'05 Liberty CRD

[downtowncb]

Figured I'd start a thread for the new grocery getter. We went down to Portland and picked up this '05 CRD with 71K on it today. It drives great, has 4wd and for a four cylinder, it gets up and scoots We drove 200 miles back to Seattle and I just hit 3/4 of a tank. I'm excited to see what sort of real world mileage it gets. It has about a 20 gallon tank and at a conservative 25 mpg that's 500 miles between fill ups!


They're multiplying!

[dp96zj]

Suh-weeet! I'd kill to be able to get 500+ miles out of a tank.

So... I guess the first mods will be a lift, tires and skids, just in case she decides to go on another parking lot adventure?

[Jeeptech01]

Ha! I was thinking the same ting. Nice rig I really like the CRD's its as cool as a libby can get.

[downtowncb]

Suh-weeet! I'd kill to be able to get 500+ miles out of a tank.

So... I guess the first mods will be a lift, tires and skids, just in case she decides to go on another parking lot adventure?

LMFAO

That shit happens again and I'm going to have a very hard time remaining calm.

JT, I know it's a Liberty, I never really cared for them myself, but I really like this one. The red is awesome, it has get up and go, and gets great mileage. I would have no problem DDing this myself.

[Jeeptech01]

We have one (a crd) that comes through the shop occasionally with rubi wheels and 31?'s maybe 32's mall terrains. Im pretty sure I could rock the hell out of it. They haul ass and make good mileage and its still kind of a Jeep. No less Jeep than a WK IMO.

[downtowncb]

Been showing the CRD some love. Put new Bilsteins on all four corners. The factory shocks were still on there at 85K so it was riding like a marshmallow.





Also, at some point before I owned it someone took the tow hitch off. Asshole. So I got a junkyard one, sand blasted it at work and painted it with Por 15.



Finally, I'm trying to decide if I want to use my powder coated Moab wheels on the Polar Bear or the CRD.

[rstrucks]

Throw the wheels on the KJ and get something else for the Grand. That gray would look good against the red.

What kind of MPG are you getting now that you've had it a while?

[downtowncb]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards it too. Since I'm swapping in the 6.0 I really really need to put in some axles that can handle the power; but that means building 9"s front and rear

It gets anywhere from 20 to a high I've seen of 27 mpgs. We're going to use it to tow the utility trailer down to Reno for Christmas to bring the 6.0 back in. Should be a good test of its long haul fuel efficiency.

[downtowncb]

Posted this on a KJ specific site, but figured I'd see if I can get some input here to. After installing the new shocks I discovered the fronts are bottoming out internally and creating a terrible ride. They already destroyed a brand new set of rubber bushings, which I replaced with polyurethane. To my knowledge the suspension is completely stock on this. Anyone seen this or have any idea what the hell is going on? I emailed the company I bought them from and got a response that amounted to "that's not possible." I sent them these photos and I'm waiting to hear a response.

I took the spring out to cycle the suspension with just the shock in. This is with the shock completely bottomed out:


With the dust cover off you can see it is all the way bottomed out:


No shock, cycles just fine:

[rstrucks]

Well, it seems to me that those shocks are too long. That appears to be a little over an inch of travel left at the bump stop which probably equates to about two inches of travel at the wheel. On an IFS rig that's a lot left on the table.

Good luck getting the correct length shocks without too much hassle.

EDIT - after looking a little closer, are you sure you have the right shock stem bushings? It also looks like the bushing "washer" might be on upside down. Probably not making a difference in this case though.

[Pearce]

I take it you already got rid of the stock shocks to compare extended and collapsed measurements?

[downtowncb]

Well, it seems to me that those shocks are too long. That appears to be a little over an inch of travel left at the bump stop which probably equates to about two inches of travel at the wheel. On an IFS rig that's a lot left on the table.

Good luck getting the correct length shocks without too much hassle.

EDIT - after looking a little closer, are you sure you have the right shock stem bushings? It also looks like the bushing "washer" might be on upside down. Probably not making a difference in this case though.

I discovered after many hours of digging through forum posts last night that it turns out this Jeep isn't stock. At some point one of the previous owners had a Daystar lift installed that includes 2" poly bushings under the springs and a replacement top plate. The stock top plate is flat all the way across and the shock bolts straight through it. My shock plate has a 2" depression down the middle that the shock is bolted too. The previous owner put it back to stock before selling it, but not all the way... dumbass. So I ordered some new top plates and they should be here by Wednesday or Thursday. Apparently the old set of shocks took bottoming out much better than these do, because we never noticed this harsh of a ride until I got the bright idea to replace the shocks.

[downtowncb]

I take it you already got rid of the stock shocks to compare extended and collapsed measurements?

Ya, I had already tossed them in a vein attempt to keep my garage from getting more clutered.

[IndyZJ]

Somewhere some poor SOB is scratching his head because he bought and installed a used Liberty spacer lift now the front shocks look about 2" too short.

[downtowncb]

LOL Indeed!

[rstrucks]

We just had an LJ in the shop with a similar problem. I took it for a quick spin around the block and it rode like a skateboard. Turns out the Jeep used to have a lift on it that was removed before being put out on the lot. Well, mostly removed. They left the bump stop extensions in and they were hovering over the spring pad by less than an inch. They also left the t-case drop kit installed and the rear driveshaft was running uphill to the rear diff!

[GraKee99]

Should have just lifted it, Cody.

[downtowncb]

Those were the first words out of my girlfriend's mouth too. I want ONE stock reliable vehicle, I have three others sitting in the driveway all modded to hell!

[downtowncb]

Holy cow I am such a slacking piece of crap, nearly two years later I finally got the Moabs swapped onto the Liberty! I'm going through and cleaning out the garage and these were just taking up a ton of space. They look great, now I'm just waiting for a set of Jeep wheel center caps to come from eBay.



Edit - got the caps, I really like the look of the silver on grey

[Gearjammer]

Looks good! I've seriously considered getting one of those for a commuter, but I'd end up putting a programmer on it and wanting to straight axle it, which would kinda ruin the whole commuter idea.

[downtowncb]

Hell I had it tuned, got the GDE EcoTune on it and it has been great. It gave the diesel a few more horsepower, a lot more torque and an honest 3mpg. We drove the liberty down to Reno last month and between two fill ups we got over 29mpg, that was cruise control set at 70! That wasn't from the on board computer, it was actual mpg.