Buying a USED Modifed TJ Wrangler

[Jimmyb]

So you want to get yourself a new JEEP, well new to you anyway. Looking around you have decided the a TJ Wrangler is more your style for driving around town and getting away on the weekends. But what can you get and what do you need to look out for?

The humble TJ Wrangler has been available in Australia since 1997 and lasted until 2006 and its nine-year reign saw many improvements to the model that made a significant impact on the Jeep brand.

The TJ was an almost completely new design from its predecessor, the also-popular YJ which didn't see our shores. Huge changes to the chassis, suspension, and diffs greatly improved the Wrangler’s off-roading ability.

In Australia we say huge numbers of TJ's flying off the showroom floors. In the early days of Ausjeep, back in 2002, people were already starting to modify their Wranglers to take advantage of the full coil suspension giving this vehicle great rock crawling ability.

The styles of modifying a TJ has dramatically changed with some many companies specializing in aftermarket accessories to make your Wrangler a true monster but how does any of this equate to resale?

Buying your first TJ in 2016 might be like jumping into no mans land. The price for a Wrangler now days has plummeted thanks to the release of the JK Wrangler. If you look through Ebay, Gumtree or Carsales you can easily pick up a Wrangler for under $5'000, but what you are getting for money will most likely be a Gen1 wrangler, 1997-2000, probably sans air con, and with high km's on it.

Some may say that this is fine, if you have a build budget, buying cheap in the first instance can be a great idea as that initial investment is only a quarter of the money you intend to spend modifying the vehicle. With this in mind, what you get to achieve is a modified Wrangler that is suited to your tastes, built and designed by you for how you like to drive. All the components are new and you will potentially get great millage out of it.



So what happens when you spend more, and buy one that has already been modified? Well one of two things will happen, you will win or you will lose. But how can you lose? That TJ you just bought, that is running 35inch rubber, locked diffs and some pretty sweet suspension will have a history, and if those types of modifications have been added to the vehicle, odds are that it's been wheeled offroad, and potentially hard.

Now you could think about it this way though, what has any previous owner driven that I am not likely to drive myself, that is to say buying a vehicle that has possibly been 'trashed' is not going to have anything done to it that I am not going to do myself.

Now if you are the type of person to want to benefit from someone else's hard work and investment and buy are modified Wrangler, what things need to be looked at? Obviously looking to ensure everything works as it should is a starting point, after that address signs or wear and fatigue. For example, if the TJ has aftermarket control arms, are they bushed or are they serviceable joints? If they are bushed, what condition are the bushes in? If they are serviceable, is there signs that new grease has been applied regularly?



Checking the body and chassis can be another great way to find out what type of offroad driving the vehicle has been through. Checking things like the belly pan can show if there has been heavy contact made on rocks, this won't change the fact that it may be a great buy, but at least it will give you an indication of the type of wheeling it has done.

Seals in diffs and engine are also a great spot to check also. Take the vehicle for a decent drive, and let it cool down and crawl underneath it. If the seller has previously done a clean up to hide any leaks, they may be thinking that you won't spot them as you check over the vehicle before a test drive, but getting that vehicle hot and then checking afterwards might just show up a leak on the rear main seal, or axle seals that have been concealed.

At the end of the day, buying a modified vehicle needs extra attention to detail when purchasing, checking all the modifications closely to ensure they are all working and maintained takes extra time, but in buying yourself a new TJ that has all the fruit on it, can potentially save you thousands of dollars providing everything has been done professionally and maintained appropriately.