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Loose steering feels like it has play and drifts

EDH_JL

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Back from the dealer, only 15 miles on the new steering box but already seems way better. The results of the torque over-center test showed 8 in-lbs when the spec is 1.3-5.8 in-lbs (seems like a big spread!).

I made the attached graphic to show my steering journey so far, the Jeep being able to wander between either side of the red area was seriously dangerous especially under hard braking. Track bar replaced first removed the wander from the red area, then the new steering box reduced play from the yellow to the green. If it stays like this, I will be very satisfied. Request the torque over-center test, its the only objective way to know if your steering box is bad or not and eliminates the "seems normal" or "they all do that" subjectivity.

Edit: V41 steering damper recall was performed before I test drove and bought the JL, so I don't know how that impacted the steering.

JL Steering.jpg
Bumping this after a year, steering has been awful for the past few months and feels like it's back in the red area of the graphic I made. I've been living with it but will now push for the TSB 08-074-20 since this thing is dangerous on the narrow winding highways we have up here.
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Woodynj

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Well disappointed again. Called the dealer to confirm they had the parts for my appt tomorrow and they said “ya we got the track bar in, your all set”

I said “I showed you the TSB and they confirmed they ordered the right part...“Ya we are good”

They said the TSB did not show up for my VIN??? I am confused. Thought it was for all jeeps. I have a 2018 JL Sahara

@JeepCares - please help!
 

jmcl

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My Jeep is at shop right now waiting on bolts to come in. I had tightened the the steering box myself which helped a ton. I was sure to put in back to stock before taking to shop. My dealership gave me no crap for having 35" tires and 2" Daystar lift.
 

dpike

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Well disappointed again. Called the dealer to confirm they had the parts for my appt tomorrow and they said “ya we got the track bar in, your all set”

I said “I showed you the TSB and they confirmed they ordered the right part...“Ya we are good”

They said the TSB did not show up for my VIN??? I am confused. Thought it was for all jeeps. I have a 2018 JL Sahara

@JeepCares - please help!
ugh.. what dealer was this ? nonsense like this almost seems intentional.
 

Woodynj

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ugh.. what dealer was this ? nonsense like this almost seems intentional.
Dealer in north jersey. I am going to deal with it tomorrow in person
 

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ToPar9

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Parts on order, NTexas, "a few weeks" out.
I will miss 1730 driving down the N Dallas Tollway, at 70+ in the lefthand lane, white-knuckled, avoiding the concrete wall 2-feet to my left, and trying to not drift into the middle lane. :LOL:
 

Iggy

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My dealer in Carson City says they are replacing these when new boxes come in at a rate of one per week. So, replace only 52 in a year? Yet another fish story from a car dealership. Why do they still think honesty is such a lousy way to do business?

Anyway, I look forward to getting this fix done. I'm still baffled why FCA installed a few hundred thousand flawed steering boxes on Wranglers before issuing this TSB (maybe see above?). Amazing.
 

drvn

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Parts on order, NTexas, "a few weeks" out.
I will miss 1730 driving down the N Dallas Tollway, at 70+ in the lefthand lane, white-knuckled, avoiding the concrete wall 2-feet to my left, and trying to not drift into the middle lane. :LOL:
And some dealers are saying this is a Jeep thing! Yea, Maybe a Jeep crap engineering/followup thing
 
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JayJay

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My dealer in Carson City says they are replacing these when new boxes come in at a rate of one per week. So, replace only 52 in a year? Yet another fish story from a car dealership. Why do they still think honesty is such a lousy way to do business?
Seems that you missed where the boxes are in short supply and the dealers are being limited to how many they can order.

Later,
Johnny
 

Iggy

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Seems that you missed where the boxes are in short supply and the dealers are being limited to how many they can order.

Later,
Johnny
 

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Iggy

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Yeah, I always miss something. Thanks for helping me see logistics holistically, @JayJay.

I was just thinking they are making 60,000 JLs per quarter which is around 1,000 per day. That means there are at least 1,000 boxes being supplied each day. Raising the production of steering boxes at Dana, Spicer or TRW by 25% is 250 extra per day to be shipped to 2,500 dealers which, when divided by 5 days, is 250 per week: 1 per week. So, by restricting these massive manufacturers to a 25% increase, FCA is saying there's a problem, but it's no big deal and they're doing something about it. Fish story.

However, if sales jumped 50%, FCA would certainly figure out how to fit steering boxes to each JL. My complaint is they built around 500,000 JLs so far and each of them has the faulty box. Maybe many of the owners have swallowed the "it's just a Jeep thing" fish story and live with dangerous steering, but I'm not one of them.

So, to give FCA a break and say "they are doing the best they can so just be patient" is also saying 500,000 JLs with dangerous steering is acceptable. It's not. It's a flagrant disregard for people's safety. They should be replacing these boxes across the country at least by two per day per dealership. How many JLs has your local dealership sold knowing full well there was a faulty steering design?

Yours, for one...
 

JayJay

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Yeah, I always miss something. Thanks for helping me see logistics holistically,
Glad that I could help Rusty. ;)

Later,
Johnny
 

jmcdtucson

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Just for a little light reading, I started reading this thread from the beginning again :CWL:
 

kkarnage

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Feedback after a decent test drive on the new box:
Sooo, had a short test drive yesterday, but got a better one in today, on a stretch of highway I know intimately, which offers a perfect storm of striated concrete road surface, occasional diagonal overpasses, gusty crosswinds, and a nice selection of straights, and slow, gentle curves. Driving that on the old box, even with all the other mods (sector shaft brace, decent tie rod and track bar, increased caster, etc etc) was truly terrifying and required constant attention, and corrections, if you didn't want to end up in the other lanes. The 1/2-3/4" dead spot I had meant that those corrections required sawing the wheel back and forth. It was exhausting, to say the least. Many of you know pretty much exactly what I'm talking about. I couldn't take my eyes of the road even for a millisecond to look at the radio or console in front of me. Even just checking my mirrors was nerve-wracking.

Anyhow, after today's test drive I can report that I finally have a Jeep that is a pleasure to drive. In fact it now probably steers better than my JKs, and that's saying quite something. There is no more random wandering left or right, and the dead spot is gone. There is still a little bit of "play" in the system, but it's a solid front axle setup, and it is truly well within what I would consider "normal", having driven a huge variety of different vehicles over the last 40 years. For the first time since getting the Jeep I was actually able to glance around the area I was driving through, able to glance at the center console to see information there, able to glance at the dials in front of me, and check my mirrors, all without looking up to find myself already at the edge of the lane I was in. It is rock solid, even at 75.

And yes, I had the sector shaft brace refitted, because I wanted to change only one thing at a time, so wanted to be able to compare just the difference between the two boxes, without any confounding variables. I'll probably leave it on, because even with the weld spatter removed from the frame where the box mounts, there is still still discernible, albeit slight, flexing without it.

The thing that I'm curious about, especially regarding the weld spatter, is how many stealerships are going to go to the trouble of cleaning it off if it's there? Sure, not every frame will have weld spatter there, but given the proximity of welded seams to where the box mounts, I'd speculate that weld spatter is an issue on a fair number of JLs. At least with the aluminum box, when it came up against those hard weld spatter peaks, the aluminum gave way a bit and so there was a slight chance of getting the box seated better. But with a cast iron box, nothing is going to give, and if there is weld spatter, the new box is going to be perched on those spatter peaks, and not properly seated flat against the frame.
 
 



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