I have 98 jeep cherokee 4wd automatic. It's been solid until recently I been having electrical problems and now the engine started chirping when ac was on. Now it started screaming and smelled like burnt plastic. Seems to be having some cooling problems. Is it worth keeping and repairing it with a large 3k bill potentially? My girlfriend been telling me to get rid of it and get another car but cars are so expensive now
I would get rid of it.
It's all downhill from here.
Update its a 2k fix. Seems to need a new ac compressor, harmonic balance and waterpump. Along with new gaskets, oil, coolant and belt. Seems that the belt was chewed up from those three components. Tried looking for a replacement but couldn't find anything but rusted up vehicles for like 7k
How's the transmission holding up?
Transmission still going strong. Was checked by mechanic
Its a gamble. If you can drop 2k into the thing and keep it on the road for another year or so, thats way cheaper than buying a new car. 4.0 engine right?
That’s a tricky one. Those old Cherokees are super popular with the off road crowd and have been holding value very well. But used car wholesale values are softening and some are predicting an impending crash.
So whatever you do, don’t dither. If you like it, get it fixed and plan to keep it for a while. If not, get it sold ASAP for the highest price you can.
Update its a 2k fix. Seems to need a new ac compressor, harmonic balance and waterpump. Along with new gaskets, oil, coolant and belt.
If you can do the work yourself, keep it. If you have to pay a mechanic every time something goes wrong it will nickel and dime you to death, plus the occasional expensive repair job. (To someone who does their own repairs what you describe as thousands of dollars to fix is just a few hundred in parts.) I have a '99 and plan to keep it until it totally implodes but I do my own mechanical work.
