144,000 September 2024 | New Borg & Beck front and rear wheel bearings. Plus new front brake lines and ABS sensors. New ball joints by Moog for aftermarket Moog lower control arms. Sidelight halo in the fog lamp replaced. New rear brake pads / discs / brake shoes and ABS sensors. |
138,679 January 2024 |
Oil and Filter change to 5W20 Valvoline, new sump bolt, upper engine LPG flashlube system leak fixed and the 2 Ball joints on front lower control arms. Full spec of my Jeep Build Sheet VIN 1J8HDE8285Y548047 |
133,450 March 2023 |
New Coil packs x 8, Oil change/Filter. New transfer case motor and transfer case. Change front fog lamps over and fix sidelights by fitting new halo foglamp units. 2 x new Rear ABS sensors. Engine Oil pressure sensor. New Throttle Body. Passenger front Electric Window Motor, old one was very slow. |
127,907 July 2022 |
New upper control arms front, new front brake pads and discs, ABS Control module, crank position sensor and loom, 2 x front wheel bearings, new 52069706AB front right axle drive shaft seal, HVAC Actuator drivers side, relays new ones fitted. LPG service with MDS now enabled. New 265 70 R17 Cooper Discoverer A/T tyres. |
120,050 February 2021 |
Renewed all 4 x MDS Solenoids. Replaced the petrol injector ‘o’ rings or seals. Full engine flush. Oil service with air filter cleaning. Plug leads replaced for the first time since 2005. New tail light units to match the headlights. |
114,000 March 2020 |
Front brake calipers rebuilt with all new parts. New headlight units. New projector foglights. LPG service with new EGR valve and sender. Extra lift at rear springs with new spring mounts and bump stops. Steering wheel recovered in black leather. SRT8 sports foot pedals installed. Front lower control arm rubbers replaced. Steel Armadillo front recovery eyes. Smittybilt shackles 3/4″. Finally 5 x BF Goodrich Mud Terrain KM tyres 255 x 75 x 17. |
111,000 October 2019 |
Front drivers side driveshaft leaking oil, making a noise. Replaced the oil seal. Topped up diff oil. New HVAC actuator for driver side. Now the heating works again as it should. New spark plugs. Oil service, with Pennzoil Platinum 5W 20 Fully synthetic MS-6395 for MDS systems. K&N air filter clean, new brake fluid. Underseal redone including LPG tank. |
105,100 March 2019 |
Transfer Case oil changed with new oil. Rear axle was grumbling. Never realised the diff oil was supposed to be changed every 30,000 miles. Diff cleaned out, new 75W/140 synthetic gear oil and MOPAR Limited Slip additive. Plus new ELSD rear diff Solenoid and wiring loom. Complete handbrake rebuild. LPG Fuel system service. Both D bushings on front roll or sway bar and sway bar links replaced. All bolts tightened on front suspension, a bit loose here and there. BFG tyres starting to show wear after 20,000 miles. New rear brake disc pads. Hand brake adjusted to hold better on hills. Drivers seat cushion repaired with leather |
101,900 October 2018 | Gearbox service for the first time. New water pump, accessory drive belt and tensioner. New battery. Oil service. Clean the cold air induction system. Checked for brake wear, needs new rear pads. Both D bushings on front roll bar are worn out, not the upper control arms as previously thought. New battery needed. Nav unit overhauled. Tyres revolved. |
96,230 March 2018 | Another load of work needed doing. Front differential bushings all 3 to stop the gearbox shake. Water pump leaking a little so that will need doing soon. Upper control arm is showing bush wear a little early. Needs investigation. But otherwise running fine. |
88,560 July 2017 | A load of work just done to keep the beast rolling. Diagnostics showed the rear driver side ABS sensor was playing up in the back wheel. It took out the; Sat nav, traction control, cruise control and caused the brakes to lock on when 1st driven away, bloody pain. Now done ABS part was £18. Parking brake shoes had disintegrated after 12 years and they took out the ABS sensor out, so replaced them, £20 a pair. Never ceases to amaze me as to how cheap the service parts are for a WK! Did the oil change and sump plug, cleaned the K&N Cold Air Intake which was carboned up. Rear sway or roll bar bushes needed doing. Had an LPG system service which was well overdue. LPG is 54p a litre. |
82,760 January 2017 | Moog upper and lower front ball joints with wishbones and control arms. These replace OEM units that have lasted 11.5 years. New OEM tailgate support hydraulic struts. Don’t buy after market ones from Ebay as they’ll last you 6 months. Rear axle differential seal leaking so replaced. New windsceen fitted after stone chips, again first since new. Did the P73 recall that disabled the low ratio 4 x 4 drive. The Final Drive Control Module (FDCM) software on about 295,600 WK and WH Jeeps. The other recall was the P41 that was to do with the ignition barrel that let your keys fall out when driving along the road. Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles may experience an unintended change in ignition switch position while driving which may result in loss of engine power, power steering, and braking assist increasing the risk of a crash and disabling one or more of the vehicle’s safety features including the frontal airbags. Now done. At 83,795 miles in March, new tyres 265 x 70 R17 BF Goodrich All Terrain KO1. Spidertrax 1.5 inch wheel spacers. Then with these we had to make more room in the front wheel arches, so some cut and shut repairs. |
78,600 July 2016 | Old Man Emu 2″ suspension upgrade medium duty. Lots of transmission cooling and coolant pipes replaced due to wear and leakages. Plugs done at 75,000. New front brake pads, tyres revolved and balanced. New radiator cap, new front fog lights with much brighter beam. Oil and air filter service and clean with K&N cleaning kit. Tyres and wheels rebalanced at Kwikfit tyres, great job for under £40. |
70,600 October 2015 | Put the K&N Cold Air Intake on the Jeep 5.7 HEMI Grand Cherokee Limited 2005 and discovered that the LPG fuel line rubber pipe was rubbing on the accessory drive belt. Not good but identified and rectified by the LPG installation people the next day. Had a broken TPMS sensor on the back wheel. Replaced and rectified by using the spare wheel sensor for now. Engine running fine, mpg is now up and the sound is nice too. |
69,634 Aug 2015 | I had a problem on the M25 where the MDS or Multi Displacement System would not switch from 4 back to 8 cylinders on either Gas or Petrol, so a very rough ride, it only ran OK after I switched the engine off and restarted it again, it’s only done that once. The M25 section was from the M11 to the A10, it was rough, flat and concrete so very judder inducing road surface. But it was running in 4cyl mode and on Cruise Control at around 50 mph at the time it started playing up. A couple of times in the last 2 months, it did something similar, only these previous times, just switching over to Petrol cured it while driving along. So a bit worrying. Maybe the wrong type of spark plugs, as LPG apparently needs different type. Still a litre of LPG now costs 49p in the UK and 43p in Germany. Update on the rough running. The tyre pressures were at 47 psi. So it seems the recent wheel refurbisment people had gone a bit OTT on that, the tyre pressures should be 33 psi when cold. That did not help with judder, so I also had an LPG service and that did not pick up any errors or issues. I will be getting some NGK spark plugs soon. |
66,900 June 2015 | Having got back from Chambon in one piece, it was time to spend even more money. The service was a bit more money this time. Passenger side front window regulator worn out and needs a new part. Put the Mopar Chrome Fuel Door Flap on to replace a worn item, it looks great. The protection is now back on and looks cool we are now back to the old 2005 look. The nice thing is you can take it off as well for better mpg when not off road. Plus with a rusted exhuast pipe, it was time for a new one. I went the custom build route for 40% savings. I opted for the Magnaflow #12586 muffler, about half the size of the stock one, and using the #14211 resonator muffler with a custom build single stainless pipe 2.5″ Cat back. Exhaust was £250 plus 2 mufflers and a tip from Magnaflow EU in Italy for £200. Sounds very meaty on hard acceleration. But pottering around town a gentle burble. It won’t piss the neighbours off at 6am in the morning. No MOT issues at all, and with the CAI about 30 extra HP. Emissions are not affected at all. No drone at 70mph like a Flowmaster. All stainless steel. |
62,500 January 2015 | A wall fell on the Jeep on boxing day in high winds. 2 doors and sill marked and dented. I may change the colour of the WK1 Jeep to one of the following 3 Jeep classic paint colours: Hydro Blue, Flame Red or Solar Yellow as half the truck will need to be repainted, plus the front and back bumpers. So I might as well go the whole hog and have the whole body repainted, but which colour will be best?LPG is working well, with 250 miles from 72 litres of Autogas easily attained. That gives me the equivalent of around 30mpg in UK gallons. If I was running a CRD Jeep rather than my HEMI, I would be lucky to get 18mpg under my driving conditions. So very cheap to run for a 4×4 SUV. Great with oil now at 60 dollars a barrel, as LPG fuel is now down to 62.9p a litre in Southend. Thanks to: www.filllpg.co.uk a great website for tracking LPG fuel prices. |
57,000 May 2014 | BRC conversion to LPG. Multipoint Fuel Injection system. Plus some new Cooper Discoverer 245 65 x 17 AT3. My choice for a low running cost but fast Jeep Grand Cherokee would be to have a WH/WK V8 running on LPG. I’ve had my Jeep 5.7 hemi since 2008 and driven nearly 50,000 miles in this Jeep. It has been very reliable so far. No engine repairs apart from oil changes and new plug spark plugs. There are 16 of these on the hemi.In the 5 years coming, I guess that I will be doing higher annual mileages of 24,000 miles a year. After 5 years of this, another 120,000 miles of Jeeping will be on my odometer. Was I right to pay for an expensive conversion? Yes. LPG will still be less money on fuel than diesel in the UK, even if I’ve spent GBP2400 on a good LPG conversion. Having done a projection with that figure based on a projected fuel economy of 18mpg with LPG Autogas, verses the likely 27mpg attainable in a WK or WH 3.0 CRD diesel. My running costs will still be cheaper. These are likely running figures for motorway driving with passengers. Urban driving you are looking at 13mpg LPG V 20 mpg (UK gall). KEY POINTS. The 5.7 hemi has MDS = Active Fuel Management. (It switches to 4 cyl on light load). The system works with LPG and petrol.V8 models were 4.7, 5.7 hemi and the mighty 6.1 hemi. Only the Jeep 5.7 HEMI Grand Cherokee had MDS. There are LPG Autogas stations all over the UK. Just Google LPG fill up. So very rare for me to be running on petrol ever. Lastly the 05 + 55 plate models have cheaper road tax |
54,000 January 2014 | New front struts from Monroe, New multifunction light switch from MOPAR, which fixed the flickering lights problems. Thanks mainly to the Jeep forums. New Front/Rear Number plates. Transmission recall by Jeep, reflash carried out by Jeep dealer Chelmsford, Essex. K&N air filter element. |
48,566 July 2013 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil Petro-Canada Synthetic oil. Stamp Service book. |
40,156 April 2012 | 1 x Oil Filter & sump washer, 1 x Air filter, 8 x Quarts of 5w 20 oil – Penzoil mineral, Stamp Service book. The Jeep has been refreshed with various parts. 1 x Gear knob – Jeep 2006 SRT8 Shifter, 1 x set of SRT8 pedals, 1 x New Rear Number plate frame fit with screws and pads so its stable .Service of Jeep, Rotate tyres, Inspect PCV valve, Check coolant condition 13.7 litre, Inspect drive belt, Lubricate Steering and Suspension, Check Ignition cables, Inspect exhaust for leaks. The next lot of modifications will be the exhaust where I’m going for the Magnaflow 16631 model using the 12586 muffler with a custom build. |
32,456 March 2011 |
That included; 5W20 engine oil, filters, new rear pads, new spark plugs, resetting of MDS system, MOT, 4 new tyres, transfer case refill, overall check of all mechanical systems. Stamp Service book. After the recent 30,000 mile service at the age of 6, the Jeep is in great shape still. On a drive yesterday to visit a client, I noted the following data. Using Shell 95 RON Unleaded petrol, driving with a SW tail wind of around 10mph, on the M25 north, driving at speeds between 50 – 65mph, my average mileage (UK Gallons) was 25.2mpg. This is not far off what my old 98 XJ Jeep Cherokee 2.5 TD could do. |
26,000 April 2010 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil Petro-Canada Synthetic oil. New brake pads front. Stamp Service book |
19,180 March 2009 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil Petro-Canada Synthetic oil. Stamp Service book. |
12,982 February 2008 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil. Vehicle purchased for GBP14,999. 2″ hitch receiver, Under body protection and recovery shackles. All came pre-fitted to this Jeep 5.7 HEMI Grand Cherokee Limited 2005. Winter grade rubber footwell mats fitted. Stamp Service book. Registration changes from SY05OPH to T31MEH. |
11510 February 2007 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil. |
4782 May 2006 | Oil filter + sump washer, Air filter, 2 US gallons or 8 litres of oil. |
0001 May 2005 | New Jeep 5.7 HEMI Grand Cherokee Limited 2005 sourced in Scotland VIN 1J8HDE8285Y548047 Registered as SY05OPH |
How rare is this model in the UK? Well I think quite rare with 234 left on the road as of the 12th August 2022. Only 377 of these were sold in 2005 and 2006 when it was removed from the UK market. But as you can clearly see, 17 years on 62% of these Jeeps are still going strong. This is one tough ULEZ compliant Jeep. A good buy now as they are so cheap.
Almost ten times as many CRD diesels were sold in the 2005 to 2010 period, but of these only 53% remain on the road, they are all non ULEZ compliant and many have the post 2005 UK £700 road tax!
A detailed record of my Jeep 5.7 HEMI, its complete history and maintenance since day 1. VIN 1J8HDE8285Y548047. Got one of these and fancy a T shirt? See my online UK shop.
Thanks for reading.
Laurence Dunn