Turbo 4 cylinder conundrum, big discounts.

J

jwalt

Member
I have searched and read everything I can concerning the turbo 4 cylinder that I can find on the interwebs and Wayalife and JLwrangler. Most of it has to do with driving on the highway and the expected reputation of a 4 cylinder like in the TJ's. I have been looking at ordering a JL with the 6 cylinder for some time but I have started to find some 4 cylinder JL Rubicon's that dealers have already marked with large discounts ($10k). I have driven the JL with the V6 and love it but I have not had a chance to drive the 4. With a large discount would one be sorry to have the turbo 4 in a Rubicon built similar to Jet Li? You know small lift, 37's, daily driver/weekend warrior type of driving. I am still driving a TJ with the 6 in it but would like to be able to drive freeways close to 80mph. In general are any people here that drive the 4 cylinder unhappy with it so far? I know it is unproven and could be another 3.8 but overall use are you happy? Thanks for any input.
 
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I don’t own one, but I have driven one including a Sahara (so non 4.10 gears) dealer lifted in 37s, and even then it was peppy. It doesn’t have the noise of the 3.6 (imo the 3.6 sounds good as hell) but it for sure has just as much, if not more, grunt


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Thanks for the input. I have found more threads that discuss this motor in further detail. Seems like a reasonable option.
 
I have no first hand experience. But my cousin bought a JLR with the turbo. She is not happy and from what shes told me shes had it in the shop already for turbo issues. If it were me, I would atleast be asking why they have such large discounts on the turbos before diving head first on one... just my opinion though.

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$10k discounts? Really? That's the first time I've ever heard of that kind of discount on a Wrangler. :thinking:
 
Ddays said:
$10k discounts? Really? That's the first time I've ever heard of that kind of discount on a Wrangler. :thinking:
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I know, Really makes it easier to overlook the four cylinder. At least I can do an LS swap if needed with the money saved:idontknow:
 
jwalt said:
So it was too good to pass up and I bought one.
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Congrats on the new Jeep and keep us up to date with the details of the turbo 4cyl.


2016 JK Rubicon
35-12.5 R17 Radar Renegade R7 MT
2.5 budget boost
10k Winch/stubby bumper
Trucklites
TYT9800 / Pro510XL
KC1IMA
 
All I know on the subject is that Eddie and Cindy “ test drove" one in Moab and seemed to be impressed at the performance. That being said, their drive consisted of a dirt road and what seemed to be maybe a mile or two total.

All first year drive trains seem to have issues from manufacturers. Either way you have factory warranty to repair any issues and when that runs out there's always an LS to fix the issue.

Let us know how it turns out. Doesn't seem to be many of the turbo 4's around here.

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I've spent a ton of time driving the turbo 4s on road and off. You won't be disappointed. Actual performance wise the turbo 4 outdoes the v6 in every way imo. Long term reliability unfortunately won't be known for years. Remember the 3.6 was new one too and didn't have issues minus some of the early ones having head issues.

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13_gecko_rubi said:
I've spent a ton of time driving the turbo 4s on road and off. You won't be disappointed. Actual performance wise the turbo 4 outdoes the v6 in every way imo. Long term reliability unfortunately won't be known for years. Remember the 3.6 was new one too and didn't have issues minus some of the early ones having head issues.

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As you know I was on the fence with this issue and ended up going the V6 route because of the long term questions I had. My '12 Durango just turned over 250k miles on Monday and is still going strong so the V6 JL was just toohard for me to pass up.

BUT, if I was offered a $10k discount on a turbo4 Rubicon by my dealer I would have jumped on that deal faster than he coulda finished asking! Then I would have bought the longest warranty with those savings
and still ended up saving thousands
 
I just bought and am waiting on delivery... maybe today or tomorrow.
Anyway, I started looking a few months ago and thought I would wait for a 2019. I started getting more serious a couple of weeks ago and found several 2019's at dealers. Only problem was that all of the 2019 Rubicons I found have the 4 cylinder.
The 4 cylinder may prove to be a durable/reliable engine in time, but I am not willing to be a lab rat. I also understand that the 4 cylinder is, what I have heard described as, a "mild hybrid". My understanding is that the 4 cylinder has a 48 volt battery that is part of the "mild hybrid" system. I decided I didn't want to find out what a 48 volt battery cost to replace. I made a deal on a 2018 V6 that I couldn't have got on a 2019.

I also wanted the low end torque to pull a trailer down the highway, if need be. I am no expert, but I don't think a turbo'ed 4 cylinder is a substitute for cubic inches, when pulling a trailer.
I'm not looking for an education or soliciting someone's defense of the 4 cylinder, just communicating my rational... right or wrong :twocents:
 
The performance numbers look impressive on the 2.0T, but I am wondering also about the belt driven Mild hybrid system and associated electronics/hardware on it. It may prove to have exceptional reliability in time though.


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robx251 said:
Congrats on the new Jeep and keep us up to date with the details of the turbo 4cyl.


2016 JK Rubicon
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Will do. Selling off my Chev pickup with the 5.3 V8 for a 2.0 4 banger with 2 batteries and 3 coolant systems seems backwards. I take delivery tomorrow.
 
If it was me, the only 4 banger I'd deal with is the Cummins R2.8. I'd take the $10K I'd be saving on the gasser and save it until it died and get the Cummins to drop in. Doesn't that turbo 4 banger have new start/stop stuff and a crazy battery pack? How does that affect off road stability?

I haven't seen any discounts on Wranglers in my area, but they had a bunch of 2017 Renegades still and I got one of those last month at a good price. Looks like no Wrangler for me until 2021 or so.


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So I picked up my jl and after getting done with all the dealer crap, drove the 315 miles back home. I have driven it around over the weekend and am ready to give my initial feedback.

I am not yet sorry that I purchased the 4 cylinder. It has plenty of pickup and power for all driving tasks. It really has pickup and plenty of torque for anything I may ask of it including pushing 37’s and pulling a trailer. The power and torque do come in differently than my Tj 6 cylinder and my wife’s 3.2 6 cylinder in her Cherokee. Honestly though I only noticed this tonight when I was trying to break the tires loose to drift the backend in the snow. It is easier with 6 cylinders. I do have to get used to the sound that makes me feel like I’m driving a Toyota Corolla. The sound does trick you though because there is much more power and torque behind this motor. A major plus that I can say this far is that the start/stop is much better on this motor. The Cherokee uses its traditional starter on the flywheel to start the motor up. This 2.0 uses the electric generator/motor to start back up reserving the traditional starter for the cold starts. This system is much quicker, quieter, and doesn’t give the mechanic in me the chills thinking about how much more often I will have to rebuild or replace the starter. In short, I don’t mind the stop/start on the 2.0 nearly as much as I do on the Jeep 6 cylinder engines. So far I love it, got a great price that was worth the new technology risk, and have a very capable Jeep that lets me fit my kids and dogs on the trail.
 
jwalt said:
So I picked up my jl and after getting done with all the dealer crap, drove the 315 miles back home. I have driven it around over the weekend and am ready to give my initial feedback.

I am not yet sorry that I purchased the 4 cylinder. It has plenty of pickup and power for all driving tasks. It really has pickup and plenty of torque for anything I may ask of it including pushing 37’s and pulling a trailer. The power and torque do come in differently than my Tj 6 cylinder and my wife’s 3.2 6 cylinder in her Cherokee. Honestly though I only noticed this tonight when I was trying to break the tires loose to drift the backend in the snow. It is easier with 6 cylinders. I do have to get used to the sound that makes me feel like I’m driving a Toyota Corolla. The sound does trick you though because there is much more power and torque behind this motor. A major plus that I can say this far is that the start/stop is much better on this motor. The Cherokee uses its traditional starter on the flywheel to start the motor up. This 2.0 uses the electric generator/motor to start back up reserving the traditional starter for the cold starts. This system is much quicker, quieter, and doesn’t give the mechanic in me the chills thinking about how much more often I will have to rebuild or replace the starter. In short, I don’t mind the stop/start on the 2.0 nearly as much as I do on the Jeep 6 cylinder engines. So far I love it, got a great price that was worth the new technology risk, and have a very capable Jeep that lets me fit my kids and dogs on the trail.
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Congratulations on the new Jeep! Did you end up getting the huge discount that you mentioned?
 
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