# JEEP; Stop and Think



## headhunter (Nov 21, 2008)

The wife owns a Jeep Latitude. Cute machine that goes through snow pretty well. Great gas mileage - in the summer 32+ and winter 25+. In late winter we started having problems , the gas tank wouldn't fill. The dealer was talking about $2,000 (really!) for replacing the gas line, /breather tube and carbon filter. If that didn't work the dealer's mechanics figured it would need a new gas tank. Dollar signs were everywhere! I took it to an ex-student, a mechanic, and we talked. The system wasn't leaking and it would take .2 gallons at a time. It sounded to me like there was condensed water in the breather line that froze. He agreed and replaced the filter and then blew the breather line with air pressure. it fills like it was new. The total cost was less than $130 (including $30 worth of gas the ex-studend put in to see if we were right).


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## capt. (Dec 15, 2017)

I wish they would build a new OLD car without all the fancy junk.


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## zimmy (Aug 17, 2012)

I developed problems with my 07 f150 truck, pump would keep kicking off during filling but would fill very slowly. I removed the charcoal canister twice and blew air through it and couldn't find any problems with it. I put a piece of pex tubing down the filler pipe and ran a small usb wired camera down the tube and could see a stainless steel screen at the bottom of the filler neck and on the screen was black rubber pieces. I used a flexible pincher tool and removed all the rubber pieces and problem corrected.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

Having a trusted independent can save so much $$... I used to go tot the dealer until one time they quoted me $840 for plugs.. a local independent would do it for 280 using the quality platinum plugs also and that included a throttle body cleaning..

I has spent so much money at the dealer on maintenance and that was the last straw.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

capt. said:


> I wish they would build a new OLD car without all the fancy junk.


They Do its called a Nissan Frontier


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## capt. (Dec 15, 2017)

BlueZ said:


> They Do its called a Nissan Frontier


My nissan was a digital piece of crap. Low lock won't go over 6 MPH or throws out of 4wd. won't lock in H 4wd. Can't rock back and forth after stuck, in snow at 5 mph because , trans has a couple seconds delay. It was an exterra 2015 pro off road model. For a road car that stays, on road way it was just OK. worst 4w4 I ever owned.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

capt. said:


> My nissan was a digital piece of crap. Low lock won't go over 6 MPH or throws out of 4wd. won't lock in H 4wd. Can't rock back and forth after stuck, in snow at 5 mph because , trans has a couple seconds delay. It was an exterra 2015 pro off road model. For a road car that stays, on road way it was just OK. worst 4w4 I ever owned.


Sir, I respectfully, disagree.

I owned more than 1 Xterra of that generation.
The max speed for 4lo is limited but its not 6mph.
The center diff is locked in 4Hi just like it is in 4LO.
When switching between 4 HI and 4LO you must put it in neutral first, then switch.
Its in the owners manual.
The rear locker is limited in speed.
with a rear locker in addition to the center locker its just about impossible to get this thing stuck in snow as long as u wear reasonable tires.
The Xterra after model year 11 is _generally acknowledged to be one of the most reliable and durable mid size SUVs made_ other than the 4 runner and the Lexus GX460 and it is not nearly as highly priced as those.
I have 163,000 miles on my PRO4X and the only think that ever broke was a camshaft position sensor ( and this wa slast week.)
Uses not a drop of oil and perfect compression on all 6 cylinders despite me flogging this car at 90 mph for hundreds of miles on end in foreign countries
Has stronger frame and better seats than the more expensive 4 runner (which is also awesome in its own right) and has roughly the same power but weighs 400lbs less.

There is a reason these were going up in value even before the pandemic.


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## capt. (Dec 15, 2017)

FrankW said:


> Sir, I respectfully, disagree.
> 
> I owned more than 1 Xterra of that generation.
> The max speed for 4lo is limited but its not 6mph.
> ...


Well my Exterra pro off road model was a 2015 model. I owned it for 5 years and was stuck every winter at least once. Non of my other lockable 4x4s ever caused me these issues. 4WD H was a kinda the car made its own mind up on what wheels grabbed. It also had a 4 second delay so you could not rock the suv from forward to reverse to get out of being stuck. In 4 wheel H it was kinda ok. The rear axle would lock in just 4 L. but to lock diff you had to be in 4L. The dealer showed me were the manual advised it had to be in 4L to lock center diff, and rear axle. However the front axle was an open posi track and never locked. Nissan replaced the rear axle assm. at about 50 thou ,they could not find out why the rear axle and the center diff was always screwing up. Dealer again pointed out the speed in low lock was 6 mph and was only to be used when I got stuck. I even called nissan USA and there 4x4 experts told me the same thing. The only good thing was they did replace the entire rear axle assm. complete. Nissan USA warned me it was only to be used when stuck(LL4x4) and to not exceed 6 mph. I guess one would have to look in a 2015 manual. I can only advise you of my experience with this 2015 exterra and manual /use and the pain in my butt that SUV was. Plus what I was shown in the manual and told by nissan usa. I am glad you have had good luck, really I'm happy for you. They should flog the engineers who keep putting elec controls on vehicles. I'm not making this up for just a bitch session , it was the worst suv i ever had.


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