I test drove a 98 GC laredo 4.0. The test drive went good until I went to park it. I had had it in full time 4 wheel drive for most of the trip, but when I was about 1/4 of a mile away I put it back in 2wd. When I got into the parking lot and cranked it hard to get it back into its stall, the front end hopped and skipped all over the place. It was very hard to turn the steering wheel, and the Jeep didn't want to go very easily. I am not sure what caused it. When I first put it into 4wd and pulled out onto the road, I heard and felt a couple of really weird clunks from the front end. I have test drove almost 10 differnt GC's and never once did they do this. I was really interested in buying this jeep until I got it into the parking lot. Anybody have any advice?

A few things come to mind...

The jumping when you turned in the parkinglot might be from the transfer case not disengaging 4wd.

Are all the tires the same make, model, size and same wear and inflation??. That will cause some powertrain windup and dificult shifting etc.

JD

as far as I could tell every thing looked good. But it was dark and cold outside. I was going to go back and look at it today, but I am not so sure any more. He was asking $7999. It had 85500 miles on it. Is this a good deal. Would it be worth it even if it had some problems.

Not sure what the market is in your area. there are some used car price web sites that use zip codes to get more accurate pricing. I'd research those and the classifieds in your area to see what the going prices are.

I do know that I can buy the same vehicle here in Canada for not much difference in price - cdn $

JD

JD

thanks for the advice

check www.kbb.com - to check the blue book value of that ZJ.

the difficult turning and binding - would deffinately be the Transfer Case not disengaging from 4WD like JD said

I would look at the T-case fluid, when you take it out again, bring a couple of wrenches, and adjustable works, easy to conseal. Is the fluid burnt, black. If there is a problem with the 4x4 I would not get it, depending what T-case it has it can get expensive to repair the problem. It might be simple, trybacking up a short distance then turn sharp, but the 98's I believe only engage at the T-case, so there should be almost an immediate disengagement of the 4wd system. Personally, I would move on to another GC, this one could have more issues than you want to mess with. Read through this forum, there is alot of info regarding the GC and make your dicision from there.

I would look at the T-case fluid, when you take it out again, bring a couple of wrenches, and adjustable works, easy to conseal. Is the fluid burnt, black. If there is a problem with the 4x4 I would not get it, depending what T-case it has it can get expensive to repair the problem. It might be simple, trybacking up a short distance then turn sharp, but the 98's I believe only engage at the T-case, so there should be almost an immediate disengagement of the 4wd system. Personally, I would move on to another GC, this one could have more issues than you want to mess with. Read through this forum, there is alot of info regarding the GC and make your dicision from there.

My 95 did the same thing, during test drive. it was caused by different tires front/back. made worse by a bad u joint i nthe front end. Replaced u-joint and put on a matched set of new tires and now the 4wd works flawlessely. Double check those tires, then try for a better price!

my question is why did you have it in 4wd on pavement? but all of that is easy to check for. easy bartering tool as well. just say you feel it has problems and talk him down on price.

More interesting are all the conflicting data in regards to the 4wd system in our Jeep. if you read the owners manual it says something to the effect of "4ft. 4WD Full Time, useable at any speed on slippery or wet road surfaces." however the back of my sunvisor recommends 4FT for "All road surfaces" Then the whole idea of 4 FULL TIME would indicate to me that you can safely engage this mode anytime. But expereinces say otherwise.

So knowing that we have differentials to allow speed differences between say the left and right wheels when cornering, what kicks in when you engage the 4ft. does it now just differentiate speeds front and back? diagnally? There must be a reason why we cannot engage this mode on dry pavement, it can easily be felt but i'm interested in the goings on behind the scenes. What is locking up and why?

all I know is that with my Detroit rear end, if I engage 4wd on dry pavement and turn hard, I chance snapping my rear axles.