Massive Frame Weld Issues

[LateBraking]

Mike MacDonald had me take in my Jeep for inspection on Friday. The service manager put my Jeep and another 2018 Wrangler up to compare the welds. Needless to say, the other wranglers welds were a thousand times better and we're what I expect on a vehicle. The service manager agrees it was definitely an issue and is hopeful FCA will take good care of me. He reached back out to FCA, as did I, and we're now waiting on a response. Hopefully I'll be in a new Wrangler before the end of the month!

Good luck. I have taken it to two dealers and contacted JeepCares multiple times now with very little success. They're basically telling me that "rust is normal for a 1 year old California car."

Took my own car in for a third party/independent-from-a-dealership examination and we found rust, not slag, in multiple locations. As for "slag"....it's all over the car and there's no point uploading those. Too many pics of slag. Mechanic took pics, here they are.

Again, this is a vehicle that was purchased and used in Southern California. Has never seen snow salt rust, etc. Around a year old, 21k miles. Everyone tells me "the rust is normal for weather conditions and use." My 12 year old Honda Fit that actually was used in the east coast in snow and salt, when I lived out east years ago, has less rust issues than this sunny-SoCal-only car. Ridiculous.

Hope you have better luck than me, Rutterbg.

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[Shots]

FWIW your welds don't look bad, just rusty. If the rust concerns you clean it up, and put some paint on the affected areas. No, you shouldn't have to do that on a new vehicle, but you can prevent it from getting worse if you choose to. Or you can let it go because you shouldn't have to do it, and accept that there will be more rust years down the road.

 

[Rutterbg]

My jeep was inspected by both the district manager and the regional manager. They claim to see no difference between my welds and the welds on another jeep from the lot (which I also looked at and the welds on the other jeep were done perfectly and as expected). The only person admitting to seeing a difference is the service manager. FCA Mike MacDonald is claiming the service manager saw no difference, but I have in writing that the service manager did see a difference. I have compiled everything I have from pictures, to emails, service records, NHTSA complaints and inspection, and so on.

Jeep has decided to not replace my wrangler and they are not going to do any repairs. Ohio has some of the best lemon laws in the country and I now qualify for it since the ignored a major safety concern after one visit. Lemon law in Ohio does not allow any deductions and FCA will be required to pay all court and legal fees above and beyond my settlement. On top of that, Ohio at times charges for damages and penalties against the manufacturer for not handling a lemon outside of court. Penalty payments to the consumer can be up to treble (triple) the amount paid for the vehicle.

I have reached out to an attorney to assess my case and see if it is worth pursuing. I should hear back from them by weeks end. I will post another update once they respond. I attached a pdf of the comparison welds as well as a lot more of my bad welds. I also attached all of the NHTSA complaints, star publication, and NHTSA investigation docs.

 

[four low]

Jeep/FCA should replace yours under customer goodwill, but probably are afraid of setting a precedent. It looks like your frame welds had been gone over prior to you buying it, and are
Technically sound, but weren't painted. Probably won't be a Happy Ending to this Story....

 

[Rutterbg]

I'll try to keep this short. The attorney wants me to have the welds inspected and have the inspector testify in court. For obvious reasons, I have not been able to find anyone willing to do this. I even spoke to Hobart welding school and they couldn't help. I continued to reach out to news sites and was able to get a hold of John Matarese from WCPO Don't Waste Your Money. He is currently looking at all of the material I sent him and asked if I would be willing to go on camera. I informed him that I am and am currently waiting for a response from him. Fingers crossed he decides to run the story and we can start making head way with FCA. John Matarese is a huge influencer in this area and can really help us push for a resolution.

 

[Minty JL]

Well I wonder if these frame will rust like the Toyota frames......... they ended up having to replace the frames on numerous Tacomas, Tundras and 4 Runners

 

[FirecrackerRedJLU]

Another welds thread?....

 

[OrangeRuby]

I would be interested to hear the end result of this. My Jeep appears to have similar issues. Lots of weld porosity, some very serious examples of cluster porosity, and some places where the weld is completely off track and not joining the two components. I’m thinking they didn’t have the kinks worked out if the robotic setup yet....Fortunately for me, I am a licensed professional engineer and a certified welding inspector. Hopefully FCA will take care of this, but so far it has been agonizingly slow. My dealer took pictures but they were rejected because they didn’t have a verifiable steel scale (rule) in them.

 

[Rutterbg]

So far I'm in a stand still. The attorney needs someone to inspect them and testify in court but no one is willing to do that. I have yet to find someone with a CWI who will testify for me. I have had a ton of other issues as well that are being addressed. I believe I will more than hit 8 issues which is enough to push my lemon case forward if they still decide not to buy it back. If you have a CWI, I would suggest inspecting the welds and then if they don't buy it back, tell them about your cwi and they might. If not, find a lemon law attorney and testify for yourself on court.

 

[DCOURTS]

This has to come down to crappy raw materials and cutting costs/corners. Simple as that.

 

[wcjeep]

So far I'm in a stand still. The attorney needs someone to inspect them and testify in court but no one is willing to do that. I have yet to find someone with a CWI who will testify for me. I have had a ton of other issues as well that are being addressed. I believe I will more than hit 8 issues which is enough to push my lemon case forward if they still decide not to buy it back. If you have a CWI, I would suggest inspecting the welds and then if they don't buy it back, tell them about your cwi and they might. If not, find a lemon law attorney and testify for yourself on court.

There was an episode of "Diesel Brothers" they brought in outside weld inspectors with portable xray equipment to inspect the welds on an unfinished rollcage project vehicle. They found some good, some bad.

 

[EvanH84]

I have a 2020 Sahara and I have a chunk out of my one chassis mounting point seem and another on the frame.

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