Thank you, Keema and Jeep

[Pipeliner]

I haven’t had much to do with AJOR since I sold my KJ in 2014 and bought a WK2 CRD to tow the caravan, but I thought I’d put this story up.

Last year we spent 6 months towing the caravan right round Australia, with the WK2 doing a fantastic job. Then in early December we were in SA coming up the Limestone Coast when the engine noise started sounding different - not really bad, but enough to make me decide to take it into Adrian Brien when we reached Adelaide. However, next day in the last few kms into Echunga it really got bad, a bit like sitting inside a 44gal drum whilst a crowd threw rocks at it. My 55 years of motoring made me think “big end’s gone”, so I called RACQ and they got the RAA to tow the Jeep into Adelaide, where Adrian Brien found shiny flakes in the oil filter and told me they could get me a reconditioned engine from JeepParts in Harvey Bay for $8500, plus installation to a total of around $16000, or a new unit from Jeep for around $30000 all up.

Didn’t want to have to wait in Adelaide whilst all this got fixed, so got RACQ (thank heavens for their Ultimate package!) to take the car and caravan back to Brisbane and fly us home. They delivered the Jeep to Keema (formerly Cricks) at Mansfield.

I was all set to bite the bullet and fork out the money to get the JeepParts unit but the service manager at Keema (Andrew? sorry, I’ve forgotten your name) said he reckoned that the engine should have lasted a lot more than 138,000km (I certainly agreed with that, particularly for a diesel) and even though the warranty had expired Jeep should still replace it as a goodwill gesture. So he contacted Jeep and the result was that they provided a new ‘long bare’ engine and all I had to pay was Keema’s cost to install it. So thank you Keema and Jeep - apparently a deciding factor was the fact that I had had all the regular servicing done by recognized Jeep service agents.

What I find interesting, having worked extensively on my own engines in my younger days (I’m talking about the 1960’s and 70’s!) is that no-one suggested dropping the sump and replacing the bearings which, assuming the crankshaft was not damaged, would surely have been a cheaper option. Also no-one seemed interested in finding out why the big end had failed that early: when I asked Keema they said Jeep didn’t want the old engine and it would just be scrapped.