What to look for when buying a used Jeep Wrangler TJ??

[Music] hey jeep fans uh today i just wanted to talk about several things you need to keep in mind when you're searching for a used jeep um a lot of these tjs have the same specific issues and if you know what to look for when you're buying you can avoid a lot of headache uh down the road with with standard problems they have so first off um is just your standard things that you need to do when looking for any used car which is obviously uh turn it on um listen to the engine you don't want to hear any ticks these tjs don't rarely have any sort of lifter issues to where you could actually hear a problem but you do want to listen and just make sure all the belts are running smooth during test drive you want to really check the steering you don't want to buy anything that's been ragged on and not maintained in the front because uh it you never know what the previous owner could have done to it he may have not changed out the tie rod ends in 150 000 miles or anything like that so just your standard uh standard things you do when buying any car obviously apply to jeep wranglers as well but i really wanted to talk about tj's specific things and if if any of you know a good bit about these one of the major things that you look for on buying one of these that will save you the most amount of money and not get you in the hole in a vehicle is rust these tjs the frame is notorious for rusting especially if it's been in the salt probably north of tennessee or so just be extra careful but even down here in the south you always want to get under there and check for rust so i'll show you one of the major spots here see my frame i have um put kind of a bed liner on it um it didn't come with that and the main reason i did that is just for extra protection it's not required but uh it does make it look good when i got the lift on i went ahead and did this but anyway major spot for rust on these is going to be right here in this seam on the body mounts pretty much anywhere where you've got an open hole on the frame like this it's a good spot to look for it around the edges of that hole but your control arm mounts and your body mounts usually in the creases right here is where you'd see some some early signs of rust and obviously if if the frame is brown and rusty looking and you you touch it and there's paint flaking off it's not a good sign so just just use use common sense when looking at these frames it rust usually exposes itself i know people try to cover it up if it makes you feel more comfortable sometimes i've done this i didn't do it buying this one because i bought it from down here and i could i could see that it was in good shape but some people take a hammer with them and just kind of tap around and if anybody's tried to cover up any holes or really rusty spots your hammer will just punch through the frame and that that'll be a dead giveaway the owner may not be too happy afterward but that's his problem so the frame rust is is the main thing just rust in general the other spots where these are known to rust is on the body right here in these seams sometimes you'll see this front seam right here where the the fender connects to this tub panel starts rusting in there same thing underneath where the uh factory fender um fender flares mount up to the the fender right here there'll be rust running right there mine had a spot right here that i touched up with all this being said you're not going to find one that's perfect unless you know somebody that bought one in in 2006 and put it in their garage and drove it to the grocery store once a month and it's got a thousand miles on it and never been in the rains no mud anything but you're not gonna find a flawless one you just gotta do the best you can so rust being number one number two in my opinion is going to be pop the hood check around your valve cover right here that valve cover gasket on these is known to leak if it is then it'll eventually start dripping oil down beneath here and you'll be able to see it on the ground but you should also be able to see back in here they'll be oil just everything will look grimy you need to check around this cover where it meets the block and around that pcv right there and make sure that everything's good up here you don't want to see oil remnants everywhere if you do i wouldn't buy it again you can put a valve cover gasket on yourself for you know less than a hundred dollars um but it's just one of those things that should have been taken care of if the previous owner wanted to maintain it so you always want to buy something that you think has been taken care of number three is probably gonna be see if i can show you underneath here let me get down number three it's gonna be your rear main seal which is way up in that crack in there i know you won't be able to see it on camera here but just about probably three or four out of five jeeps are gonna have a rear main seal leak and you won't even have to look up in there because there'll be a bead of oil sitting right here and it drips down the face of this transmission right here where it bolts up to the engine and you'll be able to see oil and grime all over this silver plate right here so those are really the main things that i looked for when buying this like i said earlier other than what you do with every vehicle which is obviously give it a good test drive if it doesn't drive straight or it's pulling to one side let's stay away from it so frame rust main number one huge deal you don't want to have to do framework it's not worth it number two valve cover gasket and just in general um check how all your seals are in here you just don't you don't want oil everywhere in here because you know it hasn't been maintained and number three is gonna be that uh rear main seal obviously if your jeep the look the one you're looking at is an automatic um you're going to want to take it for a test drive make sure it gets through all the gears no slipping nothing weird going on with that a manual is a little bit easier to feel how it is this one was very smooth if you're buying a manual you want to feel how the clutch is a bad clutch to me would not be a deal breaker it would just be something that you would want to negotiate off the price because unless you do it yourself a clutch job in an 04 through 106 is about a grand so because they do have to drop the transmission yeah if you have any concerns questions if you're looking to buy a tj and want to know anything else to make you feel more comfortable going into the purchase just let me know and i'll try to answer it best i can okay that's it for this one thank you guys [Music] you

Channel: EverydayOffroad

Views: 149,711

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Id: nKDCUqy9Xpw

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 14 2021