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what do ya know about the 99 Grand?

xuv-this

bondo afficianado
Location
southwest VA.
WOOHOO!!! (i think) so i visited my mother last weekend, she was in the market for a suv, and i have been trying to talk her out of a honda pilot. :gag: lo and behold she got her hands on a 99' grand cherokee 4.7L with loaded power everything and quadradrive-? what is that supposed to be? anybody know anything about the reliability of the 99'? what breaks?
 
Check out NAGCA.com They will have the info you need.
 
I had a 99 Grandcherokee, with those exact options, it was the f package or something like that. The engine is a good strong engine, but EVERYTHING about the rest of the Quadradrive drivetrain sucks! If it works, then it is very nice, and mine was too until it started to all come apart, the Quadradrive is an all wheel drive sytem that uses the NV247 transfercase. This transfercase utilizes a gerotor coupling and also in the Vari-Lok front and rear progressive axles to send torque to the front driveshaft and or from side to side within each axle. When these fail, they are very very expensive to fix. The rear axle is an aluminum D44 which has had many problems. The front on the 99, or at least on most, unless they have been changed or were a late production, I believe had some odd CV ball type joint instead of a regualr U-joint set up on the drive shaft. There is a known problem with the front axles making all kinds of whining noises and vibrations ESPECIALLY with the 99's I think there was something like 10 TSB's dealing with that exact promblem with the quadradrive system. I had my front axle completely rebuilt only to have it mess up and start making all kinda of nasty noises 20k later . My advise to you is that the WJ is an AWESOME Jeep, but stay away from the Quadradrive, especially the early ones, I hear that the later produced ones were a little bit better, but If you could find one with the Selec-Trac NV242 which is also a full time transfercase, it is alot better. The only other issues not related to the Quadradrive is rather minor the door lock motors have a habit of going bad, after time they may start to Honk or buzz and not do anything, not a major fix, but last time I priced them out I think they were like $90 each and I needed all 4. If you are serious about buying this Jeep, when you test drive it, make sure you drive it for a while like take it for like a 30 minute ride and then when everything is all nice and hot, drive in a really tight circle round and around, both ways, there should not be any growling or binding up if there is, just walk away from it. Also Take a good look at the pinion seals on both the front and real diffs if they are leaking the yoke is probably grooved and will need replacing. And check all the HVAC controls make sure the A/C works and that it is coming out of the vent that corresponds to what you select on the dial. Good Luck
 
thanks. she already bought it. i wish she would have asked me while she was car shopping. the check engine light already came on for the speedo sender. it has 130k on the clock, so naturally i'm kinda concerned. think she should sell it?
 
If all is working, then there really is no reason to sell it some are better than others and you may have one of the really good ones, they do exist. I would just check the diffs to see if oil is leaking and drive it in circles checking for binding. If you have it serviced by anyone other than a Jeep dealership, or service it yourself, and plan to change the Transfercase fluid MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT USE ATF. The owners manual for the 99's says to use ATF, but that is False. it takes a special Mopar oil with additional additives that is only available from Jeep, faulure do use this can mess up the pump inside of the Tcase. The diffs If I remember correctly, take some odd fluid too and it is probably easier to just buy the mopar stuff. So just lookout if you take it to a general repair shop, or service it yourself, because it is VERY important that the proper fluids are used and many shops and people are not aware of this
 
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