JL welding Issues

[Ljgunner]

I'm not a welder by any means, but I've taken pics of various locations around my jeep for you guys. Not sure if they are issues or not. I AM noticing that the paint is coming off rather quickly along welds, and there is an abundance of overspray(I'm not sure what youd call it, like metal splattered when they were welding.

Please let me know if these are issues, and if so what I can do to minimize spread of rust, etc.

That doesn’t pass hyway safety standards

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[jkanser]

I just traded my 2017 Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 for a JLU Sahara and noticed that the welds on my truck had similar issues, especially with surface rust and occasional pitting. I am probably just going to hit my areas with some undercoating after Rustoleum even though the welds on my JL aren't as bad as others. An ounce of prevention....

 

[Ljgunner]

I took mine to jeep and even thier engineer said it would not pass nhsta and after he said it would not pass he ask me if I didn’t think it was safe to put my family in after he told me it was bad they don’t care about safety so they had it for over a month so why are they all like this they are galvanized frames and they are welding them after they are galved so its a contaminant and you get no penetration on welds they will fail in a impact they was going to switch ours out we have a white 4door soft top but they wanted us to take a orange 4door hard top and I think it was because it has the best welds out of all of them on the lot well we told them no we hated orange and after we told them we would not they got mad and said well we will just order a frame and it will take months to get back and the have already had it a month and I told them im not taking a color i don’t want with out being convensated for it I think im in the right im paying for it but that being said if mine doesn’t pas what other things slipped through the cracks national hyway safety needs to do something before someone dies because the frame fails so we need to all band together its a 45,000 $ pile of crap and they are still making them that way and it’s not a big deal

 

[Capt-Zoom]

I took mine to jeep and even thier engineer said it would not pass nhsta and after he said it would not pass he ask me if I didn’t think it was safe to put my family in after he told me it was bad they don’t care about safety so they had it for over a month so why are they all like this they are galvanized frames and they are welding them after they are galved so its a contaminant and you get no penetration on welds they will fail in a impact they was going to switch ours out we have a white 4door soft top but they wanted us to take a orange 4door hard top and I think it was because it has the best welds out of all of them on the lot well we told them no we hated orange and after we told them we would not they got mad and said well we will just order a frame and it will take months to get back and the have already had it a month and I told them im not taking a color i don’t want with out being convensated for it I think im in the right im paying for it but that being said if mine doesn’t pas what other things slipped through the cracks national hyway safety needs to do something before someone dies because the frame fails so we need to all band together its a 45,000 $ pile of crap and they are still making them that way and it’s not a big deal

Yikes. Things are progressing with mine but I'm not certain that this is going to be an easy process. Got a bad feeling that Jeep is going to try screwing me when all is said and done.

 

[Ljgunner]

JL build date: 2/2018

I fear my track bar bracket is about to go at any time. Porocity is horrid, welds tracks just on top of the bracket end with little overlap on the top of the bracket, large amounts of bubbles throughout, and the end of the weld tracks completely off of the bracket.

The underside of the track bar bracket welds are barely any better, with one end starting off thick with a more rounded glob of weld and then ending with a thin weld that barely has coverage and is at about 1/3rd the thickness of the start of the weld. Undercut welds also present that you can hook a fingernail into.

I have an appt on Tues with the dealership for the steering issue (loose steering and too much play) and will talk to them extensively about the welds on these crucial suspension and steering parts such as the track bar. If there is no resolution, then I have a tentative appt later in the week to talk with a lemon law attorney who has given me the number of their mechanical engineers who will inspect the frame and provide a written and signed statement of their findings for the dealership and FCA.

Hoping that since I've only put about 425 miles on this Jeep and it's a lease that they will just swap it out for a newer build. Will update when I know more. Thanks!

That’s horrible jeep needs to take them all back thats just shottie work at best Toyota had to take all theirs back its sad it will take a death before it will be looed into

 

[TaiMc]

YES! Those are much better. You got lucky and the weld robot was calibrated correctly on your rig. I would hate the see the frames on the line after mine. It could have only gotten worse unless someone stepped in and corrected the robot's calibration, gas shielding, or other settings.

Okay...now imma be looking at my chassis welds... this is creeping me out!

 

[Ljgunner]

Okay...now imma be looking at my chassis welds... this is creeping me out!

We need to all band together against jeep before someone is hurt

 

[Fizzlepop]

It's clear, for the most part, nothings being done. Should I just hit up my local dealer so its documented and let it ride or?

 

[Ljgunner]

It's clear, for the most part, nothings being done. Should I just hit up my local dealer so its documented and let it ride or?

Yes hit them up and everyone needs to file with the nhtsa more that file they will recall

 

[Ljgunner]

We need to all band together against jeep before someone is hurt

File with nhtsa so they will recall

 

[Brew211]

Is this typical on EVERY JL, or just during a certain build time? I'm still waiting on my delivery, so I do not have anything to compare to. Please advise.
Thanks

 

[NCJeepn73]

Yes hit them up and everyone needs to file with the nhtsa more that file they will recall

I supplied my dealership service advisor, sales consultant, and GM with printed and email copies, along with images in a Dropbox folder and have heard nothing back. From what I understand, having friends and relatives who've worked in the dealership business, is that I likely won't hear anything back from anyone at the dealership because they cannot indicate or insinuate liability. I showed the GM several pictures of the track bar on my phone and his reply was, "Oh man, that's something." That was about it. Smdh.

There is still the Star Case for my vehicle that includes the steering issue and welding defects. A guy named Mike from Chrysler reached out and that was Tuesday last week. Have not heard one peep out of him or anyone else since then.

I'm escalating this today/tomorrow once our flipping Internet connection gets fixed. There is a large auto publication (think consumer reporting for cars) that showed real interest in the story. I also work in reputation management and SEO. I'm going to utilize some enterprise software to spread this virally and will be email carpet bombing all the higher-ups at Jeep. I'm sure there will be more but this is what I plan to do as next steps.

 

[Ljgunner]

All jl its a galvanized frame

 

[VolCntry73]

Is this typical on EVERY JL, or just during a certain build time? I'm still waiting on my delivery, so I do not have anything to compare to. Please advise.
Thanks

No one knows for sure. It appears to be earlier builds though for the most part. Just make sure to check the welds before taking delivery.

 

[Elganja]

After going through this thread and many others-- I inspected my Jeep which was built in the latter half of June

My welds are all O.K., with the exception of 1 which just has a lot of material and could be ground and painted but is not an issue in it's current form. Looking at the the other welds, there is some brown formation on them, however it's not rust. I think many people are confusing what is rust and what is not rust (slag?). I do have a few welds that have poor porosity, however from what I have read that is to be expected when welding with galvanized steel (within reason, can't look like swiss cheese)

Some people have legitimate concerns where the welds look like burnt cheese-- I feel bad for those folks, it should have never passed inspection looking like that.

edit:

i dropped a bunch of pics in the other weld thread. Check it out.https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/rusting-welds.5779/unread

mine are very similar to yours

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