I was looking on my 99TJ at my door stamp(decal) for the usual information and I see the the build date as; MFG DATE; 10-98. My Monroni (sp)Label says I bought a 1999 Wrangler Sport. I understand that this is not uncommon but does anybody know if there is an actual cutoff date for naming the vehicle's Year? Is there a motor stamp somewhere that lists the motor year. If somebody knows the skinny on this subject, I'd appreciate it.
I asked the guy at NAPA about a serpentine belt and he looked up the
98 and the 99 and of course they're different part numbers and he also said he showed no listing at all for a 99 TJ Sport in the Belts category.
If you want to be sure about the year of your Jeep, here is a link to a Jeep VIN decoder. It will give you model, year, engine, manufacturing country and more.
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Also, when you get parts it is a good idea to bring the manufacturing month/year as you did, because some times parts will change during a manufacturing year. (ex. 94 Trans-Sport has two different serpentine belts for the same year).
The 1999 model year typically begins in October of 1998. This is not always true, it can sometimes start in April of 1998 if the model is new and the manufacturer wants to get a jump on things.
When I was a kid, I remember the first production Mustangs hit the street in April of '64, and were referred to as '64 1/2 model year, then in October, when the normal introduction of the '65 models rolled out, the Mustang went through some body side molding changes and the base I6 and V8 motors got a bump up in displacement (maybe the V8 got the bump first with the I6 getting its bump later on - I forget exactly). My point is, when a model is first introduced, it can be launched in April, and get ist model year designation of the next following model year. In April of 2003, the new model would be a
2004, then in October of 2003, the rest of the 2004 models would be rolled out.
None of this matters in your case because the '99 TJ that you got is not a new model, it hit the sidewalks in October of 1998, and could have been produced anytime after about August of 2003.
I own a '93 Mazda MPV that I recently needed a shopping cart full of parts for, and some of them didn't fit. It seems they used the parts from '92 on my MPV for some reason. You may run into this kind of problem on your TJ, it is common. Annoying, but common.
You do indeed have a 1999 Jeep TJ, based upon the manufacturing date you cited.
Thanks for the help. I was in the Napa store talking about the different sizes for belts and there was a guy in there going on and on about how his ford used so many different parts from different production years it was ridiculous.
Which is exactly what I said would happen. The original poster said he bought his 99 with a production date of 10/98. You bought your's at the very end of the model year, perhaps even after the new models were introduced, with a build date of June. You bought at the end of the year, the original poster bought at the beginning. None of these dates is set in stone, and each manufacturer wants to be thefirst on his block with the new offerings, so they tend to creep forward over the years. I said the new models roll out in October, but you said mid-September, is this really a significant difference?
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