I've made mention of my Jeep before, but never really talk about it. Because I don't like it, mostly, but it's mainly my moms car. It's an 06 Grand Cherokee 4x4 with I think the slapstick automatic 4wd system. No buttons or selector in the cabin, maybe its AWD?
Regardless, since my dad took it on his first test drive, I've been against it. Supposedly, I'm the only person that notices any of it's issues, until today, which is why I'm turning to you guys for some suggestions.
Starting with the oldest problem first, I see to be the ONLY person who feels the drivers side caliper sticking. I felt it on the test drive, I felt it after my dad was T-Boned at a redlight and it was put back together, I feel it after it gets new brakes that wear evenly? There isn't a lot of noise, just the feeling of a locked up caliper.
I've been complaining of the transmission slipping since before my dad died, so at least 2 years now. My mother has finally noticed it today, and it has gotten noticeably worse in the 2 weeks since I last drove it. There's only 61k on the odometer, and it's been fairly well babied most of its life. Does it just have crappy fluid from the factory? Is there a bigger problem with this generations/driveline transmissions that I don't know about? Basically, I'm hoping that it's like the Miata, and the right fluid can make it feel good again, but being a slapstick auto, I doubt it will be that simple.
This brings us to the newest problem that revealed itself to me when I got off work to head home tonight. I got in the Jeep, turned it on, and turned the lights on. ALL lights interior and exterior, flickered off and on until staying off. Not in time to the radio, which stayed on, just random flickering for a minute before going off. I hit the high beams just to see, and they kicked on, turned the highs off, and everything stayed lit for my 10 minute ride home. I could not reproduce it in my driveway tonight, but I'll keep trying. I've never seen this happen before. I'm suspecting a bad ground, or possibly a connection inside the light switch stalk. It had the recall done for the ignition cylinder last summer after 3 years of waiting on parts, but I don't think that would have anything to do with the lighting circuit.
It's the newest vehicle I've ever owned or had to care for, so I'm obviously a bit out of touch with modern electronics, I'd just like somewhere to start trouble shooting.
Something is shorting out, my first guess is the ignition cylinder, even if it was replaced under recall.
