Jeep Cherokee Catalytic Converter Scrap Price by Generation

A Jeep Cherokee catalytic converter scraps for roughly $18 to $266 as of 21 August 2026, and the spread is mostly about substrate, not model year. Ceramic OEM units that grade as Large Chrysler Cat pay $92 each at Rockaway Recycling today, with that grade ranging $89–$266. The thin foil-and-wire units common on older Cherokees drop to $18–$78, and aftermarket replacements are worth about $5.

If you want the numbering system and grading logic that sits behind all of this, read the Mopar family overview on Chrysler catalytic converter scrap prices. This page is the Cherokee-specific breakdown.

What a Cherokee converter pays right now

Cherokee converters almost never get bought as a Cherokee converter. They get bought as a grade. Learn which grade your unit falls into and you will know within about $40 what you should be offered.

ScrapMonster runs a separate Jeep-branded category rather than a substrate grade. It listed $178 per unit on 17 August 2026. The same site’s dedicated Jeep page showed $204 when last updated on 2 January 2026. Those two figures come from one publisher and still disagree by $26, which tells you how loose brand-level averages are. Treat $178–$204 as a ceiling indicator for a clean large ceramic Jeep unit, not as a quote.

Cherokee by generation

Published figures broken out by Cherokee generation are thin. Most price lists stop at brand or grade. What follows pairs the grades above with what is physically bolted to each platform, and flags where hard numbers exist versus where you are estimating.

XJ Cherokee, 1984–2001

The XJ is the weakest payer in the family. The 4.0 inline six ran a relatively small converter, emissions loading in that era was light, and many XJ units use foil or wire substrate rather than a ceramic brick. RRCats notes that many Chrysler-family units are foil cats with a swirl pattern, holding precious metal on metal foil instead of ceramic, which makes them harder to refine and cheaper to buy.

Expect XJ units to land in Small Foil/Wire at $18–$78 or Small Domestic at $21–$161. Cararac reports scrapyard offers on Cherokee converters commonly running $10–$40, which matches the low end. If a yard offers you $25 for a rusty XJ cat, that is not automatically a lowball.

Check the substrate before you argue price. Look down the pipe with a light. A honeycomb brick is ceramic. A spiral that looks like a thumbprint is foil or wire, and it will pay less no matter how big the can is.

KJ and KK Liberty era, 2002–2012

The Liberty replaced the XJ and brought heavier emissions hardware, including pre-cats close to the manifold plus a main underbody converter. Two units means two payments, but the pre-cat is small and grades low.

AutoCatalystMarket lists Cherokee-family gasoline converters at $32–$96 and ceramic units at $32–$261, though that data carries a date of 16 September 2024 and predates the 2026 platinum group metal decline. Use it as a shape, not a price. The main KJ ceramic unit realistically sits in Regular Domestic at $20–$136 or Large Chrysler at $89–$266 if it is a full-size ceramic can with intact material.

KL Cherokee, 2014–2023

The KL is the best gasoline Cherokee to scrap. Tighter emissions standards meant richer washcoat loading, and the 3.2 Pentastar V6 units are physically larger ceramic converters. These grade as Large Chrysler Cat or High Grade Domestic, so $89–$266 and $65–$593 respectively.

The wide top end on High Grade Domestic is real but rare. It applies to large, newer, heavily loaded OEM units. A standard KL converter is far more likely to land near the $90–$180 band than near $593.

Grand Cherokee WJ, 1999–2004

The WJ ran the 4.0 six or the 4.7 V8. Converters are mid-size ceramic, generally better than XJ and roughly comparable to KJ. Cararac gives a useful physical rule for Grand Cherokee units: a small one scraps around $90 and a large one runs up to $250. That maps almost exactly onto the Large Chrysler Cat range of $89–$266, which is a good sign the ranges are sound.

Grand Cherokee WK and WK2, 2005 onward

These are the heaviest payers in the Cherokee line. The 5.7 Hemi and later 3.6 Pentastar units are large ceramic converters, often two per vehicle. Grade them as Large Chrysler Cat at minimum, and push for High Grade Domestic on the bigger late units.

Grand Cherokee diesel variants with the 3.0 EcoDiesel are a different animal. Those carry a diesel oxidation catalyst plus a diesel particulate filter. Diesel Cat grades at $15 each with a range of $15–$477, and DPF at $30 each across a very wide $9–$758 spread. Do not assume the diesel unit is worth more because it is bigger. It usually is not.

Finding the number on a Cherokee unit

RRCats lists the Jeep prefixes worth hunting for: 520, 680, YK, EGR and RL. Units may also be stamped JEEP, MOPAR, FCA, or a plain Chrysler part number. Check the corners, look under the heat shields, and check the down pipe. Not every converter carries a number.

Chrysler-family units show a triangular honeycomb pattern inside rather than the checkered pattern used by other makers. That triangle is a fast confirmation you are holding a Mopar ceramic unit and not an aftermarket shell. The full numbering breakdown lives in the Mopar overview article.

What is moving the price in August 2026

Converter prices track platinum, palladium and rhodium. All three are down substantially across 2026, which is why Cherokee numbers look softer than they did in January.

The rhodium figure is a genuine disagreement between sources on the same date, not an estimate. Kitco quoted $8,550 on 19 August 2026 and Trading Economics quoted $8,800 on 20 August 2026. Both are reported here rather than averaged.

One published outlier deserves a warning. JunkyardInventory cites 2026 rhodium at $4,800 and palladium at $950. Those numbers conflict sharply with Kitco and Trading Economics for the same year. Do not let a buyer quote you off figures that low.

IndexBox gives a useful sanity check: sellers typically receive 25 to 35 percent of the contained metal spot value after refining costs and losses, with professional refining recovering 92 to 98 percent of the platinum group metals. If someone offers you 10 percent of computed metal value, walk.

Practical notes for the yard

• Do not cut the can open. A partially emptied converter grades as damaged and drops toward scrap steel.
• Photograph the serial number and the honeycomb. Every buyer surveyed quotes off photos plus numbers, not descriptions.
• Weight is not value. Steel housing and insulation dominate the weight. A small ceramic unit can beat a large diesel one.
• Get two quotes. The gap between the ScrapMonster Jeep average of $178 and the Rockaway Large Chrysler price of $92 is the gap between buyers, not between converters.
• Bring proof of ownership. Buyers surveyed require it before payment.

Related scrap price guides

• Chrysler Catalytic Converter Scrap Prices: Mopar Grades and Codes
• Catalytic Converter Scrap Value by Serial Number: How Buyers Price Your Unit
• Scrap Metal Prices 2026: Complete Rate Index by Material