WK2 gearbox - kaput?

[Jeep56]

Originally Posted by wjlimited

Before you pull the trigger (if you already haven't) on the cruiser, I suggest asking the dealer if you can hitch up the van and go for a drive up a hill.
You have mentioned cubic inches a few times, petrol 200's only have a 4.7 v8 so your combined mass will go up 600 kgs and you are loosing 140 nm of torque. You won't be silently wafting up the freeway, you will be screaming near the redline at the slightest sniff of a slope.
It will do that easily for years without trouble, just food for thought.

Yes I think you're correct and I am going in to this eyes open. The petrol Cruiser when compared to the Jeeps diesel torque is considerably slower off the mark and will have to work harder. When towing the van, I think I'll be using a lot of kilowatts rather than Newton metres. In other words, I'm going to use the lower gears, keep the engine spinning freely, and make sure the converter is locked as much as possible.

I expect to use pretty much double the fuel the Jeep would have. I mean going from around 16/100 to possibly 30 - 33 /100 But we are on the last leg of a year long trip. Only around 1600 / 1700 kms of towing to go. Then the van gets parked up and will only be used infrequently and for fairly short trips. After that I expect the Cruiser will be around the same as the V6 Prado I had before the Jeep.

Hopefully leaving today and heading for Exmouth over two days. I'll come back here and tell you how it went.

[Jeep56]

I promised to report back about the first tow with the petrol Cruiser so here it is.

First leg, Pt Hedland to Truckstop outside Karratha. Left late afternoon, ambient about 36 degrees. Fairly stiff headwind, maybe 30 kmh, hitting the right front of the car at about 45 degrees, sometimes side on. Sat on 85, in S4. 27.7 / 100

Second leg. Truckstop to near Nanutarra. Now dark, ambient around 25 degrees. Same wind for first hour, then dropped right off. 85 in S4. 25.2 / 100

Third leg. Nanutarra to Exmouth. Early morning start, 22 degrees rising to 30, practically no wind. This time tried 2500 RPM, around 91 - 93 kmh on the GPS. Stayed in S4, dropping into 5th if I could see a definite downhill bit. 25.4 / 100.

I know these are eye watering figures for Jeep fellows, but it is actually a fair bit better than I hoped. Cruiser has a 138 litre tank so these figures give me very roughly the same confident range as the Jeeps 93 litre tank.

Anyhoo, thats basically it for me Jeepmeisters. Thanks again for all the help I have had on this forum, it has been excellent.

My final thoughts on the whole matter are that yes, the Jeep is a very good car, and is excellent value for money for a 4 wheel drive. But I'm sorry, I just don't think they are strong enough for the type of towing I want to do. And I believe they are not reliable enough. Maybe I got a lemon, maybe I had to work it too hard for what it is. Please lets not get into a huge Jeep / Toyota / Whatever debate, or who thinks this or thinks that. There's no point to it for me anyway as this is basically my last post. I wish you guys all the very best with your vehicles. Adios.

[Benn0]

No worries Jeep56, good luck with the Cruiser.

[Jeep56]

The last word. Back on the 14th October, I posted on here that I had learned through the dealer I bought the car from that there were two gearboxes in Melbourne. This was subsequently confirmed by Jeep Australia. I later learnt that all the Jeep agent in Pt Hedland had to do, was put a request in for one of them and it would be sent to him.

The car was only fixed yesterday. Nearly six weeks later.

I won't bore you with all the details about all the lies told by the Jeep agent and Jeep Australia but heres a quick summary of what I have gone through since being on here last

Agent - "You won't get warranty..."
Agent - "Got no idea if there's any boxes in Australia..."
Agent to Toyota dealer waiting to buy the car "Box has to come from America. Could be 6 weeks or more..." Had to advise dealer of the truth, 2 boxes in Australia, he's lying again...
Jeep - "This delay is terrible and we will follow up immediately..." No phone call for another week.
Jeep - "We understand your frustration and we will escalate this to our response team" No follow up or phone call at all from them.
Jeep - "The car will be fixed tomorrow" That was 3 weeks ago.
Jeep the next day - "I know I told you the car would be fixed tomorrow, but the gearbox is actually still in Melbourne. The agent hasn't done the paperwork"
Jeep - "Yes I promise I will call with an update in 2 days time maximum" No phone call at all after another week.

And so on and so on. If I hadn't been in the lucky position of being able to go and get another car and get on with my caravan trip and my life, I would have been either in an asylum, or before the court on some nasty violence related charges.

It has been an unbelievably bad experience dealing with Jeep Australia. They simply. Do. Not. Care. I thought the car was bad. The company is many, many times worse again.

[Benn0]

From your description it sounds like Jeep Oz was willing to send the gearbox, they just needed the agent to put in the paper work?

[Jeep56]

Originally Posted by Benn0

From your description it sounds like Jeep Oz was willing to send the gearbox, they just needed the agent to put in the paper work?

From my point of view, the agent and Jeep Australia are one and the same. I made it perfectly clear to Jeep how bad the agents workshop was, how many lies he had told, how my car sat on the side of the road for 6 weeks (and I mean, side of the road, as in, literally right next to the footpath) with zero security or protection. Jeep made numerous promises to keep me informed and to give the repairs high priority. In every single case, they lied as well. They did not return one single call they had promised to, and they did absolutely f**k all to hurry the job up.

Basically they said all the right things but did not actually do anything to help.

[Buffomarinus]

Originally Posted by Jeep56

From my point of view, the agent and Jeep Australia are one and the same. I made it perfectly clear to Jeep how bad the agents workshop was, how many lies he had told, how my car sat on the side of the road for 6 weeks (and I mean, side of the road, as in, literally right next to the footpath) with zero security or protection. Jeep made numerous promises to keep me informed and to give the repairs high priority. In every single case, they lied as well. They did not return one single call they had promised to, and they did absolutely f**k all to hurry the job up.

Basically they said all the right things but did not actually do anything to help.

Yep, far more reliable to judge people by what they DO rather than what they SAY.