Unbelievable corrosion on 2008 Jeep Liberty Front Axles

Michaelmcgo said:

Did Jeep changing anything in the area of the front wheels from unplated steel to either aluminum or galvanized steel with the change from KJ to KK? I owned a KJ for years and changed out wheel bearings no problem with the stock axles. That Jeep lived in the exact same environment as this KK and had 50k more miles on it...

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The KK uses a aluminum knuckle were as the KJ uses a cast steel knuckle,same manufacturer for the hubs and axles.

I do know all about the different steels and how corrosion effects,had to when I worked in a body shop not to mention being a 21 year ASE Master tech(IE cooling systems).

Damn, not really sure what to say. My KJ gets torn apart regularly, I just have the usual surface rust on the CV axles and that's about it. My XJ doesn't even have anything that bad on it.

The LR3 has an aluminum knuckle and the hub/bearing was an absolute bear to get off but it didn't look like that at all.

FWIW - I've never seen this much crapola on anything I've ever torn down. And I'm either older than Dirt, or older than Mudd

Any chance of a photo when it's cleaned up? Is it possible some type of reaction with a lube - but isn't that a dry area?

Worst galvanic I ever saw was after getting an aluminum wheel off, most of the drum was swiss cheese and the back of most of the wheel was gone. Some cheapo aluminum brand on a Chevelle.

tjkj2002 said:

The KK uses a aluminum knuckle were as the KJ uses a cast steel knuckle,same manufacturer for the hubs and axles.

I do know all about the different steels and how corrosion effects,had to when I worked in a body shop not to mention being a 21 year ASE Master tech(IE cooling systems).

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Switching to an aluminum knuckle could cause galvanic corrosion. Just throw in some wet salty winter roads and watch everything rot away.

dude1116 said:

Switching to an aluminum knuckle could cause galvanic corrosion. Just throw in some wet salty winter roads and watch everything rot away.

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But does not touch the CV axle at all,only houses the hub bearing.

tjkj2002 said:

But does not touch the CV axle at all,only houses the hub bearing.

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Knuckle touches hub...hub touches CV.

Not sure I follow you. Electricity can jump from surface to surface when they touch.

dude1116 said:

Knuckle touches hub...hub touches CV.

Not sure I follow you. Electricity can jump from surface to surface when they touch.

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For that type of corrosion caused by dissimilar metals they need to be touching,like electrolysis in a cooling system.

tjkj2002 said:

For that type of corrosion caused by dissimilar metals they need to be touching,like electrolysis in a cooling system.

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Knuckle touches outer hub, outer hub touches inner hub via roller ball bearings, inner hub touches cv axle splines. The bearings don't ride on air?

k99jk99j said:

Knuckle touches outer hub, outer hub touches inner hub via roller ball bearings, inner hub touches cv axle splines. The bearings don't ride on air?

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They need physical contact,come on use a little common sense.

tjkj2002 said:

They need physical contact,come on use a little common sense.

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I think the common sense needs to work both ways. To have Galvanic Corrosion you need:
1. Dissimilar metals
2. Both metals exposed to the same electrolyte.
3. An electrical connection between the two metals.

What's happening is that ions are traveling from the more reactive metal to the less through the electrolyte and electrons are balancing the charge by traveling back through the electrical connection from less reactive to the more reactive metal.

In this case (if this is Galvanic Corrosion) the ions are traveling on the outside of the parts (across conductive water on the surface) from the axle to the knuckle, wheel, and other aluminum parts while the electrons are traveling back from the aluminum through the bearings and into the axle. Make sense?

WOW! I've never seen anything like this. I drove a KK for 7 years and know others with them in Michigan.

Nobody has this corrosion issue.

The factory aluminum wheels fit tight to the hub and salt water gets in and cannot get out. Then galvanic corrosion kicks in and there you have it many years later. It has everything to do with the type of steel, corrosion treatment of the parts, steel and aluminum wheels and the fact that water gets in, but not drain out. Mine are so bad they are barely recognizable as threads and a nut! It spent most of its life in the Ohio salt belt. Will be trying to replace this weekend. I had a 2003 with more body rust, but still had minor rusted axle nuts.

My 03 was always in Ohio, 170,000 miles just swapped out wheel bearings' a while back and no rust what so ever on the nuts for the CVs
The 04 same way bought it new, 233,000 miles on it now
Its just the KKs that have that issue, no matter what wheels

Once a year I remove the wheels in the spring, inspect it all and make repairs as necessary.
I also wonder what new road salts & brine are being applied or sprayed onto roadways.
Sodium & magnesium chlorides & gosh knows what else= eek !

In Ohio they have been using brine that comes up out of new oil/gas wells
Highly corrosive

tommudd said:

In Ohio they have been using brine that comes up out of new oil/gas wells
Highly corrosive

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Ugh. Toxic stuff.

You’re right about the KK wheels having a smaller center cap hole, and trapping the salt and water against the hub. I did my wheel bearings last year, and luckily I was able to reuse my CV’s since the threads were not totally gone. Had to use new axle nuts though.

Marlon_JB2 said:

WOW! I've never seen anything like this. I drove a KK for 7 years and know others with them in Michigan.

Nobody has this corrosion issue.

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That is not 100%. My 09KK has corrosion on the axle stub as bad if not worse than whats pictured here. My jeep kk spent the first 9 1/2 years in Michigan winters. I live in South Carolina now, I went to a scrap yard here to find a replacement K frame and every KK I looked at had almost 0 rust on the axle stub or the K frames I looked at. In my other thread about my k frame rot you can clearly see the rot out on a verticle section of it, I can only attribute this to inferior quality steel. I think the engineers clearly dropped the ball when spec'ing the materials, many of chryslers vehicles of this era suffer the same issues.

Just Chryslers ?
Its not just one make / brand , many of the models are the same
I was working on a 2012 GMC pickup the other day for a neighbor , 64,000 miles and had way more rust than I have seen on any of the Liberty's that I have been under ( KJ or KK ) on suspension/frame/body in the last 15 or more years . That's just one example
One local KK I do OLFs on , looks perfect underneath , couple lives on a dirt road, sits outside always hardly any rust
BUT the old guy does hose out underneath all the time, the key to keeping them going

It's Hard to hose off a vehicle in sub freezing temps.
The body of my KK is almost rust free, it's all the undercarriage that's rusting away.