Jeep in 'on the way'!

[rancherman]

Hey guys,   I've  been  sniffing around,  looking  for  a  2005-2006  liberty  for a couple weeks now,  and  settled on  one  I found  in   Texas.

Flew my  son down there yesterday to  drive it home..   He's really happy  how  much  power this thing has.  I can't wait to   get my hands on it...

He  says it sounds  just like  a   12v cummins  at idle,  but  soon as  you roll into the throttle,  it   smoothes out.

It's  a  vm 2.8   CRD,   uses   bosch  injectors,  and  the  CP3  injection pump.

I could  relate his  experience  yesterday,   but   It would  not be possible to   put it into words....   Just think of  a  rural  country boy,  being  dumped into the  lions' pit  of  Texas... and  combating  his  way  from   San Antonio  to  Dallas...    at  3 pm.    He  said   this  was NOT the  way for  'learning'  how to drive a new vehicle!        He  said   the  70 to 90  mph  bursts  needed  to  stay alive  on this  freeway   was  effortless  in the little diesel..

He  spent the  night with  buddies  from  his  Marine Corps.  days  in  OK  city last night.

He really  dodged a bullet!  last night,   San Antonio  got  dumped on  and  is  experiencing  floods!!      

I'll get  pics  soon as  the  jeep  gets  'home'.!

[mopartechnician]

I got to play with one of those jeeps pre production at the training center in kansas city. Pretty cool little rigs. Know of a guy that used his to haul hay bales on a trailer with it. Took a couoke transmission out before we could get it through his head that you couldnt use it like a 3/4 ton

[Ilikeoldfords]

I had no idea they offered a diesel in the liberty!! That seems like it would be a handy little rig. What kind of mileage are they getting? I am assuming they are turboed, right?

[MnTom]

Will, THIS ARTICLE will tell you all about the diesel Liberty.

[Ilikeoldfords]

Wow... I had no idea!! I kind of want to find one now too. I really wish they had left the option for the 5 speed manual but I guess you win some and lose some.

[rancherman]

5 speed,   but it's  automatic!    545 re,   but  all  5  gears are  enabled...  I guess  when  it's  in the Dakota,  it's neutered  to   4 speed only.

No  manuals  here in  USA..  but   very popular in   Europe and  Australia.    Chrysler  even  stopped  shipping  their gas engine equipped   (3.7) mid  year,   and  only  offered the  diesel.  

for  2007 onward,   Mercedes  got the  job of  supplier,  but  they went into Cherokees only.  (here in  USA)   overseas,  you could get the diesel in anything.. even the Wrangler.

 

Son  said his first tank of fuel  pencil'd out at  28 mpg,     next tank  was   26.5   All running    70-75 average,  with the ac on.    Rob  plugged in the  scanner to watch on the trip home..   Boost is   about  10psi  at cruise,  and  jumps to 20-22  on full power.  Yep,  it has  an intercooler too!  You can just hear the turbo spooling too.

 

I drove It about  5 miles  after he got home,  man!   I cannot believe it's  only 2.8 litres!     Quite  snappy for a  4500#  vehicle.

It got  cut from  the herd  when it  failed   epa  for   2008.   What is this  Country's  malfunction???     

When the sun comes up tomorrow, I'll  snap some pics. 

[mopartechnician]

Epa can only see the trees. Not the whole forrest

[rancherman]

Wow... I had no idea!! I kind of want to find one now too. I really wish they had left the option for the 5 speed manual but I guess you win some and lose some.

Same here...   2 weeks ago,  I was  totally unaware of them.    I've  always  liked the  'look' of the Liberty,  especially  the  2004-2008?  years

 

I  searched   several  sites,   Autotrader,  searchtempest, ebay,..   Last week,  there  were  122  of these for sale on  Autotrader.com  alone.     They are out there!

Prices  range   from   6500  up to   14,000.

Mine  has  72k miles,   I paid  10,500.

 

LOL<   this is still pretty  fresh in my mind  (all the searching)..   There are several  on the front range area  of Colorado  in the  $12-13k  range..   Very popular   in that neck of the woods.  

 

 

It appears  I'm not the only one in 'here'  with one!   dennhop    has  a  '06  too!      

Edited September 19, 2014 by rancherman

[Wild and Free]

I had an 03 Liberty Renegade for about 6 months, awesome little rig but mine had the 3.7 V-6 which is why I only had it for 6 months, traded it in on my wifes 03 TDI Jetta. 15-16 mpg with a little jeep up to 45+ mpg with the jetta. I looked for a liberty diesel before we traded on the Jetta but I couldn't swallow the 20K plus price tag of the then used ones at that time yet.

[MnTom]

As a side note, Bill, On my son's 2006 Jetta TDI he said he got 48 mpg out of his last tankfull. I put a small piece of aluminum blocking the EGR flow for a test and he even said it has more power. According to VCDS the MAF is used to measure flow for the EGR so no code or light!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.........

[Killer223]

i to have been looking into the jeep thing for some time.. i 've found one... http://flagstaff.craigslist.org/rvd/4673941658.html

i'm test drive it tomorrow.

makes me wonder., do they make deletes for chips for them?

[diesel4life]

Just beware the VM engines utilize a timing belt with 100k mile service intervals. I had a friend with one and he chose to do a little PM while he was in there and found out just how expensive them little engines were! $250 for a water pump, roughly the same for the TB kit, $60 for the stat, $200+ for the serpentine belt and tensioner. This was 4 or 5 years ago and he used all OEM parts, so the prices may or may not be the same but at the time it was an expensive little engine to maintain and parts were hard to come by for them.

[rancherman]

i to have been looking into the jeep thing for some time.. i 've found one... http://flagstaff.craigslist.org/rvd/4673941658.html

i'm test drive it tomorrow.

makes me wonder., do they make deletes for chips for them?

 

greendieselengineering.com     (GDE)

sells    a    reflash  for  these  CRD's  and  VW's    TDI's,    some  Mercedes too.

 

This  VM   engine  uses    EGR,     AND   at the same time  runs  the  crank case  vent  back through the  turbo.   Oil and soot,  as you may suspect,   really love each other!    It'll pack     the  most  unholy   sludge and  tar into the intake manifold.

 

The  GDE   'tune'  will    keep the  egr  closed  100% of the time,  without  throwing  the  CEL.      Sure,  blocking plates  do the same,  but  what  happens then,  the  computer will  not   'see'  the  expected  exhaust  in the intake...  and  will throw the  code.    

They  have   ECO  tune,   Hot tune,  and  even a   turbo upgrade tune.

I'm going with the  ECO  tune (which restores  full torque)   and   just  reroute  the   CCV  to  the atmosphere..   Which  will  make the  turbo hose live a LOT longer  without the  oily mix  going through!

 

The  ECO tune   gets   HP  up to 180,   Hot tune  is  good for  200.    They don't  say  what the  'turbo upgrade' kit is running...  "whole nother sport"  is  mentioned... hmmm  

Our  Libbys   were  dealer  'detuned'    "service   F37"    after  torque convertor  shudder problems  arose.      Simple  fix..     put  the   European export  TC   in the  vehicle!    Nope!  Chrysler  decided  to limit  torque  at  cruise speed  (@ lockup)..  sheesh.

I'm  going with the   Mopar  TC.   But  I'm  going to wait to see if it  really need it for now.

 

Yep,  there are other  'module' boxes  for increased   power,  but they don't address the   egr problem. 

500 bucks  for their  reflash is  a little spendy,    but  keeping a  clean   MAP  sensor,  and    unsooted/tarred  up   intake  has  benefits too!   along with the  extra pep,  3-5  mpgs  to boot.

[diesel4life]

Malone makes tunes for the Liberty CRD and while I don't have any first hand experience with them in the VM engines they would be my first choice as they are very well known and respected in the VW TDI world. I know a guy who runs their economy tune, he experienced +2 mpg improvement. The tune also came with dynamic EGR and dynamic idle, meaning the idle automatically ramps up when under a certain coolant temp. This is a great feature because the TDIs are so efficient they will NOT warm up at idle and actually have been problematic when left to idle at cold temps. They do also make performance tunes.

[rancherman]

Just beware the VM engines utilize a timing belt with 100k mile service intervals. I had a friend with one and he chose to do a little PM while he was in there and found out just how expensive them little engines were! $250 for a water pump, roughly the same for the TB kit, $60 for the stat, $200+ for the serpentine belt and tensioner. This was 4 or 5 years ago and he used all OEM parts, so the prices may or may not be the same but at the time it was an expensive little engine to maintain and parts were hard to come by for them.

 

IDparts.com  shows  a  oem  timing kit  for  $399       Not too bad I guess.    (far cheaper than   a bunch of  bent valves,   smashed pistions...etc)

 

 

I think  'today'   parts  are  fairly  available...  back when  the engine was  'new',   I hear it was a  nightmare  waiting  for parts  to  come from Italy.

I  guess   I'll find out  how this plays out in the future!

[diesel4life]

IDParts is a great place to order from, I've used them to order everything for the TDI. Much better quality then off the shelf aftermarket stuff IMO.

Does the kit come with everything I listed above? If so that is a great price compared to what it was 5 years ago.

[rancherman]

IDParts is a great place to order from, I've used them to order everything for the TDI. Much better quality then off the shelf aftermarket stuff IMO.

Does the kit come with everything I listed above? If so that is a great price compared to what it was 5 years ago.

yep.

http://www.idparts.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2721

[ISX]

Brother had one and got rid of it after not wanting to do the timing belt thing.  Seemed nice, I didn't like how it felt behind the wheel but maybe I'm not used to these newer vehicles.  We raced and my jeep blew it's doors off lol.  My jeep could also keep up with my dodge   You can get a lot of headway with a long 3.07 rear and 5000 RPM's at your disposal compared to my dodge's 3.55 and 3000RPM.  I can do 60 in 2nd in the jeep.  105 in 3rd (according to tire/gear calculations).  My jeep gets a consistent 18-22mpg.  Pretty happy with the POS haha.  I do love it 

[rancherman]

I hear ya!

short wheel base,  higher center of gravity,   It  seems  a little  on the oversteering  side of   the  bubble..   It's  gonna  take  some time  to get used to.

... who the heck  drives  a  jeep  cause it's known  for it's  road carving ability?   lol.

Good to see you  around  Ryan.  

 

Funny story about this  jeep...   I only got it  because  the  last guy who  wanted to buy it... backed out  because he didn't know it was a diesel.. and  said the engine  sounded  terrible...   *yep,  I would too,  if  I  was expecting the  3.7!*

 

This  vehicle  I think will  be  a  fun little  'tinker toy'.   

[ISX]

My gripe was that the steering wheel seemed off center.  It seemed like it was mounted an inch off center so when you turned, the steering wheel traced out some oblong shape.  I think it was just the shape of the steering wheel but it drove me nuts.