Clutch Recall (2/23/23): Clutch Pressure Plate May Overheat -- Affecting 70,000 Manual Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators

[JeepCares]

My dealer rep checked in with me yesterday to see how I was liking the JL. I asked about the clutch recall, and this was the email response: "I did just check and at this time they do not have a resolution for the clutch recall. We will keep you updated on any information we hear in the future."

We are sorry that there is no repair remedy available at this time, we will keep everyone affected by this recall further posted.

William
Jeep Cares

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[bjm00se]

Will they buy back my jeep it's kinda falling apart

Not unless you force them to.

There are pages and pages of stuff in your warranty book.

And the requirements for "lemon law" buybacks vary considerably from state to state.

There are specific requirements around

• number of days in the shop
• number of visits for a problem to be "unfixable"
• cosmetic vs. functional driveability issues

You need to find out what the specific requirements are, document your case, present them to your dealer and to Jeep. Usually, what happens at that point is they'll initiate something they call a "customer goodwill buyback" since NHTSA counts lemon law buybacks, and they don't like that.

Anyone who's gone through it will say that it's a pain in the Automatic Start Stop. Fortunately, I've never.

 

[JeepCares]

The radio silence on this issue is deafening. How about giving the Jeep owners a little status every once in a while, maybe have someone from @JeepCares post something from the engineering team? Probably should take a handful of engineers off of the EV transition work and start working on the recall fix. I'm trying not to prejudge their solution, but it is getting harder as time passes. I was quite underwhelmed when they issued a software "fix" for a mechanical problem.

We are sorry that there is no current updates on the clutch recall at the moment. We will send a notification letter out to all affected customers once we do get some further feedback on this. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

William
Jeep Cares

 

[CapeArt]

We are sorry that there is no repair remedy available at this time, we will keep everyone affected by this recall further posted.

William
Jeep Cares

William - don't you think that you have had an exceedingly amount of time to provide a solution as this issue obviously is not a new one to your product? You continually tell your customers that "there is no repair remedy available at this time" and all know that not to be true - as many in this forum can attest to solutions by way of 3rd party clutch assemblies that by all accounts solve the issue and are even of higher quality than the OEM clutch. Yes William, "repair remedies" do exist - so when will you fix our Jeeps so they have a safe and well performing clutch? Thanks!

 

[CapeArt]

Sorry, I was referring to the text I received.

Confirmed my text was automated and my dealership has no information.

No problem

 

[JeepCares]

William - don't you think that you have had an exceedingly amount of time to provide a solution as this issue obviously is not a new one to your product? You continually tell your customers that "there is no repair remedy available at this time" and all know that not to be true - as many in this forum can attest to solutions by way of 3rd party clutch assemblies that by all accounts solve the issue and are even of higher quality than the OEM clutch. Yes William, "repair remedies" do exist - so when will you fix our Jeeps so they have a safe and well performing clutch? Thanks!

We appreciate your feedback on this. We are not testing any aftermarket components at this time beside our OEM products. We completely understand that this is frustrating and upsetting for a lot of customers, we are doing our very best to get this issue resolved. We appreciate your loyalty as a Jeep customer. We will keep everyone further posted once we get some more insight on this. Thank you

William
Jeep Cares

 

[CapeArt]

We appreciate your feedback on this. We are not testing any aftermarket components at this time beside our OEM products. We completely understand that this is frustrating and upsetting for a lot of customers, we are doing our very best to get this issue resolved. We appreciate your loyalty as a Jeep customer. We will keep everyone further posted once we get some more insight on this. Thank you

William
Jeep Cares

William - thanks for the communication on this. It seems to me that it would make sense to at least be testing "aftermarket components" when the ongoing issue is with the OEM product - with no apparent solution in sight. Why not at least explore something that everyone knows works well, has a great reputation, and doesn't potentially explode as the OEM has in some cases. Beyond the obvious issue of a clutch that needs to be better, with the existing safety issues addressed ASAP - another equally frustrating issue is the stonewalling we 6MT customers get from you on a daily basis. If there is a legitimate answer as to what the delay is with the remedy, why won't you share that with the people that spent thousands of dollars on your products - instead of the "no repair remedy available at this time" mantra?

 

[azwjowner]

William - thanks for the communication on this. It seems to me that it would make sense to at least be testing "aftermarket components" when the ongoing issue is with the OEM product - with no apparent solution in sight. Why not at least explore something that everyone knows works well, has a great reputation, and doesn't potentially explode as the OEM has in some cases. Beyond the obvious issue of a clutch that needs to be better, with the existing safety issues addressed ASAP - another equally frustrating issue is the stonewalling we 6MT customers get from you on a daily basis. If there is a legitimate answer as to what the delay is with the remedy, why won't you share that with the people that spent thousands of dollars on your products - instead of the "no repair remedy available at this time" mantra?

I think you're really wasting your time here. Do you think Jeep manufactures its own clutches? There's always some third-party manufacturer who actually makes the clutches. Even if Jeep were to immediately agree with you, they would have to undergo the long process of validating the aftermarket manufacturer as a vendor, ensuring they had capacity, contracts, QC checks, etc. The end result would be a significantly longer delay than whomever Jeep is currently working with, and it would still be an OEM clutch at the end, just with a different actual manufacturer.

 

[CapeArt]

I think you're really wasting your time here. Do you think Jeep manufactures its own clutches? There's always some third-party manufacturer who actually makes the clutches. Even if Jeep were to immediately agree with you, they would have to undergo the long process of validating the aftermarket manufacturer as a vendor, ensuring they had capacity, contracts, QC checks, etc. The end result would be a significantly longer delay than whomever Jeep is currently working with, and it would still be an OEM clutch at the end, just with a different actual manufacturer .

 

[BuyHold]

I think you're really wasting your time here. Do you think Jeep manufactures its own clutches? There's always some third-party manufacturer who actually makes the clutches. Even if Jeep were to immediately agree with you, they would have to undergo the long process of validating the aftermarket manufacturer as a vendor, ensuring they had capacity, contracts, QC checks, etc. The end result would be a significantly longer delay than whomever Jeep is currently working with, and it would still be an OEM clutch at the end, just with a different actual manufacturer.

LUK is the manufacturer of the current JL clutch, as I understand it. The recall notice indicated that it was a design specification problem, not a manufacturing problem. I interpreted that as Jeep saying "their own d#$% fault" rather than fault of the clutch or their clutch manufacturer. I would assume that Jeep will work with LUK to update the clutch assembly in some way and then have LUK pump out 70,000 of them.

If this was a Bronco, I would expect to see Ford slamming their clutch vendor in all of their press releases to shift perception of blame (sort of like what it appeared Ford did to Webasto).

 

[Rrushen]

Sorry if this is a stupid/already (many times) answered question, but if I have a 3rd party clutch installed on a JL that is under warranty, does it void the warranty on the whole vehicle, just the clutch, or what? Cheers.

 

[Jmos4]

Sorry if this is a stupid/already (many times) answered question, but if I have a 3rd party clutch installed on a JL that is under warranty, does it void the warranty on the whole vehicle, just the clutch, or what? Cheers.

Hi,

Most of the time the clutch is a wear item and not covered by a warranty, although the notice about the recall did mention reimbursement if you have already replaced the clutch, didn't say whether or not it had to be a factory clutch.

If you replace the clutch assembly with a aftermarket, doubt the factory warranty will apply to it, now if you have a transmission issues betting it would be a tough battle to get Stellantis to pay for it, that said some other part or pcm dies they should cover it, up to them to prove the aftermarket part causes a failure, so I have read on other sites regarding mods, same could be said about 35's vs stock 33's.

So just the clutch should be not covered, and again if not for this warranty issue wouldn't normally covered by the drivetrain warranty.

Regards,
Jim

 

[Maverick909]

We are sorry that there is no repair remedy available at this time, we will keep everyone affected by this recall further posted.

William
Jeep Cares

The repair need to be a replacement. It’s extremely simple but they rather keep downing the tuning on the engine instead of fix the real problem. I would love it if Jeep would just pay the labor to replace the clutch with and ACT or Center force II clutch. I would pay for the clutch kit itself

 

[AlgUSF]

The solution is to derate the engine to 50hp and put a little sticker on the dashboard that says "Not Intended For Off-Road Use".

 

[Maverick909]

LUK is the manufacturer of the current JL clutch, as I understand it. The recall notice indicated that it was a design specification problem, not a manufacturing problem. I interpreted that as Jeep saying "their own d#$% fault" rather than fault of the clutch or their clutch manufacturer. I would assume that Jeep will work with LUK to update the clutch assembly in some way and then have LUK pump out 70,000 of them.

If this was a Bronco, I would expect to see Ford slamming their clutch vendor in all of their press releases to shift perception of blame (sort of like what it appeared Ford did to Webasto).

The bronco is having manual transmission problems. I believe they hauled the 7 spd manuals until a solution is found.

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