New Jeep owner with a question...

[Roland]

First off, I am glad to be the proud new owner of a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4x4. I think it is the best vehicle I have ever owned and love the thing.

My only concern is how loud it is. Now, I am not talking about the wind noise. It is a boxy vehicle so that is expected. I am talking about the loud humm it makes when you are at idle especially when you have the air condition on. Can anyone tell me if this is normal? The dealership told me that Cherokee Sports are just like that. I have owned trucks with bigger engines yet they were twice as quiet. I am not too concernced about it right now...just curios. If it is normal then so be it. Otherwise, I will have to drop it off and have them look at it in detail.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Roland

P.S. Cool Site!!!

[Tiffster]

It's the fan. Mne does it, everyone else I know with a 97+ does it....very loud fan.

Welcome to the site :D

[satan]

howdy Roland --

The XJ uses qty=2 fans one (on the passenger's side of the radiator) is belt driven off of the engine - you'll seldom hear much from that fan untill you get the RPMs up pretty well... the Fan you're likely hearing is the Auxillary fan - it's a quite strong electric fan that turns on whenever your A/C compressor is on and when the mechanical fan isn't able to keep-up with the cooling requirements of your motor.

The auxillary fan was redesigned for the 1993 year to make it quieter. The design added a few blades and also curved the leading and trailing edges. While making the fan more efficient at moving air, it had the undesired effect of creating a vibration, which has been hard to attenuate. Whe the new body style was introduced ('97) the radiator firewall's upper mount (really just for the curved valence piece where the Jeep emblem is mounted over the grill) and the grill were changed -- that all tends to couple that vibration into the unibody more than the prior years' design.

Just to be on the safe side -- open your hood and place the hood prop so the hood'll stay open. Start the engine and turn on the A/C (any A/C position or the Defrost position)... The belt on the front of the motor has its longest straight run between the alternator and the A/C compressor on the passenger's side (near the battery)... Without getting anything caught in the running engine parts, look at the vertical run of that belt between the alternator (near the bottom) and the A/C compressor at the top -- It's possible for the drivebelt to get into a harmonic vibration at low RPMs with a heavy A/C compressor load. If that is happening, the belt will vibrate (side-to-side; passenger's side to driver's side) about 1" or more whaich can sometimes be heard as a low hum (often the complaint is that it's felt through the steering wheel)... Changing the tension on the belt will affect the harmonic tuning of that length of the belt and "solve" that if that's what you're seeing/hearing... (I recommend loosening the belt untill that goes away, then driving the vehicle to check for belt slippage ,squealing, with EVERYTHING on and making lots of turns and steering input).

Gonn get a chance to go wheeling in your new 2K+1?

[bigfodee]

Its the mechanical fan. If you hear someone in another cherokee w/4.0 race away you will hear a loud vvvvffffffffff blowing noise that the fan is making. What I would reccomend is to get a real loud exhaust and sterero system.