Dealer maintenance nightmare

[dashdog]

So I hit something on the trails. After getting back on road I noticed slight pull to left and steering wheel a little off center. Also had “service electronic stability control” and traction light was on. I figured it was an alignment issue and/or wheel sensor issue. Took it to the Jeep dealer and all they did was do alignment on the two front wheels. That corrected the pull and the steering wheel issue. However, now the backup camera lines are skewed full right when the wheels are straight. Auto start/stop doesn’t work because it says wheels aren’t straight. (They are). And the power steering is intermittent now. Still have traction light on and still says service electronic stability control. Also hill brake assist doesn’t work now. Frankly I’m scared to take it back to the dealer as they may mess it up even more. Ugh. Anyone have any ideas on what the root cause could be and a possible solution to try?
2022 Wrangler JLU Willys with 2” lift and 35 tires. Thanks!

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[gsbrockman]

Sounds to me like the yaw sensor might need to be checked.

In any event…..I’d take it back and at least give them a shot to look at it.

 

[mwilk012]

Post a picture of your tie rod.

 

[Ratbert]

When I got that "service electronic steering control" message someone recommended turning the steering wheel lock to lock a couple times. That seemed to put the steering wheel back in sync with reality (showed how insanely far out of whack it really was). Then I adjusted it back to straight with the bolts on the steering linkage.

That was on the way to the Rubicon Trail. Did that without issue and it's been fine since.

 

[jeepoch]

So I hit something on the trails. After getting back on road I noticed slight pull to left and steering wheel a little off center. Also had “service electronic stability control” and traction light was on. I figured it was an alignment issue and/or wheel sensor issue. Took it to the Jeep dealer and all they did was do alignment on the two front wheels. That corrected the pull and the steering wheel issue. However, now the backup camera lines are skewed full right when the wheels are straight. Auto start/stop doesn’t work because it says wheels aren’t straight. (They are). And the power steering is intermittent now. Still have traction light on and still says service electronic stability control. Also hill brake assist doesn’t work now. Frankly I’m scared to take it back to the dealer as they may mess it up even more. Ugh. Anyone have any ideas on what the root cause could be and a possible solution to try?
2022 Wrangler JLU Willys with 2” lift and 35 tires. Thanks!

Ernie, yep all that happened to me, except for the rear camera issue.

Mine was repaired by readjusting the drag link. Driving over Engineer Pass at night (near Ouray CO), I must of bumped my front wheels or likely oversteered in a rut which affected my alignment. Of course, nothing apparent happened until I got back on-road and out of 4Lo.

That's when I noticed my steering wheel was about 20 to 30° off center in order to steer straight. All the same error codes occurred but other than the steering wheel being off-center there was nothing else unusual. The following morning my Jeeping buddies and I inspected for damage.

We found none. So the only logical explanation was I had somehow forced the suspension out of alignment. Going down the trail in the evening, and admittedly we were in a little bit of a rush to get off the mountain due to approaching weather, it was a very good possiblity.

Luckily, all that was needed was to loosen the drag-link nut, rotate the arm back into proper position and tighten everything back up. The hardest thing was to determine which way to rotate. We had noodled this out based on which way the steering wheel was off.

That indeed straighted everything out. I was impressed how close to center we got everything on the first attempt. You would have thought we knew what we were doing.

Since I have a Tazer, I plugged it in and cleared all the Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC's). However, the Traction Control fault code came back on after driving it nearly immediately, but everything drove and handled straight and cornered just fine. Since we had other trails lined up for the day, I decided to move on and see what would result. After all, there was no damage found.

Well, all the fault codes self-cleared after travelling about 10 miles on-road. Zero issues encountered after that. We ended up running about another dozen trails that weekend including Back Bear, Imogene and lots of others. Even the several hundred mile drive back home to Denver was trouble free.

I still had the front end professionally aligned (not the dealership) soon after and zero issues have cropped up. That was the summer before last, so a year and a half ago now. Still not a hint of any further trouble and I off-road a lot.

So don't sweat it. Just find a reputable alignment shop (likely not your dealer since they've botched diagnosing this already). I am proof positive that you can certainly get your front end out of alignment without damaging anything.

Hope this helps.
Jay

 

[58Willys]

Sounds like the steering angle sensor needs to be recalibrated. Dealer should have checked this after alignment.

 

[dashdog]

Post a picture of your tie rod.

Here are a few pictures of tie rod.

 

[mwilk012]

Drag link doesn't look right imo, how well does it steer from full left to right?

 

[dashdog]

Drag link doesn't look right imo, how well does it steer from full left to right?

It steers fine in both directions. Although now it seems the power steering goes out slightly while turning. And by that I mean it sometimes steers with power and then power goes out a little, takes a little more steering pressure and then comes back on to complete the turn. If that makes sense. Lol.

 

[Jeep Wick]

It fine in both directions. Although now it seems the power steering goes out slightly while turning. And by that I mean it sometimes steers with power and then power goes out a little, takes a little more steering pressure and then comes back on to complete the turn. If that makes sense. Lol.

There is a procedure to reset the steering by pulling a fuse and cycling power. I have it written down at home. You might have luck searching for it here, this is where I found it.

 

[Valpo Jeep]

Take it to an independent off road shop and pay the diagnostic fee. Let an expert mechanic tell you what is wrong. Dealer is just a parts jockey.

 

[redracer]

Your alignment doesn't just get knocked out. Something is bent. I'm betting that it's your drag link. The steering lines issue is another hint. I bet they aligned your steering wheel a full revolution out. The position sensors can't suddenly just be off after an alignment.

Take it back and have them try again, centering the steering wheel, and check for bent components.

 

[Vinman]

My money is on either the drag-link or track-bar is bent.

 

[dashdog]

Your alignment doesn't just get knocked out. Something is bent. I'm betting that it's your drag link. The steering lines issue is another hint. I bet they aligned your steering wheel a full revolution out. The position sensors can't suddenly just be off after an alignment.

Take it back and have them try again, centering the steering wheel, and check for bent components.

Thanks. I’m gonna give the dealer one more crack at it tomorrow. But before I took it to the dealer, everything worked fine except as noted in opening post. Only AFTER the dealer did the power steering issue, backup camera and start/stop issues start. I’ll let everyone know how this goes down. Lol

 

[mwilk012]

It steers fine in both directions. Although now it seems the power steering goes out slightly while turning. And by that I mean it sometimes steers with power and then power goes out a little, takes a little more steering pressure and then comes back on to complete the turn. If that makes sense. Lol.

Your steering is confused because the steering angle goes high out of range in one direction and less than half the range in the other. It is applying force incorrectly, your steering wheel is set 360 degrees out.

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