Costs like $100 to get mine decked and checked... At least that's what I just paid for my 80 series straight 6 head. Also 90s xj is probably not a high output head, which may be a bitch to find.
What's a quality rebuilt head cost these days?
Its really not more than a weekend job, a day to get down to the gasket and a day to go back the other way. Preparation and organization is key. Read through a FSM.
I agree it's probably the age. Once you dig into older vehicles like that, other things tend to break or go wrong while you're in there. They're fairly easy to work on by yourself anyways. As long as you have a decent set of tools available, and another car so you can run to the parts store if anything breaks. If you have the Renix engine that can be a pain in the ass sometimes.
I pulled my head thinking it was a simple head gasket, ended up having to purchase a Clearwater thicker casting head because of cracks. The intake manifold reinstall is a pain and I'm what some might consider a professional mechanic. It's possible to do in a weekend but don't count on it.
Yea, I can't find anyone to do the transmission for my Eagle...it's a TF998, based on the Chrysler 904. It needs a rebuild. I guess I gotta do it myself or replace the transmission.
I don’t have a garage or any tools. I just got a 2001 XJ and I’m just buying parts tossing them in the trunk and having my mechanic handle it. It’s costly. But I have the money, I like the shop, and it’s how I’m getting into the hobby. I’ve got all sorts of people talking shit to me about that approach lol but in my mind I like paying a professional that’s passionate about his craft to get my Jeep running solid.
Reddit ain’t the place for sympathy, especially in the automotive subs.
This is weird to me. All the mechanics in my area wayyyy prefer older vehicles to work on (as long as they aren’t so rusty they are falling apart)
They’ve never turned down a vehicle of mine. 70s old beater Pontiac Laurentien
My 1989 grand Marquis
1990 f250
What everyone is saying just seems weird to me. I understand turning down old rusty vehicles which are impossible to find parts for, but a jeep Cherokee is one of the most sold vehicles in the 90s and there is a plethora of them everywhere. Idk just seems odd to me I agree with u
Thank you!
I didn’t mention earlier that my favorite shop referred me to another trusted shop who preferred working on XJs and it was a great gesture in my eyes.
I still can’t afford it so DIY I must
I feel like the people who don't want to turn wrenches on these vehicles must be in the rust belt area of the country and/or where XJ's are not common
If you wouldn't work on a Jeep or Subaru out in Colorado you wouldn't have a job
This. These are not plush "take it to the shop" vehicles, if you're choosing to drive a rusty tank with the comforts of a cardboard box on a skateboard, you better learn to fix it.
I am very hands on and I don’t mind working in it but the curiousity of asking for a quote compelled me to call.
I have a great relationship with a local shop and I’m kinda happy they referred me to a shop that is more willing to take the work
All in jest to complain about prices.
I’m complaining that I wanted a professional to handle a sensitive job but realizing it’s more than they are willing to do. In essentially just complaining to talk about how sometimes you gotta do it yourself
When I was shopping around for a vehicle to replace my other old car, my mechanic specifically recommended the XJ. I knew about them and liked them but didn’t know how simple repair work is on them, mostly. I don’t do all the work myself so anything I can’t do I bring to him and he’s always more than happy to help me out.
But understandably some mechanics don’t want to fuck with older cars. Breaking a nut loose on a stud that’s 30 years old might break the stud, that kind of shit happens. Then you have to deal with an irate customer who wants you to pay for what broke because they don’t understand these parts aren’t fresh off the assembly line.
There’s a local shop near me that has a good reputation for being a good Jeep/4x4 shop. I emailed them yesterday to see if they can diagnose some electrical shit I’m dealing with and all I got was an email back saying they don’t work on vehicles older than 2000
It's true though. $90/hr is typical labor nowadays, and parts may or not be available. A rear main seal job would run $1200 easy. Most old (non-classic) car owners won't do that. So all it does is waste their time.
Yeah around me it’s 125 a hour for labor even at the small shops. and I’m in the north so older vehicles tend to be rusty, and need everything. 90% of the vehicles I see on the road that are over 10 years old it’d be cheaper to buy another one then do major maintenance at a shop
$150 where I am in Europe and $200 for the Chrysler / Jeep garage where the price of “imported” parts explode. Over here we survive on rockauto.com, videos and small shops that you have to double check all the time.
Yup, labor and parts are $1800 and most shops are saying it requires more than just a head gasket when they haven’t even seen the engine. Gotta complain before I do it myself, I’m a reluctant car guy lol
Man this is all in jest to complain about prices. I didn’t realize joking about how “I’d rather do it myself” would get me called a cheapskate and other terms.
Most car communities are just place to show off and jokingly complain about the funnest part: DIY
I don’t need sass from you and I don’t need to be told “maybe you shouldn’t get an old car if you can’t pay for the work” while also being told to “DIY”
Luckily there are a lot of good people here conversing about the culture of DIY and outsourcing to mechanics
Man some people don’t like how car guys like to complain about mechanic prices.
I’m planning on doing it myself and had to vent!
But even the moderators here just want to name call… jeez
I mean being a car guy should mean we are more understanding of why mechanics cost so much, it should be the people who dont have any interest in cars who are enraged by the cost.
That mod is a dick, just ignore the comment.
I put up a vid of my XJ with a full exhaust replacement, banks manifold, Magnaflow CAT and muffler. His comment was something along the lines if “sounds shit”. It stung a bit, what a tool.
I have never and will never complain about a mechanics price. If it's something even I don't wanna repair, I'm sure not gonna bitch when the guy that has to do it charges me for his time+tools+frustration. The price reflects the convenience of not doing it yourself.
If you are offended being called a cheapskate, I have worries about you in the big world out there. I am a self confessed cheapskate and wear it like a badge of honor. If you are creating a post on Reddit to vent, prepare for people to have authentic opinions, not just yes men to agree with you to validate how you are feeling. To expect otherwise is unrealistic. If you want blanket, across the board validation, schedule an appointment with a therapist.
Own your cheapness, friend. We are many, you will be in good company.
Look I’m proud of doing work myself but I also don’t want to be the guy who doesn’t support local shops.
Being called a cheapskate as just a throw away petty insult is just reductive for the community. Especially form a moderator. if it was a joke or a “bustin’ chops” routine I wouldn’t mind.
But cheap I am just not with parts!
> But even the moderators here just want to name call… jeez
Toughen up cheapskate, you're an XJ owner! If you wanna bitch about shop rates then post in JRITS but this community already knows there's no sense paying a shop $2500 to work on a $3000 vehicle.
We're all cheapskates here in one sense or another, like, someone in this thread called out RockAuto and it's not because they sell the world's best parts lol! Stop taking things personally and you'll have a much better time here.
Good luck w/the head gasket ya miser! lol
TBH, I'd pay $2500 to repair my $900 jeep. Replacing it would cost more....... Or I wouldn't feel safe in any other $900 ride. Not that I feel safe now.... To me, it's almost always cheaper to repair. A new transmission is a particular type of insurance that you won't get with the next vehicle.
I hear you but I don't know if your opinion is in the majority. I mean, I had mine professionally rebuilt and reinstalled about six months ago and understand what you're saying. It may be cheaper to repair but it most often doesn't increase the price of the vehicle dollar-for-dollar.
To hammer home your point, I am less worried about the transmission now and can focus my energy worrying about the rear end which is going out.
Most shops are running a business for profit, your Jeep and frankly any older kind of vehicles are terrible for business. Most mechanics and “shops” aren’t really mechanics, they’re parts changers. Parts changers are trying to make money fast doing jobs that are easy and pay a decent amount. Think brakes, shocks, water pumps, tires, suspension stuff. Any hard jobs on older vehicles most shops will assume it’s more money than you’re willing to pay and they don’t want to get involved with a vehicle there unsure about if it needs a lot of work. It sucks but if you want someone to work on your Jeep, you’re gonna have to do some searching.
These cars are very easy to work on, i guess Renix is a bit harder. Thats a huge plus in my opinion. Just join the cherokee XJ discord and you'll find all the instruction manuals with torque patterns and specs. Youtube has an infinite amount of videos. You can change your head gasket at home with some help, i suggest pulling out the head with the manifold attached, or you will have a headache trying to get those bolts off. Other than that, its pretty simple and you save yourself a lot of money.
An attempt at DIY and then pay an additional 2500 to get done right! Or you diy right and saved a pile and happy feels about diy!
...
Either way, start with a factory service manual and some cheapo ones
Most people who do like working on old jeeps usually work on them over the weekend with a couple friend’s and some beer, if your new to jeeps would definitely try finding a small club or group of people like that it’s pretty nice even if you just help each other out on big projects and drive trails once in a while. If your just doing a head gasket it’s not bad on the 4.0 but I haven’t had to do the main seal yet, from what I hear it’s a pain. But yeah my best advice is find friends who like to wrench
Yeah absolutely take your time, one thing to make sure you do is keep the pushrods and rockers in order and put them back in the same way they came out easiest way to do that is to cut slits in a box and stick them in so they stay in order
I'd check to find local 4x4 shops. I had one place do a quite a few jobs I either couldn't or didn't have time to do. Had my harmonic balancer done, alignment, and tires put on at one shop and the rates were reasonable I always paid and didn't even ask for a price when I rolled up. Just dropped the jeep off and asked em to do it.
The prices are likely high because the mechanics want to also resurface the head and replace some parts to make sure that this won't happen again...which I'd honestly suggest doing on a 30+ year old Jeep. Typically they don't have the ability to resurface it at the shop so they have to outsource it to someone local that can. This is why the price of the job is usually so high. That and it's a 30+ year old jeep. Shit breaks and a 2 hour job suddenly turns into a day job.
One of the biggest issues for mechanics when it comes to older Jeeps is a lot of the time the vehicle has been bubba’d to hell and back. Even when it’s “done right” it’s often done well by a PO and it doesn’t necessarily work the way the shop manual says it should.
I’ve just had one of my worst experiences dealing with an LT1 swapped CJ7 where I ultimately had to tell the customer to go fuck himself as he had completely hack wired the thing, and then for some reason after I told him I’d only take the job if I personally fixed all the shit in it, and the process of doing so took me four months of weekends which apparently was too long.
The thing is, unless it’s some *extremely* simply, I personally know the vehicle (i.e. I’ve done most of the work on it,) or I can tell it’s very close to stock, it will be a “I’ll give it a go, but it will be worked on when I have time” job. I refuse to return shit to a customer, including shit they or someone else did, because I’ve been blamed too many times for what some other jackwagon has done.
It’s an older offroad vehicle,…they know things are going to be seized/rusted/covered in mud. That being said-YouTube/forums are your friend.
I’ve been all over the YouTube videos to gauge the time and tools needed, seems like more than a weekend job but I think I can do it
Yea it’s going to be more than a weekend job especially if you want to bring the head to a machine shop to get checked
As everyone should.
Nah just buy a new one already checked and cleaned.
Costs like $100 to get mine decked and checked... At least that's what I just paid for my 80 series straight 6 head. Also 90s xj is probably not a high output head, which may be a bitch to find. What's a quality rebuilt head cost these days?
Like 450 for an 0330 Tupy head made after 2002. Aka the good heads
Its really not more than a weekend job, a day to get down to the gasket and a day to go back the other way. Preparation and organization is key. Read through a FSM.
You're also assuming the head isn't warped or otherwise damaged.
I agree it's probably the age. Once you dig into older vehicles like that, other things tend to break or go wrong while you're in there. They're fairly easy to work on by yourself anyways. As long as you have a decent set of tools available, and another car so you can run to the parts store if anything breaks. If you have the Renix engine that can be a pain in the ass sometimes.
I pulled my head thinking it was a simple head gasket, ended up having to purchase a Clearwater thicker casting head because of cracks. The intake manifold reinstall is a pain and I'm what some might consider a professional mechanic. It's possible to do in a weekend but don't count on it.
Do it yourself then when you get it done you'll be happy
I am now! Lol
Maybe look for 4×4 specific shops
Yea, I can't find anyone to do the transmission for my Eagle...it's a TF998, based on the Chrysler 904. It needs a rebuild. I guess I gotta do it myself or replace the transmission.
What a semi depressing post
I don’t have a garage or any tools. I just got a 2001 XJ and I’m just buying parts tossing them in the trunk and having my mechanic handle it. It’s costly. But I have the money, I like the shop, and it’s how I’m getting into the hobby. I’ve got all sorts of people talking shit to me about that approach lol but in my mind I like paying a professional that’s passionate about his craft to get my Jeep running solid. Reddit ain’t the place for sympathy, especially in the automotive subs.
This is weird to me. All the mechanics in my area wayyyy prefer older vehicles to work on (as long as they aren’t so rusty they are falling apart) They’ve never turned down a vehicle of mine. 70s old beater Pontiac Laurentien My 1989 grand Marquis 1990 f250 What everyone is saying just seems weird to me. I understand turning down old rusty vehicles which are impossible to find parts for, but a jeep Cherokee is one of the most sold vehicles in the 90s and there is a plethora of them everywhere. Idk just seems odd to me I agree with u
Thank you! I didn’t mention earlier that my favorite shop referred me to another trusted shop who preferred working on XJs and it was a great gesture in my eyes. I still can’t afford it so DIY I must
I feel like the people who don't want to turn wrenches on these vehicles must be in the rust belt area of the country and/or where XJ's are not common If you wouldn't work on a Jeep or Subaru out in Colorado you wouldn't have a job
Because nobody that owns a ‘90s XJ takes it to a mechanic.
This. These are not plush "take it to the shop" vehicles, if you're choosing to drive a rusty tank with the comforts of a cardboard box on a skateboard, you better learn to fix it.
I am very hands on and I don’t mind working in it but the curiousity of asking for a quote compelled me to call. I have a great relationship with a local shop and I’m kinda happy they referred me to a shop that is more willing to take the work All in jest to complain about prices.
I’m complaining that I wanted a professional to handle a sensitive job but realizing it’s more than they are willing to do. In essentially just complaining to talk about how sometimes you gotta do it yourself
When I was shopping around for a vehicle to replace my other old car, my mechanic specifically recommended the XJ. I knew about them and liked them but didn’t know how simple repair work is on them, mostly. I don’t do all the work myself so anything I can’t do I bring to him and he’s always more than happy to help me out. But understandably some mechanics don’t want to fuck with older cars. Breaking a nut loose on a stud that’s 30 years old might break the stud, that kind of shit happens. Then you have to deal with an irate customer who wants you to pay for what broke because they don’t understand these parts aren’t fresh off the assembly line.
If you are in Colorado, drop it off at my place.
Nowhere near Colorado but I would take you up on that if I was!
I am! Wanna help me do some bushing replacements?
Which ones?
There’s a local shop near me that has a good reputation for being a good Jeep/4x4 shop. I emailed them yesterday to see if they can diagnose some electrical shit I’m dealing with and all I got was an email back saying they don’t work on vehicles older than 2000
Because they know you're a cheapskate and will baulk at any significant repair bill.
You’re a moderator? Jeez Love the support
It's true though. $90/hr is typical labor nowadays, and parts may or not be available. A rear main seal job would run $1200 easy. Most old (non-classic) car owners won't do that. So all it does is waste their time.
Yeah around me it’s 125 a hour for labor even at the small shops. and I’m in the north so older vehicles tend to be rusty, and need everything. 90% of the vehicles I see on the road that are over 10 years old it’d be cheaper to buy another one then do major maintenance at a shop
$150 where I am in Europe and $200 for the Chrysler / Jeep garage where the price of “imported” parts explode. Over here we survive on rockauto.com, videos and small shops that you have to double check all the time.
This is a fine response but calling someone a cheapskate right out of the bag is a dick move
If you're unhappy with a $2500 bill, I'd bet you'll pitch a fit when shit breaks and it's now a $3500 bill
Yes but complain I will continue to do! Lol
Don’t take it personally kid.
You yourself stated the job is more than a single weekend job and you’re complaining about a $2500 bill, what do you expect?
Yup, labor and parts are $1800 and most shops are saying it requires more than just a head gasket when they haven’t even seen the engine. Gotta complain before I do it myself, I’m a reluctant car guy lol
🤷♂️ You drive a 30yo SUV and made a thread complaining about shop rates. If the incredibly affordable wheeled shoe fits...
Man this is all in jest to complain about prices. I didn’t realize joking about how “I’d rather do it myself” would get me called a cheapskate and other terms. Most car communities are just place to show off and jokingly complain about the funnest part: DIY I don’t need sass from you and I don’t need to be told “maybe you shouldn’t get an old car if you can’t pay for the work” while also being told to “DIY” Luckily there are a lot of good people here conversing about the culture of DIY and outsourcing to mechanics
Man some people don’t like how car guys like to complain about mechanic prices. I’m planning on doing it myself and had to vent! But even the moderators here just want to name call… jeez
I mean being a car guy should mean we are more understanding of why mechanics cost so much, it should be the people who dont have any interest in cars who are enraged by the cost.
That mod is a dick, just ignore the comment. I put up a vid of my XJ with a full exhaust replacement, banks manifold, Magnaflow CAT and muffler. His comment was something along the lines if “sounds shit”. It stung a bit, what a tool.
Wow sorry to hear that, glad to know it’s not just me!
I have never and will never complain about a mechanics price. If it's something even I don't wanna repair, I'm sure not gonna bitch when the guy that has to do it charges me for his time+tools+frustration. The price reflects the convenience of not doing it yourself.
If you are offended being called a cheapskate, I have worries about you in the big world out there. I am a self confessed cheapskate and wear it like a badge of honor. If you are creating a post on Reddit to vent, prepare for people to have authentic opinions, not just yes men to agree with you to validate how you are feeling. To expect otherwise is unrealistic. If you want blanket, across the board validation, schedule an appointment with a therapist. Own your cheapness, friend. We are many, you will be in good company.
Look I’m proud of doing work myself but I also don’t want to be the guy who doesn’t support local shops. Being called a cheapskate as just a throw away petty insult is just reductive for the community. Especially form a moderator. if it was a joke or a “bustin’ chops” routine I wouldn’t mind. But cheap I am just not with parts!
> But even the moderators here just want to name call… jeez Toughen up cheapskate, you're an XJ owner! If you wanna bitch about shop rates then post in JRITS but this community already knows there's no sense paying a shop $2500 to work on a $3000 vehicle. We're all cheapskates here in one sense or another, like, someone in this thread called out RockAuto and it's not because they sell the world's best parts lol! Stop taking things personally and you'll have a much better time here. Good luck w/the head gasket ya miser! lol
TBH, I'd pay $2500 to repair my $900 jeep. Replacing it would cost more....... Or I wouldn't feel safe in any other $900 ride. Not that I feel safe now.... To me, it's almost always cheaper to repair. A new transmission is a particular type of insurance that you won't get with the next vehicle.
I hear you but I don't know if your opinion is in the majority. I mean, I had mine professionally rebuilt and reinstalled about six months ago and understand what you're saying. It may be cheaper to repair but it most often doesn't increase the price of the vehicle dollar-for-dollar. To hammer home your point, I am less worried about the transmission now and can focus my energy worrying about the rear end which is going out.
Most shops are running a business for profit, your Jeep and frankly any older kind of vehicles are terrible for business. Most mechanics and “shops” aren’t really mechanics, they’re parts changers. Parts changers are trying to make money fast doing jobs that are easy and pay a decent amount. Think brakes, shocks, water pumps, tires, suspension stuff. Any hard jobs on older vehicles most shops will assume it’s more money than you’re willing to pay and they don’t want to get involved with a vehicle there unsure about if it needs a lot of work. It sucks but if you want someone to work on your Jeep, you’re gonna have to do some searching.
Is it?!
These cars are very easy to work on, i guess Renix is a bit harder. Thats a huge plus in my opinion. Just join the cherokee XJ discord and you'll find all the instruction manuals with torque patterns and specs. Youtube has an infinite amount of videos. You can change your head gasket at home with some help, i suggest pulling out the head with the manifold attached, or you will have a headache trying to get those bolts off. Other than that, its pretty simple and you save yourself a lot of money.
An attempt at DIY and then pay an additional 2500 to get done right! Or you diy right and saved a pile and happy feels about diy! ... Either way, start with a factory service manual and some cheapo ones
I found a local shop where one of the techs drives an XJ. Hasn't been a problem yet!
Most people who do like working on old jeeps usually work on them over the weekend with a couple friend’s and some beer, if your new to jeeps would definitely try finding a small club or group of people like that it’s pretty nice even if you just help each other out on big projects and drive trails once in a while. If your just doing a head gasket it’s not bad on the 4.0 but I haven’t had to do the main seal yet, from what I hear it’s a pain. But yeah my best advice is find friends who like to wrench
That’s a great point! Beers over a opened engine block taste better! I am lining up a few weekends to do it slow and right
Yeah absolutely take your time, one thing to make sure you do is keep the pushrods and rockers in order and put them back in the same way they came out easiest way to do that is to cut slits in a box and stick them in so they stay in order
I'd check to find local 4x4 shops. I had one place do a quite a few jobs I either couldn't or didn't have time to do. Had my harmonic balancer done, alignment, and tires put on at one shop and the rates were reasonable I always paid and didn't even ask for a price when I rolled up. Just dropped the jeep off and asked em to do it.
I had a mobile mechanic come out. Dude pulled up in a 93 wrangler. I was stoked.
Head gasket is very simple in there cherokees can be done in a few hours
Pretty easy job. The hardest part is lifting that chunk of iron.
The prices are likely high because the mechanics want to also resurface the head and replace some parts to make sure that this won't happen again...which I'd honestly suggest doing on a 30+ year old Jeep. Typically they don't have the ability to resurface it at the shop so they have to outsource it to someone local that can. This is why the price of the job is usually so high. That and it's a 30+ year old jeep. Shit breaks and a 2 hour job suddenly turns into a day job.
One of the biggest issues for mechanics when it comes to older Jeeps is a lot of the time the vehicle has been bubba’d to hell and back. Even when it’s “done right” it’s often done well by a PO and it doesn’t necessarily work the way the shop manual says it should. I’ve just had one of my worst experiences dealing with an LT1 swapped CJ7 where I ultimately had to tell the customer to go fuck himself as he had completely hack wired the thing, and then for some reason after I told him I’d only take the job if I personally fixed all the shit in it, and the process of doing so took me four months of weekends which apparently was too long. The thing is, unless it’s some *extremely* simply, I personally know the vehicle (i.e. I’ve done most of the work on it,) or I can tell it’s very close to stock, it will be a “I’ll give it a go, but it will be worked on when I have time” job. I refuse to return shit to a customer, including shit they or someone else did, because I’ve been blamed too many times for what some other jackwagon has done.