FCA being sued for Death Wobble

[four low]

I'm glad to see that something is happening. I have a 2018 2 door JL, and have had the dampener replaced 4 times now due to the wobble. Jeep refused to do anything more. According to the dealership, it is a fairly common issue with the JLs out of there. They wanted to blame it on the cold, but that is rubbish as it has failed this spring. Driving on the highway was sketchy at best, dangerous at its worst. I know the dampener is a simple band aid, but my options are limited without costing $ going someplace that would look at it and have it not be covered by the warranty.

I was looking into filing for a lemon, which I preferred not to do because I wanted the vehicle to work as intended. They offered me free warranty upgrade after one of the bandaids fixed the issue for another month.

I don't know what kind of lottery I won to get the wobbly JL, but it is pretty frustrating to deal with.

What's the Build Date on your 2018 JL 2 door ? Thankz

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[Bswen]

Buyback is no easy process and unless you play your cards right it will end up costing you thousands. Been there done that

I just hope this forces FCA to legitimately fix the issue rather than throwing stiffer steering stabilizers and bushings at it. I've had DW on two JLU and it would occur multiple times on a daily basis. The stiffer bushing tighten the steering a bit and the updated stabilizer minimizes dw but it still occurs. IMHO the problem lies in a couple areas. First the lack of caster adjustment and more importantly the obsession with lightening component by jeep. The trackbar, draglink and tie rod are too light and flex. Similar lightening issues occur elsewhere like the windshield and cross members

Mt 20 year old worn out, lifted TJ Should not steer better than a brand new JLU

The buy back was extremely painless. Far easier than filing lemon law and it didnt cost me anything. I kept my equity. I upgraded a couple features that I didnt get the first time around (other than a few options I received one year model newer, but the exact same Jeep). Jeep even paid for 60% of my upgraded options.

I couldnt agree more that they need to fix the issue. And I dont see how they are buying so many back when it would seem to be cheaper to buy each one a nice aftermarket lift kit, the dollars dont seem to make sense. But to say it wasnt an easy process and it cost thousands of dollars just wasnt accurate for me. Maybe Im the lucky one, but I feel taken care of.

 

[Outlaw]

Years ago I put 6 inch lift springs in a '95 F350 diesel. I also put 37" tires on it and took it down the road. When I reached 45 miles an hour, it went into death wobble so bad it threw the magnet mount scanner antenna off the roof. This is a heavy duty truck with a Dana 60, leaf springs and a solid 1.25" diameter track bar.
I immediately went back home and ordered a dual steering stabilizer. I NEVER had a problem after that. Still drive the truck today.
As soon as I put the lift and 37" tires on my JL, I installed the $150 Fox stabilizer (that should have been part of the Mopar kit) and it drives great. I go over two sets of train tracks that run diagonally across a 55mph road daily without issue.
Death wobble is caused by incorrect CAMBER and wheel offset combination. Draw the line down through the axis of the upper and lower ball joints and it should be close to the center of the tread on the ground, so hitting a bump in the road doesn't apply directional force to the steering components.
It's just basic physics, really.

-Nate

 

[KarnaughMI]

They'll need more reported instances of this to make the lawsuit stick.

Fortunately, I do not need to sign it ... 01/19 build JLUR now lifted with 2.5" lift and 37s. Never had DW before or after the lift with factory stabilizer. My complaint would be the wandering. I did swap the stabilizer for a SteerSmarts stabilizer using a Metalcloak flip kit + FAD Skid and it has improved the wandering a little bit. Still no DW. Going to swap out the front Track Bar to bring the body/axle back in alignment. Will swap out the draglink and tierods with Yeti parts when they fail.

-Tom

 

[Roadglide]

So, the 20 or 30 people reporting it here out of 336,972 JL Wranglers sold (Jan 18 - May 19) is "a lot"? I know the number of complaints here isn't all inclusive but even a 100X those numbers the math just isn't adding up for me. Also, the vast majority of the problems being reported here are more loose/sloppy steering being reported as "death wobble". The video's posted by rustyshacklford is really the only evidence i've seen of "death wobble", at least here. Sorry bud, I just don't see it as being a widespread problem as people think, sucks for sure but I think it's actually a pretty small number compared to total sales numbers. But I can meet in the middle and change my original statement to "neither have over 99% of JL's that we know of.".

Edit: I probably need to revise my numbers a bit, it's hard to find sales reports from 2018 that differentiate between JK and JL sales, I'll look deeper but i'm still willing to bet it's less than 1% of JL's sold.

 

[Dkretden]

Out of how many sold?

Doesn't mean it is not a problem...and a big one at that...for those that have it.

Just that it is not a widespread problem.

It is impossible for me to determine if it is a “wide spread” problem or not as I have no statistics on how many people (on a percentage basis) with a problem actually log onto the Gov website and log a problem. Do you have that percentage?

 

[Roadglide]

So, the 20 or 30 people reporting it here out of 336,972 JL Wranglers sold (Jan 18 - May 19) is "a lot"? I know the number of complaints here isn't all inclusive but even a 100X those numbers the math just isn't adding up for me. Also, the vast majority of the problems being reported here are more loose/sloppy steering being reported as "death wobble". The video's posted by rustyshacklford is really the only evidence i've seen of "death wobble", at least here. Sorry bud, I just don't see it as being a widespread problem as people think, sucks for sure but I think it's actually a pretty small number compared to total sales numbers. But I can meet in the middle and change my original statement to "neither have over 99% of JL's that we know of.".

Edit: I probably need to revise my numbers a bit, it's hard to find sales reports from 2018 that differentiate between JK and JL sales, I'll look deeper but i'm still willing to bet it's less than 1% of JL's sold.

Hey Bud, even if it is only ONE JL that has a problem it should be fixed by the dealer with no questions asked. The dealers have been fighting Jeep owners since day one of the JL problems. I had all the problems and spent $2K on Yeti parts and fixed it myself. I can afford to do this where some people can't. FCA needs to be held accountable.

 

[Capt-Zoom]

The buy back was extremely painless. Far easier than filing lemon law and it didnt cost me anything. I kept my equity. I upgraded a couple features that I didnt get the first time around (other than a few options I received one year model newer, but the exact same Jeep). Jeep even paid for 60% of my upgraded options.

I couldnt agree more that they need to fix the issue. And I dont see how they are buying so many back when it would seem to be cheaper to buy each one a nice aftermarket lift kit, the dollars dont seem to make sense. But to say it wasnt an easy process and it cost thousands of dollars just wasnt accurate for me. Maybe Im the lucky one, but I feel taken care of.

Vastly depends on who you get and how long it took you to get to them. I spent a ton of time getting shit customer service from dealer, jeep cares, and Mike Marley's office before lucking out and getting to my Regional customer service manager via linkdin. He solved it quick and I was able to not lose a penny by but that was only because of my negotiation skills and the caring of the rcsm. If FCA and stericycle had their way I'd have lost $7-8k . I would rate my overall experiencing prior to getting my rcsm akin to the pain of having kidney stones. So extremely f'ing painful. Something I wouldn't wish on anyone.

 

[DustWarriorRubz]

Hey Bud, even if it is only ONE JL that has a problem it should be fixed by the dealer with no questions asked. The dealers have been fighting Jeep owners since day one of the JL problems. I had all the problems and spent $2K on Yeti parts and fixed it myself. I can afford to do this where some people can't. FCA needs to be held accountable.

Thanks to this forum and threads like this I’ve educated myself and I’m blessed to have the financial means to have the issue addressed/fixed on my own dime. My dealership is crap and are extremely deceitful. Therefore, I’ve had a local shop order my parts and will have them installed as you mentioned above.

Yes, I will loose my warranty for the Jeep installed Mopar lift kit. But honestly, according to my dealership, that warranty is only good at the dealership that installed the lift. Go figure, I paid for a Mopar lift kit and it was installed improperly at a dealership while out of my local area. Well guess what the dealership said, we didn’t install it at “our dealership” so the fact that the other Jeep dealership used your factory isolator pads instead of the ones provided in the kit makes it an improper install.

Get this, the kicker is the service advisor lied and told me that the isolator pads “were missing”! Mind you, this dealership didn’t install the lift. I drove to the dealership and checked the isolator pads myself and sure enough, the isolator pads were present! They were the factory installed pads yet they were present. There’s a big difference between “missing isolator pads” and the incorrect part number installed! Rant over!

Back to the issue; It’s a shame for FCA to turn a blind eye when they have line of sight and a presence on this forum that recognizes there is an issue. FCA should address the issue and if necessary place a “stop to fix” on production to address the issue.

I’m New to the Jeep family and honestly even with the wandering after 45 -55 mph on my 3 week old JL; I enjoy owning my Jeep. This is why I chose an attempt to fix the issue with OEM parts. The warranty appears to be crap anyway.

It would be a lot better if FCA stepped up to the plate and fixed the issue before continuing to sell a product with known issues. SMH

 

[TrailTorque]

Hey Bud, even if it is only ONE JL that has a problem it should be fixed by the dealer with no questions asked. The dealers have been fighting Jeep owners since day one of the JL problems. I had all the problems and spent $2K on Yeti parts and fixed it myself. I can afford to do this where some people can't. FCA needs to be held accountable.

So, you bought 2k in Yeti cups and it fixed the problem?!

Just messing but you do know you’ll never get your money back right? Even with this “lawsuit” in the mix..

I agree though that it appears that FCA has been a bit reluctant to help the JK/JL crowd out for those having problems.

I still think that the article at least is speaking of the 15’ to 18’ JK and not the 18’ to 19’ JL though as there is no mention (unless I missed it) of the ‘all new wrangler JL’.

At any rate, IF this goes through I would imagine that the buy back process may get a bit easier for those that have been dealing with it JK or JL.

My chief concern would be what will be the criteria? x4/x6/x10 steering stabilizer replacements? I’m curious what will be the line in the sand where they just admit they cannot truly fix the issue? Even 10 steering stabilizers cost doesn’t equal to 29k-50k+. My Falcon 2.2 fast adjust was only like $200 if I remember.

At any rate, I think this is going to potentially fck people with any year wrangler 14’ to 19’ who aren’t planning to keep theirs forever in the ass. Who’s going to want to buy a Wrangler remotely close to those years mentioned 15’ to 18’ if FCA admits their fck’ed up? All those people on the fence for an 18’-19’ and maybe even a 20’ will be gone automatically.

I bought mine knowing Jeep has forever had a problem and accepted mine could have a problem. Not everyone’s like all of us though in the end.

Just wondering how residuals would be affected in the end with concrete/official evidence for the first time in Jeep history. We’ve all known about it but to my knowledge there’s never been legal action or admissions of guilt from FCA. So we all purchased ours, regardless of year, thinking ‘well there’s never been any true admissions or administrative actions taken so it must not be that big of an issue, probably won’t happen to me, must be a small % of owners...’. and regardless of what people say it IS a small % of owners in comparison to sales.

So, open discussion, if this goes through, what does this mean for Wrangler residuals looking forward? And specifically for those near or in that date range.

At the end of the day, IF this goes through, my take is that sure it’ll help the small % of people out tremendously (good for them, they deserve it) but I think it’ll screw the rest. It’s a can-of-worms situation in my opinion.

 

[Sippican]

Must be talking about JKs.....I’ve never experienced it. This death wobble sounds like a joke, though. Has anyone died from it? However, talk to Harley guys, death wobble on a Harley is a real thing. Not sure if anyone sued Harley.

Oh, its real, I bought a 2018 JL and didn't know anything about this until i got on the highway. Passing lane, doing about 70-75 and the front end started wobbling so much I had to brake hard. With a car behind me and one on the side of me, my braking hard was a big deal to the other drivers. I literately did not have control of the vehicle. Now, that being said. Jeep Care is on here monitoring these issues and has reached out to be and is taking action on my behalf to get this resolved with my local dealer. Well, I hope they are. Only time will tell...I have a lot of patience as long as I feel they are working to resolve this issue. At this point, I feel I am getting a run around by my local Jeep dealer in Plymouth, MA. They haven't proved me wrong at this point.

On the Harley comment, yes, I also own a Road Glide and it does have a wobble, BUT, only when I take my hands off the handle bars at about 40mph. Needless to say, I don't do this often so it hasn't really affected me enough to make a big deal out of it.

 

[clf1024]

I almost shit my shorts when I read this lol

“The lawsuit seeks damages for affected drivers in the form of a buyback program that requires FCA to pay drivers for defective vehicles and compensation for the loss of value to the vehicles. It also wants drivers to be provided with replacement vehicles while their repairs are pending.”

Know what the dealership will say?

CANNOT REPLICATE

LOL

Clearly it’s a bunch of JK owners trying to get a free upgrade to the 18’-19’ JL lol

I got my Jeep JL Sahara bought back after I put 10,000 miles on it, and they gave me a new 2019 JL Sahara...MSRP for MSRP and an extra 3% towards it because some of the features were a little more.

 

[clf1024]

Another one should be started for being unable to drive in straight, while holding the wheel centered.

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