I Speak Jeep Mar 4, 2026

Jeep Creature Comforts - Heaters!

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

77:57

Term

four-wheel drive

Four-wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels at the same time, which helps it drive better on dirt, snow, or mud.

Brand

Vivos Diesel Heaters are special heaters you can add to your vehicle to keep it warm, especially when it's very cold outside. They use diesel fuel to make heat and are great for people who camp or drive in cold places.

Car

Jeep XJ

The Jeep XJ is a type of Jeep Cherokee made between 1984 and 2001. It's popular for being tough and good for off-road driving.

Part

blower motor resistor

The blower motor resistor helps control how fast the fan blows air in your car's heater or air conditioner. If it breaks, the fan might only blow air on the highest setting.

Car

Jeep TJ

The Jeep TJ is a version of the Jeep Wrangler made from 1997 to 2006. It has springs that make it better to drive on roads and off-road.

Car

Jaguar Xjs

The Jaguar XJ-S is a fancy, comfortable car made a long time ago. Some parts that control the car's electrical system can stop working right, causing problems.

Car

Jeep Wrangler

The Jeep JK Wrangler is a popular off-road vehicle that came out in 2007. It has a boxy shape and is great for driving on rough roads or trails.

Part

heater core

The heater core is like a tiny radiator inside the car's dashboard. It helps warm up the air so the inside of the car gets warm when you turn on the heater.

Car

Jeep JK

The Jeep JK is a newer Jeep Wrangler made from 2007 to 2018. It has more modern features and options, including a version with four doors for more passengers.

Term

Uconnect system

Uconnect is a screen and control system in some cars that helps you use music, maps, and phone features. Sometimes it can stop working well, especially in older cars.

Part

O-ring seal

An O-ring seal is a small rubber ring that fits between parts to stop liquids or air from leaking out. It helps keep things like coolant or oil inside the car's pipes.

Part

crimp fitting

A crimp fitting is a special connector that holds tubes together tightly so fluids don't leak out.

Term

HVAC

HVAC is the system in your car that heats or cools the air inside so you feel comfortable when driving.

Term

actuator

An actuator is a part that moves things in the car, like opening vents or locking doors, usually controlled by the car's computer.

Term

auto climate control

Auto climate control means the car can keep the inside temperature comfortable by itself. You just set the temperature, and the car adjusts the heat or air conditioning automatically.

Term

manual climate control

Manual climate control means you have to turn knobs or press buttons yourself to make the car warmer or cooler. The car doesn't do it automatically.

Car

Jeep Grand Cherokee

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a big car that can drive on rough roads and has nice inside features. But some older versions had problems that made them not work well.

Term

cooling system

The cooling system helps keep the engine from getting too hot by moving special liquid called coolant around the engine.

Part

thermostat

The thermostat is like a gate that controls how hot or cold the engine gets by letting coolant flow or not. It helps the engine stay at the right temperature so it works well.

Part

accelerator pedal

The accelerator pedal is the pedal you press with your foot to make the car go faster.

Term

discharge the AC

Discharging the AC means letting out the cold gas from the car's air conditioner before fixing or taking out parts, so nothing gets broken.

Part

upper intake manifold

The upper intake manifold is a part on top of the engine that helps send air to the engine so it can run. Sometimes it needs to be taken off to fix other parts.

Term

harnesses

Harnesses are groups of wires in the car that connect different parts so they can work together. They carry electricity and signals.

Term

coolant

Coolant is a special liquid that helps keep your car's engine from getting too hot by carrying heat away from it.

Car

Chevrolet Corvette

The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and famous sports car from America. Sometimes, it can have problems with its cooling system, which helps keep the engine from getting too hot.

Term

bleed the system

Bleeding the system means getting rid of air bubbles inside the car's heating or cooling pipes so the heat or cold can flow properly.

Part

cabin air filter

The cabin air filter is like a screen that cleans the air you breathe inside your car. It stops dust and dirt from coming in through the vents.

Part

airbag

An airbag is like a big cushion inside the car that quickly fills with air if there's a crash to keep you safe. It helps stop you from hitting hard parts inside the car.

Part

clock spring

The clock spring is a special part inside the steering wheel that keeps the wires connected even when you turn the wheel. It helps things like the airbag and buttons on the wheel work properly.

Car

Ford Model T

The Ford Model T is an old car made by Ford a long time ago. It was one of the first cars many people could buy because it was cheaper than other cars at the time.

Part

wheel cylinder

A wheel cylinder is a part inside some car brakes that helps push the brake pads so the car can stop. It needs to be put in the right way to work properly.

Brand

Honda

Honda is a big car company from Japan that makes cars and motorcycles. Many people like to fix their own Hondas because it's usually not too hard and parts are easy to find.

LIVE

SFJ 4x4 Studios presents

In my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep

A Jeep podcast starring industry experts

Cure monocity

What? Say that again!

With mad scientist Scott Brown

I use my drill press as a sort of lathe

Our host, Neil Simpson

If one light goes on they all go out

Phil Bruce Shenanigans

We are really professional with Jeeps

This is I Speak Jeep

SFJ 4x4 Studios presents

In my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep

A Jeep podcast starring industry experts

Cure monocity

What? Say that again!

With mad scientist Scott Brown

I use my drill press as a sort of lathe

Our host, Neil Simpson

If one light goes on they all go out

Phil Bruce Shenanigans

We are really professional with Jeeps

This is I Speak Jeep

Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever

However, you are joining us

This is the I Speak Jeep podcast

Presented by SFJ4x4.com

And he's sure that his microphone is annoying him

My name is Neil

With Simpson Family Jeeps SFJ 4x4

And I am joined in Grandma's couch studio by the mad scientist

We are sans

The producer, the Italian stallion

He is still off living his best life

Attempting the hospitality industry

I still don't know that he's fully revealed to the world

His pursuits, that's not my place to do it for him

We do know it's getting closer to when they were hoping to open

I mean, I had confirmation with him as of last week

And they are still set for this March 7th date

Oh, no, it looks like it did go at least maybe live on

On Jet TV, Fox, your eerie

So maybe the cat's reasonably out of the bag

Jeff and company and family are opening a

I'm still not going to say it's not my place

You're going to have to go find that yourself

Go find his social

But regardless, I feel like I was doing a pretty swell job

On the production level over here

Computer-wise

You are awesome

And we were ready to go

And I'm not certain

And then the microphone stand was like

I cannot figure out how to adjust this microphone

There's way too many arms

And I was just like, you know what, I'm fine

I'm going to shift over on the couch

So I will just move my body

Yep

Oh, goodness gracious

We have a lot of comments coming in

And we'll make sure we say good morning to everyone in the process

I did have, this is not to encourage a single soul in the process

But I did have a text message come in claiming to be

I was communicating with some folks

The angry turtle claimed to be first to say good morning

Because he texted me first comment

I said, I don't think that's how this works

No, so you may not

Don't get into my DMs and tell me first comment

But he kind of wanted that notoriety

With that said, actual first is going to be Billy Joe

Geaga Jeepers, good morning

Nathan, big ol' good morning there

Geaga Jeepers saying good back

Rob says good morning

Everybody saying good morning

Jeanne's in there

Bradford, what a great Monday morning

Andrew, good morning

So good morning, good morning, good morning

Joe Bryan, not in the comments this morning

We're not sure where he's at

He did send me a link

Now as a nerd

I'm going to divulge to folks

It's really hard to look at Scott

And also keep my mouth at the mic

The microphone's really kicking your butt today

You know what the funny thing is

I feel like it's worse than it was last week

And I don't know what or how

I think the long arm needs to go towards the wall

I'm just going to go this way

Which is 100% not how that was supposed to work

Now it's in front of your face

I got a face for radio, that's okay

So it is super in front of my face

Okay, now that's been the small thing towards me

That's better

It's still in front of my face

It's whatever, here we go

So I'm nerdy now

The big boy locomotive

Has been there's rumor mill

That it's going to make an east-west run

And they have recently petitioned

Norfolk Southern as part of the rail system

To utilize its trip to the east coast

And right now there is a west-east route

That they have asked permission to run

With in-cab signals on the Norfolk Southern line

Which would run from Cleveland to Harrisburg

There are two routes that run that line

One of them runs immediately next to our shop

I want that so bad

I don't know that there's any train nerds

Or anybody who's at that executive level

Making those decisions

But if there is

We vote for the one by the shop

There is a southern route that runs Ohio, Cleveland

To, you know, runs down through Pittsburgh, Harrisburg area

Please come by the shop

I'm going to have jeeps, I'll stage jeeps

We'll have a cookout

I don't know, we'll do something

And we're very blessed to be in the area

Where these things happen pretty often

Honestly, I remember as a child going to

And we're talking like the railroad

That was just down the block from my house

And there was a big passenger coach train

Same thing, I think it was a steam locomotive

Pulling that

And we all went to the siding

And just watched it go by

Unquestionably, and we've had those experiences here

But this is an engineering marvel

This is a massive steam locomotive

And I so desperately want it to run next to the shop

And if it does

I invite all of our listeners, bring our jeeps out

We'll stage them

And we'll capture some iconic picture

As this massive steam engine runs past SFJ 4

Definitely needs a shirt if it happens

Oh, my God, yes

I will try to keep the double entendres to a minimum

In the process

But anywho, today

Related, not related

We are continuing the conversation of heaters

We had talked about it several weeks ago

We said we would bring it back up

And I think this is a great opportunity to do so

Because the weather did kind of dip and go a little crazy

There's some Arctic wind pushing into the actual Midwest

It was very cold this morning

I was not ready

And I feel like so

I'm okay, like if we get subarctic temperatures

And it stays that way

I'm good

I don't like the back and forth stuff

The back and forth

Because then when you actually get a regular cold day

Now I'm a huge Nancy

And I'm like, I'm so cold

But otherwise

Also, I stopped doing it as many layers

Because now I'm like

Willing spring and warm weather to come into my life

Absolutely

Trying to get the universe to be responsive to me

But regardless

We are going to be talking about our heaters

And we're moving into the modern times

And we had done a pretty good job of contextualizing

The poor heat experience

That was the automotive industry

Prior to the advent of the JK

And now we're moving forward into the JLJT series

And potentially beyond as we talk

Also, last

This weekend, I think it's just appropriate to say

We had the

What used to be the Dayton Off-Road Expo

It has a new fancy name

Midwest

Something off-road

I don't know

If you attended, let us know in the comments

How it was

I did get some pictures from folks

It was a show that we used to regularly attend

With a matter of importance

It's a really neat event

Helps break the winter blah

And it's just north of Cincinnati there

West of Columbus

Honestly, the only reason we don't attend anymore

Is because we're so busy here

With the physical pursuits of

And what we have going on this year

Would have just been crippling the try to do it

Correct

With personnel challenges and whatnot

So any who's a what's it

Conversation regarding heaters

We talked about kind of ambient air

We talked about the advent of accessory heaters

Bringing that hot coolant into the cab for us

Obviously, we don't employ having little potbelly stoves

Or actual wood burners

We've all seen the YouTube videos

We all know how prolific vivors diesel heaters are

This is not that podcast

Though I'm here for it

I'm okay to

That's just because you drive old junkers

That heat doesn't work

I know

I would love to put a little diesel burner

In old blues

Crummy little cap

That metal hard top

That would be kind of cool

You get affixiated while you drive

No, no

It's all clean heat at that point

It's exhaust out the side

Stop it

So we had left it before

We had kind of laid out the conversation

About the noon

Improved the manner in which the heater boxes

Continued to improve

Heater controls, HVAC switches

That is when the

That is not to say

TJ heater controls did have a tendency

Electricly to burn down on us

XJs and TJs all had a resistor issues

Which is a very common challenge

When the blower fan speed

Only works on high

That was a good problem

In the sense that it defaulted to high

And that was very common

For the switch itself to melt down

Because a high amp draw

Which I've seen tons of people

They replaced the plug

They replaced the switch

And a couple years later

It does it again

And they get frustrated

Change the blower motor

As what's drawing the amps

It's a multifaceted approach

To making the TJ sustainable

We had a problem

We did have problems with the resistors

Previously

We did have switch problems

But progressively

Our HVAC controls have gotten

Better over the years

So the crowning jewel

Of iconic Jeep history

And I'm sorry vintage Jeepers

You will throw up in your mouth

But the Jeep that broke the mold

The JK Wrangler comes around in 07

Now I think that it's valuable

To talk a little bit about the heater core

We did already outline that in the previous one

But the heater core is basically a mini radiator

That exists in the dash

It's securely snuggled up

In the center of your dash

In the TJ

It's got a really crappy design

Yep, in the JK

In the TJ it's a little bit over to the passenger side

In the JK it's securely snuggled

Just below your head unit basically

That crappy Uconnect system

That's no longer working efficiently

But anyways

It's a crummy design

Based on how coolant flows in and out of it

And all the bends that you've got going to it

And everything

So the biggest challenges of the JK

Heater core is the fact

You cannot install it nor remove it

Without moving the pipes that attach to the core

So they allowed it to swivel

Which was a new concept

On Jeeps anyway

So they have an O-ring seal

And before that

You just had pipes soldered

Or attached somehow to a core

And they just kind of didn't move

Now in order to remove it

Or install it you have to move them

Which is always fascinating

Because we have a pressurized

Now it's not the most pressurized system

But it's a pressurized hot and cooling

So we have thermodynamic properties

And they have to swivel

So you have a crimp fitting

Off of this S-curve tubing

And there's a crimp fitting

With an O-ring in there

And that fitting has to be just right

Otherwise it's going to leak there

And the O-ring has to be good

Otherwise it's going to leak there

And then we still have this very narrow body

Of the heater core itself

Very tight core

Exceedingly small

Because of that it gets plugged easily

And then they add another layer to it

The doors above the core

And we're talking again

We alluded to it last time

That we have not ever had temperatures

As hot as we have had

In the JK blind

Now a 3.6 JK

2.25 or so is pretty normal

Is what you kind of want it to be

Because we want the efficiency from that

But because of that the core gets really hot

So we're actually seeing the rubber

On the doors melt

Lack of better description

And because of that

Doors get sticky

They look like a hot mess

And in true mothership

You know, brilliance

You can't change just the door anymore

You throw the whole thing away

And you get a new one

Now thankfully it is just the center mass

Of the box that kind of holds the

Sandwich of the heater core

But...

Yeah, it's a cumbersome design

And I kind of want to

Loosely expand upon

What Scott is mentioning

So we have the center stack

The HVAC center stack section

It's not exactly melting

Because of the heat

I don't think the hot temperature

Is helping it

Correct, I think that's helping it break down

That there's actually a release

Of the...

There's a breakdown in the plastic itself

In some way shape or form

The foam as far as the residue

That's left behind

Because that's what we're seeing

Is this really sticky gooeyness

And the recirculation doors

Or the diverter doors

It is a blend door

And there's a series of actuators

We don't have this overly simplistic

Swinging singular door anymore

We have a series of doors

And back in the day at one point

It was just like this open cell foam

Of sorts that would kind of move around

Now we have more of a high density foam

Kind of reminds you more of a weather stripping

And it is not holding up

On a higher mileage vehicle

Again, it could be the smooth

Going in from the vents

It could be the heat

It could be the product breaking down

It could be all of the above

Sure, and I think that that's kind of like the...

In hindsight, what we've learned

About the TJ Wrangler

Switch meltdown

Yes, we may have a resistor issue

Yes, we might have had a wiring pigtail issue

Yes, we might actually have a blower motor

We may have a multitude of issues

All could be true

Or multiples of that could be true

And so you may end up having to do

All three or four items at once

Whereas...

Especially if you've ignored it for a while

Exactly, especially if you've ignored it

And I think that's one of the bigger issues

Is that people who have some heat issues

Want to break down JK heat

As we progress forward

Into kind of two categories

Or breakdown categories

One is going to be that you actually have

A background code

Regarding the HVAC system

And door actuation

So that you actually get a code

And it'll say that

Actuator B out of range

Or actuator A high circuit

Or something to that effect

Right?

It's also important to note that

For the first time ever in the JK platform

We had auto climate control

And manual climate control

In the Wrangler platform

We had, as always

The theme of this podcast

Grand Cherokees had done this previously

And were terrible

They were absolutely terrible

As far as how the auto climate control worked

But of course the JKs

Were the first time we saw it

In a Wrangler, right?

The doorless topless platforms

The doorless topless lineage

And so

We have this background code

And we might have

An odd heat

Not necessarily temperature

But maybe to the hands

The blowing, right?

How much volume

How much CFM is coming out

Certain vents at certain times

Maybe if it takes really long

For you to get some air coming out of

That person facing

Or that torso facing vents

That might be an indicator of something

Or if you don't hear kind of

An affirmative action

At the defroster duct

Or you only have defrost

And you don't get torso or feet

And at the same time

Of this all happening

You can have the cold driver side vent

And hotter passenger side vent

And that's actually unrelated

It's unrelated

But it can also be occurring at the same time

It can be

And this is the issue

Is that people are unfamiliar

And I always, always, always talk

With customer facing conversations

I talk about the ripple effect of information

The average consumer

The average auto enthusiast

In my opinion is living

Within a 10 to 20 year ripple effect

Of information distribution

Regardless of the information age

And the tech age that we live in

The way that humans process information

We rely on that immediate group

Of people around us

My buddy who's a cheap guy

My uncle who's been a mechanic

You know, before

Whatever that social circle is

And their understanding of the world

Right?

And so all too often we get people

Who are bringing information

From the 80s and the 90s

In the early 2000s

And trying to apply it to the JK

And JL platforms

A perfect example again

Is the temperature of the coolant

And oh that's too hot

That's what it's designed to do

And we can actually get a code

For the JK where we have

Basically the cooling system

Is working too efficiently

And most of the time

That cause and effect of that

Is you don't have any heat

And it's literally mean

That it's cooling it too well

Thermostat is getting sticky

Is not working quite right

To maintain the temperature

That the OE wants to see

And enough times of that happening

It will set a check engine light

Correct

And so hopefully

And that is always our objective

With infotainment

Podcasts like this

Is to try to distribute information

That even if you just glean on to

One little piece of what we say

The goal is to kind of peel back

The curtain and allow people into

A look at modern technology

And expectation

Now the puke is

The puke inducing moment

Is the fact that honestly 20 years ago

Is really not that long ago

And if you look at 2007

When the JK started

Trying to hurt me

And then 2017 is a decade

And it is 2026

So in theory

And I talk about our 10, 15, 20 year ripple

Effective information

And actually the more we have access

To these supercomputers in our pocket

The almost the dumber we get

So that actually I might have to start saying

We live in a 20, 30 year ripple effect

Because there's still people trying to apply

80s, 90s, early 2000

Tech expectations, knowledge and information

To a 20 year old vehicle

Now back to the center stack conversation

This gobbly guk

Big old unit

Costs about 600 bucks

450 to 600 bucks, I don't know

And real quick again I said this last time

But I will say it again

The other big difference between the TJ

And the JK heater system is the JK

The heater box and pedals

And accelerator pedal

And all that are all in one module

And you have to remove the whole thing

The whole kit and caboodle

You have to discharge the AC

You got to remove the upper intake manifold

On both 3A and 3.6 jeeps

To access the connections behind them

Because everything is in the center of the vehicle

Correct

It's all jigsaw puzzled together

On the 3.6 you have to remove the battery tray

And all that because there's harnesses

That go uninterrupted from the

Dash harness through the firewall

And to the tip them

Or PDC

It is a job

And highly laborious

And we've learned from

Trying not to damage people's stuff

You basically you're pulling both front seats

You're pulling the center console

You're pulling a crap ton of trim

If it is lucky enough to have the

Right you connect sort of thing

You have to go all the way to the

Passure side basically roof panel

Hopping trim off to get to one single wire

That they didn't put a connector in

For god knows why

Wild

It sucks

It was totally an afterthought

And if you are blessed with a crappy

Because all these you know like he's saying

All these parts are expensive

And you cheap out on the heater core

And you bend the pipes to

You know or twist the pipes to get them

Into there because you have no choice

And then it leaks on you

You get to do it again

It's awesome

And as a side note

If you're an individual who likes

Your beats, you like your sound

Your sound system

If you took it to a 12 volt shop

And I'm gonna just absolutely

There is not a 12 volt

Stereo installation business

That I can recommend to anybody

To work on a Jeep vehicle

The 12 volt industry

Does not know how to work on Jeeps

We don't think we're special

But more and more and more

We get so

What the heck was that

I don't know

Let's start with all kinds of stuff

Like a little gremlin coming out of you

Want it out

Okay

I'm getting so impassioned over here

Right

We think about how they take something apart

Later

After we've done a modification

12 volt shops don't do that

They don't care

They're like

Hey this speaker wire

That we're gonna install is better

Not arguing with you

It is

But then we're going to

Macramé and weave it

Macramé

You know your grandma's

Crocheting

Through the dash structure

So that you have no choice

But to cut it

Yes

Or to completely

Remove it

Yes

And the last thing somebody wants to hear

After they spent

I don't know

Thousands of dollars

To a thousand dollars

Putting the stereo system in

That we now have to remove that

Yes

And charge you to reinstall it

And uninstall it

To do your heater cord

That is already going to touch you

Yes

And then the best part is

You get it all apart

And you get it on the bench

And you now separated the dash

And you're trying to have the dash

Not like fall over

Because it's this big ungainly thing

And then you get

Some duck work off

And you go

It's melted

Cool

That's six hundred dollars

Yes

Because you don't know

That it's

That those diverter doors

Are melted or gooey

Whatever they are

And they are susceptible to damage

And they actually

One of the things that we have access to

Is a knowledge from the mothership

On their original equipment parts

That are sold weekly in domestic markets

Now it's a mouthful

But what it means is that

We know how many parts that dealerships

Are consuming for projects on certain genes

How often they get to the part and go

Ooh

Yep

We need that

And so we know that certain parts

Are in demand in one way or shape or another

And we know that this center stack is one of them

Arguably not exactly an if

But a when

In a JK ownership

Now there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason

Because there's certainly

A handful of twelve to fifteen

That we've encountered with the center stack issue

Several of them have had animal intrusion

That seems to be a

They love the nibble on

Whatever that is

To nibble on it

Yeah

Whatever that compound is

Yes

Also I think there is something to be said

About animal waste products

Deteriorating that foam and plastic components

Faster

I know I'm going to be controversial here for two seconds

Thankfully you can just buy the center stack

And you can reuse half the box

Yes

If you are one of those people

Like the mad scientist

And you get a JK and you're excited

And you realize I can put a filter

Above my blower motor

And have a cabin filter

Yes you can

Problem is they only have designed it to be that way

Sure

And so you get your package that you've waited for

And if you really like me you go

And you get the K&N washable ones

Go all in

Yes

And you get these two like tiny square

Or rectangles

And you're like what is this

That's because you have to put one in

And slide it over

And then put the other one beside it

And if you're not careful

As we've also found

If that filter comes dislodged

And goes one way or the other

It can break

One way or the other

You're going to break your blower motor

Blower motor or the re-circ door

And while you would think

Oh let's get in the re-circ door

Nope

Mother ship sure don't

Do not pass code

Do not collect $200

We will just sell you the entire feature assembly

Yep

There is not an alternative available

On the market whatsoever

Right here and now

And if you're lucky like we were

You already have the center stack sitting there

You have a heater core sitting there

You have a condenser

Or not condenser

A evaporator sitting there

Because you're planning on doing all that

Well guess what

When you buy the assembly from Chrysler

It's assembled

Yep

It comes with all of it

Yep

That's a pretty penny

And jumping into the comments

Jerry

Decorated Jeep owner

There are no shortcuts for the JK heater core replacement

All risk, no reward

Yes

And that sums up exactly what you're saying right now

And it's just such a massive, unfortunate, blooming onion in the process

Now I do think we have put the cart before the horse

In just a minor amount

Because we need to come back

With the most common issue of the

Not an if but a when

Is this temperature

Temperature discrepancy

Between driver and passenger side

I mean I sort of talked about it

You did

But progressively I would like to build upon that conversation

Because I think that's one of the things that

Effects the bell curve of JK owners

Yes

And my weird analogies

So be prepared

Oh god

If you ever go down to the stream

To the fish or whatever you want to do

Or just look in the nature

And you look at how the bris

That's in the water goes through channels and stuff

And how it drops out

Very depressing

Because water will slow down

So therefore things that are carried in the water will just fall out

That's basically in a nutshell why

Your driver side heat is not hot

And your passenger side is

Because that pipe comes in

And where that air is going to be coming from

Is going to go to the driver side

All the sand

Goo from not changing your coolant

When you're supposed to

It does go bad people

All that kind of stuff

Your mechanic

Noticing your coolant is low

So he just dumps whatever the heck he has in there

So it starts to gel

Or all the above

Starts blocking up the heater core

In that specific location

So therefore that part of the core gets cold

Now the water is going to find its way through

It's going to go past the little blockage

And it's going to go down

And it's going to go through the core

And it's going to make awesome heat for the passenger side

Which I think is just restitution

For my XJ freezing my wife out

And all that kind of stuff

Isn't that true?

It really is

It's just Jeep was like

Okay fine

We're going to take care of the passenger side

In this situation

Not true at all folks

Not even remotely

I think it was just totally an engineering oversight

But I can play with it as well

And again because the core size is so exceedingly small

It doesn't take anything

They get the cholesterol stuck in there

And I think that's it

It's exceedingly small but efficient

When it's functioning correctly

That is where it's been engineered well

You're giggling at Nathan saying

Wait you guys change your fluids?

They do have a shelf life folks

They do

So that is a testament to good engineering

Is that it is efficient when it's functioning appropriately

But one of my big criticisms is that

Automotive concepts that are only good

The moment that they're assembled on the assembly line

In like the first three to five years

Once that three to five years kind of goes

Then it's you know it's the wild west

Absolutely

And this is one of those components that it's great

In theory, assembly, the first few years of production

Once it's out of manufacturer warranty

The gloves are off and at the aftermarket

We're picking up the pieces

So the big challenge I have is that

If you don't have awesome heat at the driver's side

And there's awesome to sweltering heat on the passenger side

You should run out and get a coolant flush kit

Nope

Sure don't

You should not do your thermostat

I've encountered entirely too many people

Living in that ripple effect of 30 year old

Automotive understanding

Unless you have the thermostat code

You're not doing yourself any favors

But even if you have the thermostat code

If you have a significant discrepancy between vent to vent

The heater core is plugged

So it kind of doesn't matter

It's irrelevant that you're doing the thermostat at that time

Because it means you're just opening up the system

Exposing yourself to greater risk of air pocket

And air intrusion in the process

And we will also go out and say that

JK36 equipped vehicles are a sticky wicket

When it comes to bleeding air out of the cooling system

It rivals like 90s Corvettes and 2000 F bodies almost

Where you just, it's either going to go swimmingly

And it's going to be, oh that was nice

Or you're going to be there for hours

Trying to burp the air out of the system

And it geysers at you

Because you're dealing with a super heated air pocket

And guess what, the heater core is pretty much the highest point

So you also end up with no heat

That's one of the biggest red flags

So it's a big challenge

Thankfully they did better in the jail

We found, but man, we cringe

And we've literally had people come in

That have done their own services

And the only thing they couldn't do was bleed the system

And we have to do four hours or so of labor

To just deal with the geysering and the bleeding

And that's specifically because

They have unintended, unintentionally created more problem

Now if you're doing the bleed with part of the service

And you do it efficiently at that time

So there's actually like a funnel system with a little

You can airlift it

Basically taking a system into a vacuum

And then sucking the coolant into it

The other nice thing about doing it that way

Is now we know if we have leaks

Like our stupid tubes on our heater core

Right

Didn't seal

And ask us how we know

And honestly, you know, that way is advantageous

When it's as part of a service

When we're entering ourselves in at a later date

There's a good chance that

You have unfortunately introduced a massive air pocket

Into kind of a deep crevice of the cooling system

And or parts have become compromised in the process

If you have a failsafe thermostat

It may have failed

And now is just wide open

And so you're not going to get heat out of it necessarily

No matter what you do

It's again that efficiency of the cooling system

It's not going to come up to temperature

Like we anticipate it to

I think it's kind of a go-no-go list of things

Like in my own personal mechanical opinion

I would not put a failsafe thermostat in a JK

I would not put a cabin filter set up in my JK

If it had it in it

When you bought it

It was kind of like a dealer's choice

I would remove it

For that little tiny bit of cleanliness

The risk of spending $1,000 plus a lot of work is very high

I would not do that

I don't know that I totally agree

It's one of those things where

Look at risk

The risk of reward

When we go to risk of reward

It's in the dealer's choice

In your discretion as the vehicle owner

I know I'm not going to make it a priority to run a cabin filter

I haven't

I love vintage pieces of crap

They never had them

I'm going to kind of dig my heels in

And be like, wow, I'm going to die like a man

And that's going to be fine

Now, in an engineered purpose

Like our JLs and JTs

I'm going to run it because

It was designed to be there

It was designed

It was good

And my risk to reward is much more nominal

The JK really was

Hey, all of our other models have a cabin filter

And our consumers are starting to ask questions

Why they aren't

And they said, well

We can kind of force it into existence

And make it work retrofitically

We're making up where it's left and right, folks

It's not a good thing

It's not good

Where the JL from the get was designed to have it

It cannot go exit stage left or right

Much better design

It's not in two pieces

The access for the cabin filter and the HVAC

Behind the glove box door is more efficient

Yes, there's an actual door for it

Yeah, it's not as cumbersome

Really, if you ever have gone to put a cabin filter in a JK

You feel like you shouldn't be doing what you're doing

Absolutely

It feels wrong just doing it

You are forcing a square peg into a round hole

Really are

It is like Apollo 13 all over again

And you have duct tape and the wrong size filter

When it comes to, I mean, in general

As we do talk about cabin air filters as part of our HVAC

I do think it's valuable to say that

We have absolutely seen the effectiveness

Of cabin air filters

Yes, and is the most ignored filter going

And that honestly is another nail in the coffin

In my opinion for the JK

Well, yes, it works

When you forget about it and it gets so loaded with the bris

Now it's going to break something

Right

And if you have a JLJT

And you haven't checked your cabin filter

Now's the time

Go do it because

And probably just buy one

Because it's dirty

And I do think that there's a lot of value

Especially if you are in a high

Micronized particulate environment

So you spend a lot of time around dirt roads

You're out west with the red rock dust

We have seen filter saturation

Because of these things

And you're using your Jeep as a Jeep

Well, a little bit

And I think that that's where there is a benefit

To these filters for your own health

And the longevity of the components

The ducting, the diverter doors

Because that's one of the things that the filter

Is benefiting you as the owner

It's limiting that grime build up

On the blend doors

And by default the actuators and their

Mechanisms slash functions

That's one of the things we didn't exactly talk about

But I think it's worth mentioning

Is that there are multiple actuators

On these systems

The actuators are a small

Smaller than a teacup saucer plate

A little motor basically

Electronically activated by

They're actually cool little feats of engineering

Because they got basically a little tiny motor

And I remember as a kid tearing things apart

Saving those motors

And they don't have a lot of horsepower

Nope, they use gear reduction

They have all the gears

And all the different gearing to make it work

Can be part of their failure

Because you'll have a gear strip out

Or crack because they are all plastic

Again, why are they plastic?

Because we don't want to hear

Big metal chunks moving around in the dash

You just want it to be quiet and move around

And produce sufficiently and affordably

There's things about that

And as far as these actuators are concerned

They are controlled by the BCM

The body control module

A lot of people want to talk about

Or maybe understand the different electronic

Or computer controls of their vehicle

So they're controlled by the BCM

And they have the potency to go in

They are always looking at the current of them

I wish they would have done that on heater

Blower motor is a long time ago

Because they were throwing a light and said

Hey, your heater cord is bad

Your blower motor is actually bad

Anyway, they don't

So if your smoo is getting real sticky

Sticky icky and it doesn't allow the door to move

Uninhibited

You're probably going to have some problem

With the motors

Yes, and it might have an increased current draw

It may have a range efficiency code

Meaning it doesn't open when it's supposed to

It doesn't open all the way

It's not able to shut all the way

Basically think of the function of those units

With a, I like to think of it as kind of a gauge

Or a dial graph 0 to 100

And that unit needs to travel from 0 to 100

Based on the electronic request

Or command as you as the driver

And I'll let a little industry secret out there

Most of the time when I go to change a center stack

Because the doors are just gooey beyond belief

Most of the actuators have been changed

Prior to the service by other people

Because you can sit on your head

And contort yourself and you can change the actuator

It's not easy, but you can

But you're not thinking about why did it fail

Same kind of idea with the TJ

Why did the switch melt down?

There's a cause and effect

You're just treating the cause

You're not actually getting the root of the problem

And you know, professionally

There is a hard argument to say that

If you haven't changed the actuator

I think it's fair if you go to your corner garage

And they want to start with the actuator

I do employ the KISS method

Keep it simple silly

And kind of do the affordable things first

I can get behind that

Because I don't want to quote an individual

The OE dealership price of the entirety

Of their heater core center stack

And blower motor diverter

I don't want to do that

The cause and effect of that is

Most of the time with these jobs

It's going to be very labor intensive

And you're going to be without your vehicle for a while

Because sadly we have to have it apart

To see what's damaged to then appropriately order parts in

We're really subject to the

Supply chain logistics and availability

Of that

We're dealing with parts that are not

Made aftermarket

Kind of thankfully

Because it wouldn't fit

And then you get it all back together

And you'd really be angry

Oh, so angry

In fact I have a trauma trigger almost over here

Well, we did this

I need people to know

We did this in a JK

And we had an aftermarket leak on us

Within an almost no time frame

That was very, very disheartening

I need counseling over it

So the thing with that said

With aftermarket versus OE

The actuators

I got to tell you

There is a voltage sensitivity

That has yet to be appropriately replicated

By foreign import products

So while an actuator

There's a large discrepancy

OE actuators are 150 to 200 bucks

And an Amazon actuator is 25 to 45

And you will hear chatter

On the social pages about

Get these ones versus these ones on Amazon

Because they do or don't jive up well

And as I've mentioned before

Aftermarket parts, especially those bought on Amazon

Are the old Xerox model

They are a copy of a copy of a copy

That a factory in a foreign market

Has reverse engineered

And while there are good overseas

Manufacturing options and engineers

Oftentimes there are also bad ones

Because there's just such a volume

A populace of people, individuals

And infrastructure elsewhere

That they get a copy of a copy

Of a copy of a copy

And by the time that you're buying

The affordable actuator, oil cooler

Sensor or whatever

It's super far removed

From the quality control

Of the multi-billion dollar manufacturer

That is our big auto manufacturing industry

And on top of that you'll have

We see this with bumpers a lot

We'll have a manufacturer make a bumper

And say this manufacturer sees a little

The grain in the powder coat

Isn't quite what they want

Well, that means that first buyer

Is not going to buy it

But guess what, there's a second buyer right underneath them

That don't give a fig about the grain of that powder coat

And that's like that with all aftermarket parts

So there's kind of a but for every seat

So you may be getting a second, a third

A reject, whatever

Do you want to have your butt sitting in that seat?

Do you want to be that buyer?

And are you aware enough to do it?

It's one thing to buy a cheap bumper

Because labor invested and aesthetics appeal

I can put this on and I can put this off

When I take this off

When it comes to specifically like the heater core

There is a tremendous amount of cumbersome labor

That is tied up in this process

As Jerry said, all risk, no reward

And do you want to be taking that risk

In that moment with this item?

There's a number of parts

Maybe we do a podcast on that

As far as a number of parts

That you can get away with buying the cheap stuff

And here's times when you should save up

And do it by once, cry once

As far as the cooling system and the heating system

The heaters, I think that we would be remiss

In the JLJTs to not address

We obviously talked a lot about heaters

But I want to talk about the comforts

Of general the JLJTs

We got the cold weather group package

For the first time

And we did mention the auto interior

That is, as far as I'm concerned

Pretty good in the JLJTs

We've not seen mass casualty yet

I don't think they're quite old enough

But I do like the fact that again in 18

We are pushing eight years or so

We're not seeing market saturation

Of that auto climate control

But we're also not bad

We also have split climate control

So passenger and driver can have

Slightly different temperature range

Based on blending airs and doors

We also saw more and more with heated seats

Offered and that kind of stuff in the JK

Again, we had that in hard top jeeps

For a long time

And it all depends on how old school are you

How much rain are you getting inside your vehicle

We had a really nice option JK

It was basically a hard rock Rubicon

Before they were hard rocks

And they got caught in the rainstorm

And it really really washed out the interior

And they also had gone to a 12 volt shop

So that vehicle was down for months

Trying to figure out what module was mad

And why and the amount of water we found

Well after the dry out was just nine numbing

So I would say if you're going into a vehicle

And you're like hey I really want my heated seats

I really want this fancy radio

I really want the automatic climate control

Maybe that Jeep isn't the best one to get caught in a rainstorm

And also be prepared for natural consequences if you are

The cold weather group does get you the heated steering wheel

As well, it's the first Wrangler

With the JL

With the JL, yep as we move into the JL JT

I have been asked on multiple occasions

For quotes and ability to retrofit vehicles with heated steering wheels

That is one of the very limited things

That I cannot give you as a Jeep owner

Is magic

I authentically am a believer in like

I think very highly of what we do

And the manner in which we do it

And I am wholly convinced that

We can do a broad spectrum of exciting things

The hot rod are any wants to

But they have made it electronically so impossible

And the fact that you have to intimately

Get into your safety systems with the airbag

And the clock spring that controls that airbag

To get power and that to the steering wheel

They have made it pretty much impossible

I have been requested to give customers

A heated steering wheel for a little over a decade at this point

Honestly, we are pushing 12 years or so

I remember doing a 15 and he was one of the first ones

Who was like, I kind of don't care what the budget is

Give me a quality heated steering wheel

And in good consciousness as a business

There is not a viable aftermarket alternative

Other than your standard 12, you know

Your cigarette lighter, 12 volt takeoff

Heated cover, right?

Which, you know, could be fuzzy

And look like shag carpet

And you got a cord to deal with

Which is not really a thing

And certainly not anything we recommend for safety

Safety purposes

In our opinion, if you really need a heated steering wheel

Then you're looking at a jail

And honestly, you got to just buy the platform

You got to just buy the cold weather equipped package

That has the heated steering wheel

Because we cannot

It's not the tow kit on the jails or the JTs

We cannot retrofit this into the system easily

And I'll do an example

Because I wasn't able to go back to the horse

On this episode

I almost blew my water across the studio

It's kind of like if you have a flat fender

And you come to us and hey, I want the heat

And air conditioning of a TJ

In this flat fender

Not happening

It's not happening easily

And it's going to be to a high cost to benefit

And then it's still not going to be as good

As a TJ air conditioning was

So if you really need AC

Then you have to get into really a TJ

The ACs and the YJs and CJs were a joke

Anyways

They existed

They existed, but it was not good

Same way with this

You have to kind of pick your poison

What you would like for your comfort pieces

And then pick your platform

From there

And it's really hard

Yes, I drive a JT

But they have really sorted out a lot of issues

With the JLJT

One example

They are much easier to get the air out of

When you do have to get in the cooling system

They're very efficient

With that, they also make heat faster

Than any other Jeep we've ever had

It doesn't take it very long at all

To be up to operating temperature

And to have heat coming out of the vents

Heated seats have never been as good as they are

And that seals on the tops

And doors have never been as good

And if you're like me

And just accept that it's a hard top vehicle

And never remove your freedom panels

You don't get wet at all

It's amazing

If you are driving one of those vehicles

And maybe that's your first 4A

Into the Jeep community and Jeep ownership

And you think that the iconic nature

Of a CJ to TJ is desirable

For a limited daily driving experience

Or a weekend warrior rig

Understand that as we've preached many, many times

They're light years away from each other

You're never going to get the efficiency

And the creature comforts and the climate control

Out of one of those older rigs

That you do your current platform

All too often we get people who come in

And go, ah, you know

Maybe this is my...

Yeah, they think it's quaint

To own an older, you know

One of those more iconic platforms

And they're going to build it

Because maybe they're making payments on the newer JLJT

And they don't want to off-road it and pinstripe it

Like Jeff immediately did with his

And whatnot

So they're going to go out and get this other rig to do it

And while I can fully appreciate

One's desire to drive an old piece

Of clapped-out American iron

It is not by any stretch of the imagination

Going to be, you know

Apple to Apple to your current situation

Your current ownership

Again, being a hot rod or a street rod

Or growing up through

You have to pick the vehicle you drive

Because you enjoy the era it's from

If you love cassette decks

And the, you know, 80s, early 90s cereal

A YJ is going to treat you right

You're going to expect and have a fun experience

If you want to try to pack all the fun stuff

From an 18 into a 91

You're going to have a bad time

It's going to be very challenging

And it's very expensive

And you're not going to have a good experience

At the end of it

And it's going to look...

It's going to be this weird vehicle

It's not quite what it was

It's not quite what you want

I tried to make it

You have to get into it

And just enjoy it for what it is

And if you are enjoying it for what it is

Then, you know, absolutely more power to you

I'm certainly not making fun of any of our customers

Or anything like that

But we did have somebody recently

Who purchased a new 2026

And was incredibly disappointed

That it does not come with a CD player

In any stretch of his imagination

Couldn't believe that it didn't come with a CD player

They haven't had a CD player in years

Yes, yes

And that's, you know

That's a conversation for the, you know

For the 12 volt and audio world

And as Billy Joe said

Good sound systems help you drown out

When things go bump and clank on your vehicle

But as far as the creature conference

And the heat and the conditioning

We have never been so good as we are now

And they last really a long time

And they appear to be pretty

I don't want to say maintenance free

But pretty low maintenance by comparison

One thing I will kind of say

It's not exactly heater involved

But it is cooling system involved

With JL and JT is a trend we are seeing

Is your upper radiator hose

At the thermostat neck

Is a couple pieces

Again, Mopar wants to sell you it

In its entirety

Has a T in it that goes to your EGR cooler

Which I think is part of the secret sauce

Why it's so easy to get air out of it

Is some of that plumbing

It likes to work itself off

The thermostat neck

Ever so slightly

I think it's a very slow process

They have constant spring tension clamps

Which are good things

Worm clamps are not

I can say that out of that

But it is one of those scenarios

Where it slowly works its way off

We have had dose times

Where this has happened

Thankfully because I saw the first one

Happened I kind of was able to save the second

The first one they were on a long trip

And the hose worked itself off

It started puking coolant pretty good

And they chose to just keep driving

And they then had some motor issues

Because of overheating the Jeep a lot

On my own personal truck

It was three quarters away off

So a good PSA go out

Look at your vehicle

Make sure that upper hose

At the thermostat neck

Is not working itself off

JLJT owner specifically

Yep, and you catch it early enough

You can just slide it back on

And kind of keep an eye on it

Another thing we have seen is the caps

Because they are now a closed system

Your overflow bottle is basically part

Of the system

The caps can get a little weak over time

May not be a bad thing to replace

If you're having some issues

Radiator caps in general, JK2JL

Definitely all of them

Service item, it was something

When we had lower pressure systems

That we didn't think as much about

Now caps are a kind of an integral piece

And again, the time passing

That we don't think about TJs

Are where we saw that start

Went to an 18 pound cap

That's pretty high

And we started seeing failures of them

Pretty often

And really weird stuff

And again, you don't think about

The cap being a problem

So you replace everything but the cap

And the problem is still there

So something, just your freebie

Fun fact there

Take a moment to say to go back

Make sure we said hello to everyone

Mitch Hunt had said hello

Jeannie was talking about her trip

To Alaska

And Billy Joe was in there talking about

Trains on my commentary before

And I couldn't agree more

The

Matt Miller asked if we were going to

The Gettysburg show in August

Yet to be determined, August is shaping up

To be very busy

We are already committed to the Toledo Jeep

Festival on our schedule

And

Smoky Mountain

Either by person or proxy

So that will be something that

Is yet to be determined

But I've heard enough chatter

About the Gettysburg event and of course

I've never turned down an opportunity

To go to Gettysburg, great

Holy ground of American history

There's lots of good chatter for folks

Who are listening at home

This is your

Your PSA to find a Monday

Where you can jump into the comments

And join

This cast of characters that makes

Mondays exciting

Rob Daddy Jeep continues

To chat and Bill and Jaga Jeepers

Is in, Billy Joe, and

Yvonne says howdy, I'm late

But good morning, good morning to everybody

And thank you for being

An important part

Of our program

And the live

And whether you are listening

To this later as a streaming platform

I do want to thank everybody

For being involved because we have yet

To actually crest

200 episodes

And yet

Our streams and our

Hours listened

And our metrics at which

You measure the success of podcasting

Is that of a

Generational, a decade

Long podcast basically

We are very, very blessed

And very thankful for all that

And again, if you see some

Or think of something that you would like us to talk

About and kind of deep dive in

Send us a message at

Contact

C-O-N-T-A-C-T

SFJ4X4.com

Our tax only number 440

855

2100

That's tax only, don't call that

You can call us

All that information will be listed on our

Website SFJ4X4.com

We thank you so very, very much

For being part of today's program

Until next time

Jeep on

Oh, I have to click things, folks

I'm still not

You know what, I'm still not

Used to where my producer had

We're not quite Jeff level yet

But we are able to bring you a

Program which we are thankful for

That's right, we will

Adapt and overcome

We did not get to this point by sitting on our

Hands and

Making excuses for anything

In that theme

I've had a

Driver side door on my

Model T project has been kicking my tail

For

A while

And I was trying to

Look at it from

Different perspectives, I even hauled

The wife out and I was like, hey

Sometimes you look at things

Different than I do and you bring up

Stuff that you maybe think is kind of trivial

But then I'm like, Eureka

That's why, I was like

Here's my problem, the belt line

Not really a molding, but the

Reveal of the body is supposed

To line up, 100 years ago

It did, I was trying

To figure out why on the passenger

Side, it just went poop and

Lined right up nicely, on the other

Side, it was literally

The whole reveal

Low and the door

Didn't want to go up into its home

Now, I had

You know, we got a

Cal for one car, A pillars

From another car, we got doors

From those where, you got a mismatch

Of parts there. We've had people

Torching things, pretty sure

It's been hitting the driver's side

Rear quarter, a long time ago

We got a lot of

Bad, a lot of storytelling, a lot of

Your phrase, the Jeep will tell us

What it wants. The car had a lot to say

There's a lot of car

History there, it's got like organ

Transplants and

And you know, I've had some people

On my Instagram

And they were right, like

Did you shim the body? Did you

Pull it down?

Yes, I tried all that.

What I finally had to do

Was basically on these cars, you have

Your frame and then on top of that

You have your sub rails, which is

Your substructure of the body

Your cowl, your

Pillars, all that bolt

Or rivet to that

Kind of how they were designed

Back then. I had to cut

Three quarters away through that

Take a ratchet strap

To the A pillar up at the windshield

And pull it forward

Then made sure the door worked

And it opened up, you know, we're talking

What

16th of an inch is normally how much

You cut a disc with

This opened up almost

A quarter of an inch

And suddenly the door lined up

And suddenly the door closed

Everything was good. And that was

Literally the top

Piece that connects the cowl

To the quarter has already

In there and was at the proper distance

So not only was I pulling

The cowl forward

I was pulling the quarter up as well

It was making that rhombus

Yeah

More of a rectangle

And now everything lines up

And it actually latches

Holy crap

I cannot believe

How much

And finally I had to admit to a

Friend of mine that like basically

I was scared to cut it

But I had to stop back and think

It's a hundred years old

I don't know what it's been through

I don't know exactly how it's been damaged

There's parts for many different things

And some point you sometimes

Just have to make things work

With each other

When you were this kind of invested

Into a vehicle

Again

The older you go the more this is going to be

Cars before

This 26

You would have to gone in and machine stuff

Custom to make it work

You were coach building

It's kind of what I'm doing at this point

Because I'm making everything work together

And sometimes you have to just

Get out the saw and cut

To make things work

And now I have a door that works

You have two doors

Two doors to work

And I actually started going on

Google photos

And looking at

Cars like mine

And paying attention to that body line

And how much it lines up

There's a lot of them the driver's door doesn't line up

So I think this is more common than most

And I'm just

Sick in the head and refuse

When I am this far down the rabbit hole

Put out a card that is not the case

Sure

That was my big thing. The other thing I found

Interesting

I didn't really elaborate on Instagram

But when I put on the front brakes

I was putting the small shoe in the front

Large shoe in the back

Kind of what you would expect

Someone before me

Had put the shoes on backwards

So I accidentally

Put the pasture side backing plate

On the driver's side and vice versa

You would think it wouldn't matter

But Ford clocked

The wheel cylinder

Ever so slightly

So if you try to put the wheel cylinder

With the hose pointed back

It will literally run into the kingpin

So I had to take the front brakes

All completely apart down to their basic parts

Sam

I then Sam blasted them because I'm there

At that point

Put new wheel cylinders, new hoses

And reassemble them

The correct way

Again, you don't know what someone else

Has done before you improperly

Sometimes you have to

Not accept for what you see

Is the facts

You need some research and go

Nope, somebody wasn't paying attention

Did things wrong improperly

And now I need to

And you could keep going forward

And keep modifying things

In this situation it was not a cut method

It was a do research

But sometimes you do have to

I think that all too often

Amongst the DIY community

They run into that brake issue

And then they start modifying

And we get further and further

And further away from the root cause

Of what got us in that scenario

And that's the only

Downside or limitation

To the DIY community

Now I would find myself

Holy in that place

If you ask me to work on a Honda

Or you know

Some other platformed vehicle

And that's why

Like on the door situation

I tried shimming it

I tried coaxing it

I tried tweaking hinges

I tried two different doors

I tried a lot of things before I cut it

That was last resort

It just happened to be what fixed it

Brakes, nope there was other reasons

To have things not work

And now they all assemble

Like they're supposed to

That's awesome

It was cool seeing your updates

Looking more and more like a car every day

Looking for that first

Warm day where I can actually push it outside

And get back away from it

And see what it looks like

That's very cool

As far as

My weekend is concerned

Just in true fashion

Trying to do all the things

You know

My own mechanical

Projects of sorts

Or continuing

Tinkerings

Continue to tinker on some

Junk jeeps that are in my possession

Of my own

Interest and volition

Obviously you and I played with the backhoe

Of the Mahindra recently

Just kind of exploring that opportunity

So we can kind of service our parking lot

A little bit

And make it a little

I know that I always appreciate

Jeep owners' mindsets

When they come to our shop

And they're like well you know it's a Jeep

So it's okay that I went off-roading through your parking lot

You know

I do want to do better

You know

It's hard when you're the

The guy that makes estimates

The guy that answers the phone

The guy that grades the parking lot

And orders parts

Yeah

We have to put in some extra hours

In that process

You know I spent a good bit of time

Out at the house build

Trying to

Seemingly the depths of winter

Other than when the angry turtle

Jason has helped me

Seemingly over the last few years

Of the depths of winter I take a little bit of a hiatus

I don't really want to but

It's kind of needed

It's hard to get out there

And get the caro heaters pumping

The propane heaters

And while the house is small and efficient

It's still, there's challenges

Yeah, absolutely

That's why my building is just on pause

Yeah, so I really

Have been trying to recently

Employ

Some increased

Efficiency practices

Within my life of going hey this is

A 15 minute task is a 45 minute task

Time blocking

Succinctly

In the sense that

I'm going to do this thing

And even if I just accomplish this little piece

I'm going to feel better and I'm going to feel engaged

To do more, to be present more

In those things so

Went out there to the house and

You know we have some motor sports

Toys and activities for the kids to play

So they enjoyed we had a decent day

On Saturday I believe

So they had a decent day to get

You know mini bike out and ride around

And you know I've got some

Some things that are taking shape

Of a normal life in this

House that if you're

Unfamiliar that my wife and I

Endeavored years ago to build by hand

And it's an arduous process

It's just like you as a vehicle

Owner if you endeavor into a

Full nut bolt restoration depending on

How elaborate it might be

It takes time or

A massive chunk of cash

Or if you want the

The sense of

Pride and accomplishment

That comes with doing it

All yourself I don't

Possess the knowledge

And so therefore

You got to learn as you do it

I learn as I do and we screw things up

And we have to undo it and so therefore

It just takes more time

It would be so much better if we just

Paid somebody to take this off our plate

That would be the smart way

That would be the right way to do things

But that is not exactly my wife and my

Mo so

We continue to muddle through it but I was out there

Kind of figuring out

What the winter had done

To us you know and of course

She's a voracious gardener so

This is that moment where the crocuses

Just start to pop up and

We kind of lay that base

Groundwork for what the

Springtime the future will hold

Additionally those of you

On my own social media you'll know

That

You know I

My children are highly involved in

Stuff so this week we

We had a great opportunity last

Week and I talked about our

Banger of a trip to Michigan

My daughter

At a pretty young age

Accepted

A three week intensive

To a dance collective

Out of state

And so that kind of was a big

Piece that we're working through and then

On my own pursuits of

Sports and athletics you know with

My journey with coaching and

My son's experience have kept

Me very busy on the weekends

So you'll see those updates and like I said

I'm happy to be friends with you on Facebook

That's definitely my most active platform

I had I fielded a question for some folks

Over the weekend I wish

I was better at Instagram I do none

Of the talk talking or the tweeting

Or the x-scene

No tech talking is all right

Savage runs that for the business for us

And for that I am grateful

I can only handle so much platforms and what not

So if you'd like to know more about

What's happening in our personal lives

The junk we're working on or the special interest

For me it's Instagram

Facebook I call it a little bit tighter

Of reigns for

Personal stuff

Instagram you get to see all of it

For

My car excapades

So we've

1936 were crazy go on there

Follow along

Some will get through on Facebook

Some won't it's nothing personal

Yes it's how we

Create our boundaries and what not

But we do encourage if that's your interest

Or if you're listening at home

We're happy to have that relationship

With you as

Part of this community

I think that

Satisfies us we've got a ton of jeeps to work on

Once been Pokemon cards we're so thankful

For the response of the jeep community

And their expectations of

What this coming year will look like

And how it relates to SFJ

4x4 so until next time

Jeep on

Bye

About this episode

Dive into a detailed discussion about Jeep heating systems, focusing on the evolution from older models to the JK and JL series. The hosts explore common heater issues like faulty blower motors, resistor failures, and heater core design challenges, including leaks and overheating problems. They also share personal experiences with cold weather, discuss the impact of modern HVAC controls, and touch on the passion for railroads near their shop. The episode blends technical insights with casual banter, making it a fun yet informative listen for Jeep owners interested in improving their vehicle comfort.

accelerator pedal actuators airbag auto climate control bleed the system blower motor resistor cabin air filter clock spring coolant cooling systems

Chevrolet Corvette Ford Model T Jaguar XJ-S Jeep Cherokee Jeep Grand Cherokee Jeep Wrangler

Original notes

We want to hear from you, Send us a Text

On this episode, we’re talking about heaters in modern Jeeps — how they work, why they’re not as simple as they used to be, and what owners should understand before something stops working. If you daily drive your Jeep, this one matters.

Support the show

Thanks for listening, give us a review and check us out on YouTube -SFJ4x4 and visit our website to grab some great gear or products for your Jeep, SFJ4x4.com. Don't forget, you can email [email protected] for special content requests, blind react videos, suggestions, special guests, or general questions. Check out our Patreon patreon.com/ISpeakJeep

I Speak Jeep

SFJ4x4 - Simpson Family Jeeps

View classic page →

0:00

77:57