Cmcclaflin31
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Connor
- Joined
- Sep 26, 2018
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 151
- Reaction score
- 50
- Location
- Western MA
- Vehicle(s)
- 92 Yj Wrangler, 18 JLUS, 82 J10 Pickup
- Occupation
- Ford Tech
My Sahara which yes it's never seen an offroad trail, has been at the dealer for a month now. The alternator went on it. Currently no date for when it will be off backorder. I'm not saying this might be everyone's issue later on, but there's only 11xxx miles on it. One would think after driving it as it's designed to be driven (start/stop always being used and driving city/highway/lots of back roads) the alternator shouldn't have an issue. No, I have no idea what went wrong with it. I only know the check engine light came on and my engine started surging. One would assume it's the charging part of the alternator and not the special motor/starter. I was very curious as to why they changed the engine options for 2020 as well though. It does seem very odd they're only keeping the etorque in Sahara's. Since they're keeping it, I would assume they're not having much trouble with them, just the unlucky few like myself I guess.I've seen no evidence of it being a lemon. Quite the contrary. It looks to be off to a great start. I posted in another thread an educated guess as to why it is not on the Rubicon. That has to do with the charging needed for the Etorque. I suspect that when rock crawling, it uses up the batteries pretty fast, as you are constantly stopping and going, and after awhile, there may not be enough power to engage it. The engine, at low RPM's, may not be allowing the alternator to produce enough power to overcome the draw. I'd love to pick a Jeep engineer's brain to see if there might be this kind of issue, or if it only exists in my imagination. If there are any 2.0 Etorque owners who've done some extensive off-roading, please chime in on your experiences!
That's totally a guess, though. The only thing that would explain it being just on the Sahara would be that Saharas probably spend more time on the road, being that they seem to be the more luxury oriented trim level. Before the Sahara folks jump me and beat me up, I know, I see plenty of built Saharas off road.
Like I said, I may be wrong, but there has to be some technical reason they aren't putting it on the Rubicon, being that it is the top trim level or at least equal in trim to the Sahara. Reliability isn't something I suspect because we'd see it all over this forum. I've mainly seen great praise of its power and fuel economy.
I do wonder, though, if the elimination of Etorque puts the 3.6 (non BSG) at least on par with the 2.0 for fuel economy?
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