Gladiator and Defrost

[Alan_Hepburn]

It's not a tiny place and parts do get snow and frost and cold. Your forum name sort of gives away the fact that you aren't in the NW parts.

I agree! We were traveling across Texas in February several years ago in our motorhome - stopped for the night at Ft Stockton after spending all day driving through rain. The next morning we went to leave, only to discover that our leveling jacks had frozen to the ground! Spent too much time crawling under the motorhome with a heat gun getting the jacks to raise up!

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[ShadowsPapa]

We had a big snow storm come through today - at least 1+ inches per hour, some areas got 6", some got over 8" in that roughly 6 hour time period. Along with it some areas got ICE, up to 1/4" of ice in some areas. The temperatures were all over, mid-20s rising to about 29-30 in some areas as the storm came through. That means there was fluffy snow, wet snow, ice, whatever.
Watching the news they shows their "storm trackers" driving the central parts of the state doing their reports. They have cameras mounted in the vehicles (this station typically uses SUVs supplied by Karl Chevrolet). The cameras aim forward, looking through the windshield as the driver would but more from the middle area.
I was thinking of this very thread as I watched the windshields not being fully cleared as the wipers were iced up, ice and snow on parts of the glass, the wipers leaving areas unwiped because of the frozen wiper blades. Looked to me like they had freezing wiper issues and defrosters not doing a perfect job. I'd bet the drivers got out now and then to smack those wiper blades and knock all the ice and snow off of them so they could flex.
In one of the broadcasts, if the wiper had been on the driver side, the driver would definitely not have been seeing out very well.

 

[Gladman]

Given that some people have the issue with the defroster, and some people do not, it would seem to me that there is a possibility of another problem, and outcome.
Is it possible there is a vent control behind the dash that is malfunctioning in some vehicles, an one side or passage vent flap is not opening, like maybe a series of them?
I’m unfamiliar with the details of the layout of this system so this is just a guess based on other vehicles experience.

 

[SquirrelNuts]

Just drove around a bunch today in MN. No defrost issues that I noticed. I'm in a 2021, built in Nov 2020 - if that matters?

 

[Kevin_D]

Well...
My first car was built in the '60's. I've driven cars from the 1940's onward. Some of them didn't even have heaters, let alone defrosters. The windshield on my E-class Mercedes-Benz would ice over under the right conditions. Any windshield will ice over under severe conditions.
So you're driving your Gladiator in a snowstorm, and the windshield isn't staying clear, thus reducing your visibility. If you're pulled over and cited for an iced-over windshield, who's gonna get the ticket? Jeep? It's their fault? Makes no difference who's fault it is, as you're the one driving with poor visibility. You're ultimately responsible for being able to see the road, not Jeep.
Are the poor defrosters a Safety Issue? Not really, as Jeep isn't liable for seeing the road: that's on you as the driver. What it is is a tremendous inconvenience for some of you. Me, I'll just stop and clean it off. It won't be the first time.

The above is the expressed opinion of the author.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Well...
My first car was built in the '60's. I've driven cars from the 1940's onward. Some of them didn't even have heaters, let alone defrosters. The windshield on my E-class Mercedes-Benz would ice over under the right conditions. Any windshield will ice over under severe conditions.
So you're driving your Gladiator in a snowstorm, and the windshield isn't staying clear, thus reducing your visibility. If you're pulled over and cited for an iced-over windshield, who's gonna get the ticket? Jeep? It's their fault? Makes no difference who's fault it is, as you're the one driving with poor visibility. You're ultimately responsible for being able to see the road, not Jeep.
Are the poor defrosters a Safety Issue? Not really, as Jeep isn't liable for seeing the road: that's on you as the driver. What it is is a tremendous inconvenience for some of you. Me, I'll just stop and clean it off. It won't be the first time.

The above is the expressed opinion of the author.

Did I mention that I used to keep a small scraper and cloth in the car or truck to scrape FROST, not FOG, but FROST, off the INSIDE of the glass?
I used to keep a cotton cloth handy to wipe fog off the inside now and then, as well as keeping scrapers and a long handled brush handy for times I need to pull over and clear things.
But it was still interesting to see the TV weather crew "storm chasers" out in their fancy Chevy SUVs with wipers iced up and not able to follow the contour of the glass. The Jeep has flat glass and wipers so simple, they don't have to flex and bend like most other vehicles.

Say, how does that gasoline heater in your VW beetle work?

 

[Kevin_D]

Say, how does that gasoline heater in your VW beetle work?

THAT I was afraid to try!



Kevin

 

[Jaxmax]

I just bought the plugs, have two jeeps and we have not had much bad weather last two years but the defroster does favor the center, I went to the link posted above, checked out item and searched just for the size, found same thing just without Jeep Wrangler in the post, for a lot less. Anything for Jeeps is overpriced! I would rather spend twenty bucks for plenty of plugs then stand out in the snow along side the road scrapping ice....Jack

 

[Sazabi19]

So I think the issue here is simply that the vents on the driver passenger side aren't blowing out properly. I felt it a week or so ago in my truck when I had frost on it. It wasn't much but I found it odd that I didn't feel air coming out in front of me, only from the center. Since it wasn't much I was able to get it all to go away, but it was an oddity I forgot about until I just read this thread. I had it cranked up all the way on high heat and blowing as hard as it could, took longer than I hoped for it to clear.

If the air doesn't blow out from the driver/pass side on defrost then when does it blow out? What would it be for? That to me is the best time but doesn't seem to work.. Hopefully it's just an oddity and slight annoyance rather than anything else. If the blowers are all controlled electronically I would think it could be remapped quickly and fixed with either an OTA update or one we could have applied maybe during routine maintenance.

 

[Delhux]

Well...
My first car was built in the '60's. I've driven cars from the 1940's onward. Some of them didn't even have heaters, let alone defrosters. The windshield on my E-class Mercedes-Benz would ice over under the right conditions. Any windshield will ice over under severe conditions.
So you're driving your Gladiator in a snowstorm, and the windshield isn't staying clear, thus reducing your visibility. If you're pulled over and cited for an iced-over windshield, who's gonna get the ticket? Jeep? It's their fault? Makes no difference who's fault it is, as you're the one driving with poor visibility. You're ultimately responsible for being able to see the road, not Jeep.
Are the poor defrosters a Safety Issue? Not really, as Jeep isn't liable for seeing the road: that's on you as the driver. What it is is a tremendous inconvenience for some of you. Me, I'll just stop and clean it off. It won't be the first time.

The above is the expressed opinion of the author.

Someone sells you a refrigerator that doesn’t refrigerate—you blame yourself for wanting cold food?

Someone sells you a dishwasher that doesn’t wash dishes—you blame yourself for getting them dirty?

Your generator is supposed to have a feature to turn on when the power goes out, but doesn’t—it’s your fault for living somewhere the power fails?

And when your new truck has a defroster that doesn’t defrost, you just thank-your-lucky-stars-the-manufacturer-isn’t-legally-liable-for-hypothetical-accidents rather than hold them to account for making sure their defroster can defrost?

No one suggested they are absolved of personal responsibility for their own safety, but if Jeep knowingly sells me a malfunctioning component—and that component’s failure could even possibly impede the safe operation of the vehicle due to a failure of design or manufacturing, I’m not going to just sit back and defend their failure just because at one time in my personal history such witchcraft as “defrosting” didn’t exist.

I paid for a feature, I expect it to work as expected. A defroster should defrost—no one is expecting it to melt through the Arctic permafrost—just clear up a cold windshield in an amount of time which is consistent with other modern vehicles.

Brand loyalty is fine (even a bit of fun), but I draw the line at mindlessly defending defects just because the technology “didn’t exist 80-years ago”. What kind of stance is that?

 

[FREEZE451]

Well, I did go with heated wiper blades and they %1,000 heat up like a torch.

Plugged them into aux 4 with memory recall so they come on when I autostart it.

They do make a huge difference and I would recommend them to people. Not having ice on the blades has helped.

However..

They do not remove a lot of ice on the windshield, as some of you probably say, "duh" - you'd probably have to have them run constant to keep it warm over a certain area.

Passenger side is still pain, but they do help.

I also have ordered the blocks, and will test that too.

 

[Gatorized]

Someone sells you a refrigerator that doesn’t refrigerate—you blame yourself for wanting cold food?

Someone sells you a dishwasher that doesn’t wash dishes—you blame yourself for getting them dirty?

Your generator is supposed to have a feature to turn on when the power goes out, but doesn’t—it’s your fault for living somewhere the power fails?

your new truck has a defroster that doesn’t defrost, hold them to account for making sure their defroster can defrost...

I paid for a feature, I expect it to work as expected. A defroster should defrost—no one is expecting it to melt through the Arctic permafrost—just clear up a cold windshield in an amount of time which is consistent with other modern vehicles.

Sounds like apples and oranges... your fridge keeps your food cold but the freezer iced up and needs to be defrosted periodically - you trade it in for a self defrost model.
Your dishwasher doesn’t get the baked on food off... you let the maid hand wash those pots and pans.
Your generator does not auto start so you replace the battery.
Your defroster DOES defrost, just not as effectively as you would like - so you wait for the new model with the improved defroster or divert $20 of your multi thousand dollar upgrade budget to buy the plugs that get you thru til the new model hits the showrooms.
I have yet to see any product that is perfect in every way. But it sure is nice to know that there are others that commiserate with you on the short comings and offer valid alternatives to overcome them, and prove that highly compensated engineers got nothing on the Jeep community when it comes to problem solving! I expect we will see a plastic bag of these plugs in the glove box with the tool kit and forward warning camera cover with the 2023 JLs and JTs!

 

[Kevin_D]

Someone sells you a refrigerator that doesn’t refrigerate—you blame yourself for wanting cold food?

Someone sells you a dishwasher that doesn’t wash dishes—you blame yourself for getting them dirty?

Your generator is supposed to have a feature to turn on when the power goes out, but doesn’t—it’s your fault for living somewhere the power fails?

And when your new truck has a defroster that doesn’t defrost, you just thank-your-lucky-stars-the-manufacturer-isn’t-legally-liable-for-hypothetical-accidents rather than hold them to account for making sure their defroster can defrost?

No one suggested they are absolved of personal responsibility for their own safety, but if Jeep knowingly sells me a malfunctioning component—and that component’s failure could even possibly impede the safe operation of the vehicle due to a failure of design or manufacturing, I’m not going to just sit back and defend their failure just because at one time in my personal history such witchcraft as “defrosting” didn’t exist.

I paid for a feature, I expect it to work as expected. A defroster should defrost—no one is expecting it to melt through the Arctic permafrost—just clear up a cold windshield in an amount of time which is consistent with other modern vehicles.

Brand loyalty is fine (even a bit of fun), but I draw the line at mindlessly defending defects just because the technology “didn’t exist 80-years ago”. What kind of stance is that?

Your logic is flawed on your first three examples. With those items you're saying that they don't perform their primary function, whereas the Jeep does a satisfactory job of performing it's primary function.
The defrosters on the Gladiator are more akin to the light inside the refrigerator, or the rinse-aid dispenser in the dishwasher, or the fuel gauge on the generator: they're convenience items intended to make the device more, well, convenient.
Jeep vehicles aren't marketed as having, "The Best Defrosters in the Known Universe!" They never have been. Jeep defrosters, AFAIK, have, at best, been merely adequate, as with many other vehicles made since the 1940's. If they fail to function at all, then it's a warranty issue. If they don't perform up to the owner's expectations, then that's another issue entirely. Saying the defrosters are a safety issue, is, in my opinion, a specious claim.
If reporting the Gladiator defrosters to the NHTSA produces results, all the better. But don't hold your breath.
In the meantime, get used to getting out occasionally and scraping off the windshield.

Kevin

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Your logic is flawed on your first three examples. With those items you're saying that they don't perform their primary function, whereas the Jeep does a satisfactory job of performing it's primary function.
The defrosters on the Gladiator are more akin to the light inside the refrigerator, or the rinse-aid dispenser in the dishwasher, or the fuel gauge on the generator: they're convenience items intended to make the device more, well, convenient.
Jeep vehicles aren't marketed as having, "The Best Defrosters in the Known Universe!" They never have been. Jeep defrosters, AFAIK, have, at best, been merely adequate, as with many other vehicles made since the 1940's. If they fail to function at all, then it's a warranty issue. If they don't perform up to the owner's expectations, then that's another issue entirely. Saying the defrosters are a safety issue, is, in my opinion, a specious claim.
If reporting the Gladiator defrosters to the NHTSA produces results, all the better. But don't hold your breath.
In the meantime, get used to getting out occasionally and scraping off the windshield.

Kevin

One also should really consider that apparently the majority don't have a problem.
Yes it could be that the majority here do have - but then people get into forums to find solutions or complain. It's been discussed to death that you don't look to forums to find problems that most people have, you look to find examples of possible problems the most angry or most vocal have.
Mine is not the worst by far. Could it be better? Yeah, likely, but it's not the worst and not worth starting a law suit over IMO - not MY JT anyway.
Like so many other issues people are finding - it's not the majority or there would be a TSB about it. The fact there isn't tells me that the majority of owners are not complaining OR don't have a horrible problem.

You'll never convince anyone here reading this of any of that because they are ANGRY, mad, convinced it's the worst of any vehicle ever and that everyone else has the problem, too, the others just aren't admitting they have the same problem. (the latter is laughable, honestly)
Some are convinced the world is against them and I'm an ass for not joining the griping and am lying and that mine HAS to be horrible (because theirs is).
One guy even called me a liar right here in the forum when I said no, my wipers did NOT freeze and no, the ice I showed wasn't deadly and didn't block my view - and that I've owned and driven worse. Really? Why would I lie?
I'd much rather be in the "me too" group as it's more fun and more POPULAR, but why should I lie and say mine is horrible when it's not perfect, but not the worst and until mine proves otherwise, at this point I find it something I could mention, but not fuss about. Mine is honestly not as bad as others. That does NOT mean there aren't problems with other Jeeps or that other members aren't having issues, just that I am not.
On another topic here I was smacked down for describing how my HVAC worked, how it was normal and no I don't have problems. It was claimed that by describing the operation of mine that no one else had trouble either. Anyone that knows me and how I jumped in to help OTHERS with steering issues while my own wasn't really all that bad knows it's the opposite. If I see an issue that can be quantified and described to the point of reproducing it, I'm all over it.
I used to ALPHA test software for Symantec and I LOVE proving there are problems. (they chose me for the task because I liked to break things and prove how they could be broken, but further - I could gather enough information that they could indeed replicate issues no one else found)

So while I say mine isn't worth shouting about - that is in no way saying others can't be having an issue because I am not.
I wish I could see the problem in a big way because I love tracking down problems, breaking things and proving them bad, the finding fixes.

 

[Rocksalt]

the design ofctgw ductwork has been an issue for both JT and JL the afternarket plugs help ... but it is an issue FCA should address

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