Feds Upgrade Investigation of Jeep Liberty for Upper Ball-Joint Failures
Date posted: 04-22-2008
WASHINGTON — After receiving at least 22 consumer complaints about the 2002-'03 Jeep Liberty, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has upgraded its probe of the SUV to an "engineering analysis."
The investigation involves more than 300,000 four-wheel-drive SUVs. "The separation of an upper ball joint on either of the front wheels can result in the affected front wheel collapsing, possibly resulting in vehicle disablement and causing a loss of vehicle control," according to the NHTSA's defects investigations summary on its Web site.
Such a probe is often the step that precedes a vehicle recall.
The summary ticks off a number of dramatic incidents with the aforementioned Liberty models. "There is one complaint of a failure at 75 mph, one failure at 60 mph, three failures at 40 mph, two failures at 25 mph," said the NHTSA. "Seven failures occurring while the driver was pulling into the flow of traffic and two failures that occurred when the driver was attempting to make a left turn across the flow of oncoming traffic.
"One complainant alleged almost being hit by an oncoming truck as a result of the vehicle suddenly being disabled in the flow of cross traffic."
Chrysler is said to be "continuing to investigate the cause of upper ball-joint separations in the subject vehicles."
The Jeep Liberty has been recalled two other times from the same model years to fix a front suspension lower ball joint that had a tendency to loosen.
What this means to you: If you own one of the aforementioned Jeep Liberty models, it probably wouldn't hurt to have your dealer take a look at it. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=125875
I love that quote "had a tendency to loosen" - How about "spontaneously destruct!"
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My pics!!'03 Rennie w/all Tupperware
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Garmin GPS V & Laptop w/Nav software
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