rokdktr

PSecs - 2008 dealer built and dealer driven (personal vehicle) Rubi-U with AEV Hemi conversion and 4.5 lift, AEV bumpers and a winch in the front., 60K km / 35K miles on it.

Anything specific I should be looking for aside from the front driveshaft (he has rebuilt it and put in Currie adjustable arms), I'll check the C's and tubes but it has not been offroad so they should be fine.

What am I missing to check? Aside from the obvious general wear and tear. It was built as a sales vehicle to demonstrate the AEV kit, and he ended up driving it as a daily himself. I do not think it has been pounded on, but a quick look under it should reveal that or not. He is the owner of the dealership so I assume it has been well taken care of. It will be coming with new wheels and rubber, as he wants to keep his Iroks....so be it.

Tips? Thanks!!

wayoflife

being that you would be buying this from a dealership, just make sure it comes with some kind of warranty on the work they've done and i would think you're good to go.

JK_09

Id venture around underneath and look at welded brackets, frame joints, etc etc.

Try to see if you can find stress cracks, or evidence that the frame has been pulled.

Will be sharp bends or out of place bends on holes and such in the frame (shows where the frame shop would hook onto to pull)

Id look around the tail lights (maybe pull them out...its super quick and easy and will tell you about tub damage)

Check fluids, and drive it more than 15 mins.

rokdktr

The undercarriage and bends or tweaks is a must, as well as scrapes along frame members and axles, especially out where we live.

Tail lights was a good tip, and I thin kI'll check the airbox for debris or water as well. Being that it is/was the persona vehicle of the dealerships GM, and he was very forth coming about the details of what he had done or had issues with (Currie control arms and front DS, now fixed, brand new brakes, etc) I think it should be good to go.

Anything to check on the hard top or interior for tweaks or wiggles? Excessive play developing anywhere in the JK series that is abnormal?

SergeantChuck

I just bought my JK about three months ago from a dealer. 2007 with 18,000 miles. Looked Beautiful all around. Two days after the purchase I hit a bump and experienced and bad case of DW.

If I ever buy a used Jeep again I will head straight for the highway and run over a good bump at 70MPH. Just Saying!!!

hneiper

Bought mine (2010 JK) in June and everything looked great. Then 1) i start hearing this loud clicking noise and found out that the rear gear had 3 teeth with chunks of metal missing - come to find out the reason it had a new rear drive shaft was because he let his neighbors kid drive it who then tried to spin the wheels by popping the clutch - the guy never said, but the same shop doing my gear fix told me about it coz they put the ds in, 2) same week I get the death wobble. Even when things seem good at the time they might not - so be thorough. Your lucky u are already on this forum with good information, I wasn't but wish I had. Good luck and i hope your one of the lucky ones it works out for. Cheers!

rokdktr

Good to know, sad story though. This is an auto so there should be no clutch popping issues, but internal stuff like that is just so hard to catch when you are buying, especially if it is not symptomatic until a few thousand miles later. The upside is that this particular seller is a friend of a friend. My friend on that equation is a well known and reputable offroad shop specializing in Baja style trucks and fabrication. He built my last Ram 3500 and I trust him 110%. The seller of this new Jeep is a friend of his through sledding and offroading. I think that even if something goes wrong in the near future after the sale, I can work something out with him, especially since he can probably cut some decent deals through his dealership.

I'm hoping the deal will all go very smooth and well, but I always look for little tip to check before a used vehicle purchase.

So far the most glaringly obvious things to check are the tail lights, airbox for swamping, bend or scrapes underneath, and I'm going to check the C's for bending.

JKlad

Yeah, as others have said the condition of the chassis & particularly the skid plates should give a fair indication of what type of off-road life it has had, but sounds like you've pretty much worked out by now that it's been well treated.

Only other thing I can think of is that being an '08 there's been a few recalls & TSBs issued, so you should maybe run the VIN to see what should have been done & then look over the service records to see that they have been.

briaros6

You said it's got a Hemi swap, I'd also look at the motor mounts for any stress fractures on the welds...

rokdktr

Good tip. I suppose it will have a lot to do with the installer that welded them. The dealership did 6 or 7 I think. They used AEV's kit, but that doesn't mean the welder may or may not have been the best. Good tip. Thanks!