get on their emissions tests?


Lastly I have a Vag-Com OBDII reader which I use quite a bit on my VWs. Does anyone know if the Vag-Com unit will do a decent job of reading and clearing the OBDII codes on a Liberty? And just curious if anyone knows if there is anything like the Vag-Com software for Liberties. For VW, Vag-Com can take the place of the dealer SW. It will allow you to program new keys and do other things that usually require a dealer visit. Would be great if there was something like that for the Liberty.


Thanks in advance. Looking forward to this new project!

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2006 KJ CRD

Welcome, I am doing my glow plugs tomm, might clean my MAP as well, let us know how it went. Also report back what glow plugs you have

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05' Silver CRD Limited, GDE ECO Tune, WEEKS Stage 1, Elephant Hose Mod, Interior LEDs, Pioneer System, 190k miles

Work Done: New A/C System Complete, New Front Drive Shaft, ETECNO 7V Glow Plugs, New Rear Upper Control Arm
Future Work: WEEKS Stage 2, New TC, GDE Tow, Tires,

The strange vibrating noise could be motor mounts but could also be your transmission dipstick or tube.

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U.S. Army Retired

Tapping could be a) oil dip stick has come up and is vibrating at that rpm range against the plastic engine cover-push dip stick back in; use a worm clamp to secure a bit of double sided velcro to dipstick tube so you and use the velcro looped thru the dipstick handle to hold it in place or b) might could be an issue with the "motors" that run the plastic doors inside the HVAC system; as I recall one is electric and the other is vacuum; I'd guess an intermittent problem is more likely with the electric on.

Smoke. Cleaning MAP may help; running a tank of bio and/or a good dose of diesel injector cleaner might help; new air filter might help; getting a GDE tune will help. My 2n 05 smoked lightly most all the time, enough to soot up the bumper, but that immediately stopped with a GDE EcoTune.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Thanks for the suggestions. (and sorry for the delay getting back here)

I would not have thought to look at the tranny dipstick, but that was it! When I opened the hood, that dipstick had slide out just enough to hit on the cowling. Followed the suggestion of a hose clamp and velcro strip, and now the noise is gone. Had me worried a bit, but that was an easy fix (may they all be that way).

I have been putting some biodiesel in the tank (make it myself) and it seems to have helped with the smoking, although have not really hd the same conditions to do a fair comparison yet (fully warmed up engine on the hiway with someone following to report smoke). Have only put in small amounts of BD, due to winter and not wanting to clog up the fuel filter right away. As the weather warms I'll change out the FF and go to higher amounts of BD which should help clean things out.

It has been too cold to do a coolant flush here, but I have gotten everything I need collected and the first warm day when I am around it will happen. Any tips on flushing the green coolant out of there? I typically would just drain, fill with tap water and drain a few times, do it once with distilled water and then add the new stuff. Any tricks I should know about?

Wishing Happy Holidays to all the folks here!

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2006 KJ CRD