something other than a frontera

[darkwolfe]

I admit it I'm bonkers, I get bored of cars and swap them out sometimes to regret it later.

The 2.0 swb sport is looking pretty good at the moment, no major issues.



winch is on with the new bumper, paint looks pretty good considering i didn't like the colour and painting the wheels black made a big difference, bonus the snorkel is 100% waterproof guaranteed

However, I'm struggling with lack of power and front axle articulation, and no i don't want to do a live conversion before someone points it out as an option. So that leaves me thinking about something other than an Isuzu (frontera /trooper).

I was thinking along the lines of a post 97 Jeep Cherokee (XJ) either with a 4.0 petrol or a 2.5 diesel. The XJ has great front axle articulation...but the back axle is limited with leafs, so not 100% sold yet. The suspension has loads of kits, the rear can have some +4' high flex springs put on and the front can have some +4' coils and shocks for not much money. Loads of mod kit available, larger wheel arches etc.

Would like to hear everyone thoughts on the XJ, especially if you know someone with one, although I appreciate they may be slightly biased towards the the fronty, justified maybe?

[BoxCleva]

Can't help with the Jeep, but i do know you'll have no problems selling that SWB if you leave all the kit on it.

[bigdazz]

i have had a few of them mate cheap to mod but not very reliable




and they are thirsty went from that to land rover then to frontera

[quintenve27]

admittedly these do look kinda cool

[darkwolfe]

gotta say I'm not so keen on the Grand Cherokee but I guess it's more or less the same as the smaller car under the skin. what reliability issues did you have, I understand the 2.5 diesel is the same enginer as found in the 2.5tds fronty but this may of course be bo**ocks.

...and yes I think the XJ looks the dogs danglies, probably because it can ride with 33s (with lift and wide arch kit) and it's so small they look more like 35s!

[bigdazz]

i had two petrols which were hopeless the diesel 1994 i had was a bit better
needing engine rebuilt all time
had a problem with an oil pipe
electrical problems all time

but when they are working they are really tough of road and there ae plenty in scrap yards for spares and mods are cheap

just the diff are bad broke two myself back in 2000
u will become a weekend mechanic with one lol

[bigdazz]

my mate dropped a Cummins into his Cherokee? he new it would be heavy, but you could probably stick in a set of springs from Ram and be good to go. Just think of all that torque.

[john boy]

4.0ltr are prettt bomb proof but get one on gas. 2.5 petrol don't bother. 2.5 diesel make sure the coolant has been changed regularly same engine as the 2.5 fronty. Common things are ball joints, drive shaft u/j's on the front axle, pad carriers wear on the front and then you into new hubs. But other than that just genrral bits and bobs. Mates just got rid of one 2" lift sahara m/t's on gas £750. Hope this helps a bit. Oh make sure it's a face lift model as they are galvanised and the early one suffer from tin worm

[darkwolfe]

Thanks for the input so far, shame i missed on the truck your mate had for sale, sounded like a winner.

A mixed bag of responses but certainly I can see the rear axle which only has a single main bearing and the front UJ can be issues. It would need to be the face lift version, as stated it's a little more resistant to the tin worm but which of the two engines, the 4.0 has near 200bhp but is stuck with an automatic and I've never used one off road, is engine braking an issue? How strong is the tranny when given some real abuse? The diesel, less moisture issues and I do go wading, plus it has a nice conventional manual gearbox and economy even though that's not a real issue for me.

I should add i'm a bit of a car nut and no matter how reliable it is I'll still be a weekend mechanic. Although it would be preferrable to be modding than fixing of course . The car won't be my daily or even weekend car as I have 2 other cars for that purpose, a diesel passat and my other 4x4, a convertible TT .

So as you can see fuel will not be an issue, currently the fronty is used once or twice a month on pay n play days. This leads me to why I'm thinking of changing, given the only time I use it I seem to be coming up short compared to my brothers defender. The main problem seems to be front axle articulation which is an inherent problem with IFS.

I was thinking last night I could try to fabricate some ARB disconnects, which may help. I can see it's been tried when i searched but the question is how big a difference does it make? Pictures would also be appreciated as currently I'm not sure how i would approach this.

[Bullyterrier]

I had a 200TDI Defender a few years ago, and I tried out a Cherokee diesel....I thought it was really awful. Too low, no power, and the leaf springs made a terrible antiquated ride. A guy in the garage where it was for sale said that at the time the Cherokee diesels were the most thirsty of the diesel 4x4's.

But I read somewhere the other day the latest version of the Cherokee were supposed to be quite good, I even thought about getting one.

[darkwolfe]

Interesting thoughts on the power of the diesel as it's the same as the tds engine I'm given to understand, the car is lighter too. So I would have expected better performance and MPG. However i do have a feeling the early 2.5 jeep diesel was an old VW unit and not the frontera one so that may account for the view disparity.

As for the ride, that is interesting, I've never owned a leaf spring car so I guess it's about time I went out and test drove one. I have today free so I'll see what i can do. BTW the later jeep may be a better car but they switched to IFS, doh!

[James Bass]

The later Cherokee diesels (97 on I think) use an almost identical unit to the Frontera 2.5TDS. I personally think a bit of a flying machine (since I had her fixed ). Certainly MUCH better than the 2.0 Sport I also have.

[darkwolfe]

I don't have a Frontera at the moment but often check in to see what's happening, maybe comment on a problem or two if I can help.

I did move to a Cherokee about a year ago now and here's the beast. I like looking at what others have done to their cars and with the thought others might like to do that also I've attached some picks below.

I should add it's great offroad, hate to say better than my Frontera but with the live axles and 4.0 engine it was bound to have the edge. It's got 33s on with 10 x 15 wheels, roll bar disconnects, 3" lift and some nice arch flares. In defence of my Frontera though, it's not as tough and I've had quite a few components give out on it.