The 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo we have had quite a few issues, so I decided to fix the Jeep up over the summer. Sadly enough I do not have any before pictures but plenty of after pictures.

Before:

After:

What was fixed / replaced:

• Bumpers, Cladding, and Roofrack
• Exhaust manifold
• Whole exhaust system except the down pipe
• Shock absorbers
• Motor and Transmission mounts
• Coolant temp sender
• Idle Air Controller and Throttle body
• Headliner
• Overhead console and Vehicle Information Center
• Sound system including speakers
• Steering wheel
• Center console
• Alarm system
• Door panels
• Tires

The first thing we tackled were the bumpers and pieces of cladding on the car. The rear bumper had been in a slight fender bender and had been cracked on the left side. We repaired the crack with some fiberglass and resin and then used bondo to repair the surface. It worked pretty well, the only problem is that you cannot replicate the texture that was on the bumper before, instead it is smooth. Then I used some Duplicolor Bumper Coating (FB 109 Dark Charcoal) to paint all the cladding and bumpers. The resulting color was nearly perfect. The only regret I have is that I sprayed the bumper coating straight onto the bumper per directions, but didn\'t use primer or clear coat after. I think if I have to paint them again I will do this to ensure a better bonding to the bumper to prevent peeling and a better protection so it would be a bit harder to scratch off. We also painted the roofrack using some Duplicolor black trim paint (TP 70 Flat Black).

Before:

After:

The exhaust manifold was cracked on our Jeep. This is quite common for the 4.0 inline 6 on the Jeeps. It looked as if it had been repaired numerous times before through some welding, but we found several hairline cracks at the spots where the pipes merged.

We replaced it with a solid exhaust manifold from Ebay and not the kind with the flexible couplings on it. One of our friends who used to be a Jeep mechanic said he repaired just as many manifolds with the flexible couplings than without. In fact, the flexible parts were known to break. I could have bought a higher performance exhaust manifold from SummitRacing.com, but I just bought a cheaper upgrade that looked like it would last. It was still quite an improvement over the stock manifold which is a 6-2-1 design (going from 6 pipes to 2 to 1 and then to the exhaust) to a 6-3-2-1. We coated the exhaust manifold with Duplicolor Engine Enamel & High Heat (DE 1613 Gloss Black), however to our suprise the paint actually started burning off the exhaust manifold when we started the engine.

We had followed the directions for the paint and the conditions outside when we painted it were considered okay according to the label. I guess we were unlucky, but I was deeply disappointed with the product. Luckily you cannot see the exhaust manifold very well in my Jeep since the intake manifold covers it almost completely.

The rest of the exhaust system was also damaged. The exiting pipe on the muffler had shaken loose on the inside of the muffler, it produced an unbearable shaking noise at idle. The catalytic converter was also broken, the inside honeycomb was loose. I had several options on how to replace it. There's a guy, Kolak, who sells exhaust systems for Jeeps. He has a really good reputation, but to be quite honest his estimates were outside of my budget. So I ended up going with a Dynomax Cat-back system (part #WLK-17403). Please note, as you can see in the product number, this is actually manufactured by a company called Walker. They sell the exact same system. The kit contained a new muffler and a new tailpipe. I covered most of the tailpipe with some of the left over Duplicolor engine enamel paint. Since the tailpipe does not get as hot as the exhaust manifold, I figured I wouldn\'t have the same issue as I did with the paint burning off on the exhaust manifold, and indeed it worked nicely. We replaced the original catalytic converter with a universal 2.25" Magnaflow carsound highflow cat. The new exhaust system is quite a bit louder, but still quiet compared to most aftermarket exhaust systems. It has a nice little rumble at idle and a bit more kick if you give more throttle.

The suspension system had some problems too. The shock absorbers, especially in the front, were completely shot. We replaced these with some Bilstein HDs (product #B46-1798 and #B46-1799). Immediately the Jeep displayed much less body roll, yet at the same time the ride was much more comfortable. I found a really good deal for some new tires. So I replaced the 215/75R15 michellin tires, which were actually undersized for the car since the standard size was 225/75R15, with some new Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo's 235/75R15. Really happy with the tires, nice and quiet yet looks great on the car. The Jeep looked a bit funny before due to the undersized tires, we definately do not have that anymore.

I also replaced the motor and transmission mounts (3 in total). One of the motor mounts had the inside rubber part shifted towards the back of the vehicle. Because of this, it was very difficult to remove the thru-bolt but we were able to do it in the end with some brute force. Here are the old motor mounts:

The first one is torn a little on the inside. You cannot see it from this picture. The big opening on the right is normal. This is the left motor mount (from the driver\'s point of view).

You can see how the inside is shifted forward for this one, and a bit of the tearing on the bottom. The left side was torn more than this one. This is the right motor mount.

And the transmission mount:

This transmission mount looks decent, but in fact the top part is broken on the other side.

I did not have high expectations for replacing the motor and tranny mounts, but to my surprise the car is much better now! The cabin no longer shakes as much while idling. Also the car used to thump quite a bit when you shifted or let go of the throttle. You no longer feel this now while driving. Overal, I think this was really worth the time, money and effort, since the car drives 10 times better now.

The coolant temperature sender was also broken. The instrument panel inside the car had been jumping around for a while. It would continually go on and off so we figured it'd probably be a loose or broken connector. However, when I took the connector off the sensor I found that half of the sensor was actually loose.

The sensor had broken in half which explained why it was working on and off randomly. We replaced the sensor with a part from NAPA and it's fixed completely now.

We had also been having some issues with the idle on the Jeep. The idle was very low and stumbled quite a bit. On several forums I was suggested to clean the IAC, or Idle Air Controller. This IAC controls the amount of airflow in the bypass channel on the throttle body. Usually when you are idling the large butterfly valve, which the throttle cable controls, is closed. The only air flow control into the car is the bypass channel at this point which as the same suggests bypasses the butterfly valve. This IAC has a little part that can move back and forth to control the airflow in the bypass channel. The IAC was extremely dirty and after cleaning the idle was at a perfect 650 RPM and no longer stumbled. I also cleaned the throttle body while I was at it, it can never hurt. To clean the IAC just remove the 2 torx bits holding it against the throttle body then slide it out. This is what it looks like when clean:

The car came with a leather wrapped steering wheel from the factory. However, this leather had been disintegrating lately. After driving the car you'd be left with sticky hands and a steering wheel that would come apart in your hands. So I ordered a WheelSkin cover for it. Because of the large spokes on my steering wheel I knew this would not look perfect, but to be quite honest, I'm really happy with the cover and it sure beats the cheaper ones that are not stitched on.

The center console had been squeaking ever since we got the car. It wasn't so bad unless you accidentally hit it or drove off road, it would squeak as if the end of the world was coming. I fixed this by using some silicone window sealant where the plastic was rubbing against each other causing the noise. It did take some time, but now the center console is quiet and makes no more squeaking noises.

My Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo came with the keyless entry / light dome in the ceiling. But, I wanted to add the overhead console into the jeep. Plus, the headliner in my Jeep was quite damaged, it was sagging at several spots and it was torn near the center of the roof. So along with installing the overhead console we redid the headliner and the fabric on the overhead console. We used ordinary headliner matted material. We picked it up at a local professional auto upholstery shop, they also gave us a very nice tip! Use Weldwood contact cement for the headliner. The usually spray can kind made for headliners tend to come apart at high temperatures, and we live in Atlanta, Georgia. So the roof and headliner get really hot, the contact cement so far has held up very well. We also put a layer of fiberglass resin on the headliner board. Usually this would be a bad idea if you have a small car since it decreases the flexibility of the headliner board, but since the headliner in the Jeep can slide right in from the back with minimal bending this is not an issue. Most of the people I know told me I was crazy that I was considering doing the headliner myself and that I should pay the 400 dollars to a professional instead. But to be quite honest it really wasn't that bad, but it did take quite some time and I think it looks nearly perfect!

This is what it looks like with the overhead console installed and the new headliner material in place:

To see how I installed the overhead console and a general "How To" for this, please click here or head over to the "How To Articles".

My jeep also didn't come with the VIC (vehicle information center) instead it came with the GDU (graphics display unit). I didn't like the way the GDC looked, so I figured I'd replace it with the VIC. The VIC has circuitry to check several sensors that the GDC doesn't check. This means that my Jeep did not contain the sensors and wiring for some of these sensors. But, I did not want to connect these sensors and modules since some of these are known to break and to be quite honest I did not need the functions they offered. So instead I wired up the VIC in such a way that it thinks that the sensors are okay.

To make the VIC think the sensors are okay just cut the Rear Lamp Out Driver (G46 20LB/BK [light blue with black tracer] ) from the harness, so that you have enough wire left to connect the wire hanging from the connector to something else. Then connect this loose wiring coming from the connector to the ignition wire which is the F83 20YL/DG (Yellow with dark green tracer). The LOM module sends 12 volts through the rear lamp out driver when all the lights are intact and grounds the lead wire when the resistance of a lamp is incorrect due to a wrong bulb or a burned out bulb. Thus supplying the rear lamp out driver with a constant 12 volt when running will make the VIC think all the lights are okay. Then there are the washer fluid switch sense and the engine coolant level sensor sense left which would also cause the VIC to give errors if not disabled. Both of these sensors switch to 3.3k Ohm when the washer fluid or coolant level is correct. So we have to cut G29 20BK/TN (black with tan tracer) and G18 20PK/DB (pink with dark blue tracer) like the way we cut the rear lamp out driver, but now we have to connect both wires to a 3.3k Ohm resistor and then to ground which is Z1 20BK (black). This way we will have disabled the 3 sensors which we did not have before.

Here is the result, a perfectly working VIC with 3 sensors disabled:

Here is a picture including both the overhead console and the VIC:

I decided to buy the Pioneer DEH-P4900iB. It came with 3 pre-amp 4volt outs, which is great if I ever want to add an amp to the system. But for now I was just replacing the 4 speakers in the car and the head unit. The internal amp in the head unit had 22 watt RMS, which should be enough for now. The speakers we bought were Alpine SPS-17C2's. They're 2 way speakers, instead of the full-range woofers that were installed on the car. They can handle up to 50 watt RMS, so the head unit cannot over power them and at the same time allow for a possibility of adding a more powerful amplifier later.

To replace the speakers I had to remove the door panels first. I took this opportunity to replace the door panels as well, since the driver side door panel was broken (the arm rest was torn). Here is a picture of the right doors without the door panels on:

The replacement speakers I bought are 6 1/2", while the original speakers are 6 3/4". This meant I would either have to fabricate my own brackets, drill new mounting holes in the door, or buy some brackets. I decided to just buy some brackets from ebay. This allowed me to just screw it right into the door.

After this we replaced some broken clips on the door panels and popped the new ones on.

Here is a before and after shot on the driver side door. You can see that the old door had cloth on it that easily got dirty and the arm rest was broken. The reflector that is missing on the before shot was actually not missing on the door panel, it was removed to replace the broken reflector on the new door panel.

Before:

After:

Here's a shot of the passenger side:

And finally the new radio:

The new headunit definitely does not look as nice with the rest of the interior as the original radio. However, in this case it was a bit of a no-brainer decision since the OEM replacement radios were too expensive, had inferior sound, would still not allow iPod or MP3 playback or even aux-in, and had less watt RMS so could potentially under power the speakers since the original speakers had a different resistance specification.

We also installed a new alarm since the keyless entry module worked via infrared. To open the car we had to put the remote up to the window and hope that it worked, plus the remote was broken and the replacement remotes cost more than 40 dollars even on Ebay. We replaced it with an old alarm we had laying around that had RF remotes and integrated it with the power locks, headlights, and horn.