Jeep Cherokee Diesel

O.K. TDI club members. I do have 2 Jetta TDI's, and a Dodge Cummins.
My wife and I are now looking at a 2007 Jeep Oberland with the MBz 3.0 L Diesel. Friends of ours is selling it, and they have taken GREAT care of it. It has 70,000 on the clock, and is in excellent shape. Fully loaded with every option available. The only reason they are getting rid of it, is because they buy new vehicles every 3 years, and that time is up. They are asking $23,000.00 for it. Just putting a feeler out on the site to see if anyone has experience with owning one of these little gems ? I would be considering running Bio in it, and am wondering about any suggestions with that also. I have heard both ways on this, and am a little confused.
Any suggestions with anything on the Jeep Diesel would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

No direct experience, but I know a local guy with an '07 Grand Cherokee with the Mercedes V6 diesel, and he loves it. No quirky behavior like the 2.8 VM Motori in the Liberty CRD, none of the torque converter or ball joint issues, none of the fuel filter or EGR issues. He says it tows like a dream and gets high 20s mpg on the highway.

He also runs a biodiesel blend, but very low at B5 because of the DPF and possible issues with it.

I was looking at one of these recently - the only advise I got from a Jeep service manager was that the front suspensions aren't all that strong - ball joints come up from time to time, but they aren't overly expensive.

In terms of running bio or not - can you afford to replace the MB engine if it blows? I ran b100 in my golf for a long time with the understanding that if something went wrong, I could afford to fix it...

Anyone else ?? Anyone have one of these MBz Diesels in a Cherokee, that you are running Bio in ? The car is going to be available in about a week, and I really would like to make a decision on this. Or should I be looking for a Jeep Liberty Diesel ?
Thanks to everyone so far that has chimed in !!!!

Think you are talking about a GRAND Cherokee, not the Cherokee. There was a small Renault 2.1 ltr. diesel powered Cherokee in 1985/6/7. Not many sold.

IMHO, 23,000 is way too much for a 3 year old jeep Cherokee

ckhenshaw4 said:

Anyone else ?? Anyone have one of these MBz Diesels in a Cherokee, that you are running Bio in ? The car is going to be available in about a week, and I really would like to make a decision on this. Or should I be looking for a Jeep Liberty Diesel ?
Thanks to everyone so far that has chimed in !!!!

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ask Drivbiwire
he has three cars with modern MB diesel motors in them

What is it about the Grand Cherokee you would like - outside the MB V6 diesel?

Think that is the first question you need to answer for your self.

I passed on a 2 year old Grand with only 7600 miles at a great price, because I looked hard at the Grand Cherokee and decided to keep what I had.

I was cheap.

Well, I have decided to skip the Grand Cherokee, and look for a Jeep Liberty Diesel instead. $23,000.00 is too high for my pocket book right now. So if anyone hears about a Liberty Diesel for sale, let me know.
Thanks.

ckhenshaw4 said:

Well, I have decided to skip the Grand Cherokee, and look for a Jeep Liberty Diesel instead. $23,000.00 is too high for my pocket book right now. So if anyone hears about a Liberty Diesel for sale, let me know.
Thanks.

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with the liberty rid the egr, get a tune from whomever and torque converter from suncoast and your set, will tow great.

Jeep Diesel

diesel-dave said:

with the liberty rid the egr, get a tune from whomever and torque converter from suncoast and your set, will tow great.

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Thanks Dave for the info. Still looking, but as of now haven't had much luck. Will keep everyone informed.

ckhenshaw4 said:

Thanks Dave for the info. Still looking, but as of now haven't had much luck. Will keep everyone informed.

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look to pay around 15k for one in good shape

The CRD Libbys are haard to find. Jeep made more than 3x their original planned amount, but the people who have them WILL - NOT - SELL them.

They are a little slow and a little more thirsty than they should be, but they're a great ride. The speed/thirst issue is really a byproduct of the truck being a pig.

sweetjeep said:

They are a little slow and a little more thirsty than they should be, but they're a great ride. The speed/thirst issue is really a byproduct of the truck being a pig.

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That's the truth, they are heavy and terrible aerodynamically. But with 300ft-lbs it gets up and goes off the line even if it can only run a 16-17 second 1/4 mile. And with a good tune they can get 30mpg on the highway at 65mph, and get 50 more ft-lbs of torque.

Given the complete and final disconnect of Chrysler and Daimler, I'd be pretty afraid of getting service for one of these.

FWIW, Mercedes now has at its dealers' disposal sophisticated testing methods to uncover whether greater than B5 has been used. If it has, bye bye warranty.

lkchris said:

Given the complete and final disconnect of Chrysler and Daimler, I'd be pretty afraid of getting service for one of these.

FWIW, Mercedes now has at its dealers' disposal sophisticated testing methods to uncover whether greater than B5 has been used. If it has, bye bye warranty.

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You mean the styrofoam cup method?

UFO said:

You mean the styrofoam cup method?

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haha my method, pretty much!!!

Well, since they only made them in 2005 & 2006, my guess is anyone that I find will be OUT of warranty anyway. With my other vehicles I have run over 300,000 miles on them running my BioDiesel, so their warranty issues are just because Big Oil Companys run our government, so they do what they are told to do, or they won't contribute to their election campaigns. So I am not worried about my fuel not being good, and the Liberty doesn't have all this pollution garbage on them like all the newer diesels do. That is why I am looking for a Liberty.
Still hope to find one !!!

I was originally looking at a V10 T-reg, but shyed away because the potential maintenance issues and the price tag. So I started looking at Liberty CRD's like you. Last spring I found one with a blown motor fairly cheap and also a replacement engine reasonably priced.
A week later I had it back on the road, driving great. Iv'e towed my camper all summer with it as well as a car trailer with a heavy car on it. It makes great power and plenty of torque for what I currently tow. The fuel mileage is pretty good all around and surprisingly good towing (if memory serves me around 20+mpg towing on the highway).
Iv'e had no real issues with it so far. Well except that my wife likes driving it a little too much, so we have to coordinate on that. There are a few recalls and the egr system has been an issue for some. For me this was kind of a stop gap vehicle, but I like it and will probably keep it around a while. Good luck if you go this route.

ckhenshaw4 said:

Well, since they only made them in 2005 & 2006, my guess is anyone that I find will be OUT of warranty anyway. With my other vehicles I have run over 300,000 miles on them running my BioDiesel, so their warranty issues are just because Big Oil Companys run our government, so they do what they are told to do, or they won't contribute to their election campaigns. So I am not worried about my fuel not being good, and the Liberty doesn't have all this pollution garbage on them like all the newer diesels do. That is why I am looking for a Liberty.
Still hope to find one !!!

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check craigslook.com or what ever it is now. Last week there were two in the lower L.P.

lkchris said:

Given the complete and final disconnect of Chrysler and Daimler, I'd be pretty afraid of getting service for one of these.

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Nah.. the motor was used in a bunch of of Merc cars and SUVs in a pretty much unchanged condition. Worse come to absolute worst you might have to being it to a Merc dealer to get the motor worked on.

sweetjeep said:

Nah.. the motor was used in a bunch of of Merc cars and SUVs in a pretty much unchanged condition. Worse come to absolute worst you might have to being it to a Merc dealer to get the motor worked on.

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Interesting enough, around here I had trouble finding a dealer that could program the the new engine injector id numbers into the computer. Not only did they not even know about the proceedure but i had to print out easy instructions and bring them in so they could do it with thier can-star or whatever they call it. So If anyone knows a jeep dealer with a tech that went to school on these in this area (southern NH, MA) let me know... just in case.

sweetjeep said:

Nah.. the motor was used in a bunch of of Merc cars and SUVs in a pretty much unchanged condition. Worse come to absolute worst you might have to being it to a Merc dealer to get the motor worked on.

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the liberty CRD is an italian diesel not mercedes

diesel-dave said:

the liberty CRD is an italian diesel not mercedes

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I thought we were talking about the Grand with the 3.0 Merc.. My mistake.

The Cherokee is to the world what the Liberty is to the USA. Kind of like comparing a GMC to a Chevy.

sweetjeep said:

I thought we were talking about the Grand with the 3.0 Merc.. My mistake.

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Correct. But the subject strayed. And the "Cherokee" is the international version of the Liberty, the "Grand Cherokee" in the US came with the Mercedes V6 diesel in '07 and later.

Lib Diesel history

Engine is made by VM Motori in Italy, been around a long time making engines for marine and industrial applications. Detroit diesel bought Motori a few years back and then Chrysler bought Detroit. and that is how the engine ended up in Libertys in the states. Parts can actually be bought through Detroit although so far they aren't any cheaper. I know, I tried.