Day 1 suggestions?

JKFreedom

JKFreedom

New Member
Joined
Jan 7, 2021
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21
Location
Central Florida
I just posted in the new member forum. Saturday, I take delivery of my new to me JK Freedom Edition. It has less than 40k miles with all service records, including warranty cylinder head work that was done a few thousand miles ago. It presents almost like new and was well taken care of and garage kept. Wondering if anyone has any recommendations of things to do or check on day 1? I don't have any mods planned as of yet but I will only be able to tinker around with it in the driveway and garage for the first couple of days because I have to wait until Monday to go submit my paperwork to get a license plate and registration and, due to COVID, may have to wait until the following day to pick up my tag. I've owned several Jeeps (Liberty(wife), Cherokee Classic, Wrangler TJ Sahara), but this is my first one in over 10 years.

jeep4.jpg
 
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I would go through and check all the fluids and change if they need to be. Clean and tighten the battery cables and other grounds. Check tire pressures and maybe even check torque on the lugnuts. Check air filter.

Having the low miles it does shouldn't need much in the line of maintenance.
 
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Good looking JK and welcome to the boards.
Put some fresh cardboard under it and check for drips. How long was it sitting on the lot? (rhetorical question)
 
Crawl under it and get familiar with it. Grab wrenches so you know what needs what. Fluid change is good. Being in Central FL, the salt monster shouldn't be too bad.

I know you mentioned you don't have any mods planned, but if you have stock headlights, I would change those out. The stock headlights put out a good amount of light, but it's not focused and they produce a lot of glare. You don't HAVE to go LED, but that is what everyone pretty much will tell you. I've put in E-code Cibies that were so much better than stock.

Really, just become familiar with it and enjoy it 👍
 
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Chris said:
Very first thing you need to do (trust me on this), is buy one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H90NWXG/?tag=jkforum-20

You'll thank me big time!
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Thanks! Bonus for me - it already had one of those installed.

Things done so far:

Upgraded audio system
Removed sliders and installed Havoc bars with integrated steps
Rough Country Aluminum front grab bars
Rugged Ridge phone mount
 
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tsetsefly1 said:
Nice! How was the install on the new head unit? Looks like there was some doctoring needed?

I'm going to be upgrading audio this winter... just not sure what to go with yet.
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I'll preface my response with the fact that I've installed replacement head units in many different vehicles over the years. I ALWAYS use Crutchfield as a source for gear and a resource for support. More recently, YouTube is always a big help as well. All that said, I'm not a pro installer. So, first off you need to get the proper gear - that usually means adapters for your specific vehicle including a dash mounting kit. I'd rate this install as being easier than most I've done as far as accessing the area and making any necessary modifications. With the proper "kit" or "gear", you really only need to make 2 small modifications - 1 is just removing 2 bolts and a metal frame that sits behind the factory radio under the dash. The other is trimming about a quarter inch of material off of a plastic rail that runs across the area just above where the radio goes. To do that, I used an electric cutting tool (high speed rotating disc) and it got the job done quick but was probably an example of killing an ant with an elephant gun - in other words it can be done with a small hand saw or possibly even a serrated knife.

Do yourself a favor and search YouTube for installing head unit in JK and you'll find plenty of how-to stuff out there. Same thing for replacing the speakers. I will say that what I found about replacing the dash speakers was highly over-stated with respect to level of difficulty. Watching the videos first definitely helped but it was nowhere near as hard or time consuming as some people said it would be. I had both front speakers out, filled with poly fill and new speakers installed and back in the dash in under an hour.

Crutchfield makes it easy for DIY'ers. You can search for what fits your specific vehicle and they show you exactly what gear you need to purchase with it to make it all work. They even offer a service now where they will prewire your harness for you for a $25 fee so you don't even need to figure out which wires to splice together. And, no, I don't work for Crutchfield but they have certainly received many dollars from me over the years.
 
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I do need to do the speaker upgrade.

Did you use the Maestro adapter or PAC?

My headunit is a Dasaita 10.2(?)" restyle unit. Didn't need the PAC adapter like I did for my last JK but this one doesn't have the subwoofer & amp, either.
 
JerryD said:
I do need to do the speaker upgrade.

Did you use the Maestro adapter or PAC?

My headunit is a Dasaita 10.2(?)" restyle unit. Didn't need the PAC adapter like I did for my last JK but this one doesn't have the subwoofer & amp, either.
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I used the Maestro adapter but that was mostly because I already had it. I just had to get the Chrysler harness to replace my GM harness - 30 bucks. It kind of turned out nice though because it does tie in UConnect and such. I didn't install the optional ODBII wiring which would have let me view gauges on the head unit but I am able to see things like my tire pressures because of the Maestro. I suppose if you really wanted to just bypass all the other external junk and just do a straight stereo install, and you don't mind dealing with the extra wiring, you could go old school and just put the unit in with no harness or adapter and wire straight to the speakers.
 
JKFreedom said:
I'll preface my response with the fact that I've installed replacement head units in many different vehicles over the years. I ALWAYS use Crutchfield as a source for gear and a resource for support. More recently, YouTube is always a big help as well. All that said, I'm not a pro installer. So, first off you need to get the proper gear - that usually means adapters for your specific vehicle including a dash mounting kit. I'd rate this install as being easier than most I've done as far as accessing the area and making any necessary modifications. With the proper "kit" or "gear", you really only need to make 2 small modifications - 1 is just removing 2 bolts and a metal frame that sits behind the factory radio under the dash. The other is trimming about a quarter inch of material off of a plastic rail that runs across the area just above where the radio goes. To do that, I used an electric cutting tool (high speed rotating disc) and it got the job done quick but was probably an example of killing an ant with an elephant gun - in other words it can be done with a small hand saw or possibly even a serrated knife.

Do yourself a favor and search YouTube for installing head unit in JK and you'll find plenty of how-to stuff out there. Same thing for replacing the speakers. I will say that what I found about replacing the dash speakers was highly over-stated with respect to level of difficulty. Watching the videos first definitely helped but it was nowhere near as hard or time consuming as some people said it would be. I had both front speakers out, filled with poly fill and new speakers installed and back in the dash in under an hour.

Crutchfield makes it easy for DIY'ers. You can search for what fits your specific vehicle and they show you exactly what gear you need to purchase with it to make it all work. They even offer a service now where they will prewire your harness for you for a $25 fee so you don't even need to figure out which wires to splice together. And, no, I don't work for Crutchfield but they have certainly received many dollars from me over the years.
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Good to hear. I've used Crutchfield products/customer support in my TJ and they were great. I don't see an instance where I won't buy from them. And as you say, if you want to pay for some extra's there is almost no work involved outside of removing the dash and some minor install stuff. I've watched a ton of YouTube videos too and from what I can tell the only alterations needed are the two you describe above (the bracket removal and trimming of the plastic 'bar'.

Now the real hard part is figuring out what head unit to purchase. woof!!

Looks great man!!
 
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