Jeep Wrangler JL drifting issue

[jeremyjeep]

I was wondering if anyone has similar issues whether with the car or customer service and knows a way to get this situation fixed ASAP? because it has been over a month now and I am irritated of the whole situation.

Yes, many have the same steering issue and the same issues with dealers, Jeep Cares, Jeep Wave, etc. NOT helping out at all. I had an open case and didn't hear anything for over 4 weeks, so I finally found a dealership that knew how to fix it and who didn't say "it's a Jeep thing" or "Jeeps drive like crap, get used to it".

Here is the main steering thread: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/loose-steering-feels-like-it-has-play-and-drifts.3691 You can read my specific steering fix at https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...has-play-and-drifts.3691/page-114#post-388077

Car and Driver did a review on the JL and their test vehicle has the same steering problem. Here is a summary of what has fixed the steering problems for some. These solutions didn't fix everyone's JL steering issues, so some are still in limbo.

Keep in mind, most of the time it took a combination of the following items to fix the JL steering issue.

1. Tire pressure. Needs to match the door jam or slightly lower. My JLUR is best at 33 PSI cold because of the year round warm weather here, the tires increase +4 / +5 so gets around 37/38 warm.

2. Steering TSB that flashes the steering pump pressure. TSB #08-092-18 Even some JL VIN numbers weren't on the approved list, and it fixed it any way, yes, even if the symptoms are slightly different. Seems it increases the amount of voltage going to the power steering. If you get lucky, your dealership will do this TSB even though the VIN # isn't on the TSB list. Otherwise, you can escalate it via Jeep Wave and they might be able to get the dealer to do it. https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...sist-steering-lockup-at-highway-speeds.12226/

3. PCM Reprogram TSB - 18-041-18 Rev A https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...vements-pcm-reprogram-september-7-2018.15739/

4. Loose ball joint nuts, loose tie rods, and other loose issues in the steering system. Torque specs: https://tinyurl.com/jl-torque-specs If your dealer says they checked, you can verify by seeing if the cotter pins look perfect like a robot/factory or if they are manually bent over. I and several other people were told by our dealers that they checked torque. They didn't. The dealer I brought it to lied to my face. I watched and they never took the vehicle into the bay to check the ball joint torque. The next dealer I brought it to found they were very loose and pointed out to me that they can't be checked unless you remove the cotter pins first.

5. Steering box adjustment and/or replace steering box with the -AD version.

6. Non-lifted JL: Caster problem causing drifting - change out the lower control arms with the 1/4" longer lower control arms from the Mopar 2" lift kit. Part number is 68322798AA (you need 2 of these).

7. Lifted JL - add 3rd party adjustable lower control arms to increase caster.

Note: If you have a Rubicon, the caster spec is 4.8 plus/minus 1.0. If you have a significant difference between left and right specs, that could cause it to drift more one way than the other. Sahara caster should be 5.05 plus/minus 1.0. Sport is 5.35 plus/minus 1.0. Be sure to get your dealer to give you the alignment print out details. You might need to take it to an alignment shop to get the measurements if your Jeep dealer is typical and won't do it.

Feel free to send me a private message for more info.

Sponsored

 

[Joeymon1]

I never thought I would come on here but I am desperate pretty much for advice. Starting mid July into August I noticed my new 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL had an issue of randomly and severely drifting to the left by itself. Meaning I constantly had to adjust the steering wheel to prevent it from going into th

Just wondering, you say that you started to notice the steering issue in July, when did you buy it? Most have said their steering was bad from the start and some have said the steering improved over time, or after adjusting tire pressure. Don't think I have seen a post where the steering went from OK to a problem.
I have a 19 on order and was feeling confident that this steering thing was getting resolved. Your case makes me think different.
Hope you get it resolved soon. This kind of treatment is Bulls**t

 

[Roky]

I never thought I would come on here but I am desperate pretty much for advice. Starting mid July into August I noticed my new 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL had an issue of randomly and severely drifting to the left by itself. Meaning I constantly had to adjust the steering wheel to prevent it from going into the other lane. Thats when I decided to take it the dealership on 9/11. I went ahead and duplicated the problem to the dealership and the service guy said oh thats just a wheel alignment issue. However, after 4 days of inspecting the car it turned out not to be a wheel alignment issue. So I was advised to take it to the original dealership where I signed my contract with.

I drove 40 miles to the dealership where I bought the car from. They asked me to drop off the car and they would inspect it. Then a couple days after they asked me to drive down again to duplicate the problem to them, as if it was not clear enough to them. However, I did not mind I drove down and duplicated the problem to them. I drove the car with one of the service guys he took me on a clean road with new paved streets. He said he sees the problem, then while still on the road he tells me that the car is driving normal. So I asked him to sit in the passenger seat and have him drive instead for me to see how the car is performing normal from his perspective when a couple minutes previously he said he notices the problem. Moreover, the car has been at the dealership now for a couple of days. The dealership opened a star case Chrysler got involved in this situation. I was frustrated because they kept telling me they were not able to duplicate the problem like 4 times. Then finally a technician came down to investigate the car. The technician guy rebooted the software specifically Power steering control. After, I took the car from them I asked for documentation that the car used to be at 0.4 and now its at 0.2. They provided me with no proof of the before and after. They said the technician did not print out the records. Anyways, I still noticed the car was still drifting and whats even worse now my start/stop engine function no longer works. Now I have been completely fed up with Jeep and my case manager no one is assisting me and neither was my case manager returning any of my calls after he offered a "buy out opportunity."

Finally, I drop it off to another dealership (my third attempt). I go ahead and tell them all about the problems that my car has. They keep it over the weekend from Saturday until Friday. On their notes they note "Internal Battery System failure" and they note that the "start/stop engine function works ok at this time." In addition, I mentioned my drifting issue to them and they tried to convince me that the problem is wheel alignment. Keep in mind they had the opportunity to view the other dealership performing the wheel alignment and coming to a conclusion that wheel alignment is not the issue to the drifting.

Currently, I am in a big problem where my case manager is not calling me it has been more than 48 hours which is there maximum requirement (it has been a week now). This is my second case manager who does not call or even acknowledge my case. My car started out with one problem now it has two. I am shocked by the kind of customer service Jeep has. It sincerely made me not want to even consider being replaced in a different car just because of the way I have been dealt with. I was wondering if anyone has similar issues whether with the car or customer service and knows a way to get this situation fixed ASAP? because it has been over a month now and I am irritated of the whole situation.


I completely apologize for the detailed story but really any feedback would be great. Thank you very much!!!!

I’m sorry you’re having to go through this, my new Sahara did the same thing, and I believe that it has something to do with the steering stabilizer shock because I had mine lifted and the lift kit came with a duel stabilizer shocks and adjustable upper control arms and it drives perfectly now. Even with 35/12.50 / 20 tires, no wandering, pulling, or drifting at all.

 

[Tad121819]

Just wondering, you say that you started to notice the steering issue in July, when did you buy it? Most have said their steering was bad from the start and some have said the steering improved over time, or after adjusting tire pressure. Don't think I have seen a post where the steering went from OK to a problem.
I have a 19 on order and was feeling confident that this steering thing was getting resolved. Your case makes me think different.
Hope you get it resolved soon. This kind of treatment is Bulls**t

Hey so I got my jeep in late June but I had been leasing another car and my lease ended sometime in September. So I did not get the chance to actually drive the car until mid to late July and into August. As I drove the car frequently thats when I noticed the drifting issue. The steering issue was always a problem, but the auto start/stop function stopped working after resetting the power steering control system. And thats when the 3rd dealership wrote "Auto start/stop seems to be working OK at this time." Super confusing.

 

[jeremyjeep]

Hey so I got my jeep in late June but I had been leasing another car and my lease ended sometime in September. So I did not get the chance to actually drive the car until mid to late July and into August. As I drove the car frequently thats when I noticed the drifting issue. The steering issue was always a problem, but the auto start/stop function stopped working after resetting the power steering control system. And thats when the 3rd dealership wrote "Auto start/stop seems to be working OK at this time." Super confusing.

According to the items listed in the PCM flash update, there is nothing mentioning steering. However, some people reported a difference, not everyone. Sometimes fixes are buried, not mentioned in flash updates. What are the specs for your alignment? For example, caster, camber, toe-in, etc. There should be a number listed for each and for Left/Right as well. And did they flash with the steering TSB #08-092-18? Also, there is a JL specific FCA support hotline at 866-362-2146 / [email protected].

 

[jeremyjeep]

Did they check the ball joint nuts? You can tell by looking to see if the cotter pins are perfectly bent from the factory, or if the cotter pins are "messy" looking like someone pulled them out, then put them back in and manually bent the cotter pins back in place (the way it should look if someone checked it).

 

[Wanderingwheelz]

My first case manager offered a buy out and then stopped returning my calls. He said he would call me once he got all the information from dealership #2 (the one I signed the contract with). Until today he has not called me to continue the process and neither did anyone from above call me to continue the process also. But at this time I am ready for a buy out. In the future I do not want to deal with this kind of customer service and dealership service overall.

I’m amazed that you were asked to return to the dealership where you made your purchase. Some of us drove a distance to buy our Wrangler and reading this adds new concern about traveling to buy. Interesting.

 

[BillG]

I think they might “encourage “ you to go to the selling dealer, but for warranty work they can’t make you. They just didn’t want to mess with it. I don’t think FCA pays them as much as walk in traffic, and they didn’t want to tie up their service bays.
I think fca pays them flat rate, whereas another customer pays by the hour. That costs them a lot when they have to troubleshoot.

 

[Tad121819]

They did not make me, but they said they cant make any adjustments because they do not know what was causing the drifting problem. As a result they advised me to go to the dealership where I bought the car from just because if it is a lemon car then the dealership I signed the contract with is the one that has to deal wit this issue. Luckily the first dealership I went to one of the service guys was very nice and actually wanted to help but he did not know what was the cause of this problem. And he straight up told me he thinks I have a lemon car because my car drifting was too severe compare to other cars.

 

[JeepCares]

I never thought I would come on here but I am desperate pretty much for advice. Starting mid July into August I noticed my new 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL had an issue of randomly and severely drifting to the left by itself. Meaning I constantly had to adjust the steering wheel to prevent it from going into the other lane. Thats when I decided to take it the dealership on 9/11. I went ahead and duplicated the problem to the dealership and the service guy said oh thats just a wheel alignment issue. However, after 4 days of inspecting the car it turned out not to be a wheel alignment issue. So I was advised to take it to the original dealership where I signed my contract with.

I drove 40 miles to the dealership where I bought the car from. They asked me to drop off the car and they would inspect it. Then a couple days after they asked me to drive down again to duplicate the problem to them, as if it was not clear enough to them. However, I did not mind I drove down and duplicated the problem to them. I drove the car with one of the service guys he took me on a clean road with new paved streets. He said he sees the problem, then while still on the road he tells me that the car is driving normal. So I asked him to sit in the passenger seat and have him drive instead for me to see how the car is performing normal from his perspective when a couple minutes previously he said he notices the problem. Moreover, the car has been at the dealership now for a couple of days. The dealership opened a star case Chrysler got involved in this situation. I was frustrated because they kept telling me they were not able to duplicate the problem like 4 times. Then finally a technician came down to investigate the car. The technician guy rebooted the software specifically Power steering control. After, I took the car from them I asked for documentation that the car used to be at 0.4 and now its at 0.2. They provided me with no proof of the before and after. They said the technician did not print out the records. Anyways, I still noticed the car was still drifting and whats even worse now my start/stop engine function no longer works. Now I have been completely fed up with Jeep and my case manager no one is assisting me and neither was my case manager returning any of my calls after he offered a "buy out opportunity."

Finally, I drop it off to another dealership (my third attempt). I go ahead and tell them all about the problems that my car has. They keep it over the weekend from Saturday until Friday. On their notes they note "Internal Battery System failure" and they note that the "start/stop engine function works ok at this time." In addition, I mentioned my drifting issue to them and they tried to convince me that the problem is wheel alignment. Keep in mind they had the opportunity to view the other dealership performing the wheel alignment and coming to a conclusion that wheel alignment is not the issue to the drifting.

Currently, I am in a big problem where my case manager is not calling me it has been more than 48 hours which is there maximum requirement (it has been a week now). This is my second case manager who does not call or even acknowledge my case. My car started out with one problem now it has two. I am shocked by the kind of customer service Jeep has. It sincerely made me not want to even consider being replaced in a different car just because of the way I have been dealt with. I was wondering if anyone has similar issues whether with the car or customer service and knows a way to get this situation fixed ASAP? because it has been over a month now and I am irritated of the whole situation.


I completely apologize for the detailed story but really any feedback would be great. Thank you very much!!!!

Hi Tad121819,
I'm deeply sorry that you are experiencing this concern without a resolution or contact from your Case Manager. Please send us a private message with your VIN so I can look into your case further.
Lydia
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

[Hgrace]

I never thought I would come on here but I am desperate pretty much for advice. Starting mid July into August I noticed my new 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL had an issue of randomly and severely drifting to the left by itself. Meaning I constantly had to adjust the steering wheel to prevent it from going into the other lane. Thats when I decided to take it the dealership on 9/11. I went ahead and duplicated the problem to the dealership and the service guy said oh thats just a wheel alignment issue. However, after 4 days of inspecting the car it turned out not to be a wheel alignment issue. So I was advised to take it to the original dealership where I signed my contract with.

I drove 40 miles to the dealership where I bought the car from. They asked me to drop off the car and they would inspect it. Then a couple days after they asked me to drive down again to duplicate the problem to them, as if it was not clear enough to them. However, I did not mind I drove down and duplicated the problem to them. I drove the car with one of the service guys he took me on a clean road with new paved streets. He said he sees the problem, then while still on the road he tells me that the car is driving normal. So I asked him to sit in the passenger seat and have him drive instead for me to see how the car is performing normal from his perspective when a couple minutes previously he said he notices the problem. Moreover, the car has been at the dealership now for a couple of days. The dealership opened a star case Chrysler got involved in this situation. I was frustrated because they kept telling me they were not able to duplicate the problem like 4 times. Then finally a technician came down to investigate the car. The technician guy rebooted the software specifically Power steering control. After, I took the car from them I asked for documentation that the car used to be at 0.4 and now its at 0.2. They provided me with no proof of the before and after. They said the technician did not print out the records. Anyways, I still noticed the car was still drifting and whats even worse now my start/stop engine function no longer works. Now I have been completely fed up with Jeep and my case manager no one is assisting me and neither was my case manager returning any of my calls after he offered a "buy out opportunity."

Finally, I drop it off to another dealership (my third attempt). I go ahead and tell them all about the problems that my car has. They keep it over the weekend from Saturday until Friday. On their notes they note "Internal Battery System failure" and they note that the "start/stop engine function works ok at this time." In addition, I mentioned my drifting issue to them and they tried to convince me that the problem is wheel alignment. Keep in mind they had the opportunity to view the other dealership performing the wheel alignment and coming to a conclusion that wheel alignment is not the issue to the drifting.

Currently, I am in a big problem where my case manager is not calling me it has been more than 48 hours which is there maximum requirement (it has been a week now). This is my second case manager who does not call or even acknowledge my case. My car started out with one problem now it has two. I am shocked by the kind of customer service Jeep has. It sincerely made me not want to even consider being replaced in a different car just because of the way I have been dealt with. I was wondering if anyone has similar issues whether with the car or customer service and knows a way to get this situation fixed ASAP? because it has been over a month now and I am irritated of the whole situation.


I completely apologize for the detailed story but really any feedback would be great. Thank you very much!!!!

I saw a post that you were in Northridge California. Don't know where "Cali" is. I'm in Sherwood Forest. You should know where that is.
I had a JLU Sport S for 19 hours and about 25 miles. It was bought back in less than 20 days. I am waiting on my 2019 replacement.
I bought in Thousand Oaks. They've been great.
If I were you I'd go to a 3rd party alignment specialist and we have one of the best in the state here in Van Nuys.
They've been doing it for decades and generations. Honest as day is long and know everything about alignment.
They have done my motorhome my fleet Vans my Passat W8 AWD my 2006 Charger and the 2006 Sable my daughter destroyed on a curb ouch and by the way my HDRA bug 5 1600 we ran in the Mint 400 back in the 80s. Checkers Off Road club knows them. The car clib not the bike club.
Give them a shot and good luck. I deal with John.
If you're not in the SFV maybe this will help someone else.

 

[NavyVet1959]

Although I read that the Jeep steering wanders a bit and the solution was to lower the tire pressure, mine came with 42 psi and it seemed OK.

When I changed out wheels and tires to the LT275/65R20s that were from my Ram 1500 (with 1.25" wheel adapters), I noticed that the body seemed to wobble a bit from one side to the next on uneven roads, but it was not a steering issue. On smooth roads, it was still good. Those tires were probably around 40 psi when I put them on, so I dropped it down to 35 psi... I still noticed the wobble from side to side, so I dropped it down to 30 psi... Still noticeable... The other day, I decided to air the tires *up* to 50 psi and the wobble was noticeably less. These tires are at least a 70 psi max pressure (and maybe 80 psi). No steering issues though...

By "wobble", I don't mean like the "death wobble" that happens on the steering on some Jeeps. I'm talking about basically the body alternating leaning from one side to the other slightly as you drive down roads that are not perfectly smooth.

 

[Tad121819]

I saw a post that you were in Northridge California. Don't know where "Cali" is. I'm in Sherwood Forest. You should know where that is.
I had a JLU Sport S for 19 hours and about 25 miles. It was bought back in less than 20 days. I am waiting on my 2019 replacement.
I bought in Thousand Oaks. They've been great.
If I were you I'd go to a 3rd party alignment specialist and we have one of the best in the state here in Van Nuys.
They've been doing it for decades and generations. Honest as day is long and know everything about alignment.
They have done my motorhome my fleet Vans my Passat W8 AWD my 2006 Charger and the 2006 Sable my daughter destroyed on a curb ouch and by the way my HDRA bug 5 1600 we ran in the Mint 400 back in the 80s. Checkers Off Road club knows them. The car clib not the bike club.
Give them a shot and good luck. I deal with John.
If you're not in the SFV maybe this will help someone else.

Can you please shared the same of the 3rd part alignment specialists you go to. You can go ahead and private message me if you want or share it on the post.

 

[NavyVet1959]

I saw a post that you were in Northridge California. Don't know where "Cali" is. I'm in Sherwood Forest. You should know where that is.

"Cali" is a common abbreviation used by some for "California". Others like to call it "Kalifornia" (as in "Peoples Republic of Kalifornia") due to the state's leftist leanings.

 

[old8tora]

Don't know where "Cali" is. I'm in Sherwood Forest.

Sherwood Forest is in Nottingham , England , so you must be English , and a member of the Merry Men .

Sponsored