Jeep Liberty 3.7 engines

How bad are these, my friend and Challenge team-mate has a blown engine in his. My mechanic friend had 2 in the other day.

Are they a dud?

Anybody have a line on where to buy a replacement,

My wife's Liberty has 185K on it. The engine sounds as tight as the day it was built. That's the sum of my experience. You might send a PM to Curmudgeon. He's at a Chrysler dealer.

Ha. I just brought these up in another thread. Stay far far far away. I worked all summer ONLY rebuilding 3.7's and 4.7's. I couldn't keep up with the demand for rebuilds. Engine and head cores were really hard to find in a condition suitable for rebuild. A lot of times flying pieces of rod and piston would take chunks of engine block out with it. Parts were on national back order at the time.

There wasn't just one problem taking them all down either, it was all over the place. Heads destroyed, broken cam towers, broken cam caps, cracked pistons, spun bearings, FLATTENED rod caps. None of these were very high milers either. IIRC, everything was under 200k.

The timing chain is a nightmare to do also.

My wife's Liberty is now over. 110k miles. It's been good so far. I've heard horror stories though.

Short answer: they suck.

Longer answer: they suck bad.

5.0 swap?
LSx, Diesel?

Parts Liberty in Galion, OH
http://columbus.craigslist.org/pts/4310591670.html

This listing is a month old but if it is still available, he may be getting desperate.
Buy for $1k, swap from current, part the rest and profit.
http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/4313398731.html

5.0 is starting to sound good

Wife's '02 Liberty, which she bought new, sits at 175,000. So far the only major engine issue has been a broken valve spring at 150K. However the mechanic that made the repair said it's only a matter of time before all kinds of horror begins to happen. He stressed that the oil be changed religiously every 3K, no ifs, ands, or buts.

From everything I've read and heard we've been lucky so far.

RoughandReady wrote: There wasn't just one problem taking them all down either, it was all over the place. Heads destroyed, broken cam towers, broken cam caps, cracked pistons, spun bearings, FLATTENED rod caps. The timing chain is a nightmare to do also.

this has been my experience too. you just never know WHAT they're going to do, but it ain't gonna be good.

I was beyond happy to pass my wife's liberty on to her sister. What a giant piece of trash that was. The thing that pushed me over the edge was the pathetic designs for the windows. Any liberty owner knows exactly what I'm talking about.

The rear windows are guaranteed to fall at some point in their life. The entire window is held up by a piss poor designed plastic clip. If you call the dealer, its a $500+ fix to replace the entire window regulator. I hear how great jeep wranglers are and how the i6 is indestructible, but because of that berkeleying clip and their ability to not do anything to fix it, I would never touch jeep. I'm sure there's bigger flaws in other cars, but this one is personal.

I'd cut my losses and send it to the scrap. You save yourself loads of frustration when the engine blows again, or the transmission goes out shortly after your replacement.

I own a 4.7 that currently has 300K on it, no engine problems, only engine work ever done is plugs.

I have a handful of friends that have 3.7s in jeeps or trucks, and havent had any issues, I also have many customers that have these and they arent any less reliable than other engines according to my experience. The only thing Ive condemned any on was blown head gaskets from over heating, but I could say that for almost all engines I see regularly.

They arent exceptionally powerful smooth or quiet, but they definitely arent a bad engine. I would say the 5.7 HEMI is quite a bit more unreliable due to the common valve train issues (I also have one of these over 300k) killing motors.

They did put these in just about everything for 10 years so there are tons of them out there, and the vast majority of cars arent maintained well at all, so Im not surprised if you had to build a ton of them.

We had a Liberty and did religious maintenance to it and ever had a problem with the drivetrain.

However, we never even hit 100k because we hated the thing. We replaced 5 window regulators in it (all of the windows, plus the driver's window a second time) in the time we had it. The seats made my entire ass fall asleep if I drove it for more than an hour because of pressure right along the back of my legs.

Ugh.

Yep, they're awful. Basically, don't buy any Chrysler engine that ends in .7. The 2.7l, 3.7l, 4.7L (and to some extent the 5.7L) are all garbage. Being in the parts and repair side of things, I've seen a lot fewer problems out of the 5.7L, but that may just be because there are fewer out there.

I was considering the 3.7 Liberty as a DD a while back. Online reviews then only had minimal engine complaints but the windows... if there was one complaint on any site there were 50, no thanks. Glad I didn't buy one now.

I ran mine only 72K miles. Used mostly for towing. Changed the oil once a year, 7-8K miles using Amsoil. The only reason I traded it was I no longer had a use for it.

I guess I should be expecting window problems at some point then? 2 years in and haven't had an issue yet. I don't have the x.7 issues, I have a whole different set of problems with the diesel.

I personally like the seats, and it drives much better than the Cherokee it replaced. Not as good off road though. I just wish the interior didn't have the constant self staining issues.....

lnlogauge wrote: The rear windows are guaranteed to fall at some point in their life. The entire window is held up by a piss poor designed plastic clip. If you call the dealer, its a $500+ fix to replace the entire window regulator. I hear how great jeep wranglers are and how the i6 is indestructible, but because of that berkeleying clip and their ability to not do anything to fix it, I would never touch jeep. I'm sure there's bigger flaws in other cars, but this one is personal.

The Jeep brand was coasting (pretty good I might add) on its days under AMC until Daimler went and berkeleyed it up so they could claim they built something for themselves.

On the plus side, I'll say that our 2006 Liberty was no problem at all for the first 100K, and was fine off-road after I installed the 2.5-inch lift kit. However...

About 110,000 miles we started having ceaseless trouble with it, compounded by the crappy aftermarket parts available to independent shops. Took 3 tries to get a good replacement power steering pump, then at 115,000 (gentle, well-maintained miles)we needed a new front drive shaft (took 3 to get one good one), a RF CV joint, a RF halfshaft, new front bearing on the transfer case and a LF wheel bearing. After $3500 in 4 months, and driving only 400 miles during that time, when all appeared well, we went immediately to our Subaru dealer and traded it in on a new Forester, which we love. Final incident: After 115K with no window troubles of any kind, the driver's side rear window slipped a bit on the way into the car wash on the way to the tradein. Carefully pulled it into position, it didn't move during their test drive, it's gone. We liked the size, yes the cloth seats were self-staining, it worked well for us for 100K,but comparing it to the Toyota pickups we've also had for a total of more than 500K (210K on the current Tacoma), we've had none of those problems with the Toys. None. On the positive side, the 3.7 never used a drop of oil and always ran well - so far.

Not recommended.

I like an engine that I don't have to rigorously maintain in order to get it to live.

As a 'chrysler enthusiast' the 3.7L annoys me. It should never have been built. The old pushrod 3.8 of the same era was more reliable, made the same power, cheaper, easier to work on, smaller, lighter, and already existed when the 3.7 was being designed. I think the 3.7/4.7 are a classic case of OEMs in the 90s thinking your spec sheet had to say OHC or 'discerning consumers' would think you were behind the curve.

Then again, many jeep owners HAVE proven that they are retarded vis a vis their comments towards the 3.8 in the JK that make no factual sense and completely overlook the JK's ridiculous weight gain relative to 4.0L YJs and TJs.

My wife had an 02 Liberty Limited 4x4 we bought off the lot new in early 2002. We didn't have any problems until I took it off road and through some water crossings. Turns out the rear diff doesn't have an extended breather hose like a Wrangler... Rear diff gears had to be swapped. We traded in early 08 with 120k mostly highway miles.

From the stories it sounds like we dodged a bullet.

Whole front clip has to come off to get the engine in/out, I believe. RUN!

After reading all of these threads I must also comment about how great these engines are.  My wife has had a 2005 Jeep Liberty 4x4 with the 3.7L since new and now has 140K on it with no engine issues at all.  I have a 2008 Dodge Ram with the Hemi and 138K on it with no issues.  I have been in the auto business for 28 years with 15 of those as a new car store manager.  I am currently a manager at a mid-sized independent dealer where we sell a lot of the Jeep/Chrysler products with well over 100K.  In the 8 1/2 years at this dealership we have sold well over 200 of the 3.7L, 4.7L and 5.L Chrysler product vehicles with no engine issues AT ALL except 1 on a car.  As a matter of fact, the only issue with a Hemi was on a Chrysler 300 which was driving hard by the new owner as we observed him driving it the same day he purchased.  Two months later he blew the engine. 

keyserroll said:

After reading all of these threads I must also comment about how great these engines are.  My wife has had a 2005 Jeep Liberty 4x4 with the 3.7L since new and now has 140K on it with no engine issues at all.  I have a 2008 Dodge Ram with the Hemi and 138K on it with no issues.  I have been in the auto business for 28 years with 15 of those as a new car store manager.  I am currently a manager at a mid-sized independent dealer where we sell a lot of the Jeep/Chrysler products with well over 100K.  In the 8 1/2 years at this dealership we have sold well over 200 of the 3.7L, 4.7L and 5.L Chrysler product vehicles with no engine issues AT ALL except 1 on a car.  As a matter of fact, the only issue with a Hemi was on a Chrysler 300 which was driving hard by the new owner as we observed him driving it the same day he purchased.  Two months later he blew the engine. 

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