It's been awhile since my last post,we've been on the road for 5 weeks now, in a 2012 grand cherokee overland traveling the east coast from Melbourne to Cairns.

Had the car serviced for our first trip away in our new van. First day was Melbourne to Mulwala, every thing went well car pulled the van easy VERY HAPPY CAMPER

1/set the van up,we noticed cupboards and drawers in kitchen we could not open them our first problem  managed to get one open ,so ended up pulling all the handles of and fix them myself  took me about 2 hours . i put the tv on the outside bracket to watch the footy guess what no aerial, it was broken fixed my self, then no power from the leads.man what else can go wrong As we left to go to canberra noticed  flat tyre on the van, Then noticed the mirror door on the microwave peeling.  aarhhh.

2/next day we get to about 20klm from yass, big puff of smoke i am talking  big, from under bonnet pulled over straight away i saw some oil over the engine bay OH BOY NOT GOOD.checked the gearbox temp it was on 105c So rang racv they organized a flat bed truck to tow me , while i was waiting i rang a jeep dealer in melbourne they said it should be good to drive as there are no flashing warning lights,only the engine light was on.OHHHH OK I HOPE SO , THE NRMA FOLLOWED ME FOR ABOUT 10 KLM till i said you can go now its running fine. Next day i took it to GUISON JEEP DODGE DEALER canberra  they said we have to check the codes to see whats wrong , ok whats the damage on that $165 ok do that ,so later in the day went back and they said,  not sure we now  have to check each fault .HOW much is that   $300 (WHAT) but he said a gearbox service may fix it, OK HOW MUCH $599 HMMMMM  that will fix it i said,  were not sure .OK LETS TRY THAT THEN for $900.     Service guy told ME WORST CASE IS TO FIX GEARBOX COST FOR THAT $13000  HOLY CR-- So were standing on the street trying to organize transport back to the caravan, when i said this is all moving to fast i am going to take my car back to the van and think about what i will do ,because it drives as normal with no van.

3/Next day i take  to a automatic gear box specialist, he would check all codes and a full service for $540,  conclusion was tcc slip a little higher than would be expected. He said he had not had a jeep come in with this problem yet, only the chrysler 300, try it let me know i would like some feed back.

3/ Next day traveling to sydney 75 klm into my journey the gearbox temp went up to 90 c   i pull over stop the car,  and started it up again straight away, car went good again temp came down to 73 c, within 2 klm sitting on about 90, did that 5 times to caravan park in sydney hhmmm thinking this may be computer problem. the engine light also came on every time the gearbox got hot. But after starting the car 3 or 4 times the light would go of   as i unhitched the van it rolled side ways with handbrake on into the bumper bar  2 DENTS IN BUMPER

By this stage i was getting a little depressed i wanted to go home, had enough of all this caravaning bull sh--. after calming down a bit decided to keep going to a mates place in burpengary once there i could relax ,hes on an acre so plenty of room .He also has a jeep grand cherokee overland same as mine, same year . NEVER HAD ANY ISSUES he also tows 21ft van or boat

Next step while at my mates place i went to jeep dealer in Zillmere   ZUPPS ASPLEY and explained the story to them,   well we have to do another test ok how much, i will look after you next day    they were not sure what the problem was, but they down loaded all missing codes, try it now  cost me $110 he spent about 2 hours on the car .OK no problem   very helpful can recommend them. genuine dealership

So my mate decided to join me as far as  yeppoon in hes van, but  i had to keep stopping and restarting all the time,  Once in CALLIOPE i looked on the internet for solutions not much help there could not find the same problems  so i rang melbourne dealer again they told me to drive it in 4th gear,   ok i will try that,  problem fixed no more overheating every thing going good all happy now if that was the problem.   FINALLY SOME RELIEF

 From yeppoon to mackay its fairly flat so i try it in drive again  only had to stop once

We are now in a c/p in mackay, so i decided to ring jeep australia customer care ,I TOLD THEM THE PROBLEMS I WAS HAVING   its going to be an up hill battle iam thinking         because  my jeep has been out of warranty since last november  customer care were nice an courteous and very helpful. she said i will  run it past our technical team, and ring you later today  they actually rang back that afternoon 

hello willy, we looked at your problem and decided we will bring a new automatic gearbox  and cooler to mackay for installation (exuse me could you repeat that please)

and we would like to help you with your accommodation and hire car also supply you with a taxi to the hire company at no cost to you. thank you,  thankyou,   thankyou.    A bit of luck at last    I didn't jump up and down or get angry just explained what happened in a calm and measured way

just waiting now as its labour day here, probably get it fixed on tues. I know jeep australia have had some bad press of late (BUT HAVE BEEN GREAT FOR ME) and can't speak highly enough for them. Its tuesday today car is is finally fixed. The dealership were friendly enough BUT DON'T RETURN CALLS, HOPELESS 

So now hopefully we will finally enjoy our holiday from here on.

On more note, there's a woman in jeep  customer care called j--y she was just brilliant ,  they need to give her a raise or promotion she made my life very easy, 10 out of 10 to her. 

regards willy