Preventative medicine for our Jeep?

February 19, 2009 11:43 AM

What should we be doing now and over the next several months to keep our elderly vehicle in the best possible shape for a long, long trip?

Right now it's February in east Texas; my husband and I are hoping to move from here to the pacific northwest some time between June and August. We'll be moving ourselves, our three horrible dogs, and a small apartment's-worth of junk.

Our vehicle (Francine) is a 1996 Jeep Cherokee with approximately 92,000 miles on her. She's been very good to us barring a couple incidents where she's just Stopped Moving and had to be carried into the Jeep specialist on a stretcher. I think that's happened twice and as far as I can remember the culprit was "something electrical" each time. She gets her oil changed...uh, regularly. Generally my husband takes care of car-related stuff (I'll be sending him a link to this question.)

What should we be doing to keep Francine in the best possible shape between now and when we finally pick up and move? Anything in particular we should have looked at by our Jeep specialist dudes? Any other suggestions for making a big crazy move like this happen relatively smoothly? Assume my level of automotive knowledge to be "right make fast, left make stop."

This question from last year has a lot of great information for me but I'm more specifically interested in getting Francine in the best possible shape so she doesn't die on us right before or, God forbid, during our Big Move.

Thank you, Fancy Hivemind. (Long time reader, first time asker. Exciting!)

posted by Neofelis to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

Make sure you've done your regularly scheduled maintenance (oil, coolant flush, brakes, tires, air filter, battery) and that you stay on top of anything that shows up before the trip. If you're concerned that something electrical is going occur to drain your battery, you can buy one of those portable jump start kits and throw it in back, or sign up for roadside assistance from AAA or your insurance before you do the cross-country drive.
posted by zippy at 12:07 PM on February 19, 2009

Seconding Zippy...if you wanna get anal about it, have hubby show you how to check the fluids, and check them religiously. Keep the tires at the proper inflation. You probably have a cylinder in it, and those are bombproof with the proper preventative maintenance ( oil, coolant).
posted by notsnot at 12:16 PM on February 19, 2009

You could drive yourself crazy trying to avert some imaginary disaster on the road. If you're on top of the basic maintenance and fix whatever's broken whenever it breaks, that's all you can do. It's not as if you can tell your car to spend an hour on the Stairmaster three times a week. Just take normal care of the thing, and make a plan B so that you know what you'll do if something goes wrong when you're in MiddleOfNowhere, Nevada.
posted by jon1270 at 12:55 PM on February 19, 2009

zippy's suggestions are good ones. Rather than worry about the unforseen problems, just check the usual suspects. The AAA idea is spot on... they have come to my rescue many times. Your trip might get interupted, but you won't get stranded in the middle of nowhere.
posted by lobstah at 1:58 PM on February 19, 2009

Mid-'90s Cherokees had an overeager anti-theft system that locked out the ignition whenever the battery got low, which may be related to your "electrical something" — you or your Jeep specialist can disable it by removing the VTSS module behind the glove compartment.
posted by nicwolff at 2:35 PM on February 19, 2009

Response by poster: Don't worry, I'm not up at night imagining disasters--just trying to get in the habit of learning more about Francine and her mysterious ways. There's an awful lot I don't know about cars and planning this move is finally forcing me to confront that (which is good, of course.)

I really appreciate all the helpful suggestions. Especially the reminders to look into AAA.

Y'all so smart.
posted by Neofelis at 3:17 PM on February 19, 2009

Cherokees are great - and at 92k (mine has 200k), that engine is just a baby. What is crappy on them is:

- brakes. Make sure they are done before you go. Autozone etc have all the part ( i prefer Rockauto.com myself)

- electrical can be bad in 2 common areas NSS and CPS. Neutral Safety Switch and Crank position sensor. I went to the jy and got myself extras to carry

here are some sites that will asist you and hubby

general maintenance 1

maintenance section 2

PM if you need more info.
posted by Country Dick Montana at 6:49 PM on February 19, 2009

Yeah, Zippy's right. You could look around on Jeep forums for common problems with the model.
posted by luckypozzo at 9:30 PM on February 19, 2009