Chrysler recalls 200,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs for rust problem

[David Fermani]

From today`s Detroit News: Chrysler recalls 266K Jeep Liberty SUVs for rust problem | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com





Chrysler Group LLC is recalling more than 209,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs over rust concerns.

The Auburn Hills automaker said it is recalling 209,724 2004-05 Liberty models in states that use road salt because rear lower control arms can crack due to excessive corrosion.

That could raise the risk of a crash, Chrysler said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2002-05 Jeep Liberty over corrosion issues in April and upgraded its probe to an engineering analysis in September, focusing its investigation on 2004-05 models in states that use road salt during the winter.

NHTSA says 21 states — including Michigan — are part of the "salt belt."

Chrysler said it is aware of 83 reports of fractures from rust in the vehicles but said it is not aware of any crashes or injuries.

Chrysler will notify owners by next month and replace the rear lower control arms. The models being recalled were built between July 2004 and July 2005. Chrysler made a significant design change to the rear control arm in 2004.

[Ron Ketcham]

It appears, that like Hyundai, Kia and a few others that have had a similiar issue, the VG anti-rust cavatity wax and undercoating will be part of the repair process.

VG makes these two products for Chrysler and are part of the MoPar parts program.

As other manufacturers learned, when replacing the corroded parts, they apply the VG/MotorCraft/MoPar products to the new parts so this concern never comes up again.

Grumpy

[David Fermani]

What are the chances the te VG product will actually wynd up in the hands of a body shop tech doing the repair? Even though it`s got a Mopar P/N through the Parts Dept, the Body Shop is likely to still use a lesser product sold to them by their painter`s supply vendor.



Do the TSB`s specifically mention using the VG product? I remember several did with rail dust, etc.

[Ron Ketcham]

Haven`t seen the repair document as of yet.

Most likely it will spec the MoPar part numbers since this is not an accident repair, but a federal recall situation.

No subsitutes on those, after all the part numbers come through the responsible dealers parts dept, no matter who does the repair and like I said, Federal-so it has to be done with what is speced.

When we did both of two recalls for Hyundai, they sent, at their expense to all North American dealers product and application guns.

The field engineers were instructed to inspect a percentage of vehicles and make sure the products (under VG name) were actually applied following inspection or replacement of the control arms.

Same with the Kia recall three years ago.

This is NOT a body shop issue, the parts will be replaced by Chrysler dealer mechanics.

Grumpy