Took my Jeep to dealer today for loose steering

[Lumberjack500]

Pretty funny, dealer has Jeep all day. Calls at 400, says he really can’t replicate loose steering. He say it is probably my aftermarket 33 tires causing the loose steering An awkward silence, I tell him they are stock, he says Really? I immediately call Jeep cares. So sad.

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[smess]

you all tell me when you are ready for that class action lawsuit, or are you just going to let them smack us around?

it does not cost us anything

#jeepcares
@JeepCares

 

[The Acme Company]

How many miles do you have on your vehicle?

 

[Lumberjack500]

How many miles do you have on your vehicle?

1100. I do have an update, after pleading with the dealer, they checked the torque on the suspension and found the lower control arms both front and rear to the axle at less than 150 ft lbs, the front should be 190 and the rear 185, with the upper rear at 200.

 

[smess]

Tell them to torque to proper spec and align and make sure thrust angle is as close to 0 as possible, at least within spec

If front is wandering also you can have a real mess on your hand.

A wandering rear axle will do it if the axle is actually moving but the thrust angle will tell that.

Did it fix the problem?

 

[biggdave92]

you all tell me when you are ready for that class action lawsuit, or are you just going to let them smack us around?

it does not cost us anything

#jeepcares
@JeepCares

Yes, it does cost "us". FCA expenses go up, vehicle prices go up.

 

[smess]

If the steering is as bad as some people say, their wives and daughters are scared to drive it, eventually someone will get in to an accident and a lawsuit will happen, the attorney will see it is a common complaint and make it a class action lawsuit.

If someone gets badly hurt or worse don't worry about the cost of the vehicle going up because why would you ever buy another one of their products.

Jeep should be taking every complaint of loose steering and put the person in a loner car until they fix each vehicles problem. It is a safety item just like brakes or airbags.

I don't care mine drives fine but people either need to put their big boy pants on and get the problem fixed or do something about it.

I have a funny feeling that some people are not realizing that they are driving a milk truck in some cases with skinny tires and the slightest movement of the electronic steering is going to cause the vehicle to move left or right and after they read all these forum posts it will be exaggerated to a horrible wander.

If you think your steering is loose, first thing you should do is check tire pressure, have vehicle aligned and make sure that wheel is dead center or it will never drive right, and now we found that you should probably have the control arm bolts checked for proper tightness.

The alignment will show the thrust angle out of whack if the control arms are moving.

Its a simple vehicle

 

[brancky3]

I don't care mine drives fine but people either need to put their big boy pants on and get the problem fixed or do something about it.

Almost every review I've watched on the Rubicon trim mentioned the steering felt numb / very loose, but the reasoning is that you don't want the wheel to rip out of your hands with the slightest movement of the tires while wheeling. This doesn't even sound like a problem, it sounds like it was engineered this way. I would think people would definitely notice this on a test drive.

I haven't driven a Rubicon personally, so take that for what it's worth. My Sport S feels really good!

 

[Archie Bunker]

I just drove 10 hours in my Rubicon model towing a trailer at 70ish mph whole way. MINE, felt great. no wobble or swaying(other than normal road un evenness). It does have an "odd" feel to it, but I chaulk that up to going from a JK to the new JT system of steering.

 

[Hootbro]

Having owned both a JL and now at JT, the steering is definitely different in how it functions on these vehicles. Most other vehicles, the steering does naturally self center when driving down the road for the most part with inputs only needed for actual steering function. With the JL and JT, there is more driver needed course correction but nothing to the extent I would call "loose".

 

[smess]

Having owned both a JL and now at JT, the steering is definitely different in how it functions on these vehicles. Most other vehicles, the steering does naturally self center when driving down the road for the most part with inputs only needed for actual steering function. With the JL and JT, there is more driver needed course correction but nothing to the extent I would call "loose".

You just described what too little caster feels like, there was a TSB or some info from FCA I found and the new parameters on the JT about the alignment numbers and JL's and JT's like more caster than JK's did. (4-7) When I picked up my JT we aligned it (yes it was out of spec from factory) and we ended up at 3.8 and 3.9 and the FCA supplement said it wanted to see numbers no less than 4. Contradictory to the 4.45 plus or minus 1 that was stated on the supplement (so 3.45 should be withing spec) just above that note about nothing less than 4 so it is a bit confusing. Yes of course the electronic steering will feel a bit different on top of what I just said.

Seems like myself and the others that have already changed to wider tires are liking the way it drives, I am sure that is directly due to the electronic steering.

 

[Blu542]

Is there a document number to that supplemental alignment page?

 

[smess]

No sorry it says its from tech connect

library.fcaservices.com and then a long string url that does not even include all the characters and numbers

only the dealer can login to it but they should know what it is.

 

[B345T]

LOL I think I saw that tech working at McDonald's last week.(no offense towards anyone working at McD's)
How is a tech working at a Jeep service dept not going to know the Gladiator Rubicon comes with 33" tires?

Because they work on many models that come with differing parts....

Need to see the holes in your hands to make sure that you indeed are perfect and have not made any mistakes...

Just pointing out in a snarky way that your snarkiness states

 

[jpnieves]

I have taken my Overland back to the dealership 6 times over the course of 2 months. My Gladiator has 847 miles on it now I am still concerned for my safety when driving the truck. It sure as heck doesn't drive like my JL Wrangler.It is as if no one cares about customer satisfaction anymore.

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