Test drive Jeep Grand Cherokee 1999 - 2003 SUV

Widespread possibilities

At the end of May, the Daimlerchrysler Corporation held an official presentation of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee - in the Czech Republic, in the vicinity of Brno. We had the opportunity to participate in this event, and we did not fail to use it - despite the fact that this car was already familiar to us. Squeezing again in a good car - why not? In addition, the last time for the test (report - in the previous motor issue) we got a Grand Cherokee, equipped with an old, essentially engine and not the most cunning transmission. So let's make up the gap ...

 

The gray veil, through which the signal lights of the airfield were barely visible, completely dispelled the dreams of the May Zagara. However, the rain managed to end earlier than we stepped on the wet land of the Czech Republic. The next day, the employees of the heavenly office carefully cleaned the blue sphere and tossed the sun to shine, allowing to fully enjoy the stone music of the medieval Prague.

 

From Prague to Brno along the highway - a stone's throw. Less than two hours - and we are in place. The central part of the city looks quite medieval, but at some distance from it there are inappropriate examples of socialist architecture here. Interesting: for some reason, eight Grand Cherokee, who were standing near the hotel, did not look like an alien element against the background of the historical facade.

 

We had a three -hundred -year mileage. They distributed cards and legends to everyone - as in a real rally. On the trip you can (and you need to) change cars with other participants.

 

My navigator is a miniature Leningrad Katya (St. Petersburg is difficult to pronounce, and does not sound). She is quite comfortable behind on a wide soft leather sofa. (I also had a chance to be with the rear passenger. It is very convenient, but only while the car moves more or less straightforwardly, with sharp restructures you slide from side to side.) The task of the navigator is to inform the pilot about route points marked in the legend. I switch the ceiling display of the on -board computer to the odometer mode. Katya can be seen perfectly, and watching from the driver's seat is inconvenient - you lift your head, distracting from the road. Also, from the ceiling, one has to read, for example, data on the amount of gasoline remaining in the tank. An interesting feature: a point matrix imitates the rotation of the digital drums of a mechanical device. But the electronic meter of the daytime speedometer does not have such a feature.

 

Let's go ... The upbringing of local drivers at first dumbfounds. No one cuts, does not squeeze out between the rows, does not go to the yellow and, moreover, the red traffic signal ... They do not try to crush pedestrians - they are politely missing. Europe is still eastern.

 

A carefully cleaned, in some places a stacked suburban road curls between quiet, frozen villages in time. Red tiles - even on the most litter Sarayukha. A small tractor carefully cuts the grass along the side of the road ...

 

We move into the forest, risking to tear off a plastic apron with a disguised stump, and evaluate the resulting picture. There seems to be visual harmony, but functional ... it is necessary to maneuver between the branches with maximum caution. Yes, the feasibility of buying a carrier is in doubt (of course, you can carry out that there is a dope through dense thickets - after such a forced tuning there will be nothing to be afraid of.) Jokes jokes, but if the owner of the new Grand Cherokee loves to trample nature, additional protection of the body (in the first The line is sidewalls) will not hurt at all.

 

Rural roads in the Czech Republic are better than other domestic highways. It’s really almost impossible to get the suspension to work here-except to jump on the curbs ... By the way: we drive into some old town with a cobblestone bridge. A drum fraction is heard under the bottom, our crew is slightly shaking, but not enough to pay attention to it. You can’t call a rigid suspension, rather it is elastic.

 

We wound. We rush along the highway, speed restriction - 130 km/h, 160 on the speedometer. In the cabin, quite quietly (the windows, however, are closed), given that under the hood there is a considerable volume motor. The noise of the transmission is also heard, especially in the back seat, but for the 4x4 car this is normal. However, we talked about the car in sufficient detail a month ago. Now we are interested in motors. All three were presented on the test - already familiar, slightly modernized 4 l in a row six, the new 4.7 l V8 and the new 3.1 l of the 5 -cylinder turbodiesel of Italian origin, which is installed on machines intended for Europe. Power, respectively, - 190, 220 and 140 hp. Any motor has enough torque to scroll all four wheels on the asphalt when starting.

 

The dynamics of gasoline machines are approximately the same - the engine was not noticed with a 4 liter of a car with a 4 -liter, the difference of 0.7 liters of volume is not felt as much as one might be expected. The presence of a turbodiesel is given out only by specific vibrations for idle and half as much (at the same speed) testimony of the tachometer - despite the relatively small volume of this motor, the car equipped with its gasoline brothers is almost not inferior to its brothers.

 

An unusual automatic box, which is equipped with 4.7 liters of motor. She has two second gears - with different gear rates (1.67 and 1.50). The first box chooses with regular switching, the second - with a sharp press on the gas pedal (kik -dowan) at high speed, for example, during overtaking (while the engine roars less).

 

Not far from the gas station, we found an asphalt site suitable for figure driving. Our task is to evaluate the car in extreme taxiing mode. It is clear that the slalom for Grand Cherokee is about the same as the off -road for Porsche, however, given the features of the operation of SUVs in Russia, we decide to try. The car, piercingly whistling rubber, entertained the audience for some time.

 

At the cost of slight grinding tires, the following was found out. The reaction of the car to the rotation of the wheels is slightly inhibited. In a steep turn at high speed, Jeep blows out at the same time by all wheels (a short blow to the brakes allows rubber to catch on the road and avoid troubles). At the same time, the body's roll is big, and the car begins to swing in multidirectional turns. The soft driver's chair does not hold the rider too well. Yes, after all, the destiny of the SUV is dirt, and not with high -speed slalom on the asphalt ...

 

The test program included tests of cars in their native elements, but it turned out that in Europe - an off -road deficit. We arrived on the highway for motocross. In a couple of sunny days, the sand quarry was completely dry, and the organizers did not guess to soak it using a pair of watering machines. Or did not want to. As a result, we have a rather sterile road. In Russia, they go on the Lada on the Lada, and the foreigners got into a halt ...

 

It turns out that Daimlerchrysler conducted this presentation for ... its dealers. How much it differed from similar events for the car press! There would be about dirt, especially since the corporation has no reason to fear for the behavior of Grand Cherokee on the road. But we found out this later, but for now ... we attached to each participant according to the instructor, the main task of which is to protect the car, limiting the dies of the driver.

 

Large road clearance, small overhangs of the body, old -regime unreasonable bridges and good transmission protection inspire confidence. Protection will not hurt by no means - a rather long -term suspension is quite capable of providing the bottom contact with some large stone between the ruts.

 

The car allows significant rolls in any direction, but without a threat of overturning. Gasoline engines, with a full -wheel drive and lower gear, are pulled along the hills approximately the same. It seems that they will drag on the wall if there is a clutch. The turbodiesel does not lag behind them at all, even more burdenses on the bottom, but with a large load it knocks no worse than another tractor. Any of the engines allows, for example, from a place and with acceleration, climb a hill of steep degrees 45. On a steep descent, it is useful to limit yourself to the first or second steps - then you can slow down the engine. At low speeds, the steering hydraulic power steering works with full dedication. This helps a lot when driving on the off -road - on sand, for example. And having jumped several times from the springboard (it was necessary to see the instructor’s face), we can state: the suspension can withstand the shocks perfectly.

 

As already mentioned, the sand under the wheels was dry, but - despite the highway - provided sufficient grip, so there was nowhere to slip and cars with different transmission behaved exactly the same. Quadra-Drive had to really experience upon returning to Moscow.

 

Actually, how is Quadra-Drive different from Quadra-Trac? Mainly in that the inter -circuit was added to the intersosteum multi -disc clowing (it can be called differential). They are arranged in the same way as the center -axle - something like a multi -disc clutch, which is given on the oil pump, the performance of which depends on the difference in the speed of rotation of the rotor and the stator (for more details, see the engine E 5-6, 1999). Bridges with such couplings are called Vari-Lok 153.

 

In normal road conditions, in the Quadra-Drive transmission, almost the entire stream of torque goes to the rear bridge (as in the Quadra-Trac transmission). If the rear wheels begin to slip, there is a difference in the speed of rotation of the front and rear wheels. The oil pump feels this difference and compresses the clutch discs, transmitting part of the torque forward and thereby aligning the speed of rotation. The greater the slip in the back, the more rotation frequencies differ, and the greater the torque is transmitted to the front bridge. In the same way, the intercourse couplings also work in the transmission of Quadra-Drive, redistributing torque to the left and right-in accordance with the difference in the speed of rotation of the wheels of the same axis. When the reduced row of transmission (2.72) is turned on, the central coupling both in Quadra-Trac and in Quadra-Drive is completely blocked.

 

The creators of Grand Cherokee claim that the car is able to move, even if only one wheel retains the clutch with the road - the entire supply of torque will get it. Familiar? The same thing is said about their cars and other automakers, for example, Mercedes - about ML SUVs (Motor E 8, 1998). But the goal is achieved in different ways.

 

The Mercedes system fights passively passively - by slowing down the shredding wheels, as a result of the flow of torque, it flows to the workers. In Grand Cherokee, the struggle is actively waged. It can be argued that all these are linguistic subtleties that do not change the final result. Maybe. But it was necessary to see and feel (the photos do not transmit it), like a car, grinding a stream of sand in a career near Zagorsky, as if she had been baked into turns, leaving the situations that seemed hopeless. No, there is still a big difference between a passive expectation of the result and an active desire for it ...

 

In addition, the differences between systems are not only in their emotional perception by the driver. For example, the passive transmission Mercedes ML from the point of view of mechanics is easier - regular brake mechanisms are used, and all the emphasis is made on cunning electronics. Probably, ideologically, this is correct - electronics is cheaper. But I would like to look at the same ML after he is hiring in the mud for half a day: it is still unknown what will happen to constantly working brake mechanisms deprived of ventilation.

 

If we compare Quadra -Drive with more traditional designs of high -friction differentials, for example, with a viscous coupling, then the hydromechanical coupling Grand Cherokee is structurally complicated. But it works better. The main thing is that it reacts to an order of magnitude faster to the difference in the frequency of rotation of the axes (or wheels) - its oil pump develops pressure and compresses the discs almost instantly, while the liquid reaction in the viscous coupling by definition is slightly inhibited. To roma, Quadra-Drive couplings are blocked mechanically and are able to transmit almost 100% torque, and the viscous coupling transfers it through the liquid and is never blocked to the end. The slightly frightening constructive complexity of the Grand Cherokee couplings is reduced by the fact that the oil in their pumps, a hand -boxed box and bridges - one and the same, therefore, is not required (unlike viscous couplings) to isolate liquids from each other. True, the oil is special and costs a lot.

 

And one more plus: in contrast to traditional mechanical differentials of high friction, which over time change their parameters, Grand Cherokee couplings are not subject to mechanical wear, and must behave more stable ...

 

However, let the Daimlerchrysler Corporation understands which system is better - because it produces both Mercedes ML and the Jeep Grand Cherokee. And Nikita Nebylitsky, the racer of the Red Racing Group team, who helped us during the tests, was simply in love with the new Grand Cherokee: he would have a harder body, to a smart radiolery in July would go to Grand Cherokee, not Pajero.

 

Alexey Strelkov
 
 

 

Source: Magazine Motor