New Piglet in the Pig Pen...

Some of you know my affinity for Jeeps... Green Two has been acting up lately, and is now due for some repairs under the hood -- engine mounts, a transfer case, and a catalytic converter... All in all, over $1000 in work... The Queen has made no efforts at hiding her discontent with "Just Empty Every Pocket" but didn't seem to mind when I started looking for a replacement vehicle.

As a point of reference, I've owned a '93 Cherokee, an '02 Liberty, and most recently, a '00 Cherokee Sport. So, it was not surprise that I stopped at the Jeep dealership first...

With gas prices on the rise, I probably shouldn't have -- I still like the ride of the Liberty, but it's a real hog on gas. 15-17mpg was the best I could get when I had the '02, and it isn't exactly roomy in the back seat. But it was great for trail use...

The Wrangler would be fun, but also has crappy mileage, and the Commander is even worse (not to mention somewhat ugly...). I've never been a fan of the Grand Cherokee.

So that left the Patriot...

Honestly, I'd never considered the Patriot before, but it caught my eye. So did the gas mileage -- 20-22 in town. It also has lines reminiscent of the Cherokee, so I started pricing them out, and wound up purchasing one back in February.

So far, it's been a good ride. The only thing that's a little goofy is the CVT transmission. Instead of having shift points like most automatic transmissions, the CVT is constantly adjusting. It's wierd, but it keeps the RPM's steady. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't coast when you take your foot off the gas. But, it sips gas compared to the Cherokee and other Trail-Rated Jeeps.

Green Two's feelings are a little hurt, but once Jesse starts driving later this year, she'll get some daily use again. Until then, she's in dry-dock for repairs as time (and money) permit...

Now, just because the Patriot looks a little wimpy doesn't mean that it doesn't have potential...

Here's what the guys at Chrysler's Skunkwerks came up with... When I first saw the photo, I thought it was an XJ... Then I realized it looked pretty damn good, and started thinking that all I have to do is replace the front bumper, get some bigger tires, put a lift kit on... Not exactly wild about the roof-rack, but the rest of it looks pretty slick.

Plates Finally Arrive

The picture says it all. 

 

Given the cost of registration for a RV in the State of Arizona, I thought it was worth another $25....

Life Is A Highway

Did I mention that the Jeep is up and running again?

The radiator turned out to be the real culprit, although there were definitely indications that the water pump had been rusting, and the thermostat was probably in need of a replacement.

So, after all of the diagnosis, the guys over on NAXJA were right on in their guesses.  Well, most of them were, at least... The head passed its compression check, so that's one less thing to worry about for now.

But, my Jeep's problems pale a little bit in comparison to about 750 or so people here in Tucson. 

As I posted last week, First Magnus went from being a local success story to every working person's worst nightmare.  Today, they officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and they had their mortgage license suspended on Monday.  Of the 100 or so people still working at their headquarters this week, about 60 or so are actually being paid, and most of those are in either finance, IT or Human Resources.  Some employees have been given 12 week employment contracts, so the future is definitely not rosey.

That's not to say that this wasn't self-inflicted in a way.... Magnus had a very fragile business model, and apparently they didn't spare a lot of expense.  The rent at their new headquarters was said to run $100K per month, and there were two corporate jets parked in a hangar at Tucson Int'l (with their landing gear now firmly secured by the aircraft equivilent of a Denver Boot, lest they skip out on paying their bills at the airport). 

Being privately held, there didn't appear to be a lot of reason for restraint and perhaps having some cash stashed away for a rainy day. 

Or, in the case of First Magnus, a perfect storm...

As bad as things have been in the airline industry, the housing industry is on target to lose more workers this year alone than the airlines did over the three years after 9/11.

It's estimated that there have been about 87,000 job cuts this year related to the collapse of the housing market, with over 35,000 people being directly affected by the meltdown in the mortgage industry alone. That doesn't even start to consider the hundreds of thousands of people who will now not be able to refinance loans they never should have been approved for in the first place, and will face almost certain foreclosure. Home foreclosure filings in July were 93 percent higher than a year ago, and up 9 percent from June, to almost 180,000.

So.... I'm still glad I don't have a house on the market right now, and I'm not looking forward to the idea of putting one on the market anytime soon.

The Waiting Continues...

Yep.  It's back at the dealer -- dropped it off yesterday.  The radiator flush I tried doing on Friday night didn't do the trick, so now they want to look at replacing the radiator....

I've also asked them to do a compression check on the cylinder head, since that's the next most logical thing to have failed and contribute to overheating (if the head is cracked or the gasket is failing, exhaust gas can get into the cooling system and create air pockets in the head, which can then lead to cracks...).

So... hopefully sometime today it will be diagnosed.  Or better yet, fixed.... Our 4x4 club from work was supposed to go on a ride Saturday, and that's now on hold for a couple weeks, but I'd still like to be able to take it out this weekend if it is holding together OK.

On a side note... one of my employees thought he saw The Beast sitting on a used car lot.  Turns out he was right... I sold it to the RV dealer for $19000, and they turned around and sold it to a used car/RV dealer just up the road from where I bought GreenTwo.  It's currently priced at $24000, but if it sits there long enough and the price drops, maybe I'll reconsider buying it back... At least I know the engine is good.

... and it's not the thermomostat either

Just got back from my third trip to the dealer in three days... they swapped out the thermostat, and that didn't fix the problem.  Two minutes away from work, the gauges went haywire again...

I've swapped out everything but the radiator at this point, and that will probably be the next thing we have to try. 

Stay tooned as I go thru yet another weekend with a broken down Jeep...

Still not fixed right

Got the Jeep back last night.  The dealership finally sent it out to Brakemasters on Monday, and called me on Wedneday to pick it up.  They replaced the front rotors & pads, and put in a new water pump.  Didn't touch the thermostat, apparently... 

As I was driving it out, I put on the air conditioner, and the compresser started screeching pretty loudly... so I turned around and pulled right back in... and that's where it sat.

We went immediately to the dealer, where I finally spoke to the owner.  While he was quite good at telling me how much money he was losing on the deal, he couldn't argue the facts:  I bought a vehicle to use as transportation from them, and so far, it had only spent one night in my driveway after two weeks...  So... they set me up in a loaner for the night while they tried to get a new compressor over to Brakemasters.

Thursday night, I picked up the Jeep for the second time in two days, and finally was able to drive it home.  I decided to take the long way, so that I could speed test it on I-10.

Ten minutes of stop/start at 45mph.... no problems.  Temps stayed right about 210F.

Ten minutes of 65mph on I-10.... Temps rose a bit to 215F, but stayed steady.

Eight minutes of 45-50mph on Tangerine... DOH!  Again, I get the chime and the temp gauge runs up to 240F.  Turn on the heater (which now works), and after about 60-90 seconds, the temp drops back to 215F. 

Three minutes later, go thru the same cycle, although this time I was able to park it for a few minutes.

Driving home, no more occurrences, however the "Check Engine" light came on, and wouldn't clear...

While researching the overheat problem on the web, I stumbled upon the North American XJ Association website, which is a group of Jeep Cherokee owners.  On their tech discussion forums, I found several other owners who had reported similar problems.  The most popular solution was replacing the radiator, although a few had to replace the cylinder head -- cracks were allowing exhaust gas to get into the cooling system, which caused hot air to be trapped inside the block....  Apparently, the 2000 4.0L engine has a history of cracked heads, but I'm not seeing evidence of that just yet (although it could be and just not visible).

While they've tried to put Humpty Dumpty back together one component at a time, the mechanics who have looked at it still haven't fixed the initial problem...  So, back to the dealer again, and  I'll propose a new radiator based on this.  They're not pleased about being held to the warranty, but it wasn't marked "As-Is" so as long as they can be held to that, I will do so.

... and then goes back to the shop

Thursday afternoon.... I'd been driving GreenTwo around town for about 35 minutes, and then took it up to highway speed on the way home.  As soon as I got to about 55 about two minutes from home, the temperature gauge climbed thru 200, and was heading to 240.  Not good.... that means coolant is likely turning to steam.  Assuming there's even a decent mix of coolant and not just water... if it's water, it's already steam.

Got it parked, and let it cool down.  Checked the coolant level a half hour later, and all looked OK.  So... off to my Scout meeting that night. 

Ten minutes later, same thing happens.  Stopped at the Home Depot lot down the road, let it cool down, and it dropped back to 140 again, which is where it usually sits.  Got back on the road a few minutes later, and it pegged for the third time another five miles down the road... and now it's having a hard time keeping an idle speed at the stop light...

So... back to the dealer it went to be checked out on Friday morning. 

Or so I thought.  Their mechanic called in sick, and nobody called to tell me about it until I called them around lunch time.  Nice.  There's nothing like proactive customer service....  I finally speak to the sales guy, and he says they'll get to it Saturday morning.  I ask him to call and let me know what's going on.  Sure, no problem...

Saturday morning, no call by lunch time (again) so I call (again).  Sorry, he hasn't shown up to work yet, so he must be sick again, I'm told.  Great.  What about that call I asked for?  Oh, you've been busy.  Good for you.  I've been sitting at home with my thumb up my rear because you have my Jeep....

Maybe there will be better luck on Monday, and it will turn out to be a bad thermostat.  Or, perhaps they'll find cracks in the engine block...

GreenTwo comes home

Got a call on Wednesday, and the Jeep was ready for pickup a week early. There are still a few things that have to go back for cleanup by the bodyshop, but they did a fairly good job of putting it back together...

So, that part of the saga is over, and now I get to sit out whether or not State Farm can get any money out of the other driver.