To fix or get rid

Maintenance/Repairs
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I have an '09 Jeep Cherokee Limited 3.7 V6. It’s done 70,000 miles. I bought it for around $4000 a year ago (i live in the Middle East) and while I love the car, I took a gamble on it as there’s no service history apart from under warranty. It was a good price but it has its issues. I got a mechanic to inspect it and we both drove it, it was good and the dealer said it was fine but things started going wrong.

Since then I’ve spent close to $2500 on a suspension rebuild, new engine oil gasket, new set of tires, fuel pump and injector repair/replacement, new belt, drive shaft repair and other general service things.

I have a feeling there’s a problem with the ECU, it’s been going on for a while. The transmission slips at times but a mechanic said it’s not the transmission directly. Lights on the dash come up regarding ABS, traction and ESP and the car doesn’t start unless you wait for the electrics to come on. Scan sometimes says gear ratio error but other times that error doesn’t show at all. The brakes work fine but the slipping annoys me and the starting issue no one has been able to fix it. One garage told me it is the ECU not communicating properly. This was after replacing a brake switch that came up on scan but still the lights were on.

Replacing the ECU will be costly, around $1200. The car still runs decent even if the lights come on and you have to put up with the occasional slippage and misfire. This has been going on for ages.

I’m thinking about buying a new car and selling this but I’ll not get what I want and the repair bills just mount up. Over here I’d say the car is worth $3500 now, I’ve already spent more than 2000 and then add on this and it’s about the car value.

I do like the car and SUVs are really useful here due to the idiotic driving of others but SUVs are expensive plus people don’t maintain their cars. It’s a lot of hassle getting one for a good price and in good condition.

Should I bite the bullet and get it fixed, or just run it into the ground if it still works?

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To folks in the US, it was sold here as the Jeep Liberty. They were troublesome here, hard to get too excited about putting lots of money in one.

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Not sure of your finances, $1200 might not be a bad bet considering all else you have had done, and the cost of a replacement, get a 2nd and 3rd opinion from mechanics my thought.

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Over here there are loads of American cars. I can go up to about 10,000. I know Jeeps aren’t the most reliable so I’d be after a Toyota Fortuner or Highlander, Honda CR-V or Mazda CX -9 but they cost a lot more than that even 10 year old and 200,000 miles. I’d want something more modern if I was to get a new car.

Problem is I’m attached to the car, apart from the shitty Chrysler components, it’s a lovely car in style and it’s a nice drive. I might just have to shell out. I’m pretty sure my ECU has just gone bad. but yeah I’ll get another opinion, may be a re-program instead of a replacement?

The hassle of buying a new used SUV is quite big. What would the consequences be of driving with a faulty ECU for a long time?

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Sounds like it’s very close to being run into the ground, and it’s not going to get better over time. Dump it and get something more reliable ( not a Jeep).

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Sounds to me that a faulty ECU is only speculation at this time. ECUs don’t go down that easy and many are needlessly replaced.

With all the issues you are listing, I would get a competent mechanic to look it over, identify and prioritize the items that should be done first and estimate what each repair might cost.

This way you have a roadmap and don’t shut-gun around trying to fix things that may not need fixing or decide not to spend any more moneys on it.

By the way, I probably would not reenlistment the mechanic who helped you originally inspect the car. I have a feeling he was missing many things, like suspension, etc… but I might be wrong

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