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Let's say you're overlanding ...

Jim Moore

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 7, 2022
Member Number
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Jax, FL
... overlanding in your Jeep Grand Cherokee. In the Serengeti . I mean, why not? It has an "Overland Edition" plague. The owner's manual is covered in camouflaged textile. Hardcore, right? Anyway, at your campsite that night you mention to your new Masai friends that you're a little low on oil. No problem, they say. We have oil in our tiny village. You buy some the next morning. They don't have the recommended 5w-20 ( It's the Serengeti after all), so you grab a quart of 5w-30. No problem, right? It's an overland vehicle. Probably run on vegetable oil if it had to. Not quite. There's a sensor in the engine that recognizes that you used the wrong oil. So what does that sensor do? Probably gives you a little yellow "check oil" light, right? No. It keeps you from starting the engine. At random times. Like when the rhinoceros you've been patiently stalking whirls to charge ...

Ridiculous, you say? No one actually goes to the Serengeti. True enough. How about this? You're towing a trailer. A small trailer with a single motorcycle. No big deal, right? It's designed for this. It has a "tow package." Not quite. It also has a sensor in the drive train that looks for "irregularities." When it senses one it probably gives you some sort of warning to "check blah, blah, blah." Right? No. At random times it says, "OMG we appear to have a large, heavy object attached directly to the back of the vehicle! STOP RIGHT NOW AND SORT THIS OUT!" And kills the engine. Right there on I-10. After you coast to the side, shut down, and re-start it says, "Oh, that's just a trailer. Never mind. Carry on." And runs fine the rest of the way home.

Goddammit, I hate this vehicle. If anyone ever tries to give you a Jeep Grand Cherokee for free, punch them in the face. Even if it's your mom.
 
So....did you just wake up one morning and find this vehicle sitting abandoned in your driveway, so you started driving it?

Or....did you intentionally purchase it?

If the latter, then the only person you can blame is the idiot you see staring back at you in the rear view mirror as you sit stranded on the side of the road.

:augie
 
So....did you just wake up one morning and find this vehicle sitting abandoned in your driveway, so you started driving it?

Or....did you intentionally purchase it?

If the latter, then the only person you can blame is the idiot you see staring back at you in the rear view mirror as you sit stranded on the side of the road.

:augie
Your point is not invalid, but Mrs. Moore LOVES Grand Cherokees. This is our third. Each one a bigger POS than the previous.
 
Had one of these for many years and don't remember it caring what kind of oil i threw in.
It was a complete rust bucket, the emissions sucked and the 360 lump was not enough to move the thing with any spirit, but at least it got crappy MPGs.
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There's a sensor in the engine that recognizes that you used the wrong oil. So what does that sensor do? Probably gives you a little yellow "check oil" light, right? No. It keeps you from starting the engine. At random times. Like when the rhinoceros you've been patiently stalking whirls to charge ...

Sorry, but that's not a thing. There is no sensor in the engine that can tell oil type / viscosity. What can happen is a higher viscosity oil could cause the MDS solenoids to react slowly, which will trigger a code but not keep the engine from starting. You've got other issues going on there.
 
Sorry, but that's not a thing. There is no sensor in the engine that can tell oil type / viscosity. What can happen is a higher viscosity oil could cause the MDS solenoids to react slowly, which will trigger a code but not keep the engine from starting. You've got other issues going on there.
I've definitely got other issues going on there, LOL. Mainly that's a piece of shit car. last time I had hard starting and poor performance (a feature of this particular brand) I pulled a P1521 code which the internet seems to think is a "wrong oil viscosity" code. Not what I need when I'm being charged by a rhino.
 
We used to go overlanding a lot when I was a kid. We had a beat up 60's station wagon and a canvas tent. Never had those kinds of issues, but we called it camping.:1drink
 
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