Diesel Jeep Liberty

[NGuzik]

Has anyone owned/ worked on one of these? My girlfriend is looking to buy a 2005 2. 8l inline 4 diesel liberty and I'm trying to get some real world input. I've been doing some research on these and it seems hit or miss about common problems. I can gather some basic regular maintenance things.

• Timing belt needs to be replaced every 100,000 miles

• Fuel system seems to have some weak points with air leaks

• Thermostat seem to be a joke and hard to find

• Egr seem to clog easy mostly due to light driving habits and not being able to burn its self clean

Now these are just a few of the biggest problems I can find. I'm not to concerned about being able to fix what breaks more just being able to find parts to fix it. Just looking to see what a owner of one of these has to say about them and see how hard they are to work on. Any huge things to keep I mind when looking at? Any tips on sourcing parts? Also any cross reference numbers for fleet guard filters would be handy info. Thanks, nick

*If she does end up buying it I'll try to keep this thread updated with things I fix on it along with a few of the upgrades I plan on doing.

 

[BILLUA]

We have an '06 Liberty CRD that we bought new and now has close to 80K on it. It is wifeys DD

When we first got it, it developed transmission issues very early on. It was typical DC in that they put a transmission on it that couldn't handle the torque at low rpm. . So, after a couple of recalls done by the best dealership service department I have worked with, the trans has been great for the last 50K.

Here is where I must depart. I knew right away the EGR system was crap on these. I just kept it clean until a company called Green Diesel Engineering got going... I also lifted this thing 2 inches put better shocks and some Revos on it, got rid of the stock brake discs and pads for some good ones, run a Baldwin fuel filter and a helper lift pump and that is about it for mods. I also have been running an Amsoil oil filter.

The only thing it has been back to the dealer for is glow plugs at about 65K. They updated them and the replacements are supposedly good to go. You are right about the 100K service. Folks also replace the water pump and thermostat at the same time as the tear down is mostly all the same.

So, it gets 24 mpg around town, is a great little torque monster and is fun to drive. Its a Jeep, so is fun off road and ours is trail rated.

I would try to get the service records on it to see if the transmission recalls were done. At the least, look under the hood somewhere a sticker from Daimler that says F38 tcm complete or something like that. If you buy it, be sure to look up Green Diesel.

Also, check this guy out for more info http://liberty. eurekaboy.com/

 

[MLee]

Also join this web site-----http://www.lostjeeps.com It has a bunch of information on these lib's, all jeeps in general also, its a jeep site. Igniter's was/is a problem also. Window regulators just to name a few more.

 

[Brian Sullivan]

defiantly get the green diesel tune also the trans tune. I did the 100k service last winter not a big deal. see lost jeeps .com tons of info. Just keep up on oil changes ect. you will be fine

 

[NGuzik]

I've been trolling around on lost jeeps the last few nights, seems to have some good info. I've also been looking into the green diesel tuner, it leaves me with some questions. It seems to be just a tuner with out any block off plates. Seems kinda odd to keep any part of that pos egr on at all. But for the price seems to be kinda lacking. I'm most concerned about being able to get any kind of motor parts for it without having to buy from the dealership. Just to get an idea I went on rockauto and even they didn't have many things. On a side note I read they use the same motor in most Europe taxis, so they must be a pretty proven motor.

 

[BILLUA]

The egr system on the Liberty is very basic, just a valve that opens. It's not like the one that was on my truck..... so, the GDE tune keeps the valve closed electronically and also changes the programming of the ECU. The tune is hardly basic.

In fact, the reason the Libby's didn't survive after 06 is because they didn't meet the ongoing emission being tightened.

 

[BILLUA]

Dup post due to slow TDR SERVER!

 

[DonFitzwater]

The egr is the worst problem I ran into. Towed a lot with it but it still had about two a year.

 

[Brian Sullivan]

Gde uses the egr when you shut off the engine so it doesnt shake real bad. I had one with egr at shut down one with out it is a very noticeable difference.

 

[Bater]

Has anyone owned/ worked on one of these?

We bought a Jeep Liberty CRD new in '05.

It is my wife's daily driver, back and forth to the train station every day, and then about five hundred miles of highway driving to and from our farm once or twice a month. With that schedule it has only around 44000 miles on it.

My wife loves the CRD. Indeed it's a nice driving vehicle, but for me at 6' just a little cramped. To be fair though I am comparing to my '08 3500.

Minimal problems:

• Threw a transmission code once and seemingly went into limp home mode. Dealer recovered the code, which I couldn't see with my OBD reader, when I had him change the transmission fluid and filter, front and rear diff oil etc.
• Trans cooler lines are weeping a tiny bit, some thought perhaps air gets in the system hence the above code.
• New rear brakes not long ago, apparently this vehicle is somehow known for wearing out rears faster.
• Can throw an overheat alarm tone on an extremely hot day driving up into the mountains, but from what I read still has lots of safety margin. (We opened the windows and put the heater on
  anyhow. )
• Rear main seal leaking a bit, but not enough to drop oil on the driveway.

And one self inflicted problem:

• I replaced the fuel filter last year, tightening by hand as normal. Darn thing loosened up a few weeks ago and fuel system got airlocked. Simple bleed to correct, and yes I put a wrench on it to snug it up. (They took a lesson from their Dodge cousins on the fuel filter, terrible location to access, primarily to remove the water in fuel sensor. )

Just replaced the original Optima battery, was still good but eight years is a long time with any battery.

We went through one set of tires, put Bridgestone Revos on year before last.

I change the oil once a year no matter the mileage, use Shell Rotella synthetic. The CRD always starts in the cold.

Andy

 

[NGuzik]

I wasn't saying the tune it's self isn't worth it, but more it was kind of a let down not seeing the egr being truly deleted. I was reading around on line and seen someone say they unplugged the map sensor to keep the egr from being used at all. Only draw back was a check engine light. This seems like an alright idea, but isn't there a regen cycle with this system? A flame thrower exhaust sounds cool on paper but less in real life.

 

[Newt]

The CRD Liberty ceased production before DPF filters and regeneration.

Newt

 

[Bob V]

No PDF and no regen. We had a 2006 for a while. Had a lot of problems but they where covered under warrantee. Did have to replace the alt decoupler and stripped the oil drain plug- POOR DESIGN!. we ran with the MAF sender unplugged and it did run better and better MPG. I don't think I would buy another though. Too many problems and not really enough MPG compared to a gas rig of about the same size, especially when Diesel is 60 to 80 cents a gallon more

 

[Tinman]

We have a CRD and love it. But here is my advise, if the Libby in question has been run stock DO NOT buy this thing. There are 2 major problems in design of this thing. One: the CCV is just crap and dumps all manner of oily smoke into the intake. Two: The EGR (big surprise). To meet EPA a standards of the time it was made, Chrysler had to increase the amount of exhaust gases circulated in the intake compared to anywhere else in the world where this engine is used. This combined with the bad CCV creates a soot peanut butter in the intake, see photo. In addition, there are a fair number of CRD out there now with around 100K that are experiencing premature rocker arm wear. It is the general consensus of the LOST forum that this is caused by the heavy use of egr - and subsequent sooting of the oil - and the crappy thin oil Chrysler spec'd (0W-40). I has been my general observation that if a CRD was modified early in it's life to defeat the CCV and EGR, it does fairly well - expect for the somewhat nuisance problems such as bad fuel filer head (updated by Chrysler), glow plugs, transmission/TC. etc. My wife's libby has 135K now and we have had very good service out of it. But I took a wrench to it early on. As much as we love this little mule, I would not recommend to buy a used one, unless it was maintained by someone that took care of these issues at low mileage. All of this info is on the LOST forum.

#ad

 

[Bob V]

We have a CRD and love it. But here is my advise, if the Libby in question has been run stock DO NOT buy this thing. There are 2 major problems in design of this thing. One: the CCV is just crap and dumps all manner of oily smoke into the intake. Two: The EGR (big surprise). To meet EPA a standards of the time it was made, Chrysler had to increase the amount of exhaust gases circulated in the intake compared to anywhere else in the world where this engine is used. This combined with the bad CCV creates a soot peanut butter in the intake, see photo. In addition, there are a fair number of CRD out there now with around 100K that are experiencing premature rocker arm wear. It is the general consensus of the LOST forum that this is caused by the heavy use of egr - and subsequent sooting of the oil - and the crappy thin oil Chrysler spec'd (0W-40). I has been my general observation that if a CRD was modified early in it's life to defeat the CCV and EGR, it does fairly well - expect for the somewhat nuisance problems such as bad fuel filer head (updated by Chrysler), glow plugs, transmission/TC. etc. My wife's libby has 135K now and we have had very good service out of it. But I took a wrench to it early on. As much as we love this little mule, I would not recommend to buy a used one, unless it was maintained by someone that took care of these issues at low mileage. All of this info is on the LOST forum.



#ad

Tinman, that was some of the issues I was talking about, and one of the reasons I decided to let ours go. For the extra cost of running a Diesel (diesel right now is 60-80 cents a gallon more that regular in out area) and the slightly better MPG wasn't worth it compared other similar sized SUV. Best MPG we ever got with the Liberty was 30ish. There are a lot of other small gas SUVs that can get MPGs into the mid 20s

 

[Tinman]

Like I said, we love ours and plan on keeping it a long time. But if it has a major problem tomorrow, I wouldn't be surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. I'd like to get a Cherokee Diesel for the wife in a year or 2, but it's a hard sell with the jeep/vm motori track record.

 

[NGuzik]

Well my girlfriend is the new owner of a 2005 jeep liberty. It has 90,000 miles, new stainless egr and overall pretty clean jeep. First things first Im doing an oil change and fuel filter and cleaning up the battery terminals tonight. Now starts the process of working out some of the problem areas. I ordered an oil plug drain so no more worries about stripping out the oil plug. Have a timing belt on order at the parts store for my next free time project. This weekend I plan on pulling the egr and cleaning it out. I've been looking in to putting an inline thermostat in the radiator hose for once the pos stock one dies. I mocked up a Bhaf yesterday but need to finish tig welding the collector one of these days at work. After that I guess I'm going to just wait and see what else comes up. I plan on making up a 3" or 4" exhaust at some point along with pulling the turbo silencer because she wants it to sounds a little less wimpy. Over all I was pretty surprised how nice this jeep is, it even has a block heater that looks like no one ever unwrapped. After reading what some owners had to say about them I come to the conclusion there's always good and bad parts of everything. With any luck the jeep will treat her well and offer many years of service. .

 

[Brian Sullivan]

GDE keith lives in walled lake definetaly get the tune to turn off egr the oil stays clean. U will love it