Rear locker engaging automatically in 2H

[NaughtyGeek]

Happened to me on the fourth. 70 mph on the interstate towing a camper and the rear locker light started flashing. Since my mirrors don't work, the passenger door won't turn on the interior lights and I need an oil change, guess I'll be scheduling a dealer appointment. Starting to think the shiny new electronics weren't the best idea.

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[Jdeuce2s]

this has been happening to me the last few day, happy that I found this forum. I’ll be taking mine in the 9the July,

just got word back on the 10th that they would be switching out the diff but that it’s on backorder and as of right now 1 Aug as a delivery date.(hope that’s and over estimation) but he said 10 other dealers over the same order in.

 

[wbreza]

Same thing happened to me today while towing trailer downhill at about 60-65mph.

Rear locker showed as engaged and automatically disengaged itself a few minutes later.

 

[12BNNT]

This is a prime example of the benefits of a forum.

members calmly stating a problem they had and how it was fixed (did so earlier in the thread myself) starts to show a pattern. It seems everyone on this thread who has had the locker issue was towing a trailer or camper. Seems to me like Dana got a bad batch of locking assemblies that can’t hold up to the pressures of towing so they are replacing the entire axle and fixing it themselves so FCA isn’t involved in the internals of the axles. (Known issue with a standing order to swap the axle)

As an update to any new sufferers seeing this thread. My axle took 6 days (dropped off Friday ready on Thursday) and have almost 4K on the new one. Pulled my camper last week. No issues

 

[GeneLV]

Happened to me pulling a 3200 pound Winnebago Hike down the freeway at 65/70 mph Saturday. Locker would not disengage. Ended up calling my service advisor in Vegas because I couldn't get in touch with any in Barstow/Victorville. He recommended that I have it towed to the nearest Jeep dealer for repair, which I did. Hopefully they are able to get to it today and have a new axle on order soon.

I have seen a lot of FB posts and forum posts about this problem. Seems like Jeep would do a recall on the Rubi's to keep customers from being stranded.

 

[eaglerugby04]

Crap I just started towing a camper with mine this last weekend. When did most of you buy your JTs, wonder if there is a coloration in the dates or anything.

 

[wbreza]

Crap I just started towing a camper with mine this last weekend. When did most of you buy your JTs, wonder if there is a coloration in the dates or anything.

Purchased mine in March 2020. Issue happened within first 2500 miles.

 

[j.o.y.ride]

https://www.zautomotive.com/product/z-locker-oem/

The locker sensor in Wrangler JL and Gladiator Rubicons have started to become problematic. When they fail, it usually starts out as a blinking locker lamp on the dash, which then ends up in a “service axle locker” message. Once the locker system is in this fault state, the lockers will no longer engage.

The repair would normally be to replace the sensor, but the part is not available separately. The next best thing would be to replace the locker assembly, but that’s not available either. The current solution is to replace the entire axle assembly, but due to the commonality of this problem they are on national back-order.

 

[NaughtyGeek]

Rear end ordered for mine this morning. ETA 9/25/20 Uhg

 

[GeneLV]

Purchased mine 7 May 2020. Currently has ~4900 miles.

Rear end ordered for mine this morning. ETA 9/25/20 Uhg

WTF. As far as I know mine hasn't even been ordered yet. Shop just started looking at it yesterday.

 

[Renegade]

I'm wondering if it's an electrical issue brought on by the use of the trailer wiring plug. I can't see why the locker would be affected by towing. When not electrified, it's just an open differential.

 

[GeneLV]

So I just spoke with the service advisor (Robert) in Barstow California to get an update. He said that they are still trying to get it to not work correctly all of the time before Chrysler will repair. Right now it works sometimes. Really? The locker should work correctly all of the time and I have this guy telling me that sometimes is good enough for the folks at Jeep. I asked if the locker was engaged when they first looked at it when it was in 2H and he said yes. I said that is not supposed to happen and should be good enough. He said that might be good enough for the customer but not for Chrysler. I really wish I would have messed up closer to home in Vegas so I could have taken it to my local dealer.

 

[12BNNT]

So I just spoke with the service advisor (Robert) in Barstow California to get an update. He said that they are still trying to get it to not work correctly all of the time before Chrysler will repair. Right now it works sometimes. Really? The locker should work correctly all of the time and I have this guy telling me that sometimes is good enough for the folks at Jeep. I asked if the locker was engaged when they first looked at it when it was in 2H and he said yes. I said that is not supposed to happen and should be good enough. He said that might be good enough for the customer but not for Chrysler. I really wish I would have messed up closer to home in Vegas so I could have taken it to my local dealer.

He’s BSing you. When mine went screwy they told me that FCAs protocol was to get a replacement axle from Dana, replace and send old one back to Dana. They didn’t even want me to drive on it for fear of it locking up. Him telling you that FCA won’t do anything unless it’s completely broke is not accurate. Sounds like he’s making excuses to get you out of there knowing you wouldn’t be a regular customer they can make any money on. Just my opinion of course but sounds fishy when everyone else is getting a totally different response (axle swap) from their dealerships.

 

[GeneLV]

When the contract tow truck driver showed up to get the Gladiator he asked if the dealership knew it was coming in because they closed early on Saturday. I said yeah, I spoke with Robert. He said good luck with that which didn't give me a good feeling about my service advisor.

 

[GeneLV]

So after getting an obvious blowing smoke up my ass because I don't want to actually talk to the tech answer from my service advisor I reached out to the service manager who pretty much confirmed that the service advisor did not talk with the tech. According to the service manager my truck is showing 5 codes all electrical related. FCA wants the electrical issues resolved prior to ordering a new axle because a couple of the codes are directly related to the axle electrical. I requested a new service advisor.

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