Safety Issues

[JeepKK]

Hey Everyone,

I want to let everyone know of a design defect that has caused me a repair bill of 5400.00 and no one will pay.

I was driving down the road one day and at a stop light I went to leave the light and all of a sudden the side airbags deployed for at the moment no reason. When we got out of my jeep I had assumed someone had hit us just to find out the airbags just deployed. Well as we are looking for why the air bags deployed i see that my drive shaft is broken off.

When I went to the dealership and I waited 3 hours they come back and told me that warranty and insurance will not cover repairs. This is because apparently there is a heat shield above the drive shaft, well according to the dealer when I went off roading about 6 to 9 months ago roughly the heat shield was dragging on the Drive Shaft eating at the metal which is what made it snap. consequently when the drive shaft broke it apparently it hit the bottom of My jeep in turn set off both side curtain air bags.

I want to say that this is a major design flaw and the dealership did tell me that this could happen to any Jeep Liberty owner. However if this happens to you like me your stuck forking the bill and Chrysler will not help.

I feel this is wrong and I am a college student and my jeep is not able to be repaired, which makes everything difficult.

I am righting this to give everyone a heads up and ask for advice.

 

[tjkj2002]

Not a design flaw but a user error,sorry but very true.

 

[JeepKK]

This is a error in design, the concept that they put a heat shield that is more than likely to be weighted down and bent onto the drive shaft which in turn will eat at it. According to the dealership unless you jack the car up you will never know that the heat shield is dragging

 

[Marlon_JB2]

No, this is very much user error.

Why?

There is a section in the manual that says to inspect for damage after offroading. For my 2010, it starts on page 330. Also, this is common sense, offroading, do an inspection afterwards. Just because the exterior may look good, doesn't mean the undercarriage will..... which is where all the action and possible banging happens anyway.


If the heat shield is dragging, believe me, you will notice it just by looking under there.

 

[tjkj2002]

This is a error in design, the concept that they put a heat shield that is more than likely to be weighted down and bent onto the drive shaft which in turn will eat at it. According to the dealership unless you jack the car up you will never know that the heat shield is dragging

Crawl underneath,simple 60 second inspection would have prevented all of this,again your fault and not a design issue.Being lifted you should have no issue getting under your KK for a visual inspection,like stated a must after each wheeling trip.

 

[mikedel]

What is the purpose of shield? Mine came off last night and I'm wondering if I should just leave the way it is or have the dealer replace it with a new one.

 

[nzoliver]

Hi,

Also,
If there was a heatshield dragging on your diveshaft you should have heard it!!! :shrug:It would make a very annoying noise. :wtf2:
Sounds like 'operator error' to me. Sorry. :whip:

I'm sure your Jeep is able to be repaired...but i'm picking it will take a few paper rounds to do it. $5400 does sound high though.

 

[ridenby]

Not a design flaw but a user error,sorry but very true.

Absolutely

 

[MtnLuvr]

Uh, it probably wasn't a heat shield but rather the KK's gas tank skid. It can get bent upward in the middle which causes the short lip edges to flare outward. Then either due to lift height or when The rear axle is flexing down then the driveshaft will contact the flared outward lip of the skid. Whenever it made contact, it should've made a metal to metal screech sound. I'm on my 2nd gas tank skid and have taken hammer to this lip more than once. At some point I'm going to experiment with reinforcing this funky OEM skid/


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[MtnLuvr]

If you went with an aftermarket rear drive shaft (e.g. Tom Woods like Diggerfreak), which is smaller in diameter, you'd have more clearance to flared edge of gas tank skid.


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[ChiefRudy]

You should have never mentioned you went off roading. Even if there is scratches the skids. They can easily come from being on the road.

Even if it was something you did. I believe they should cover it under warranty. I work on warrantied equipment all the time and 1/2 of the repairs are due to user error and if I told our clients they have to pay the parts and labor on there $30,000 item while it under warranty b/c of something they did. I wouldn't have a job and my company would be out of business b/c no would buy from us.

That's what warranties are for. Not just to keep the item in working order but to keep customers happy and have them return to buy more. The dealership isn't thinking. They rather have you pay for the repair and risk you never buying from there again VS putting the repair under warranty and keeping a happy and future customer.


So I'd still try to fight them. Threaten that you'll go to the local news paper or news station about there sh*tty service and refusal of warranty. I went to a news station once about Kmart. One of there carts rolled into and damaged my 1st car b/c there parking lot was filled with carts and all the returned stations filled. So basically they didn't maintain there parking lot properly. Kmart paid for the repair b/c they didn't want a bad report out there about them.

 

[tjkj2002]

You should have never mentioned you went off roading. Even if there is scratches the skids. They can easily come from being on the road.

Even if it was something you did. I believe they should cover it under warranty. I work on warrantied equipment all the time and 1/2 of the repairs are due to user error and if I told our clients they have to pay the parts and labor on there $30,000 item while it under warranty b/c of something they did. I wouldn't have a job and my company would be out of business b/c no would buy from us.

That's what warranties are for. Not just to keep the item in working order but to keep customers happy and have them return to buy more. The dealership isn't thinking. They rather have you pay for the repair and risk you never buying from there again VS putting the repair under warranty and keeping a happy and future customer.


So I'd still try to fight them. Threaten that you'll go to the local news paper or news station about there sh*tty service and refusal of warranty. I went to a news station once about Kmart. One of there carts rolled into and damaged my 1st car b/c there parking lot was filled with carts and all the returned stations filled. So basically they didn't maintain there parking lot properly. Kmart paid for the repair b/c they didn't want a bad report out there about them.

Yeah that is just wrong and in fact illegal,it's called fraud.No where in the warranty does it state repairs will/should be covered for being stupid.Owner caused damage that is covered under warranty is why prices are so damn high at dealerships.

Man up and pay to fix it as you broke it,sure by accident and that is what insurance is for not warranty.

 

[Miff_UK]

Ouch, tough luck fella, can't believe a metal cover would wear through a drive shaft !

check the breaker yards for the parts, you may be able to get back on the road a bit cheaper

Miff