BIG mid-sized SUV knowledge

t1snwrbrdr12 said:
Are there any worrisome common problems with the 6 cylinder? I feel like there’s been recent threads here about water pumps, some kind of trans oil cooler leak with no fix/no part available, oil leaks?
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The oil cooler is FCA Pentastar engine in Cherokee.
As far as I know VR6 doesn’t have big issues with water pump, which on 2.0T is given to leak before 100k.
@Trav @RooflessVW @TiGeo can tell ypu more.
 
edyvw said:
The oil cooler is FCA Pentastar engine in Cherokee.
As far as I know VR6 doesn’t have big issues with water pump, which on 2.0T is given to leak before 100k.
@Trav @RooflessVW @TiGeo can tell ypu more.
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I knew the Pentastar has oil cooler problems, I work on them and fix them daily. But I’ve honestly always ignored any VW threads here. Of course I see the titles when I scroll by, but I thought some people were having a headache of figuring out things on VWs lately and on here posting.
 
RooflessVW said:
@edyvw the 3.6 VR6 water pump has been kinda crappy for as long as the engine has been around. Mine got one under warranty.

Super easy to change though.
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I did just skim a YouTube of it, it doesn’t seem bad at all. And rear brakes don’t seem terrible…wish it were as easy as a Mazda to get it into service mode, but of the three videos I skimmed it seems like people either have a capable scanner to get into service mode, or they remove the parking brake motor and manually re-wind the parking brake mechanism.
 
RooflessVW said:
If you get the VR6:

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Wouldn’t be opposed to that on a car, but on the family hauler I wouldn’t think I’d do it. A little rumble is cool but some of that noise was borderline obnoxious…maybe it was just when they were revving it with no load but still
 
t1snwrbrdr12 said:
Wouldn’t be opposed to that on a car, but on the family hauler I wouldn’t think I’d do it. A little rumble is cool but some of that noise was borderline obnoxious…maybe it was just when they were revving it with no load but still
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It will be pretty quiet cruising. Still has a monster suitcase muffler.
 
We just bought a well used GMC Yukon for a trip to Florida next month. We have 6 to transport and one is in a baby seat. This is an XL 1500 with 4 wheel drive and a 5.3 V 8. We took it on a shake down trip to Tennesse 2 weeks ago and got 16mpg with 7 aboard. Had no issues. Wife drives it very confidently and it has a huge space behind the 3rd row seat for luggage and a stroller. Pretty much everything works on it but it has some rust in the rockers and on the back fenders each has a small rust through. No dents and good tires and 205K miles all for 3300 dollars. Paint is bad but GM has those issues. I don't plan to keep it very long. I now see why there are so many Suburbans and Yukons on the road since they stopped building big station wagons. It just drives like a big old American car.
 
t1snwrbrdr12 said:
I knew the Pentastar has oil cooler problems, I work on them and fix them daily. But I’ve honestly always ignored any VW threads here. Of course I see the titles when I scroll by, but I thought some people were having a headache of figuring out things on VWs lately and on here posting.
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Generally, VW is pushing this plastic housing on their water pumps and revising them thinking now they figured. For 2.0T there is aftermarket aluminum alternative. Issue is that housing cracks. Not sure is issue on VR6 water pump exactly that, but someone will answer. Good thing is that there is cottage industry of improved alternatives. VR6 was used in Audi Q7, Touareg, Passat and Porsche. So, there are a lot of them on the road.
 
vwmaniaman said:
We just bought a well used GMC Yukon for a trip to Florida next month. We have 6 to transport and one is in a baby seat. This is an XL 1500 with 4 wheel drive and a 5.3 V 8. We took it on a shake down trip to Tennesse 2 weeks ago and got 16mpg with 7 aboard. Had no issues. Wife drives it very confidently and it has a huge space behind the 3rd row seat for luggage and a stroller. Pretty much everything works on it but it has some rust in the rockers and on the back fenders each has a small rust through. No dents and good tires and 205K miles all for 3300 dollars. Paint is bad but GM has those issues. I don't plan to keep it very long. I now see why there are so many Suburbans and Yukons on the road since they stopped building big station wagons. It just drives like a big old American car.
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What’s year model ?
 
Why are these oil change kits offered by ecp and other euro sites including a drain plug? Is it not sufficient in some way to simply replace the drain plug gasket on these cars for some reason or another?
 
t1snwrbrdr12 said:
So we have a Hyundai Palisade that has been a headache. We may get out of it…if it were fixed or never had problems, we wouldn’t be considering anything else. But its cargo space is the minimum we can deal with as we load it full, as well as an XXL Thule roof box, on camping trips. We have about 46 cu. ft. behind 2nd row. Wife wants a 3rd row just in case of friends, family (we do use it occasionally).

Problems with ours: vibration they can’t fix, tire wear issue they can’t find a reason for (front tires noticeably / badly feathering within 5k miles that I rotate at) (they checked and adjusted alignment, tried to say it’s fixed, but alignment was only 0.02 degree out / front toe and likely due to them replacing the transfer case as they probably removed the subframe), and damage dealers causing while in for service that state AG is now involved with as Hyundai won’t take our back.

We can jump into another Palisade (probably). We have a limited, the new limiteds are butt ugly with ugly wheels and about 4 different exterior finishes (gloss black grill, satin gray parts, chrome parts, and body color parts). We’d consider going down to XRT for the looks, but then we lose value (a lot less options, likely much less trade in value) and I don’t exactly know if Hyundai can make that make sense for us…I’m definitely not taking a hit for a car they can’t fix.

Pilot has more cargo room now. I just dislike Hondas engine/trans track record (oil burning, stupid VCM, trans problems that always seem to arise with Honda v6 when they’re out of warranty, and the whole thing of them using a timing belt still, that’s just a big expense that most modern cars don’t have anymore).

VW Atlas has comparable / more cargo room, but I’ve never been a VW fan. New VW seem to have alot of lemon / buyback cases lately at least concerning their SUVs.

Chevy Traverse. More cargo room, nice looking SUV, but I’ve never thought well of Chevys if they weren’t v8 full framed full sized vehicles. Seem like a mess to work on, with common, premature problems as compared to other / import vehicles.

Really wish the Grand Highlander were out and Toyota didn’t sell at a premium…seems like the best bet, but also would want to give it a year or two on the road before we bought.

Grand Cherokee L. More cargo room I think, but for the 3.6s problems, they sure ask a pretty penny for what they are. I can’t see spending 50k ish for a middle of the line grand Cherokee L when you can be pretty sure it’ll be problematic.

Any personal or professional experience with these large mid sized SUVs? Wife is absolutely against another minivan. And unfortunately a Tahoe is pretty expensive / she’s afraid of driving one.

Appreciate it!
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I really like my Chevy Traverse. It is the 2017 model though. The 3.6 is fine even with a full vehicle. The only repair to date was replacing a front window switch which I did myself in about 20 minutes. My friends wife has the GMC version which they like a lot. They do feel they could use a little more power. I guess it depends how and where you drive.
 
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