How bad can it be?

[cabin boy]

99 Jeep Wrangler. Driving to work this morning heard a "clunk" followed by severe knocking. Pulled over checked the oil,looked for any fluid leaking-found none. Could not find any obvious probs, started it up and drove to the dealer for repair. Vehicle had full power and good oil pressure-if it wasnt for the knocking a person wouldn't know there was a problem. The dealer hasn't looked at it yet. My question is how bad can it be? Also how much money would the experts invest in a 12 year old vehicle in fair condition, pushing 200,000 miles? Opinions anyone?

[muddpuppy]

I am no expert, I had an older truck back in the day that did the same thing it was a drive shaft.

If it runs strong and you can justify the repair over buying a new vehical go for it.

[cabin boy]

Still waiting on the dealer, but to me it sounds more like an internal engine knock.

[Scott K]

As far as how much money to dump into an older vehicle? That is a pretty common question, and it really can only be answerd by you.

I would judge it by a few different things

How good of shape is the body, interior?

Is there many other things that are going wrong with it? Or did you just get a bunch of things on it fixed recently?

How well do you like the vehicle? If you like it a lot, it is worth putting more into it then it is worth, if you really dont like it, I wouldnt spend much on it at all.

Also compare fixing this vehicle, to a 5 year loan payment. If on average you spend $100 a month a year to fix, or maintain this vehicle, it really wouldnt be worth then to make $500+ a month payments for 5 years. So if it will cost $2000 to fix this, compared to $20,000 for a replacement, and money is tight, putting $2000 into a vehicle that is only worth $1500 is still a good option. (I honestly dont know how much your vehicle is worth, I just tossed a number out there.)

I personally dont like car payments, I havent had one in 7 years, and I want to keep it that way. So I have been just fixing my beaters I have. One with close to 250,000 miles, one with 125,000 miles, and I would trust driving either to Florida and back without hesitating. Not that I would want to drive there and back.

[cabin boy]

I don't have all the details yet, but I'm being told the engine needs to be replaced. I think I'll just sell it. Too bad, I really liked that Jeep! Anyone interested?

[Pooh]

heck look for a used motor. a coworker just put a used 318 in his grand cherokee, did it himself for like 275. original motor had over 300,000 on it and got the replacement with 120ish.

[cabin boy]

Spun rod bearing and possible bad main bearing is the diagnosis. Sold the vehicle "as is" yesterday. Time to move on, I figured the rest of the jeep also had 200,000+ miles on it. Got the wife a Honda CRV and I will take the hand me down car!