When I bought my 1992 Jeep Comanche 4×4 5spd, I thought I got a white-hot deal. After all, $6,500 for such a rare, beautifully-spec’d truck is on the lower end of the market, especially given that it immediately made easy work of an 800 mils drive from Boise, Idaho to LA. But upon arriving home, I found several problems, and now the Comanche has become a money-pit.
I’ve purchased enough old vehicles to know that the sale price is only the beginning of a wallet-punishing journey towards the unreachable goal of vehicular perfection, and yet my latest Jeep Comanche expenses are still painful to swallow.
Before we get into them, let’s go through the positives, because otherwise I’ll go mad. The Jeep Comanche is essentially rust-free, which is a huge deal. Rust repairs are the worst. On top of that, the truck seems to be, at least from a powertrain/drivetrain standpoint, in almost perfect condition. The engine makes good power, it burns no oil, and it’s hooked to a transmission that shifts like it’s brand new. The Comanche is a true joy to drive, and I adore it.
But it’s a bit needy. For one, the mud-terrain tires that came on it were loud and old. I bought a new set of Kumho all-terrains, and that cost me a pretty penny: Over $400!
Then I took the MJ to get smogged, and it failed. Spectacularly. In fact, the technician at the Smog shop told me there were so many holes in the exhaust, his sniffer couldn’t even get a reading.
A glance under the truck revealed the numerous issues:
So I bought a new muffler for $40:
But I also snagged a new, California-compliant catalytic converter. Is it possible the old Idaho cat could still get me through?
Maybe? I’m not familiar enough with California Smog laws to know. Also, I’m having someone weld up an exhaust for me, so I may as well make sure they don’t have to do it twice.
There goes another $400. So that’s $800 on top of the $6,500 asking price. Another issue I realized was that my rear suspension was bottoming out over even the smallest bumps. What was the issue? The shocks were completely toast:
There goes another $100.
I fear, though, that the shocks aren’t the only issue. Even though ride height doesn’t seem too low compared to stock, I get the feeling that the rear leafs are not ready to handle the enormous 1,400 pound load I’m about to subject them to in the form of four axles, a transmission, and a transfer case for my eBay WWII Jeep build.
So I bought more leaf springs, to the tune of another $400.
There are a few expenses that, admittedly, I could have held out on, but I couldn’t resist. For one, the rear bumper is original, and given how rare factory bumpers are on MJs, I don’t want to have to worry about this one, so I’m going to replace it with a beefier one, which cost me $280 with brackets:
I also spent $200 on the trim piece for the back of the cab — a piece that is basically unobtainium. It wasn’t cheap at $220:
Add the $700 in California tax/registration fees, and I’m in this MJ deep. Much deeper than my asking price.
[Note: I also bought spare rear fender flares while they can still be obtained (they are hyper rare). Those cost me $200. Gulp!]
That puts me at over $9,000 spent on this Jeep Comanche, and I still haven’t installed air conditioning. This thing ain’t cheap! But given that it is enabling me to sell both my Chevy K1500 and my Jeep J10, I will still come out ahead. Between that, and the fact that I just adore this little red Jeep, I still have no regrets.
Top graphic images: David Tracy; DepositPhotos.com
Where are the expensive parts?
A mere money pothole!
BTW, why are most pits: gravel pits, tar pits, and open pit mines, places you extract value from, but money pits seem to be the destination of value?
Somewhere on that list , the springs maybe, it seems like you’re getting into speculative spending. I would have just maybe put a pair of air bags on and enjoyed the better ride and progressive spring rate.
That new bumper seems unnecessary. If anything you are transferring the weak point of failure to the frame.
If you are saving the factory original unobtainium bumper for later, when are you going to put it back on? On the other hand a replacement bumper makes a great place to bolt a vice to.
Do NOT use that bumper hitch. I had one on my old Dakota, seemed fine, pulled the boat out and it ripped that part of the bumper off. Install a real frame mounted hitch if you’re going to tow anything.
$9000 total doesn’t seem unreasonable as long as you actually sell the other two trucks.
Make it $11k after getting the AC sorted and if it means being able to sell 2 other trucks so this can be your 1 useful truck that also starts easily bc it is fuel injected… then yes that’s pretty well bought and lightly worked through for a reliable rust free truck!
Until you install AC, you’ll definitely need the vent quarter windows. There goes a few more hundred!
I’m sort of jealous that you’re kicking off a new XJ(ish) project. I’m running out of things I really want to modify on mine!
A whole 2 cm, huh? 😛
Look, it’s an Autopian’s car. It’s an achievement that it even moves under its own power. 🙂
DT bought and now owns another money pit?
I am shocked, shocked I say…
Well, he’s got competition on a whole new level now in @AndrewGanz!
I think anyone committed to keeping a vehicle long-term eventually has those times when a bunch of expenses hit at once. What you’ve listed here really isn’t too bad; most are parts you would expect to wear out after so much time and so many miles. The Idaho cat might pass, but who knows how long it’s been on there…speaking from experience, you definitely don’t want to risk the internal structure failing and blocking the exhaust flow.
So when you say rust free you are just talking about the body? Because those under vehicle shots sure look like rust town to me.
[Ed note: Wishing death on most of our contributors will get you banned pretty quickly.]
Adam – Based on your comments, I’m not sure you’re the right fit for The Autopian. Might I recommend another site that fits with your style of writing…something like 4Chan?
Be nice.
What do you mean I’m pretending I don’t know about cars? I’m literally building a ww2 jeep from scratch… I’m just telling you what’s going on with my jeep Comanche…
There is absolutely no reason why anybody should be upset by an article about the stuff I am fixing on my car…
I mustn’t feed the trolls. I mustn’t feed the trolls. I mustn’t…
If there were no holes in the exhaust ahead of the converter, the smog guy was just being lazy. There is a small probe attachment that can be placed in any hole bigger than about 3/8″. It is not required to go in the tailpipe, it just has to be placed upstream of any large holes as to not get too much oxygen dilution.
I had a old Toyota pickup that had to go through smog, and he couldn’t get a reading at the tailpipe due to the holes, so he just put it at one of the first holes and it passed. I was pleasantly surprised, and wasn’t going to question it!
The muffler and tailpipe isnt an emission control device – the cops may require you to have a muffler and tailpipe but emissions doesnt care about anything after the converter.
Wow! Very interesting.
From the CA Smog Check Manual – section 1.2.4 Exhaust Dilution/Sample Dilution:
Sample dilution can be caused by an exhaust leak, but does not necessarily require exhaust system repair to inspect the vehicle.
• A Smog Check inspection is not intended to sell exhaust work on a testable vehicle. Of course, any time an inspector finds a potential safety hazard, such as an exhaust leak, the inspector should notify the customer and note the problem on all copies of the repair order.
• If there is an opening in the exhaust system that will allow the inspector to safely insert the probe properly without causing damage to the vehicle, the inspector may use it to obtain the sample as long as the opening is downstream of all emission control components (such as a catalytic converter).
https://www.bar.ca.gov/pdf/smog-check-manual.pdf
The tip I mentioned looks like this and the tech has to unscrew the flex hose at the end of the sample probe and replace it with this https://emissionsdepot.com/bar-97-smog-parts/esp-smog-parts/esp-probe-tips/esp-tailpipe-probe-tip-needle/
I had a smog guy in CA complain once because my S10 had a turn down under the bed. How am I supposed to get to that he asked? I’m like you get your fat ass down there and do it? I’ll do it if you can’t.
Yeah, I used to be a smog guy and I hated them but its not that hard.
I guess I can’t comment that it seems like a waste since I have probably spent 10K on my old car in the last year. That said I only did basic maintenance and small wear items on it for the 15 years prior so it was due for some major love. Don’t throw stones from a glass house or something something like that.
Seems normal for a 32 year old vehicle. Didn’t you look under it to see that the exhaust is rusted out? Also, moving to LA to be a car guy is a huge mistake. If its not older than 1974 (?) it has to pass smog full in most of the big city counties. I have no sympathy for that aspect. Move somewhere car friendly like almost anywhere in the SE USA. Sorry to rant David. That is a very sweet looking Commanche otherwise.
Yeah, but then you’d be in the southeast USA. Womp womp (trombone noises) I grew up there, but have lived here over 25 years, and can safely say the West Coast is the best coast.
It’s all good. I bet with a CAT and some exhaust work this thing will pass without issue.
Did it actually get a completed test but fail due to excessive emissions or did it just “fail” because the test couldnt be completed?
Without tailpipe numbers, you could be condemning a completely functional converter.
CA smog isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. I suspect those who do are ones who have never dealt with it. There’s lots of reasons I wouldn’t move back to LA, but smog checks dont even crack the top 10 at this point in my life.
I think the biggest problem was back when people were trying to get older cars that people had removed critical parts from that are no longer obtainable passed. Now that those have been filtered out over the past 20-30 years, and people have accepted that they need to leave the emissions stuff on their cars intact, largely because it’s no longer a tangle of vacuum lines under the hood, it’s not the problem it was back in the 80s and 90s.
Agreed, these days I probably wouldn’t even think about it at all. I don’t think I ever had a car actually fail when I lived there, and I had plenty of mods back then (on older cars too!)
I’m not convinced the original cat is bad – since a test couldnt be completed due to the exhaust leaks the converter may not be able to function properly (assuming it has leaks ahead of the converter – too much oxygen can stop it from lighting off properly and make it fail). If its just leaks after the converter, then it would have zero impact on converter function.
Aftermarket cats have a fraction of the precious metals the OE ones do – thats why they’re so cheap. While likely the original converter is not as efficient as the new one is – its also entirely possible it still functions more than well enough to pass the inspection if it is tested properly.
Get back Loretta.
Get back to where you once belonged…
I really hope the smog works out for you. As a fellow Californian I don’t bother with out of state vehicles for exactly that reason.
I fully support living with no regrets!
Keep the primary responsibilities in mind (family, safety – the biggest ones) and keep on trucking.
Still think you ought to have the Jeep parts shipped! Your wife and child will appreciate it!
Compare to what? You are basically doing maintenance items, save for the bumper and trim. You could get a newer Tacoma that wouldn’t need all of this but you are probably looking at 20-25K for a 2 year old SR.
If you say another 1,500 for AC that takes you to 10,500 that is Half of a newer vehicle. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
And for a way cooler vehicle. I’ve got nothing against Tacomas but the Comanche is objectively cooler.
emphasis on ‘newer’, not ‘new’.