Vicky has now been using her Garmin Streetpilot III GPS in her 2003 Nissan XTerra for a little over a week now. We're both finding ourselves looking at the dash alot less. Since the GPS also displays time and vehicle speed, the only reason to look at the dash is check on whether it's time to get more gas.

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My 1997 Jeep Wrangler Sport is purring like a kitten once again. For the rest of you Jeep enthusiasts, toggling "ON-OFF" on the ignition three times in rapid succession will display the "CHECK ENGINE" light followed by an error code displayed on the digital odometer. Most of you will get a 0 or a 12, ("No Error" or "Loss of PCM power within the last 50 power cycles"). I got a 37 ("No RPM Drop at Lockup") Attaching a MODIS ODBII laptop displayed "P0740: Relationship between engine and vehicle speeds indicated failure of torque convertor clutch lock-up system (TCC/PTU sol)."

(btw: I'm told Chrysler has included a limited onboard OBDII scanner with all of their vehicles after '96/'97. Doing the 3x ignition toggle will display the most recent engine code to the digital odometer (or as a series of "CHECK ENGINE" light flashes with short flashes for numbers, pauses between digits. See TroubleCodes.net for explanations.)

Anyhoo... my uncle is an ASE-certified mechanic with over 20 years of experience. We dropped the transmission pan, cleaned the electronic transmission, and found a short in the torque converter clutch solenoid wiring. A short spray of carb cleaner followed by compressed air and a new wire wrap, and she's purring like a kitten once again.

Gotta love Jeep. The engine in the 1997 Jeep Wrangler Sport is a 170hp Inline-6 (4.0L). The tranmission is a 14-bolt automatic tranmission. The engine and trans are the same found in Jeep Cherokee Laredo... which I'm finding is incredibly easy to work on and maintain. My Jeep is now 6 years old with 87K miles... I plan on keeping her forever. To echo the Daimler-Chrysler line: "Only in a Jeep!"