1998 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4.0 (first car)

[brynjaminjones]

Hi guys,
I've looked around this place a few times but have only just registered, so thought posting my Jeep would be a good first post.


This is my 1998 Jeep Cherokee.
I don't know if it's old enough to be considered "retro", but it's essentially the same design that came out in 1984 so that's good enough for me.

His name is Beef (my friends think they're funny - it stands for Beef jerky, in reference to his non-smooth behaviour off-road and his American-ness!), and he has a 4.0 straight-6 with a 4-speed auto and 4wd. He's a limited spec, so has most of the options like leather electric seats, upgraded stereo, fog lights, electric heated mirrors, electric windows etc.

My dad and I spotted it in 2005 when I was 11, took it for a test drive, and pretty much had to have it. Dad drove it until 2007 when the fuel price got too much, so then bought another car and left Beef sitting for most of the year, only being used for errands like towing the boat and going to the tip. From 2007 to 2012 only roughly 35,000 miles were put on the clock, but no non-necessary maintenance was done in that time!


I've always loved this Jeep, and always said that I'd have it as my first car. I passed my test at 18 and straight away went on Dad's insurance (paid by myself, for the record!). I drove it for a year with Dad still owning it, despite the fact that I was the only real driver. I then bought it from Dad, and in this time I've finally been doing all of the servicing that should have been done a long time ago, and bringing Beef back to the state he should be in.

He turns his hand to anything - a bit of off-roading here and there, some towing, lots of beach trips, but still scrubs up nicely when required.

Anyway, I've typed enough for now - here are some pictures! I'll run through the mods etc. I've done in the next post...

[malachi]

they are great tools, I had a 94 on gas and loved it

[120y]

I had a straight 6 4litre a 94 sport in white while I was in Canada I had it 7 years, my old faithful, in all the time I had it only let me down once with a bad radiator.
Nice Jeep and yes its a classic always have been, you can keep your Landys and your rangers that Jeep is true king of 4 wheel drive.
enjoy it

[loudandproud205]

Cut the centre box out you will love the noise.

I had a 93 4.0l High output, Was a great bit of kit loved mine felt a little small and tbf it was compared to the Discoverys.

[cocolinoburtosu]

Nice car you have there. Do you use any products to keep the leather in so good condition?

[wheelspinner]

Just got one of these radiator is a common fault took about an hour to swap it out hardest part was making something to seperate the feed for the transmission cooler from the rad i cut up a pen lid in the end and used that.

Apart from that it feels unbreakable and can really pick up its skirt when you put your foot down.

[brynjaminjones]

Cheers guys. I agree on removing the centre box - I had the entire cat-back off for a week and it sounded immense. It used to set my Dad's car alarm off as I reversed up the drive, and would make old people at bus stops jump out of their skin! It was too loud to be bearable though, so now I've got a Thrush Welded muffler fitted. The sound is similar to having the exhaust removed, but quieter. Still loud though!

As for the leather, I do clean it once a year using Auto Glym leather cleaner, then apply leather care balm. It doesn't really make it any softer, but makes it shiny for a while and the smell is gorgeous!

120y, you say yours only let you down once; this is much the same. In the 9 years it's been in the family it's only let us down twice. Once was when the ignition barrel seized - at the time dad had a ridiculous amount of keys so we think that the weight hanging from it was the cause. The AA man removed the steering column cover and started it with a screwdriver.

The other time was in the middle of the heat of last summer - I was stuck in traffic, and had recently flushed the cooling system for the first time in 8 years. I'd obviously dislodged something because when I stopped I noticed steam under the bonnet. The top radiator hose had a pinhole leak. I could probably have driven 45 mins home, but wasn't in the mood to risk it so got a lift home, bought a new hose, and fitted it a couple of days later.

[brynjaminjones]

Here's a quick rundown of the few mods I've done. None of them are anything major, but they've changed the look of the Jeep a bit.

In no particular order:

Installed a Thule roof basket. It's actually very useful for carrying luggage, and the front and rear edges fold down for when I need to put my surf board up there. There's also now a Thule bike rack on it.


Added a subwoofer. Beef came with a factory Infinity sound system, which I think is excellent for its age. The bass in the front was great, but was completely lacking in the rear due to the speakers being in the roof. To counter this, and add some real punch, I bought this Infinity Basslink (front left of cargo area) on eBay, which is small, easily removable, and simply taps into the speaker wires.


I installed a front skid plate to minimise any damage that I do. It definitely saved several steering components once when I drove onto a large pointed rock which I'd completely failed to see in the dark. The bumper air dam was almost ripped off too, but popped back into place! I've got a transfer case skid to install, but I need to finish painting it. They were both free from a friend with a Jeep on another forum.
Here you can also see my front recovery point and shackle.


Here's my rear recovery point to match the front. The bit the shackle is attached to simply unbolts when I want to swap back to a tow ball.


I've always liked US spec lighting, where the front indicators are usually permanently lit. My Jeep already had the dual-filament bulbs so I simply had to tap the dimmer filament into the sidelight wiring. They now come on with parking lights and headlights. I also installed bulbs in the side reflectors. Again, these light up in the USA and I was after that look. I personally think it looks great in the flesh when it's clean with these lights on.


It failed its last MOT on cracked tires, but thankfully I already had these in the garage! They're 235/75r15, up from the 225/70r15s it came with. There's a slight rub at full lock, but nothing major. they perform great off road and in the dry, and look great too. In the wet they make it somewhat tail happy when in 2wd, but I find that fun, and know to put it into 4wd if I have to put my foot down!


I also never liked the UK size number plate. As you may have noticed, it's missing in most of the photos. I took it off last summer and it looked great, but once I went back to uni in the city I wasn't happy with no front number plate. I bought a US spec bracket and fitted that. The number plate however only lasted about 3 months before it fell off whilst crossing a river. I haven't replaced it since.


And here's a picture of the Jeep on the same day that the number plate fell off. You can also see that I've rattle-canned the shackles red.



I've also done a couple of other small things. I removed the mud guards as I don't think they suit it. I'm going to remove the side steps soon. Inside I've now got genuine Jeep rubber mats all around, and a genuine tray in the boot. It all keeps sand and mud off the carpet nicely. I've replaced the original head unit with one from a newer Chrysler Voyager, as it looks a lot more modern, and is actually a lot closer to the radios they came with in the 'States.
You may also spot my several little stickers dotted about the Jeep...

[rev]

nice jeep, had 3 myself, one lifted and generaly modded..a lot lol and 2 stockers. got my last my98 for £295 off ebay lol

[nyx]

great looking example you have there.

[brynjaminjones]

I got the Jeep a little bit muddy last weekend...


No access to a hose so not properly being able to clean the radiator resulted in this:


I eventually cleaned it out enough by squirting the mud out using a water bottle with a hole in the lid that I managed to limp the 100+ miles home so long as I kept to 2000rpm to stop him from blowing his coolant everywhere!

I felt sorry for him when we got back, so I gave him a wash, polish, put Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection on, cleaned the plastics, polished the windows, blackened the tires. Inside I hoovered, polished, polished the glass, cleaned the leather, applied leather care balm, polished the floor mats. I'm now quite fed up of cleaning...


The overheating incidents had also practically turned the oil into water, so this morning he had an oil and filter change (3000ish miles since the last, as the manual recommends!).

[brynjaminjones]

The Jeep's front brakes were binding, and upon rebuilding them we realised that the rear brake lines and drum brakes all needed replacing. The Jeep was therefore off the road for a few weeks whilst I collected parts and found time to fix it.

In the time it was gone, I managed to obtain a new (used) roof basket that I'd been wanting for a long time, which was promptly fitted and put into action once I got the Jeep home.

[recarouk]

thats bloody awesome!!!!

[euroshark]

Sweet XJ! I've also got a '98 and I love it. The girlfriend named mine "Gus"... lol

235s make a nice difference even at stock height. What sort of fuel economy are you getting? I've gone from about 14mpg when I got mine to about 19mpg with a 50/50 mix of city and highway driving. Seems that the updated 4 pintle injectors may be a worthwhile modification for better economy and a smooth idle.

[brynjaminjones]

Thanks! Yeah, the 235s have made it loads better off road, yet haven't noticeably blunted performance.
According to the on board computer I'm getting about 16mpg at the moment, but adjusted for tire size that's just under 17 MPG.

I'm interested in doing the injector swap - which ones did you use?

[brynjaminjones]

Since the last update there haven't been many changes.

I rediscovered what a great bed I can make in the back:


I installed US spec rear lights:

Old on left, new on right

Not a huge difference, but I much prefer them. As US spec cars have to have side markers the light from these extends all the way around the side, rather than being limited to just projecting form the rear as in the UK, which makes them look much better at night.


I took it off-roading last weekend. It went everywhere, scraping its belly over loads of rocks etc all with no damage, but with 30 miles remaining of the 215 mile journey home, the power steering pump spat its pulley out and so it had to be recovered.
That's now been replaced, and the steering is much lighter than ever before!

[brynjaminjones]

I forgot to mention that the Jeep also had to have a new catalytic converter for it's MOT. In replacing that I spotted a snapped O2 sensor, so that has been replaced, and it's had a new front driver's side wheel hub.

Here are a couple of videos taken over the last year or so demonstrating the sound of the Thrush Welded muffler I've got on there, as well as what it sounds like with no exhaust!

[georgeb]

That's a nice looking Jeep you've got there. They are a very capable motor and that 6 pot is a beaut. Mate of mine in KL swears by his.

I had one of these on the "to buy" list here but decided, probably out of contrariness, that a bit of English class was needed instead. Probably to counter the fact that everyone drives American or Japanese 4x4s here.

I'd have saved a fortune if I'd gone Jeep but no, I'll not be swapping!!

Looked everywhere for BFG tyres when I got my new wheels but generally unavailable which is a shame, as you say they are excellent off-road and I had them on all my UK Rovers.

[brynjaminjones]

Thanks George, I agree - this thing never stops impressing me with its capabilities!


Here it is on its hardest towing mission so far:



And here we are getting revenge on a bus - holding it up for once rather than the other way around! I'm not used to towing much at all, let alone something this size!

[brynjaminjones]

New KC Apollo lights fitted!