Sold my JK

[DirtyComanche]

Not sure if it was a good idea or not, but I sold it.

 

Goodbye Pumpkin, or 'Project Ghey-Kay' as I more often referred to you as.

 

 

I'll miss you, and your random ChryslerFiat electrical oddities, and your under built plastic bits that are critical to systems functioning that break in the cold, and your severe lack of power, and your traction control system that tried to kill me every time it snows, and your top that always leaked...

[jeeppapa]

Not sure if it was a good idea or not, but I sold it.
 
Goodbye Pumpkin, or 'Project Ghey-Kay' as I more often referred to you as.
 

 
I'll miss you, and your random ChryslerFiat electrical oddities, and your under built plastic bits that are critical to systems functioning that break in the cold, and your severe lack of power, and your traction control system that tried to kill me every time it snows, and your top that always leaked...

Yikes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DirtyComanche]

1 minute ago, jeeppapa said:

Yikes

 

I owned it for 6? years, it's not like I didn't like it, it was just a... Jeep.

[HOrnbrod]

Ya, the 3.8 was a dog. Much better was the 3.6 Pentastar that came out in 2012. Still kind of a dog, but like a Basset compared to a Beagle.  

[johnj92131]

28 minutes ago, HOrnbrod said:

Ya, the 3.8 was a dog. Much better was the 3.6 Pentastar that came out in 2012. Still kind of a dog, but like a Basset compared to a Beagle.  

 

When it comes to dog breeds and a family - my preference is for a larger dog like a Golden Retriever or a Labrador Retriever.  Both great family dogs with young children.  Both very tolerant of aggressive kids. Not easily hurt and know how to walk away from kids when required.

[DirtyComanche]

2 hours ago, HOrnbrod said:

Ya, the 3.8 was a dog. Much better was the 3.6 Pentastar that came out in 2012. Still kind of a dog, but like a Basset compared to a Beagle.  

 

Absolutely.  I still wouldn't call the 3.6 "peppy."  But the 3.8 really is a dog, especially compared with hopping in the Comanche that was 1000lbs+ lighter.  My Comanche isn't fast either, but at least it felt like it was trying. 

[kryptronic]

12 hours ago, DirtyComanche said:

I'll miss you, and your random ChryslerFiat electrical oddities, and your under built plastic bits that are critical to systems functioning that break in the cold, and your severe lack of power, and your traction control system that tried to kill me every time it snows, and your top that always leaked...

 

I had a 2008 JKU Sahara with the 3.8L geared at 3.73, and concur on all points, plus I'd add that I hated the trans popping out of gear randomly when starting off from a stop.  Five years ago, I traded it in for a 2013 JKU Rubicon with the 3.6L geared at 4.10, and the difference is night and day.  To my pleasant surprise, Jeep fixed every annoyance I had with the JK by the time 2013 rolled around.  They even upgraded things I didn't realize bothered me (ref added notch in tailgate retainer to keep it open).

[DirtyComanche]

47 minutes ago, kryptronic said:

They even upgraded things I didn't realize bothered me (ref added notch in tailgate retainer to keep it open).

 

That's the first I've heard that they fixed that.  It never bothered me too much, but my driveway is not flat so it was less than helpful at time.  I know they certainly did do a lot to make them better as time went on, with the redesigned top and less minivan engine being the two big things.

 

That said, I don't anticipate buying another, not because I didn't like it but because it has no niche in my fleet of vehicles.

[Incommando]

I have a ‘15 and I have to agree that they have fixed many of the early problems.  The 3.6 is still less then peppy and the 6-speed NSG370 is pure junk, though. The popping out of first is a known issue but I am having trouble getting it fixed under warranty.

[HOrnbrod]

1 hour ago, Incommando said:

I have a ‘15 and I have to agree that they have fixed many of the early problems.  The 3.6 is still less then peppy and the 6-speed NSG370 is pure junk, though. The popping out of first is a known issue but I am having trouble getting it fixed under warranty.

 

Hmmm, never had that problem with either my 12 or 15 JKUs. Do you ever try to tap shift the auto manually up shifting using the Tiptronic feature? Both of mine stick in first occasionally when doing this requiring pulling over and taking the tranny out of gear. I like it to tap downshift when descending a steep grade which always seems to work fine.

[DirtyComanche]

12 hours ago, HOrnbrod said:

 

Hmmm, never had that problem with either my 12 or 15 JKUs. Do you ever try to tap shift the auto manually up shifting using the Tiptronic feature? Both of mine stick in first occasionally when doing this requiring pulling over and taking the tranny out of gear. I like it to tap downshift when descending a steep grade which always seems to work fine.

 

The NSG370 is the 6 speed manual tranny.  Which mine had.  It's the oddest pile of garbage I've ever encountered, I mean, it worked, but I'm not about to say it shifted well.  Actually the elastomeric dampener in the shifter is likely part of the problem, it always felt like I was stirring a wooden spoon in a pot of stew when shifting it, there was just nothing solid there.

[kryptronic]

I had the NSG370 in my 2008 and it had issues, same trans in the 2013 and no problems at all.  Luck of the draw I guess.  On the 3013 they added a hill start assist feature and gave the ability to turn that off, which I did.  Only difference I can think of.

[gogmorgo]

On April 5, 2018 at 7:11 PM, DirtyComanche said:

your traction control system that tried to kill me every time it snows,

Traction control really doesn't seem like it's for people who know what they're doing in snow.

Systems from the last couple years seem to be getting a bit better than they were, but not by much. The brake-grabbing works one hell of a lot better than just killing all engine power, but sometimes you just need those wheels to spin and there's nothing else for it. 

[DirtyComanche]

26 minutes ago, gogmorgo said:

Traction control really doesn't seem like it's for people who know what they're doing in snow.

Systems from the last couple years seem to be getting a bit better than they were, but not by much. The brake-grabbing works one hell of a lot better than just killing all engine power, but sometimes you just need those wheels to spin and there's nothing else for it. 

 

The logic was the main issue with it, especially coupled with the manual transmission.  Comparing it to a similar year GM product was a night and day difference, with the JK just straight up sucking.  It would aggressively cut throttle if it detected wheel slip, as in instantly close it to the idle position, and if the driver reacting by increasing throttle there was no override in the logic.  This left you dead in the water when it decided there was wheel slip, which was doubly inconvenient for somebody like me as I do NOT expect the throttle to close if I have the pedal on the floor and I would not react to this situation by pushing the clutch in, as to me that should never be needed on flat ground and there is no indication of the engine being loaded save the RPM suddenly dropping to nothing.  Compounding on this the 3.8 had minimal low end torque (especially near idle) and the ignition logic would essentially mean the engine gave up on trying to run if RPM went below a certain threshold when not in start mode (I think it was 250 or 300rpm).  This all added up to that you would break traction on a small amount of snow or ice, say while taking off from a stop light, and the traction control would respond by closing the throttle, I would respond by increasing throttle as RPM/speed would be dropping, and then with my foot to the floor the engine would stall, since the tires had then regained some traction and the throttle was now closed, leaving you partway into an intersection with a stalled vehicle.   In the 2011 and earlier years you could not turn the traction control off permanently, you would have to turn it off each time you started the vehicle.   Eventually I learned to anticipate the behaviour and would turn traction control off every time I started it in the winter, or mash the clutch at the same time as the throttle when I felt/heard the loss of power, but to me the logic was just straight up wrong, especially as since compared with driving with traction control off I found in no situations encountered on the road that it would have actually been helpful; some wheel spin is a given when dealing with snow/ice during the 6 months of winter, and spinning through it is often the only way you're going to actually make it to the other side of the intersection.

 

Most people just drive around in 4wd once there is any sign of snow, so they don't notice this, but I prefer being in 2wd unless 4wd really is necessary.

 

The stability control actually worked reasonably well, but there was still tons of times that it would annoy me because I'd be palming the wheel back into the skid and it would start applying the brakes and take me where it figured I was intending to go, which would have been great if I hadn't already reacted by turning into the skid.  At no times did I feel it was making my driving experience less safe, so I did always leave it on.

[gogmorgo]

My first experience with traction control was in a 2008 HHR... Similar sort of thing, although with an automatic when the throttle was cut (instantaneously on the slightest wheel spin) it might roll forwards slightly (out into traffic) but mostly would just sit there doing nothing. I can see it causing pretty big issues with a manual trans... they must not really have planned those systems out with three pedals in mind. 

Stability control in my experience does mostly as you say, until you've cooked it so bad it can't exactly cope... but probably at that point you were heading for the ditch without it. Although I once was carpooling with a coworker, 35km of gravel each way, in a 2008ish Escape. Because I was never behind the wheel I can't really say if it was something she was contributing to or not, but the stability control if it detected a bit of wheel slip did something that felt akin to stabbing a stick into the spokes of a bicycle... we never actually crashed, but it would go from semi-normal cornering to massive understeer as it effectively locked everything up. We once had a flat, put on the donut, and could barely even deviate from a straight line without it spazzing and doing that sharp lockup thing repeatedly. And when I say sharp, it snapped your head forward every time. I can't imagine what it would have been like on snow or ice. The sound it made too made it seem a lot more like something was sticking into a slot in the trans than as if it was grabbing the brakes, it was a pretty harsh clunk. 

[Kickin’Chicken]

I had an 08 jk 2door with that minivan POS motor. I can’t imagine how weak it was for the 4 door since I never drove one but it was WAY underpowered for my 2door.

[Incommando]

Yeah it is the manny tranny wth the issue