Ball joints came out! Is this an isolated case or a problem?

[James]

I firmly believe all of your trouble started with the "technicians" who installed the lift poorly the used the come-a-long to line things up. There would be ZERO reason to use a come-a-long or any brute force tactics to install any portion of a lift kit, let alone one designed by the manufacturer IMNSHO!

Lately I’m wondering if any of the Jeep dealerships technicians/ Service advisors are being trained on the JL or is it an on the job training type of situation.

Here is what I’m talking about
I take my JL to two different dealerships about all weather floor mats not sealing during water crossings. All of the dealerships and Jeep care said the Jeep will flood and is not water tight. Wrong! The JL is capable of 30” of fording water without water entering into the vehicle. FCA ended up increased my warranty to 5 years 60,000 miles for all the time and effort I put into training their untrained! It is on their website, the vehicle and in all of their advertising.
See photo 36” of water and not one leak!

I take my JL in for the radio turning on/off on its own and odometer reading 9999999 at times.
They ordered a new radio and instrument cluster, are going to take my dashboard apart! Wtf?
I tell them it is a simple software update problem, they replied they called FCA and nothing exist yet! I email them the FCA update from this forum and Walaala, what are you know Joe it works.

I have a rear main seal leaking, I take it into the dealership and while there I ask them to adjust the tailgate because it is hitting/rubbing against the body. They get paid for this vs me having to do it, besides that spare tire with the Mopar beadlocking wheels is fricking heavy I’ll see if they can handle the job. It is a simple adjustment.

They order new tailgate door hinges, make an adjustment to the driver side of the tailgate to where it will not close unless I slam the door! I’m told by the service advisor that the Mopar tailgate reinforcement bracket and JL hinges can not hold a 35” tire and I need to replace all of this with a different aftermarket tire carrier that bolts to the bumper.
Wholly hell Batman are you fricking kidding me? I interrupt the service advisor to say, I’ll do it myself, clearly your folks are incapable of a simple adjustments. The advisor replied, they had four people and the shop manager look at it and all said the same thing. My reply was, great you have an entire shop full of untrained and incompetence folks being lead by someone who clearly has not been trained on the new JL.
Yesterday I did it myself and it works perfectly, when I take it back for the rear main seal I’ll make a point to show the service advisor that is was a simple adjustment.
Now I’m seriously worried are they trained to remove the transmission and replace a rear main seal? Or will I get a call saying the motor and transmission along with the axels will need to be replaced? Just saying as a customer they are leaving me feeling that all of the dealerships I have been to are untrained

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[Jeepsterfreak]

Lately I’m wondering if any of the Jeep dealerships technicians/ Service advisors are being trained on the JL or is it an on the job training type of situation.

Here is what I’m talking about
I take my JL to two different dealerships about all weather floor mats not sealing during water crossings. All of the dealerships and Jeep care said the Jeep will flood and is not water tight. Wrong! The JL is capable of 30” of fording water without water entering into the vehicle. FCA ended up increased my warranty to 5 years 60,000 miles for all the time and effort I put into training their untrained! It is on their website, the vehicle and in all of their advertising.
See photo 36” of water and not one leak!

I take my JL in for the radio turning on/off on its own and odometer reading 9999999 at times.
They ordered a new radio and instrument cluster, are going to take my dashboard apart! Wtf?
I tell them it is a simple software update problem, they replied they called FCA and nothing exist yet! I email them the FCA update from this forum and Walaala, what are you know Joe it works.

I have a rear main seal leaking, I take it into the dealership and while there I ask them to adjust the tailgate because it is hitting/rubbing against the body. They get paid for this vs me having to do it, besides that spare tire with the Mopar beadlocking wheels is fricking heavy I’ll see if they can handle the job. It is a simple adjustment.

They order new tailgate door hinges, make an adjustment to the driver side of the tailgate to where it will not close unless I slam the door! I’m told by the service advisor that the Mopar tailgate reinforcement bracket and JL hinges can not hold a 35” tire and I need to replace all of this with a different aftermarket tire carrier that bolts to the bumper.
Wholly hell Batman are you fricking kidding me? I interrupt the service advisor to say, I’ll do it myself, clearly your folks are incapable of a simple adjustments. The advisor replied, they had four people and the shop manager look at it and all said the same thing. My reply was, great you have an entire shop full of untrained and incompetence folks being lead by someone who clearly has not been trained on the new JL.
Yesterday I did it myself and it works perfectly, when I take it back for the rear main seal I’ll make a point to show the service advisor that is was a simple adjustment.
Now I’m seriously worried are they trained to remove the transmission and replace a rear main seal? Or will I get a call saying the motor and transmission along with the axels will need to be replaced? Just saying as a customer they are leaving me feeling that all of the dealerships I have been to are untrained

They can’t adjust a tailgate hinge, yet tou trust them to replace your rear main seal? Yikes. I’d be worried too.

 

[viper88]

They can’t adjust a tailgate hinge, yet tou trust them to replace your rear main seal? Yikes. I’d be worried too.

Hopefully the dealer has different tiers of techs?

 

[James]

They can’t adjust a tailgate hinge, yet tou trust them to replace your rear main seal? Yikes. I’d be worried too.

This is what has me seriously worried!

 

[James]

Hopefully the dealer has different tiers of techs?

It is their body shop and service manager.
I really hope their mechanic know what they are doing.

 

[bikenutty]

I purchased from Premier, what a mistake. They sold it to me with an outstanding recall, the federal/VIN tag is missing from the doorjamb, the lock lug key was not correct so I couldn't remove wheels. I traded 2 vehicles in, and decided to keep one and give them cash for the trade value, later that day, left 3 messages, voice mails, and talked to two people about keeping my trade. Zero response. Its been months now, still zero communication from this dealer, and no doorjamb sticker as promised. I regret giving any of money to this operation of incompetence. I have warranty issues (wandering, and most of the other general electrical gremlins, but I have no faith in ANY Jeep dealer.... slowly fixing the things I can on my own.

I've added suspension lift (R.E.) fuel wheels with 37s for off-road use (35" KO2s on stock rims for the street) and done a bunch of off-road fully loaded including the Big Bear trails, fortunately I seem to have a solid jeep I(mechanically) I've had it twisted up, wheels off the ground, tires rubbing (very lightly) and no issues thus far. Fingers crossed.

$$

 

[ocrejects]

It is their body shop and service manager.
I really hope their mechanic know what they are doing.

On Friday I had to call the dealership because I had not hear from anyone and it was 4:15 pm. This service visor that knows me answered the phone (I guess they now have it to where your phone number ties in directly with the service advisor that is helping you) he did not say anything other then let me get the shop foreman, I knew this probably not going to be good news. The shop foreman gets on the phone and says they aren’t going to warranty the damage. He explains to me that the regional engineering looked over my vehicle along with the shop foreman and some technicians over 1.5 hours (mind you, he was not there for my vehicle in first place, he was coming to the dealership to look at other JL’s that have problems.) I had to ask if he could look at it. This was on Thursday when my buddy and myself were at the dealership and discovered they knew nothing about my ball joint coming out.

So to sum it up, after looking at my vehicle taking pictures and showing the engineer pictures of what I said the technician the day before, the conclusion was that I was grinding repeatedly and crawling up or at something to cause so much pressure against the vehicle to make what happened to it happen! WTF!!!! I’m posting pictures and you decide for yourself if that was the case. I took pictures of my spare that was blown out because of the bolt from the track bar when it was stil rotating. Look closely at the underneath of my vehicle, there is zero damage to anything else. Look at my axel housing, the pumpkin, steering stabilizer all in perfect shape no scratches, zero damage. But yet I was so aggressive on something over and over again that I bent the axle housing on bout sides, blew out ball joints and busted u-joints. I’m also posting a picture of the graded sandy trail we were on, it was more of a sightseeing tour then anything close to being seriously offloading. According to them because my tires are like an off road vehicle (with the smile) I bent both side of the axle housing, not just one side.

I’m going up the ladder with this one on Monday. Also calling Uconnect because I have that 1 yr free vehicle diagnostics, they know everything about the vehicle’s status and location. Just thought of that today!

The first picture is the road we were on Oct. 20th, The next pictures are at my house before it was towed to the dealership on Oct. 22nd. Look at my spare tire on the back of my Jeep, this is the one that was on the Jeep when the ball joint came out. Their theory is that I was so aggressive at continuously grinding and climbing at some obstacle over and over to make this all happen. However, there is no proof or damage whatsoever to my thread or the outer/inter wall of the tire other then the marks from the track bar bolt hit the inner wall as the tire was turning and started to buckle, that’s why the tire blew. The last pictures are at the dealership on Thursday.

Lastly, the shop foreman told me that he did not want to be to push it with them because he did not want FCA to mark my vehicle as non-warranty
(my vehicle with 4456 miles would have zero warranty) for abuse. I said to him what the hell are you talking about? My vehicle is in no way abused, you guys even stated how clean my Jeep was, he backed off. He told me he check the computer after they left to make sure that it wasn’t marked! This jeep has no scratches, no dings, no dents, no markings of any type of abuse. I’ve never heard of this, especially when you can tell a vehicle is not abused.

I guess if you take your Jeep off-road, you are risking possibly losing your complete warranty, if you challenge something that is not you’re fault under warranty.

What about Super Bowl commercial where the jeep goes through the river and climbs up waterfall, is not considered abuse to a vehicle, interesting. That made my outing look like a Sunday drive for a picnic. However, they are showing you on national TV, this is what you can do with your jeep! Again, interesting.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[ocrejects]

I purchased from Premier, what a mistake. They sold it to me with an outstanding recall, the federal/VIN tag is missing from the doorjamb, the lock lug key was not correct so I couldn't remove wheels. I traded 2 vehicles in, and decided to keep one and give them cash for the trade value, later that day, left 3 messages, voice mails, and talked to two people about keeping my trade. Zero response. Its been months now, still zero communication from this dealer, and no doorjamb sticker as promised. I regret giving any of money to this operation of incompetence. I have warranty issues (wandering, and most of the other general electrical gremlins, but I have no faith in ANY Jeep dealer.... slowly fixing the things I can on my own.

I've added suspension lift (R.E.) fuel wheels with 37s for off-road use (35" KO2s on stock rims for the street) and done a bunch of off-road fully loaded including the Big Bear trails, fortunately I seem to have a solid jeep I(mechanically) I've had it twisted up, wheels off the ground, tires rubbing (very lightly) and no issues thus far. Fingers crossed.

$$

Trying to fill in the same way as you! You might wanna check but I do believe it’s illegal for dealership to sell a vehicle that has an outstanding recall, it’s against the law!

 

[ALRUI]

It is their body shop and service manager.
I really hope their mechanic know what they are doing.

Its a

Hopefully the dealer has different tiers of techs?

Its a training issue & that the "techs" arent very experienced MECHANICS!

 

[bikenutty]

Trying to fill in the same way as you! You might wanna check but I do believe it’s illegal for dealership to sell a vehicle that has an outstanding recall, it’s against the law!

Yes, it is illegal, they can be fined, and I believe punished by FCA in some way. I'd probably have to pursue it.

$$

 

[ALRUI]

Theyre messing around cause they know theyre the ones who screwed it up to begin with!

 

[ocrejects]

Bottom line, I do know 100% it was not from me! So I guess that leaves Jeep. I’ve had 4 wheel drives most of my life, so this is not new to me having a 4 wheel drive and off-roading. My hats off to the crazy guys that go to the extreme, however that’s not me. This is my first jeep and I really love it. However, the more I investigate the more problems I either see or hear about, it’s like Jeeps quality control of the 2018 JL is just not normal. Obviously this is coming from Including but not limited to this thread as well as JL wrangler.com. As you already know, 97% are all former, present and life Jeep owners. It’s almost like they produce these JL’s way too quick without any quality control or very little. Both the JL ball joints are compressed in one direction, where the JK we’re compressed into different directions making it almost impossible for them to come out. There’s also a bulletin out that states to the dealers to let them know, the JK ball joint nuts have a different torque then the JL. Both of my nuts we’re finger lose, we took them off with fingers not wrenches or ratchets.

The answer to your question, I know it wasn’t from me, so who does that leave?

 

[bmac]

The shop foreman gets on the phone and says they aren’t going to warranty the damage.

I’m going up the ladder with this one on Monday. Also calling Uconnect because I have that 1 yr free vehicle diagnostics, they know everything about the vehicle’s status and location. Just thought of that today!

Please let me know what you think.

First off, sorry to hear about your issues. I hope you get a positive result when you are done with all this BS.

My suggestion is to first read up on the Magnusson Moss Warranty Act. This protects consumers for these kinds of problems. They have to prove you caused the damage not the other way around. With no damage to any other vehicle parts they don't have a leg to stand on.

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/sta...nty-federal-trade-commission-improvements-act

Next, let the dealership and everyone you talk to know that you will not let this issue rest until Jeep fixes it under warranty. This will include hiring a lawyer as needed to get them to stand behind their products.

Run this issue up every ladder you can find. Be proactive. If they don't respond, call back, and follow up with emails and documentation.

Be sure to document everything from the time of the ball joint popping out until now. Record dates/times and people you have spoken with. Do this for every communication on the subject no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

Lastly, check with a local lawyer familiar with this area of the law. If needed hire one.

 

[ocrejects]

First off, sorry to hear about your issues. I hope you get a positive result when you are done with all this BS.

My suggestion is to first read up on the Magnusson Moss Warranty Act. This protects consumers for these kinds of problems. They have to prove you caused the damage not the other way around. With no damage to any other vehicle parts they don't have a leg to stand on.

https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/sta...nty-federal-trade-commission-improvements-act

Next, let the dealership and everyone you talk to know that you will not let this issue rest until Jeep fixes it under warranty. This will include hiring a lawyer as needed to get them to stand behind their products.

Run this issue up every ladder you can find. Be proactive. If they don't respond, call back, and follow up with emails and documentation.

Be sure to document everything from the time of the ball joint popping out until now. Record dates/times and people you have spoken with. Do this for every communication on the subject no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

Lastly, check with a local lawyer familiar with this area of the law. If needed hire one.

Thank you for all the input, I really prescient it. I’m right in line with what you’re are suggesting. I don’t wish anything bad on anybody. However, I’m not going to standby and take this rhetoric.

I do know that channel 2 and 4 have departments that will investigate problems like this. Sometimes you’re just left with no other choices. One thing for sure, I’m not going away.

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