Could you afford a CRD w/out this forum?

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 3:13 am

If I was not mechanically inclined and didn't have a fair amount of confidence & experience with my tools, there is no way in hell I could afford to keep a CRD on the road - especially 2 of them.

I'm curious, does anyone know an anal-retentive type who takes their CRD to the dealer at the correct intervals specified in the owners manual as well as every time the CEL goes on? Because if I actually did that, these things would cost me a fortune to keep on the road. I bet I'm past $10 grand worth of BS between the 2 of them if I had simply had them towed to the dealer every time a CEL went on. Take just the MAP sensor alone: I would need to replace 2 of them at least every 6 months as I'm sure the dealer would not clean them but just throw new ones in. Even right now, my wife's 06 CEL light goes on and off intermittently and my 05 has 3 codes I'm having trouble addressing and tire pressure system that is faulty. The dash is lit up like a friggin' Christmas tree and chimes like a music box every time I drive it.

When I look back on the long (and growing) list of issues I've worked through - some on my own but most from reading this forum - I can't help but wonder what is happening to vast majority of CRDs out there with owners who do not belong to this forum and/or do not have any wrenching skill.
If they are calm & patient and keep the car because they otherwise like it, I wonder how much it has cost them? I wonder if the dealer at any point after seeing the car in the shop for the 35th time actually comments on it? I wonder if they ever call Chrysler and tell them this thing needs a CCV condenser and a bunch of other items because customers are constantly in the shop?

RTStabler51 · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 7:45 am

Mine's been relatively trouble free *knock on wood*
My only fear is once its paid off (Next few months) THEN all hell will break loose....

ChesterCRD · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 8:30 am

My experience is similar to RT's...I haven't had a huge amount of trouble (yet). Just normal Jeep maintenance (fluids, filters, and wear items). 75K miles and rolling.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 8:35 am

I come on here mostly for entertainment..... my CRD has been pretty trouble-free for 95K miles. I did save some $ by changing an EGR at 60K miles myself with help from a tutorial found in the tech section.

RJM · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 9:31 am

I stick to the tech section here, and Cummins site. "Love that Torque" seems to have become a constant re-hash of the same old.

dgeist · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 10:14 am

Afford? Yes; Enjoy? No.

I'm guessing I would have lost an EGR, been back to a dealer multiple times for economy dropping off (for no reason that they seem to notice, but for simple reasons that this (and other) forums have identified), and not liked driving it very much.

Dan

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 10:18 am

CAC hose repair = $488 at stealership
U-joints = $40 and 3 hours of my time
TC = $800 installed by AAMCO
GDE tune to prevent more EGR issues = $550

And that's ONLY the big stuff in the 4 months I have owned this Jeep. We're talking $2 grand and I'm no where close to 100K miles yet.

I still have an annoying "clicking" or "electrical shorting" or "snapping" sound coming from the passenger seat in cold weather...however you want to describe it. My 6-disc in dash changer crashed and burned. On and on.. Is this vehicle junk? Probably. But the diesel engine ironically is the salvation for this vehicle.

stoutdog · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 12:12 pm

I've owned mine since last May, with no issues.... Everything I've done to my CRD has been either A) preventative or B) mods :twisted:

boilermaker2 · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 12:22 pm

I've had my CEL on ever since I disconnect the MAF sensor at ~28k. Now I'm at 110,000 (and climbing). I view the CEL on this vehicle as nice amber mood lighting for nighttime drives. :ROTFL:

Seriously, my service manager told me to only really bring it in "Right NOW" if the CEL was flashing. :dead:

Folks, our little Libbies have character, something we've forgotten about since the Japanese Automakers showed us how a precision engineered vehicle is supposed to run all of the time. The Libby is a time machince vehicle, back to the '50's let say, where the brute force of a vehicle was occaisionally massaged with a wrench. :wink:

Sir Sam · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 12:51 pm

Since repairing the rollover I've had the following issues:

CAC hose blew at ~35k miles - might have happened earlier due to the fact that oil ran all into the intake when it rolled and coated everything.

Thermostat went - also very early in life(40k/2.5 years old), most likely a defective part from the factory to fail so early. I suspect the more recent failures are just from age and mileage at this point.

Alternator - stopped charging, got a rebuilt unit from autozone, autozone rebuilt unit now has bad pulley.

FCV went bad sometime about this point

Trouble free then for 50k miles:

Tranny/TC failure at 80k - don't know what caused it, I wasn't there to see it happen. My mom was driving the vehicle and she then told me the tranny temp light had been coming on. Not being in a position to help, and she not getting that maybe she shouldn't drive the vehicle, lead to a total tranny meltdown. Sucker got hot, couple of sensors plastic housing started to melt etc.

The vehicle has not been as trouble free as my XJ's, but with the exception of the tranny(which I am not mad about since it cost less than flying to see family for christmas, $1000 vs $2300, and was less painful to remove and install than seeing family for 2 days) the repairs have been relatively minor, and fairly inexpensive to fix since I did them myself, total cost for self repairs is just less than $500. Even counting the grand for the transmission thats not too bad considering the mileage I have put on the vehicle.

Hoping for smooth sailing from here on out.

fastRob · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 1:31 pm

I purchased the CRD with this forum in mind.
This forum has been very valuable.
At 75,000 miles mine is currently dead.
I have been wondering about the costs/benifits a lot lately.
This is the first time it stranded me.
I could have bought a new Wrangler Unlimited for what I have spent on this getting it updated.
If it is the transmission it was probably my fault.
The CRD does pull a heavy load very well.
It was purchased as an alternative fuel experiment and we have over 50,000 almost trouble free miles in the past 2 years. I wanted a 4 cyl diesel tow rig.
I have had a lot of very good experiences with the people on this forum.
Yes, with the time spent with my son in getting it up to snuff it was worth it.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 4:19 pm

stoutdog wrote:

I've owned mine since last May, with no issues.... Everything I've done to my CRD has been either A) preventative or B) mods :twisted:

Same here I have had mine since August 2009 when I got it it had just a bit under 38,000 miles. now it has 47,000. only changed the oil twice, fuel and air filters once, cleaned MAP once, Installed Provent 200, and run with MAF unplugged most of the time. Oh yeah I got new Tires and rotated those once too. So far (knock on wood) it has been as Reliable as the Outback I traded for it.

This place has helped me know what to do if bad ever happens so I can either fix it or help giude a tech in the right direction if I can't do it myself and what mods I can do to improve it so things don't happen so much. Also in general I love that I can comunucate with others that have/love their Liberty

stoutdog · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 4:46 pm

mikey1273 wrote:

stoutdog wrote:

I've owned mine since last May, with no issues.... Everything I've done to my CRD has been either A) preventative or B) mods :twisted:

Same here I have had mine since August 2009 when I got it it had just a bit under 38,000 miles. now it has 47,000. only changed the oil twice, fuel and air filters once, cleaned MAP once, Installed Provent 200, and run with MAF unplugged most of the time. Oh yeah I got new Tires and rotated those once too. So far (knock on wood) it has been as Reliable as the Outback I traded for it.

This place has helped me know what to do if bad ever happens so I can either fix it or help giude a tech in the right direction if I can't do it myself and what mods I can do to improve it so things don't happen so much. Also in general I love that I can comunucate with others that have/love their Liberty

Well, I should add that I did lose my first window regulator last week... but that's not CRD-specific. And I'm now planning on preventively replacing the other three plastic window regulators this summer with Steiger's metal regulator kit.

8,000 roughly trouble-free miles and counting....

This forum has been a blessing, as it has given me the confidence to own and operate a vehicle with limited available third-party maintenance options. This is the first car I have really owned, so the learning curve has been a little steep... That being said, I now feel like I have the mechanical expertise to purchase cars in the manner that I feel is the most fiscally responsible given my chosen, not so well paying, career: gently used cars (<30k miles) + a keen eye + mechanical skill = 100k miles of trouble-free operation for 1/2 the price!

KeighJeigh · **Posted:** Mon May 03, 2010 6:46 pm

Stoudog you're a good example of the power of a good forum. In a sense, it changed your life. It's also good example of why many dealers I've spoken to (actually a lot of parts store people too) always bad mouth "all that internets talkin'". They are no longer the untouchable gurus on the mount and it ticks them off that some uppity whipersnapper might know something they don't.

TJ2 · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2010 12:50 am

KeighJeigh wrote:

Stoudog you're a good example of the power of a good forum. In a sense, it changed your life. It's also good example of why many dealers I've spoken to (actually a lot of parts store people too) always bad mouth "all that internets talkin'". They are no longer the untouchable gurus on the mount and it ticks them off that some uppity whipersnapper might know something they don't.

Exactly. . . 'automotive specialists' and parts nerds do not react well when they sense an ordinary customer may have knowledge they don't.

I could not possibly keep my CRD running without this forum. BIG thanks to everyone.

stoutdog · **Posted:** Tue May 04, 2010 1:09 am

TJ2 wrote:

KeighJeigh wrote:

Stoudog you're a good example of the power of a good forum. In a sense, it changed your life. It's also good example of why many dealers I've spoken to (actually a lot of parts store people too) always bad mouth "all that internets talkin'". They are no longer the untouchable gurus on the mount and it ticks them off that some uppity whipersnapper might know something they don't.

Exactly. . . 'automotive specialists' and parts nerds do not react well when they sense an ordinary customer may have knowledge they don't.

I could not possibly keep my CRD running without this forum. BIG thanks to everyone.

x1284145. If I ever have to take my CRD into the shop for a repair, I love knowing enough about her to be able to laugh at the mechanic when/if he tries to scam me... Huge koodos to everyone here.

Could you afford a CRD w/out this forum?

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