JL welding Issues

[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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[old8tora]

Just make sure to check the welds before taking delivery.

THERE you have it !

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

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?).

Will the areas with slag start to rust because the paint didn’t adhere?

 

[Capt-Zoom]

Will the areas with slag start to rust because the paint didn’t adhere?

Yep. Rust will either cewwp under the paint or the slag will fall off and then the weld will rust. Rust can also get under the slag.

 

[Elganja]

Will the areas with slag start to rust because the paint didn’t adhere?

I'm not really qualified to answer that... but I've been trying to research it, and i have come up empty on it rusting. This is the wiki talking about welding slag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slag_(welding) -- in it, it says the main reasons to remove the slag is for the following:

Slag does not contribute to strength or protection of metals after the welding process; it is waste material. Removal of the slag is necessary for four reasons:

1. ability to inspect the quality of the weld area;
2. aesthetics, or visual appearance;
3. if a second layer or pass of welding is to be made on top of the first;
4. to clean and clear the surface for coatings such as paint or oil.

Number 4 is what we already know from personal experience- i.e. paint will not stick to it. As well as Number 2- i.e. we all think it looks ugly.

I'm personally not going to worry about it-- i'll keep my eyes on it and check for rust over time, however I'm doubting it will cause any issues besides being visually unappealing. I'd be more concerned with porosity or actual rust, then welding slag (IMHO).

Ultimately, time will tell

 

[LLRubylady]

Sorry to see all these bad welds. I thought I'd upload some pictures of the welds on mine. They seem pretty good. It's like night and day! Very poor quality control. Mine was built in January.

Thanks for posting. I just posted in another thread asking for pictures of good welds so I can see what the difference is to compare

 

[NCJeepn73]

Just to update other owners here in this thread or that run across the bad welds on their Jeep Wrangler...

My JLUR has been at the dealership since July 30th (6 days as of today). I have been in contact with an FCA representative and she is communicating with the dealership. They have looked at a good handful of my bad weld pictures and they decided to send an FCA crew (maybe two or more people) to inspect the welds. I hope to hear something back this coming week. But, from what I've been told, they will likely attempt to grind down, sand, and re-weld areas that are bad.

To be honest, I'm not too keen on this happening for several reasons, one of those being that you cannot simply weld onto already painted/galvanized steel unless you take it all the way down to bare metal. Second, after re-welding is done, I don't know what the final result will look like or how they will deal with re-coating the frame to where those areas will not take on rust or simply look like a patch job (thinking of negative resale down the road if a potential buyer notices areas that frame welds look different). Third, there are so many areas of weld misalignment, slag build up, undercutting, improper weld caps, paint not adhering to the slag, other areas of porosity, etc. that I just don't see how spot re-welding all around the frame in multiple areas really makes sense.

Needless to say, I will be inspecting the welds thoroughly before accepting it as corrected. I may also schedule to pick up the Jeep with one of the weld inspectors I initially had paid to check my frame over if I can coordinate their time and pay them again for the trip to the dealership with me.

Having stage IV cancer and having to deal with all of this is becoming more stressful and difficult for me. In purchasing this Wrangler, my goal was to simply pass along this Wrangler to my son if something were to happen to me during this unfortunate journey I'm on. We were going to be working on it together, adding some mods to it along the way. I'm sure he would have loved having this vehicle just knowing that we both bonded more and spent time on it together. We are both huge Wrangler fans, and Jeep fans in general. 10 Jeeps of varying types in 13-14 years!

It breaks my heart that this potentially patched up, rust prone, Jeep may be the one he ends up with. If I could go back in time and I would have known these weld defects existed, I would have never accepted or purchased this vehicle.

 

[VolCntry73]

Just to update other owners here in this thread or that run across the bad welds on their Jeep Wrangler...

My JLUR has been at the dealership since July 30th (6 days as of today). I have been in contact with an FCA representative and she is communicating with the dealership. They have looked at a good handful of my bad weld pictures and they decided to send an FCA crew (maybe two or more people) to inspect the welds. I hope to hear something back this coming week. But, from what I've been told, they will likely attempt to grind down, sand, and re-weld areas that are bad.

To be honest, I'm not too keen on this happening for several reasons, one of those being that you cannot simply weld onto already painted/galvanized steel unless you take it all the way down to bare metal. Second, after re-welding is done, I don't know what the final result will look like or how they will deal with re-coating the frame to where those areas will not take on rust or simply look like a patch job (thinking of negative resale down the road if a potential buyer notices areas that frame welds look different). Third, there are so many areas of weld misalignment, slag build up, undercutting, improper weld caps, paint not adhering to the slag, other areas of porosity, etc. that I just don't see how spot re-welding all around the frame in multiple areas really makes sense.

Needless to say, I will be inspecting the welds thoroughly before accepting it as corrected. I may also schedule to pick up the Jeep with one of the weld inspectors I initially had paid to check my frame over if I can coordinate their time and pay them again for the trip to the dealership with me.

Having stage IV cancer and having to deal with all of this is becoming more stressful and difficult for me. In purchasing this Wrangler, my goal was to simply pass along this Wrangler to my son if something were to happen to me during this unfortunate journey I'm on. We were going to be working on it together, adding some mods to it along the way. I'm sure he would have loved having this vehicle just knowing that we both bonded more and spent time on it together. We are both huge Wrangler fans, and Jeep fans in general. 10 Jeeps of varying types in 13-14 years!

It breaks my heart that this potentially patched up, rust prone, Jeep may be the one he ends up with. If I could go back in time and I would have known these weld defects existed, I would have never accepted or purchased this vehicle.

If any situation should demand that FCA to do the right thing and just get another jeep for a customer, this is it. Long time Jeep owner and poor QC.

I am fortunate, my welds look great, however...let's be honest...how often have customers required to check the welds on a vehicle. It should be given that the welds are good. I hope you get a real resolution, and not something that is being proposed.

And my prayers are with you in regards to the medical challenges you are facing.

 

[bilash31]

To be honest, I'm not too keen on this happening for several reasons

If any situation should demand that FCA to do the right thing and just get another jeep for a customer, this is it.

I agree with @VolCntry73

And @NCJeepn73 another reason to be concerned with all this that I have yet to hear discussed is:
What about all the words you CAN’T see and likely won’t be addressed.

 

[NCJeepn73]

If any situation should demand that FCA to do the right thing and just get another jeep for a customer, this is it. Long time Jeep owner and poor QC.

I am fortunate, my welds look great, however...let's be honest...how often have customers required to check the welds on a vehicle. It should be given that the welds are good. I hope you get a real resolution, and not something that is being proposed.

And my prayers are with you in regards to the medical challenges you are facing.

Thank you @VolCntry73 Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated. I thought my son and I would be creating memories weeks ago while being able to work on this Jeep. Now those memories are just being replaced by sadness and stress that this won't be resolved or that I'll be handed back a sketchy, patch job repair.

@bilash31 Yes, I've thought of that as well. If the welds that I've just been able to see are this bad I'm afraid the ones I cannot even see could potentially be much worse. I really don't want my son to have something as bad as this to remember me by. Not that I plan on going anywhere. But it's heartbreaking for me to think about.

 

[Blood Type J+]

Having stage IV cancer and having to deal with all of this is becoming more stressful and difficult for me. In purchasing this Wrangler, my goal was to simply pass along this Wrangler to my son if something were to happen to me during this unfortunate journey I'm on. We were going to be working on it together, adding some mods to it along the way. I'm sure he would have loved having this vehicle just knowing that we both bonded more and spent time on it together. We are both huge Wrangler fans, and Jeep fans in general. 10 Jeeps of varying types in 13-14 years!

It breaks my heart that this potentially patched up, rust prone, Jeep may be the one he ends up with. If I could go back in time and I would have known these weld defects existed, I would have never accepted or purchased this vehicle.

This looks like a job for @JeepCares if there ever was one.

 

[old8tora]

Having stage IV cancer and having to deal with all of this is becoming more stressful and difficult for me. In purchasing this Wrangler, my goal was to simply pass along this Wrangler to my son if something were to happen to me during this unfortunate journey I'm on. We were going to be working on it together, adding some mods to it along the way. I'm sure he would have loved having this vehicle just knowing that we both bonded more and spent time on it together. We are both huge Wrangler fans, and Jeep fans in general. 10 Jeeps of varying types in 13-14 years!
It breaks my heart that this potentially patched up, rust prone, Jeep may be the one he ends up with. If I could go back in time and I would have known these weld defects existed, I would have never accepted or purchased this vehicle.

Brother , thank you for sharing your thoughts with us . We all pray for you to have a blessed outcome .

( By the way , this entire welding fiasco shows the futility of mechanical tech robots assigned to do an intelligent job .)

 

[blessidsoul12]

Unless I missed it (which is entirely possible), has JeepCares commented at all on this forum regarding the welding issue(s)? If not, that surprises me- of all the mechanical and electrical issues that have been brought forward that have elicited JCares to reach out, this feels like it should be right up near #1.

Let's imagine this gets some traction (which it absolutely should)- I feel that this might be a monumental recall for FCA. This is no software update that takes 20 minutes. If eventually a recall is announced, would this possibly mean that all the JLs built in a specific time frame may have to literally be trashed? This could get interesting...

 

[NCJeepn73]

Brother , thank you for sharing your thoughts with us . We all pray for you to have a blessed outcome .

( By the way , this entire welding fiasco shows the futility of mechanical tech robots assigned to do an intelligent job .)

Thank you a lot! The outreach of prayers, well wishes, and just good people has changed my perspective on life... for the better.

I know things happen. I get it. And I wish we all just had the kind of quality Jeeps that used to be manufactured. While I just feel very blessed at each day that I'm given by the good Lord, having to deal with this is something that has added a layer of stress that my body and mind doesn't need. These bad weld vehicles should have never been released by FCA.

Toyota's rusted/bad frames cost them $3.4 billion in a class action lawsuit. These welds on certain Wranglers are headed down the same path as Toyota.

 

[NCJeepn73]

Unless I missed it (which is entirely possible), has JeepCares commented at all on this forum regarding the welding issue(s)? If not, that surprises me- of all the mechanical and electrical issues that have been brought forward that have elicited JCares to reach out, this feels like it should be right up near #1.

Let's imagine this gets some traction (which it absolutely should)- I feel that this might be a monumental recall for FCA. This is no software update that takes 20 minutes. If eventually a recall is announced, would this possibly mean that all the JLs built in a specific time frame may have to literally be trashed? This could get interesting...

@blessidsoul12 I think you may be right on this one. I've read every page on these welding issue threads and @JeepCares has all but gone silent. No responses to individuals with pictures, no follow ups on the weld issues, not much in the way of communication.
Having a career background in PR, reputation management, etc., I can see a trend here.

I just mentioned above the Toyota suit at a $3.4 billion cost. While I don't see the Jeep weld issues being anywhere near the same scope, I do see it potentially going into the tens of millions given the thousands of Jeeps potentially affected.

My son is nearly 15. We are looking at starting his driving courses around the corner. I was hoping this rig could have been his one day, after we do some work on it together. I feel like my life is on hold until all of this gets worked out. Like I said above, I don't try to look too far ahead these days. Just seeing tomorrow or next week is all I can ask for. I'm just beside myself that his and my plans to work together on this Jeep isn't happening now. That time and memories cannot be replaced or given back unfortunately.

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