XJ v8
 

I am a self confessed new to the flock Jeep nut. magazines, models, Jamboriees, owned four in the last four years, etc.

I have a question I hope someone can answer. SORRY for the long story in advance)
I have a pet '98 XJ, bought her in december (from a reputable Jeep dealer in Brisbane) lastyear to be my daily driver as my 89 Grand Wagoneer has become just too too nice to abuse.
I owned the XJ for two whole weeks when it lost oil pressure and all the lights in the dash lit up. A hundred bucks later (tow truck) it is back where I bought it getting the crankshaft replaced. ok ya get that.
I stuff around with trains and taxi's for a while and get the XJ back and find it has a leaking rear main seal. ok so back it goes again.
This time it doesn't leak oil it pisses oil out while the engine is running.
Back it goes again..........
Rear main seal replaced once again.
Then I get the job transfer from QLD to Western Australia.
XJ goes from workshop in Brisbane to truck and shipped to Perth.
Hey guess what.... leaking rear main.
XJ goes to Jeep Dealership in Perth who charge me $500 to diagnose the rear main seal was put in BACkWARDS? and oh by the way the crankshaft is scored and NEEDS REPLACING...............now hang about, the XJ has done almost 2000k since the last crankshaft was replaced.... does anyone smell fish?
I get the Brissy worshop to fax me the work they had done to this car and they ACCIDENTLY send me a fax from THREE WEEKS before I bought it (from the reputable dealer) and the invoice states :ENGINE SIEZED, COOKED, REPLACED HEAD, RaDIATOR, THREE PISTONS ETC ETC.

The reputable dealer from Brisbane tells me the car is out of Statutory warranty. I have had it for six months. but if I return it to Brisbane they will happily replace the rear main seal............... (which has been replaced three times and the damaged second hand crank they fitted chews out in just a handful of Kilometeres)

The Perth Guys (nicest people you would want to meet) tell me it is $2400 to repair the damaged crank #2.

so my question is this,

as far as after sales service goes is it standard to walk (or crawl) away from a (reputable dealer) bleeding from the ********??

I KNOW MY POST HERE WILL GET THE STANDARD "IT'S A JEEP THING, GET USED TO IT" ETC..... but I feel beter for having vented a little.

and my question I actually need answered is has anyone successfully put a 350 chev into a later model XJ?

yes you may detect a slight degree of sinicism.......

yours faithfully (and soon to be Toyota driver if I can't get a decent drive train)

Fairlane

XJ motors have a good reputation for long life, you cant help it if a idiot owner drives a motor and cooks it. You should be able to replace the motor out of a wrecked Jeep much cheaper than repairing your one. Ask the dealer you brought it from to give you the price of the repairs in cash. Then go and get a replacement motor. They sell in NZ for $1500 for a good one here, not sure what one is worth in Ausssie. Looks like they did a real cheap patch on the old motor, and the crank may be out of line.

may I suggest a vist to your local consumer affairs office the warranty on the jeep may be over but certainly not on the repairs they made. Don't take this lying down there are laws to protect buyers from just this sort of thing and a dealer would not want his repuation tarnished should his name appear in the media etc. Keep us informed

I know that the smalls claims tribunal would love something like this. As Tonyl stated above don't let them get away with it or take it lying down.

On another note, the 350 chevy would be an awesome fit i reckon. Would love to see it happen.

I find it interesting that you kinda blame the Jeep for the faults of a dishonest dealer. I've bought used vehicles before and I've always taken them to my mechanic beforehand to have them checked out from top to bottom. Yeah, it may cost me 100 bucks for the mechanics time but that's money wisely spent IMO.

Since you're gonna have some rebuilding to do go ahead and stroke it out to either a 4.6 or 4.7 liter. And go after the dealer in Brisbane as a matter of principle...
Keep us posted how you go also.

go to jeep /daimler chrysler and tell them this story
take only copies of correspondece and tell them that 1 dealer repaired your engine with parts supplied from dealers even if they saythe warranty period had expired
tell them that this is consequential damage that should be a rework against the dealer
thats why big companys have "policy" accounts for this type of thing
usaly works on a percentage type scale and at the end of the day evry one is happy
you get engine fixed and dc dont have any bad publicity

Shouldn't there be some sort of warranty on the repair work regardless of what warranty is left on the vehicle?