Hey there, my name is Jim Nichols and I live in the Columbia SC area. Through a long (and boring) line of life events & decisions, I am now the owner of a 2006 Jeep Commander Limited, 5.7L Hemi. To be very upfront & honest, if I knew half the stuff I do now about the Commander a week ago, I would not have this vehicle now. Let me explain a tad bit:
I have a 2011 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (until it is officially sold this Friday), and actually really like this vehicle. The issue is that I owe the bank on it for another 2 years, and because of my "get debt free" kick right now, I decided to sell said Tahoe and buy something "that would do". My idea was to buy a vehicle outright for cash that had 4-wheel drive, HP to tow a boat, and not look like a total S%$@-bucket to drive around in; essentially something paid-for / higher mileage but still accomplish what I need to. I have owned a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Sport for a number of years back in 93 through 2003. I really liked that vehicle and it was so dependable and bullet proof, that when I was looking at vehicles that had my criteria; I was very intrigued when I saw a few Commanders in my price range.
So there I was last week, not really knowing a lot about the Commander and its gremlins, looking at a 2006 Limited 5.7L in North Charleston that looked fairly decent with 144,900 miles. To capsulate, brand new tires, no warning lights, started up promptly and purred in that uniquely 5.7L Hemi fashion, drove very well with no rattling, aside from the passenger side mirror. Felt right with what I knew about Jeeps at the time, so I paid the cash and off I went back to Columbia SC.
The trip was un-eventful. I filled up half way back and sped along at a good clip back to the house. My trip goes back part of the way on interstate and then turns into back country roads for the last bit of the trip. The weather was warm outside, with the midday sun giving me a clear view of the winding back roads of South Carolina and the Jeep was just eating up the miles and handling all the turns in a very confident / aggressive manner. I turned into my driveway feeling pretty good about the purchase, and was really happy in the way it was performing. It was truly a great day driving
Then the next morning, I am halfway to taking my daughter to school when reality started to rear it's ugly head. It started with the "Service Tire Pressure System" warning coming on. I quickly cycled through to the tire pressure info to see all tires reading out good. Stopped; visually inspected tires: all Good. So, I continued on to drop my daughter off. I made it halfway to work when the check engine and airbag light came on. I was thinking, "Oh Man!! Here we go!!". So I quickly decided to run the vehicle to Firestone, near my job, and see what the deal was. By the end of this visit, I was told that the vehicle was spitting out 20-something error codes, ranging from transmission sensor, Air-bag, catalytic converter and a few other minor codes.
So that night, I did the research I should have done prior to purchasing the Jeep. I learned a lot in a short while from this forum and a couple of Facebook Commander groups. Yep; now I know, and I am a little scared. The Commander is running and still sounds great, but man does it have a lot of warning light and nit-noid things to figure out.
I just cant figure how none of these things happened as I test drove the vehicle or that blissful first day of driving it home. Well, at least I had the first day....
So, now I expect I will be clamoring for information and problem-shooting like it's going out of style. I am now reading everything I can here and other places and am waiting on the new ECM to arrive at the house to replace the current one, hoping that this will cure a lot of what is going on. I am getting it from carcomputerexchange.
Man I want to make this thing work....
I have a 2011 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (until it is officially sold this Friday), and actually really like this vehicle. The issue is that I owe the bank on it for another 2 years, and because of my "get debt free" kick right now, I decided to sell said Tahoe and buy something "that would do". My idea was to buy a vehicle outright for cash that had 4-wheel drive, HP to tow a boat, and not look like a total S%$@-bucket to drive around in; essentially something paid-for / higher mileage but still accomplish what I need to. I have owned a 1992 Jeep Cherokee Sport for a number of years back in 93 through 2003. I really liked that vehicle and it was so dependable and bullet proof, that when I was looking at vehicles that had my criteria; I was very intrigued when I saw a few Commanders in my price range.
So there I was last week, not really knowing a lot about the Commander and its gremlins, looking at a 2006 Limited 5.7L in North Charleston that looked fairly decent with 144,900 miles. To capsulate, brand new tires, no warning lights, started up promptly and purred in that uniquely 5.7L Hemi fashion, drove very well with no rattling, aside from the passenger side mirror. Felt right with what I knew about Jeeps at the time, so I paid the cash and off I went back to Columbia SC.
The trip was un-eventful. I filled up half way back and sped along at a good clip back to the house. My trip goes back part of the way on interstate and then turns into back country roads for the last bit of the trip. The weather was warm outside, with the midday sun giving me a clear view of the winding back roads of South Carolina and the Jeep was just eating up the miles and handling all the turns in a very confident / aggressive manner. I turned into my driveway feeling pretty good about the purchase, and was really happy in the way it was performing. It was truly a great day driving
Then the next morning, I am halfway to taking my daughter to school when reality started to rear it's ugly head. It started with the "Service Tire Pressure System" warning coming on. I quickly cycled through to the tire pressure info to see all tires reading out good. Stopped; visually inspected tires: all Good. So, I continued on to drop my daughter off. I made it halfway to work when the check engine and airbag light came on. I was thinking, "Oh Man!! Here we go!!". So I quickly decided to run the vehicle to Firestone, near my job, and see what the deal was. By the end of this visit, I was told that the vehicle was spitting out 20-something error codes, ranging from transmission sensor, Air-bag, catalytic converter and a few other minor codes.
So that night, I did the research I should have done prior to purchasing the Jeep. I learned a lot in a short while from this forum and a couple of Facebook Commander groups. Yep; now I know, and I am a little scared. The Commander is running and still sounds great, but man does it have a lot of warning light and nit-noid things to figure out.
I just cant figure how none of these things happened as I test drove the vehicle or that blissful first day of driving it home. Well, at least I had the first day....
So, now I expect I will be clamoring for information and problem-shooting like it's going out of style. I am now reading everything I can here and other places and am waiting on the new ECM to arrive at the house to replace the current one, hoping that this will cure a lot of what is going on. I am getting it from carcomputerexchange.
Man I want to make this thing work....