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NHTSA Development - petition for frame welds investigation

Capt-Zoom

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Spoke to a higher up at the NHTSA today. He said that we can accelerate the frame welds investigation process by sending in a petition. Not the petition type with signatures but one that is simply and official request for investigation. Below is the letter I'm sending less my signature. Feel free to use this if you like. The guy from NHTSA stated that the more of these they receive the better. This would go for anytime we want a quick investigation.

Send to
US Department of Transportation
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Office of Defect Investigation (NVS-210)
1200 New Jersey Ave SE
West Building
Washington DC 20590
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old8tora

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Spoke to a higher up at the NHTSA today. He said that we can accelerate the frame welds investigation process by sending in a petition. Not the petition type with signatures but one that is simply and official request for investigation. Below is the letter I'm sending less my signature. Feel free to use this if you like. The guy from NHTSA stated that the more of these they receive the better. This would go for anytime we want a quick investigation.

Send to
US Department of Transportation
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Office of Defect Investigation (NVS-210)
1200 New Jersey Ave SE
West Building
Washington DC 20590

You are very thorough and helpful for all the JL owners . Hopefully the NHTSA will pay attention to your important alert .
 

Specter491

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I'm out of the loop, what's wrong with the welds?
 
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Capt-Zoom

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What your are seeing isn't likely rust as much as it is slag which paint doesn't adhere to. Rust will occur either after the slag falls off or as the rust develops under the paint edges near the uncovered slag on the welds. That rust will weaken the welds
 

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NCJeepn73

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Waste of time. Every vehicle has surface rust on the underside some worse than others but normal!
I beg to differ, but this isn't "surface rust," it's complete weld defects. If you'll notice the deep porosity of the track bar welds in my post below you'll see that the weld is out of line, incomplete, and more than 30% of this weld doesn't penetrate. The porous holes grouped together are down to the steel of the frame and track bar. I had my frame inspected by two expert welders with over 40 years of combined automotive welding experience. One of the guys worked at a large auto manufacturer. They were both in 100% agreement on the severity of this issue.

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...ursed-with-my-new-jl.6979/page-30#post-293184
 

NCJeepn73

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@Capt-Zoom Thanks for putting this together. I wasn't aware of the whistle blower complaint on NHTSA.

I also didn't know that Chrysler or some representative said that if the issue was reported to the state attorney general that they would discontinue investigation. WTH?

I can get a complaint directly to the NC Attorney General's office if needed. There are a LOT of 2018s now rolling around in NC. For FCA to say they will stop investigation into the matter if this is done sounds completely insane to me. :computerrage:
 

old8tora

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@Capt-Zoom Thanks for putting this together. I wasn't aware of the whistle blower complaint on NHTSA.

I also didn't know that Chrysler or some representative said that if the issue was reported to the state attorney general that they would discontinue investigation. WTH?

I can get a complaint directly to the NC Attorney General's office if needed. There are a LOT of 2018s now rolling around in NC. For FCA to say they will stop investigation into the matter if this is done sounds completely insane to me. :computerrage:
Doubt that fca cannot discontinue anything if the NHTSA is investigating . Might be a good idea to find out Who the OP contacted at fca ?
 

NCJeepn73

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Doubt that fca cannot discontinue anything if the NHTSA is investigating . Might be a good idea to find out Who the OP contacted at fca ?
I PM'd @rboss many days ago asking this very question. Haven't heard back and he's gone silent on the original post. Maybe he's just out busy, enjoying his new Jeep which I assume the welds were more than fully inspected based on his comments about the welds on it. I can get some higher ups emails or numbers at Chrysler. I have a LinkedIn and Python (code based) web scraper that I can program to only find Chrysler emails and phone numbers using hand-picked criteria. But I was hoping rboss might be so mind enough to simply message me who he contacted. I'm OK just doing a carpet bomb email though.
 

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Waste of time. Every vehicle has surface rust on the underside some worse than others but normal!
Wrong. As a welder I can spot a bad weld. There are many ways in which a weld could be considered "bad", but these new jeeps seem to have every type of bad weld out there, from ZERO penetration to porosity so bad that the whole weld looked like a cheeto. I will attached a couple examples. These welds are so bad that you don't have to know anything about welding to know they are bad. One of these welds looks like it was done with the shielding gas turned off...
jl weld.jpeg
jl weld2.jpg
 

mgroeger

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Wrong. As a welder I can spot a bad weld. There are many ways in which a weld could be considered "bad", but these new jeeps seem to have every type of bad weld out there, from ZERO penetration to porosity so bad that the whole weld looked like a cheeto. I will attached a couple examples. These welds are so bad that you don't have to know anything about welding to know they are bad. One of these welds looks like it was done with the shielding gas turned off...
jl weld.jpeg
jl weld2.jpg
Your first picture is exactly what myself and others are seeing AND I looked it up on Toyotas as well. That is where the paint will not stick to the slag and when it peels off you are left with a orange-ish rust color BUT it is not rust. I have researched it and also applied a rust converter and it does nothing.
Your second picture is straight up crappy weld and rust. That one would bother me. Is that at the track bar? I don't know if you are aware of the guy who had his track bar bracket sheer off from a real crappy weld. Even the service techs at the dealership with like WTH.
 

Avl2294

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Your first picture is exactly what myself and others are seeing AND I looked it up on Toyotas as well. That is where the paint will not stick to the slag and when it peels off you are left with a orange-ish rust color BUT it is not rust. I have researched it and also applied a rust converter and it does nothing.
Your second picture is straight up crappy weld and rust. That one would bother me. Is that at the track bar? I don't know if you are aware of the guy who had his track bar bracket sheer off from a real crappy weld. Even the service techs at the dealership with like WTH.
In the first picture has nothing to do with slag and rust. Its a bit of a transverse fillet weld, and they somehow achieved little if any penetration on the frame. I will provide a picture of a Passable weld that the paint has merely chipped off due to slag. If you have a weld that looks exactly like the first picture... DO NOT DRIVE. A weld that bad could fail at any moment, and I'm not just being dramatic. I'm sure most JLs are fine, but that is dangerous.
jl weld3.jpeg
 

mgroeger

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In the first picture has nothing to do with slag and rust. Its a bit of a transverse fillet weld, and they somehow achieved little if any penetration on the frame. I will provide a picture of a Passable weld that the paint has merely chipped off due to slag. If you have a weld that looks exactly like the first picture... DO NOT DRIVE. A weld that bad could fail at any moment, and I'm not just being dramatic. I'm sure most JLs are fine, but that is dangerous.
jl weld3.jpeg
Well I'm OK then because you posted my picture and that's what 80% of my welds look like. :)
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