Lets play "What do you see?" Jeep GC edition

For the past year now, I have been dabbling in buying insurance action "totals" and putting them back on the road.  My nieche has been cars that are "financially totaled" meaning that the car has more dollars in damage than worth bothering to fix by the insurance company.  An examples would be my Montero Limited with just a bent bumper,  '07 Focus with scratched bumper (yeah, just scratched),  2 Subarus and an F250 Super Duty 

This upcoming weeks aution has a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee that I am considering bidding on.  I know nothing about Jeeps but I suspect that many here do so I thought I would put up the link and ask y'all to look at the pics and tell me "what do you see?"  

https://www.iaai.com/Vehicle?itemID=27527667&rowNumber=5&loadRecent=True

It is being sold by Progressive Insurance after a collision.  Claims to have right rear and right side damage.  115k miles.  Keys present but does not start.

Details given say that the Jeep had a pre-accident Actual Cash Value (ACV) of $2,746 and has Estimated Repair Costs (ERC) of $2,641

Pic #1:

This is Cleveland so some rust does not scare us but to me, that is an odd chunk missing from front edge of hood.  However this is not a result of the accident the insurance is covering.  This did however likely reduce the overall value of the Jeep.  I have found via car-part.com that a local yard has a maroon hood for $100.  

Pic #2

Pic3:

Pic #4  I think this broken plastic is the thing that "totaled" the Jeep.  Could this be $2,641 worth of damage to repair at a body shop? (likely)

Pic 5: Maybe some wear on the driver's seat?

Pic 6: 

Pic 7:  4.0L

The real mystery to me is why it does not start.  The Auction yard tries to jump them with a very large battery rig.  Maybe they just did a bad job.  Maybe something more that y'all know.  Do these Jeeps have a fuel cut-off like Ford is know for that sometimes trips when/if the car is bumped really hard?  That would be easy.  

I expect that I will go look at the Jeep on Monday where I can bring my own jumper pack and try to see what's up.   I notice that the rear seat picture shows the dome light on.  This should mean there is either some battery or at least the pic was taken with the jumper attached to the Jeep.  

I liked how my ZJ drove, but the thing that scares me off from owning anymore Grand Cherokees is that the undersides rust way faster than the body. Mine had a fairly clean looking body, but the underside was an absolute mess, and they tend to rot around where the lower links on the front and rear suspension go on and then tear out of the body. Looked at a bunch more that were the same way, body was clean or had minor rust, suspension mounting points were swiss-cheesed and torn out.

The missing chunk on the hood could be from a whip antennae or some other similar solution.

The non-start could be a fuel cut off issue, but its hard to say without looking at the car more closely.

It could be an issue with the vehicle security system.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/1999-grand-cherokee-wont-start-fuel-pump-wont-run-stay-running-18726/

There's also issues with fuel pump relays, ASD relays and even the fuel pump connector.  I suspect the pump or the connector may have been damaged in the crash.

Stefan said:

It could be an issue with the vehicle security system.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/1999-grand-cherokee-wont-start-fuel-pump-wont-run-stay-running-18726/

There's also issues with fuel pump relays, ASD relays and even the fuel pump connector.  I suspect the pump or the connector may have been damaged in the crash.

 

Was just about to comment this! 

In reply to NickD :

ZJs do seem to rust in odd places like that, but if cared for or caught / fixed early it's not a huge issue.  WJs seem to get more visible body and rocker panel rust relative to chassis rust.  

I had not thought of security system. Yeah, these are the insights I'm looking for. 

Also noted, look underneath. 

There's a long list of no-start issues with GCs. Security and fuel pump have been mentioned. Also could be bad crank sensor, bad cam sensor, bad PCM, bad grounds, bad fuel pump, bad TPS (although unusual). Actually, all that is based on the ZJ, but the WJ is similar at least with the I6.

In reply to ultraclyde :

When I usually look at these cars that do not start, I often ask, "what happened in the accident that has caused the car to not run?"  I often make the assumption that the cars were running right up to the point of impact.  However, I guess that assumption doesn't have to be the case with this hit.  This Jeep could have been backed into while parked and maybe already in a more permanent state of non-running.

Also possible in this case could be, "what has caused this car not to run since it has likely sat for 2 months since the original impact?" 

4.0L... I bet on a bad crank sensor for the no start. That’s stupid common on those. Although I did see once a complete coil pack die along with the cam sensor being out of place. 

That rear cover is/was an unable to be obtained used piece of plastic because it’s a colored rough texture POS. So you’re stuck with the dealer at 8-900$. I sold a few in my time.

If that Jeep ends up in my hands I think a couple of zip ties in black will be hardly noticeable in a more desecrate version of this...  

I looked onto car-part.com and there are tons of used bumper covers available for $100 to $200.  This one for $150 but that doesn't matter cause zip ties are cheaper.  

Check out the driver's seat.  Is is just reclined or broken?

If the hood has a hole rusted through it, what does the rest of the car look like under all that plastic?

93gsxturbo said:

If the hood has a hole rusted through it, what does the rest of the car look like under all that plastic?

On this note, first places to rust badly are usually the front lip of the hood (as seen in the pictures), the rocker panels, and then door bottoms and the rear hatch along with the fenders.  Definitely worth giving the rest of it a good look for rust. 

I have seen a bunch with problems with the underhood module/fuse box that has a TLA that I cannot remember.

Or maybe that was Caravans.  Either way, Chryslers seem to have a lot of corrosion issues in the wiring and underhood modules.  When they aren't killing the O2 sensors by filling them with power steering fluid.  (Still the weirdest electrical problem I ever dealt with - the P/S pressure switch fails, and waterproof connectors are waterproof both ways, so P/S fluid under pressure pumps up through the wires into the PCM, and down into the O2s)

Anyway, the underneath rot on these can be remarkably horrific in how localized it is.  There must be some really odd water traps.  The front axle's lower links tearing off of the body is a common one, and every one I've seen was the right side that came off.

With the bumper cover damage there, I'd suspect that the reinforcement or something else got shoved over.  You could always just shove it back.

Knurled. said:

Anyway, the underneath rot on these can be remarkably horrific in how localized it is.  There must be some really odd water traps.  The front axle's lower links tearing off of the body is a common one, and every one I've seen was the right side that came off.

There's a reason for that one: the A/C condensate gets dumped into the "frame rail" in that area.  So if dirt is allowed to build up in there, it traps water and that area stays wet all summer and rots out. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Good thing we don't have a few months out of the year where the underside of the car gets constantly sprayed with a wet slurry of salt, bits of rock, and bits of asphalt ground away from the road by plow trucks.

I hear the "A/C drain" argument but I have a hard time buying it when there is much worse happening.

In reply to Knurled. :

The A/C drain is certainly not the main cause of rust, but it's the best reason I've found why on both ZJs and WJs that frame rail section by the lower control arm rusts so much worse on the passenger side than the driver's side.