Salinity's 07 Base

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salinity
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:28 am
Location: RI

Salinity's 07 Base

Post by salinity »

After 12 years of the same car (95 Jeep Cherokee 2.5 cyl), I took the plunge in October and scored an 07 Base Vibe with 83K miles. I drive ~120 mi roiund trip to work 3-4 days a week, so that odometer is going to get a quick workout.
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Got a few things to work on - some necessary, some preference. Hopefully start ticking more boxes soon...

First thing I did was clean the throttle body & MAF - big ups to those who put together some good threads on that.

Next, I got underneath and tried to get over the shock of how much corrosion was evident (compared to my somewhat doted-on 22 year old Cherokee) that I conveniently chose to ignore when buying the car (only 83K miles!). I brushed away what I could and put a few coats of Krylon on it before the winter. Ball joint and control arm areas were the worst - not a huge deal - something to look into in the spring. I'll look into replacing what needs replacing (ball joints) and undercoat the rest.

I poked around looking for the source of a chirp / rattle and have narrowed it down to the exhaust manifold area. Only an annoyance when the windows are down, so perhaps another spring job! (I did get a bundle of hose clamps to clamp down the lower manifold heat shield which is inexplicable missing a bolt).

I installed Yakima bars (one set with rail-grabs on the rails, one set of Q-clips up front) - tested them when toting a surfboard on roof while dropping my wife at the airport- seemed to work well at 70mph. I love the utility look of a good roof rack. A fairing with some cool stickers will round that out.

Driving back from the beach the second week I had it, the radio LED display started to go out. I heard of this being an issue so I ordered a new JVC stereo & install kit from Crutchfield. With all that driving, I depend on a good radio and really wanted an aux port, so this is well worth it (install turned out to be fairly easy).

I fixed the lower passenger door trim - needed to order the clips from eBay, as mine were busted: https://www.ebay.com/i/201138874806?chn=ps&dispctrl=1

I also took on the probably not entirely needed job of replacing the drivers side wheel well trim (the old trim had a small hole from where the wheel rubbed through when it came loose). Man, was that a b!#(h. Reward not really worth the effort, but it's in there now. It was definitely good to clear the drain though - there was probably 10 Autumn's worth of leaves and dirt packed in there. Because of that, I decided to take off the wiper motor cover and clean out as much as I could from that area as well. A coat hanger was key to at least somewhat clear both drains from the windshield edge down through the frame. That felt good.

I picked up a pack of 45 trim fasteners which have been key, as a bunch have worked loose or were missing all over the place.

To Do:
1. Snow tires - scouring Craigslist for a decent set already mounted. Hopefully I can then address the crappy state of the current steelies (need a good brushing and painting).

2. Fix the roof - it seems to be separated from the cross braces from the rear doors on back. It's like having a piece of loose sheet metal on top of the car - loud WHOMP when I close the rear doors or hatch. Need a warm-ish day to pull the headliner and see what's what up there. Probably a spring job as well, as I'll probably need to use some sort of panel adhesive or cold weld to re-attach it (hopefully it's that easy).

3. Replace the serpentine belt tensioner (possibly) - belt has more deflection than I think it should, but it's not making any noise yet.

4. Headlamp rejuvenation - pretty "foggy" looking right now.

5. Engine mounts (?) - a bit of vibration - front was replace before buying - might at least try the passenger side if I'm replacing the tensioner.

6. Front brakes - they were done at something like 40K, but I'm noticing some vibration when braking when they warm up - rotors probably need replacing.

7. A good cleaning!

8. I'd really like to bedline the trim around the doors and fenders - not digging the light grey that looks pretty faded. Cosmetics will have to wait though.
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2007 Base
salinity
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:28 am
Location: RI

Re: Salinity's 07 Base

Post by salinity »

New radio received and installed. Ordered from Crutchfield - $80 "out the door" with everything needed for installation save for the wire crimps ($3.49 for a pack of 10 at the hardware store). Installation took about an hour and was fairly straightforward. I have no moonroof, so I presume no moon & tunes package. I did not need the extra red wire connection that has been the subject of some confusion in prior installation posts. Antenna simply used a converter to fit in the new head unit.

Pretty psyched to ditch the FM transmitter and I like the little extra storage under the stereo (perfect for phone). Initial tests sounded pretty good, though the lack of quality speakers was pretty evident at higher volumes. Those aren't a priority at this point though - just happy to have a hardwire connection to podcasts and pandora.
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2007 Base
NewVibe1
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:18 pm

Re: Salinity's 07 Base

Post by NewVibe1 »

Salinity,I also have a 2007 base in the same color combo.I agree about the faded gray trim,I'm thinking about matte black trim paint but will have to wait for warmer weather as it's snowing here in Georgia.How many trim clips did it take to do the door trim?I'm thinking about pulling all the trim and bumper covers to paint them.
salinity
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:28 am
Location: RI

Re: Salinity's 07 Base

Post by salinity »

NewVibe1 wrote:Salinity,I also have a 2007 base in the same color combo.I agree about the faded gray trim,I'm thinking about matte black trim paint but will have to wait for warmer weather as it's snowing here in Georgia.How many trim clips did it take to do the door trim?I'm thinking about pulling all the trim and bumper covers to paint them.
Yeah - snow tires with rattlecam painted steelies (black) look way better than the crusty hubcaps against the faded trim, but would still like to remedy that. Way down on the spring / summer priority list though.

I had to replace 2-3 clips to get my trim back seated (a couple clips were busted when I bought it). If I recall correctly, there were probably 7-10 clips on that piece alone. Definitely have a bunch on hand if you’re pulling all the trim - the ones I ordered were a bit different than the oem ones on the trim, but they seemed to work.
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2007 Base
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