2001 Jeep Cherokee Classic from North America - Comments

I have a 98 Cherokee with 95K on it and have put little to no money in to it. Normal maintenance and few small things like the window motor on the driver side.

I just had to replace the front driver side seat frame because it rusted so badly. Now my check engine light just came on and I have to have it checked, but even with that I’m not worried.

I haven’t had a car payment in six years, so I can afford to put a little money into the old gal now.

When this one is handed down to my daughter in the next year or two, I will be looking at a new Liberty or Wrangler. I grew up with Jeeps in my family and I will always have a Jeep in the family.

Learned to drive my dad’s old Wiley out in the middle of cow pasture when I was only 12. We even owned a 67 Jeepster if any of you remember those awful things.

OK guys, my turn. I have a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Classic. I always wanted one, and finally did. As for falling apart, well, mine is not too bad. I have 115,000 miles on it... a lot of highway miles as they say. When it had about 40,000 the evaporator for the air conditioner went out. That cost $1200, that hurt. But other than that, it has been pretty strong. The check engine light starting coming on at about 100,000 miles. It comes on for a month or so, then goes out for a month or two. Go figure. My transmission has become a little louder, but that is because I used it to tow a trailer in the mountains of Tennessee, twice. In the long run, it is holding up pretty well. By the way, two things... one writer said that he was told that his Jeep needed new plugs and wires. I have changed mine myself. There are no wires. The plugs are located under two panels on the side of the engine. The second thing is for the guy who said he wanted to buy a new one... they stopped making the original Cherokee in 2001. Sorry.

I bought my 2001 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4X4 brand new and have 134,000 miles on it today. I have not had any major problems with the vehicle. The only problem I had was a mapping sensor needed replaced at 120,000 miles. I have taken this vehicle all over the country on vacations. We live in St. Louis and have been to the Grand Canyon, Vegas, Colorado, Yellowstone, Yosemite and much more. The Jeep has been a great vehicle for me and I will drive it till the wheels fall off. I do all the recommended maintenence and put it in the garage every night. If you want something to last you have to treat it right. I'm not saying you won't have problems, its just less likely.

I also have a 2001 Jeep Cherokee. It's funny that there are no recalls on the speaker wire and check engine light. Myspeaker wire was broken near the rubber boot between the door and body. I ran a new wire and no more speaker problems. Now, as for the check engine light,I went to Auto Zone and hooked the Jeep to their computer and it said I had a very small vacuum leak. A friend had told me the way to find a vacuum leak is to spray ether or starting fluid around the vacuum lines and if you notice a change in the RPM you found your leak. I have tried this, but I can't find one. Now I have 90k with the check engine light on and this jeep runs great.

Hi, I have a 2001 Cherokee Sport. I bought used back in 2002 when it had 23000 miles on it. Now it has over 76,000! It runs like new! The only problem I had with the Check Engine light is when it hit 50,000. I took it to the dealer to get fixed. However, the stupid dealer didn't tell me what was fixed. I saw on my invoice they checked for an evaporator leak. They also fixed a recall. It appears that they put a metal gasket over the intake manifold. (I think I remember the recall was saying something about dirt going into the exhaust valve that could result in a fire.) Anyway I was charged $50. As for other things. I haven't noticed any. It has the familiar Jeep rattle on the dash (some reason you have bang on the dash from keeping it from rattling! It gets on my nerves! IT ISN'T FROM THE ENGINE vibrating.) Anyway, I see others have my current problem, the speakers. I replaced the factory radio/CD player with a Kenwood radio/CD deck that controls my CD changer. Sounds good except the right front speaker goes out once in a while. Sometimes, it goes out for days and then turn the balance and fade control to let it only have that speaker on and then crank up the volume and then sometimes it goes back on. My dad has the same radio he put in his '94 Lincoln Town Car. Same problem. I got the radio from Circuit City. I thought it is a Circuit City issue.

Well guys I got a 1986 Jeep Cherokee 4X4 with GMs 2.8 ltr V6 and its my first car and I don't think I want to ever buy anything else than a jeep. It has never left me stranded. Its also been my families car since it was new. Honestly I drive the heck out of it from trying to race it haha to flying through soft sand. It may be the only car I've ever owned, but my parents cars have more trouble than mine. I just don't know what yall do to your poor cherokees to have all these problems. Also it was toteled by my mother a few years ago and all it took was a new radiater,a new bumper and an alignment, and just literally kicked in the front panels back to normal and it was as good as new.

I have a 2k1 CS jeep, but my driver side seat has completely broken apart...

Basically from the bottom of the chair to the floor base interface...

Has ANY one else had this problem?

We have a 2000 Cherokee and the air stopped cooling. The local dealer said it was a damaged wire under the hood and fixed it at no cost. The front radio speakers keep going out whenever they feel like it –and have for several years. The drivers seat upholstery started cracking about 2-3 years in and now the whole seat has become unstable and is shifting around. The steering wheel locked up a few months ago and I lightly used a hammer to tap on the key top to make the tumblers loosen so I could start it. (Got that tip on the web!)

The dealer in Boulder (Pollard) has been a GREAT one to do business with. About as good as it gets. (We didn't buy the vehicle there, but in NC - new)

At 99,775 miles its been a good vehicle (it COULD however have stranded us up in the high country with the steering-ignition thing which is scary)

It seems many of these problems were never addressed and corrected over the years. I thought these types of bugs were fixed as time went on. While we will surely get many more miles out of our Cherokee, we most likely will not buy another Jeep product simply because the company did not improve & fix the vehicle. The ignition problem was the final nail in the coffin. Its just too dangerous, in my opinion, so, unfortunately, it will have to be something from Japan. (Hate to do that!)

I have a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Classic also. It is a very fine truck. Seems a lot of people want them to be cars. All I have changed is the belt tension pulley and battery. It just turned 75000. Put a set of Bridgestone Revos and it handles much better than the Mich. Cross Country tires. I replaced the factory radio (needed a CD player) and will replace the speakers in the next few weeks.

Had foreign vehicles, they all have problems, but this thing is a tank. I have pulled more RAV4's and Japanese PU's out of the sand with my simple 2WD (with towing package which includes posi-trak) then I care to think about. People think those are better, many are on car frames and have no ground clearance.

Specially like the AWD's which don't seem to work well when you are stuck. I think I will start taking pictures of them being stuck in simple sand. Pulled out one this am. stuck in simple loose sand about 5 inches thick. Had street tires from the factory. Even the factory thinks these things should stay on concrete or asphalt.

If you want a car, buy a car, what a truck, buy a truck. Jeep Cherokees (not Grand) ride harder, but work pretty well as a truck. Drive it like one and maintain it like one and you will have only normal vehicle problems. Most I have seen that have a lot of problems are not well maintained, not washed and waxed, and driven back and forth to grocery store like a family mini-van. These are not mini-vans.

Our 1st Jeep was a 1989 Cherokee that we ran the crap out of. We off roaded it, mud bogged it, towed with it, and never had a SINGLE mechanical problem with it.

We only got rid of it in 2002 (with 220k miles) because we were offered a family members 2001 Cherokee just for taking over the payments (the 2001 wasn't suitable for transporting a set of grandparents who both had severe medical problems).

Bottom line: The 2001 doesn't hold a candle to the 1989. Both were identically equipped, but everything about the '89's handling, fit, finish, and overall quality is better that the '01.

Don't get me wrong, the '01 is a nice Jeep. We don't do the same things to it as we did to the '89. Maybe that's the problem; the harder you run it, the better it runs...

We have the same issues with the speaker and window controls. We also have a similar noise in the front during slow braking/turning maneuvers. Now I know what to get checked.

Still, on it's worst day, I'll take my Jeep over any Jap crap out there.

I also have a 1988 Dodge truck with close to 300k HARD miles on it that has only been in the shop to fix driver abuse and regular maintenance, and an '03 Quad Cab with 55k that has been flawless.

I'm an accident investigator and I travel all over the country, so I need dependable transportation. My Jeeps and my Dodges have given me what I need.

Thanks for your time, and drive safe.

Brooks / Manchester Md.

I bought an 01 Jeep Cherokee (Sport) from a local police station. I put a bid on it and got it. It had 244,000km on it, so far no major problems just rust, rust and more rust. Like the water gutters and in the two front corners of the roof.

I have added 4 tires, new trans line, rear shoes, front rotors and pads.

So far this jeep has been pretty good to me. I presently have 258,900km.

Any tips for the rust? I would like to hear anyones opinion.

Thank you.

I have a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4x4. It has 75K miles and runs great. The check engine light just went on and I need to have that checked at the Jeep dealer. The only problem its had is a fuel sensor or something like that gave out at 60K miles and cost me $750, other than that, still running strong.

I also have a 2001 XJ. It is a wonderful vehicle. Highly dependable, easily fixed, most parts are accessible ie pretty good engineering laying the thing out. And it's a blast off road. Here's a Pic. slight modifications added. www.tqci.net/~scot/IMG_1401a.jpg.

I recently bought an 01 Cherokee with about 83,000 miles on it. In the course of buying the one I got, I drove a lot of 00's and 01's; only Cherokee's. Most had 70 to 80k miles on them. Just about every one had speaker issues with the front speakers only. In most cases, the wires had disconnected from the speaker.

My son drives it and has since had an Alpine radio and speakers installed, including all new wires and labor for about $500.00. The speaker problems are now gone of course.

Must be a Jeep thing.

I own a 2001 Cherokee Sport edition 4x4 with 72000 miles on it. I bought it used with about 30000 miles on it at that time. I have/have had two problems with it.

The first was the check engine light came on at about 65000 miles, and read misfire on cylinders 1 and 6, and a total misfire. My mechanic (who is an ASE certified master tech.) informed me that I should not have put hotter burning plugs in my jeep. I have replaced my plugs back to stock (copper core/champion, not a platinum). Since then, I have not had any more problems other than with cold start (which was caused by the hotter plugs).

The second problem is with my A/C. I have purchased a recharge system from Wal-mart and cannot get it to charge my system. I have been told by Jeep experts that the later A/C units are very weak and go out easily. Other than these two problems, it's grrreat.

As for the complaints, the 3rd June and 12th June 2007 statements, you are talking my language. Everyone must understand that you have purchased a vehicle made from another manufacturer like GM, FORD, & CHRYSLER. Your Jeep is not made like the "real thing". If you complain about its problems, then you must complain about their American builder and your own lack of knowledge of this vehicle. (Do you know which company built your jeep?). The older the model of any vehicle, the more original and stronger the vehicle will be.

And as for you anti-Toyota people out there, the original Toyota was the strongest, most durable, and most fuel efficient vehicle out there. I love them both.