Major steering issue problem with JL Wrangler. Please watch

[HiJinx69]

I took a better look at the hose connection at the reservoir. There is only a intake hose, no return hose like in a traditional system.

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[sm16]

OK. I'll keep it brief. I got my Jeep back yesterday. Drove it home, no problems except some excessive play in the steering wheel. I went to look under the hood and found a little gift from the dealer.

A pry tool. Thank you dealer!

So this interesting...you had the lock-up issue but steering was tight and you were not experiencing the excessive play, but now that they fixed the steering lock-up problem, you have excessive play. I wonder if all the people that are having the lockup issue have tight steering and those with excessive play are not experiencing their steering lock-up.

 

[HiJinx69]

So this interesting...you had the lock-up issue but steering was tight and you were not experiencing the excessive play, but now that they fixed the steering lock-up problem, you have excessive play. I wonder if all the people that are having the lockup issue have tight steering and those with excessive play are not experiencing their steering lock-up.

That is definitely one theory that was discussed with Jeep Informant.

 

[sm16]

That is definitely one theory that was discussed with Jeep Informant.

Wow, if that's the case I think I rather just deal with the loose steering. Not that we shouldn't have tight, non-locking steering.

 

[XTrooper]

I had a similarly unpleasant experience with my new Jeep JLU this past Monday, July 2nd. I took delivery of it from my Jeep dealer on Saturday, June 16th so this incident occurred just 16 days after getting it. There were 402 miles on the odometer Monday morning. That morning I picked up my daughter and two grandchildren, ages 4 and 1, for a day out together. We went for breakfast, made a few other stops over the next couple of hours and then decided to stop at our local Lowe's store. I want to mention that it was very hot and humid that day here in NE Pennsylvania and by the afternoon the temperate had reached 93F. I noted that when I started the Jeep when we were leaving the Lowe's store, the ambient temperate gauge read 100F. This was after the Jeep had been sitting in the hot parking lot for approximately a half hour. I don't know if the hot weather was a contributing factor, but I thought I'd mention it since the aluminum steering box currently seems to be the prime suspect. Anyway, when we left Lowe's, I started down a four-lane divided highway and was traveling around 60 mph when I started to move from the inside to the outside lane of travel because the turn I needed to make was coming up on the right. As I started to turn the steering wheel to the right, it felt like it was locked and I had to use a good bit of force to get the wheel to turn. Mind you, this wasn't a big turn, just a minor adjustment to make a lane change and I had to struggle to do it. Since I was traveling at speed, was in traffic, and had my daughter and grandchildren in the vehicle, I was more than a little upset when this happened. From that point until I dropped off my daughter and grandkids at their home and then drove to my own (a total of maybe 10 miles), the steering did not feel normal and I kind of had to wrestle it around to drive. The steering seemed very stiff yet, strangely, it would alternately loosen and stiffen up again. It seemed to me that most of the issues occurred while turning towards the right and less so when turning left, but I'm not absolutely certain of this. I took the Jeep out again the next day and several times since and the steering has been perfectly normal although it has not been as hot as it was that Monday afternoon. I contacted Mopar this week and relayed to them the experience I had and they assigned me a case number. They, in turn, contacted my dealer who called me while she was on vacation to ask me what happened. After explaining the situation to her, we made arrangements for me to come in with the Jeep this Monday and that's where things are as of right now. I will come back to this thread and report any new developments in my case as they occur.

 

[Jeepsterfreak]

I had a similarly unpleasant experience with my new Jeep JLU this past Monday, July 2nd. I took delivery of it from my Jeep dealer on Saturday, June 16th so this incident occurred just 16 days after getting it. There were 402 miles on the odometer Monday morning. That morning I picked up my daughter and two grandchildren, ages 4 and 1, for a day out together. We went for breakfast, made a few other stops over the next couple of hours and then decided to stop at our local Lowe's store. I want to mention that it was very hot and humid that day here in NE Pennsylvania and by the afternoon the temperate had reached 93F. I noted that when I started the Jeep when we were leaving the Lowe's store, the ambient temperate gauge read 100F. This was after the Jeep had been sitting in the hot parking lot for approximately a half hour. I don't know if the hot weather was a contributing factor, but I thought I'd mention it since the aluminum steering box currently seems to be the prime suspect. Anyway, when we left Lowe's, I started down a four-lane divided highway and was traveling around 60 mph when I started to move from the inside to the outside lane of travel because the turn I needed to make was coming up on the right. As I started to turn the steering wheel to the right, it felt like it was locked and I had to use a good bit of force to get the wheel to turn. Mind you, this wasn't a big turn, just a minor adjustment to make a lane change and I had to struggle to do it. Since I was traveling at speed, was in traffic, and had my daughter and grandchildren in the vehicle, I was more than a little upset when this happened. From that point until I dropped off my daughter and grandkids at their home and then drove to my own (a total of maybe 10 miles), the steering did not feel normal and I kind of had to wrestle it around to drive. The steering seemed very stiff yet, strangely, it would alternately loosen and stiffen up again. It seemed to me that most of the issues occurred while turning towards the right and less so when turning left, but I'm not absolutely certain of this. I took the Jeep out again the next day and several times since and the steering has been perfectly normal although it has not been as hot as it was that Monday afternoon. I contacted Mopar this week and relayed to them the experience I had and they assigned me a case number. They, in turn, contacted my dealer who called me while she was on vacation to ask me what happened. After explaining the situation to her, we made arrangements for me to come in with the Jeep this Monday and that's where things are as of right now. I will come back to this thread and report any new developments in my case as they occur.

Please file a safety complaint with NHTSA. It might help Jeep to realize the severity and size of the problem.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

 

[sm16]

I had a similarly unpleasant experience with my new Jeep JLU this past Monday, July 2nd. I took delivery of it from my Jeep dealer on Saturday, June 16th so this incident occurred just 16 days after getting it. There were 402 miles on the odometer Monday morning. That morning I picked up my daughter and two grandchildren, ages 4 and 1, for a day out together. We went for breakfast, made a few other stops over the next couple of hours and then decided to stop at our local Lowe's store. I want to mention that it was very hot and humid that day here in NE Pennsylvania and by the afternoon the temperate had reached 93F. I noted that when I started the Jeep when we were leaving the Lowe's store, the ambient temperate gauge read 100F. This was after the Jeep had been sitting in the hot parking lot for approximately a half hour. I don't know if the hot weather was a contributing factor, but I thought I'd mention it since the aluminum steering box currently seems to be the prime suspect. Anyway, when we left Lowe's, I started down a four-lane divided highway and was traveling around 60 mph when I started to move from the inside to the outside lane of travel because the turn I needed to make was coming up on the right. As I started to turn the steering wheel to the right, it felt like it was locked and I had to use a good bit of force to get the wheel to turn. Mind you, this wasn't a big turn, just a minor adjustment to make a lane change and I had to struggle to do it. Since I was traveling at speed, was in traffic, and had my daughter and grandchildren in the vehicle, I was more than a little upset when this happened. From that point until I dropped off my daughter and grandkids at their home and then drove to my own (a total of maybe 10 miles), the steering did not feel normal and I kind of had to wrestle it around to drive. The steering seemed very stiff yet, strangely, it would alternately loosen and stiffen up again. It seemed to me that most of the issues occurred while turning towards the right and less so when turning left, but I'm not absolutely certain of this. I took the Jeep out again the next day and several times since and the steering has been perfectly normal although it has not been as hot as it was that Monday afternoon. I contacted Mopar this week and relayed to them the experience I had and they assigned me a case number. They, in turn, contacted my dealer who called me while she was on vacation to ask me what happened. After explaining the situation to her, we made arrangements for me to come in with the Jeep this Monday and that's where things are as of right now. I will come back to this thread and report any new developments in my case as they occur.

May I ask if you felt that your steering was loose or had excessive play prior to the lock-up?

 

[Ctemkek]

We’re having a major issue. Please watch and comment if you have anything related.

I too have a 2018 JEEP Wrangler JL. I started having steering issues as well. It started as a sticking when I was steering left but only intermittently. Didn't mention it to my husband but when he drove it he noticed it too. Since then I have narrowed it down to when I reach speeds of over 45 mph the left steering sticks. It stuck so much that I over corrected recently and almost caused an accident. I took it to the dealership and they said they could not replicate it after driving it 40 miles. My sales person told me he would drive it before I left and it happened to him so they had the head mechanic drive it too. It also happened to him. He said this was the 2nd one in 2 weeks that came in for this same problem. They are ordering a steering box to replace it because they think this is the problem. However they still sent me home with my jeep. It happened all the way home.

 

[Chuck]

I too have a 2018 JEEP Wrangler JL. I started having steering issues as well. It started as a sticking when I was steering left but only intermittently. Didn't mention it to my husband but when he drove it he noticed it too. Since then I have narrowed it down to when I reach speeds of over 45 mph the left steering sticks. It stuck so much that I over corrected recently and almost caused an accident. I took it to the dealership and they said they could not replicate it after driving it 40 miles. My sales person told me he would drive it before I left and it happened to him so they had the head mechanic drive it too. It also happened to him. He said this was the 2nd one in 2 weeks that came in for this same problem. They are ordering a steering box to replace it because they think this is the problem. However they still sent me home with my jeep. It happened all the way home.

Thanks for sharing! Just out of curiosity, when your steering problem occurred, was the outside temp high and/or had you been driving your Jeep for a while (i.e., the engine was nice and warm)?

P.S., Please file a complaint with NHTSA.

 

[Ctemkek]

Thanks for sharing! Just out of curiosity, when your steering problem occurred, was the outside temp high and/or had you been driving your Jeep for a while (i.e., the engine was nice and warm)?

P.S., Please file a complaint with NHTSA.

It was around 85 degrees out. I was just picking it up from Service dept so I hadn't been driving it much.

 

[XTrooper]

May I ask if you felt that your steering was loose or had excessive play prior to the lock-up?

It wanders a bit, but not what I'd consider excessively for what it is. Now the Rubicon model that I test drove from the same dealer's lot had a good inch of play in the steering wheel! It sucked driving it.

 

[XTrooper]

Please file a safety complaint with NHTSA. It might help Jeep to realize the severity and size of the problem.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

I'll do that. Thanks for the link.

 

[Nabors]

Since my fix I've still haven't had an issue. This now includes a 2 trips with 50 miles each way, city driving (40%), highway driving (60%), and even two days of sitting at my place of works parking lot with black asphalt in over 105 degree days. If it helps anyone at all with trying to identify the issue of post was #637 and case number was 34511594; this was the Jeep Wave program given case number and was used between the dealership and the FCA representative that came to install update and perform work them-self.

 

[XTrooper]

Since my fix I've still haven't had an issue. This now includes a 2 trips with 50 miles each way, city driving (40%), highway driving (60%), and even two days of sitting at my place of works parking lot with black asphalt in over 105 degree days. If it helps anyone at all with trying to identify the issue of post was #637 and case number was 34511594; this was the Jeep Wave program given case number and was used between the dealership and the FCA representative that came to install update and perform work them-self.

That is good to hear and I'm glad they got your Jeep squared away.

 

[Saejin]

Looking to support a theory I have about the steering problems. It seems those with this binding issue during turns have tight steering and after the steering gear box is replaced the binding is resolved, but now there is more play in the steering.

Can those of you who had this fix please confirm or deny.

You see, the steering gear box has an adjustment screw which is meant to remove play in the system, but only to the extent it doesn’t cause binding. If you adjust it too much, you can eleininate all the play, but as you turn the wheel the gears in the box will bind and only excessive force from the hydraulic system will push through the binding...but in some cases it won’t.

The adjustment screw I’m assuming is set by a tech when the box is built. So it’s not a standard setting and is totally dependent on how well the tech does the adjustment.

This could very well be the reason every JL has a different feel in the steering wheel.

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