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Service for 200K miles

17K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  ddavidv 
#1 ·
Ok. My 2007 Jeep Compass Limited has over 191K mi. on it now. It runs just fine. I wanted to trade but with high miles there is vitually no trade in value. I had other vehicles with well over 200K mi so I'll keep it.
I had a state inspection done at my dealership just weeks ago. It passed and didn't need anything, but I got some things creeping up I need to take care of.
One, my tires are shot, I need new tires real soon. Definitely before the snow flys.
Two, I had it suggested by a friend that I should put new spark plug wires on the vehicle along with new spark plugs. Seems reasonable to me!
Three, since the fuel pump and fuel filter is all one piece and not serviceable, I should change the fuel pump assembly and do it before it quits and lets me setting somewhere. I may do that!
Four, my rotors need turned they are warped. I have only changed the brakes one time since I owned the vehicle. The front brakes are worn but are still in decent shape and I expect they will last another 30 to 40K mi.
None of these items seem real expensive to do if I do them myself. Is there anything else I should do? I change tranny fluid every 60K mi. So it's been changed. I never changed the serpentine belt either. Guess I should do that.
It is FWD so no transfer cases or rear diff to deal with.
 
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#3 ·
Yup, no spark plug wires. These have coil packs, one per cylinder. Rather than having a single ignition coil with wires running to a distributor and each cylinder, these have an ignition coil on each spark plug/cylinder. I wouldn't replace the coil packs at all unless they go bad, they usually last a very long time.
 
#4 ·
First, I would highly recommend you replace the rotors rather than turn them. Their not that expensive. Second if you've never changed the rear rotors be advised that I would not remove the upper caliper bracket retaining bolt. Remove only the lower bolt then pivot the caliper bracket up. This allows easy removal of the rotor. Otherwise, the upper bolt is incredibly close to the brake line making it very difficult to get a socket on the bolt head. I know. I sheared the brake line clean off. A story for another day!

I would also recommend having the dealer replace the serpentine belt. It is not an easy install/reinstall. But if your adventurous - go for it!

Spark plugs - definitely a must. As mentioned above there are no spark plug wires as we use to know them.

Fuel pump replacement - why? Leave well enough alone. My 2 cents!
 
#5 ·
ssapmoc said:
First, I would highly recommend you replace the rotors rather than turn them. Their not that expensive. Second if you've never changed the rear rotors be advised that I would not remove the upper caliper bracket retaining bolt. Remove only the lower bolt then pivot the caliper bracket up. This allows easy removal of the rotor. Otherwise, the upper bolt is incredibly close to the brake line making it very difficult to get a socket on the bolt head. I know. I sheared the brake line clean off. A story for another day!

I would also recommend having the dealer replace the serpentine belt. It is not an easy install/reinstall. But if your adventurous - go for it!

Spark plugs - definitely a must. As mentioned above there are no spark plug wires as we use to know them.

Fuel pump replacement - why? Leave well enough alone. My 2 cents!
This +1. If you do replace the serp. belt I favor the goodyear gatorback belts.
 
#10 ·
Yeah. I'm an electrician by trade. Do alot of travel between powerplants. I drive routinely 35k mi to 40k mi a year. My girlfriend and I travel alot when not working. My second year of ownership. I drove total of 46k mi in one year. I keep track closely. If not reimbursed for mileage at work by my contractor. I keep it for mileage deduction for federal taxes.
It's really not hard tp put that kind of miles on a vehicle. I live in a rural area. I don't know that I have ever driven less than about 25k a year. Even before I had my current job. Our company pick-ups and Bucket trucks I seen rack up way more miles than that in a year.


To anyone out there with High mileage cars. I think any vehicle today should run 200K+ mi. The engineering tolerances to which stuff is build, and the safety requirements put on cars by goverment intervention, and new fuel requirements, all vehicles are quality machines. I don't care if your driving a Lexus or a Kia. One cannot by junk anymore when it comes to cars. The drivers and owners neglect the vehicles and that turns any vehicle into junk. You don't do routine maintainence the best Lexus and Honda won't ever see 200k mi. Abuse it and beat it a car won't see 200k mi. The average car build today in it's average life span will last 225k mi.

I know other factors limit how long a vehicle lasts. I live in PA in a snow region. After 10yrs of road salt it will destroy and rust away about any vehicle. Maybe not the body so much. But underneath. Tir rod ends, suspension parts, brake lines rusting, fuel lines rusting, exhaust rusting, PennDot is the biggest killer of cars!
 
#14 ·
Good for you! You found the two things that go bad routinely on these vehicles. Now, to complete your performance of Extreme Knowledge, advise us on which vehicles out there have ZERO typical failures so that we might also be enlightened.

Take your time...I'll wait...there's a lot of cold beers in my fridge. :cheers2:

I completely agree with the OP on the 200k thing. I've become so convinced of the durability of a decently maintained car that I now buy vehicles with 80-100k on them (let the gullible new car buyer take the depreciation hit). That formula has served me well with the last 5 purchases. Others are figuring this out too, as I rarely have trouble selling mine privately at the 180-220k mark, typically to college students who need cheap, reliable transportation.

The problem cars are usually the ones with the most gimmicky bells and whistles, or higher end cars like Audis (you want to talk about suspension parts problems...). I may lose my company car and have to buy a commuter beater, and I'll probably shop for a 100k Hyundai to do the job. Provided it's seen at least regular oil changes, it should provide good service until I can save up enough to buy something more fun.

Oh, and ditto tossing the warped brake rotors vs turning them; that never seems to last more than a month in my experience.
 
#12 ·
Far more issues with Patriots on leaky Dome-lights/Sunroofs than Compass' but if you Google the the problem you'll find that EVERY manufacture has issues on that. The LBJ's and Tie Rod ends seem to be a vendor issue on Dodges and Chrysler that use the same parts. 2009 on up don't seem to have as many issues but I'm not sure what has changed.
 
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