Cowcatcher wrote:
swoughen wrote:
Are these TSBs supposed to (eventually?) show up in the Jeep Recall section at Jeep.com, where you put in your VIN... ?
TSB's are not recall's and they will never show up on Jeep.com. TSB's are Technical Service Bulletin's that cover lower level problem's.
In a perfect world a TSB would be there for a problem that randomly comes up on a small percentage of vehicals and the RECALL would be reserved for something more serious and one that affected many vehicals. In reality it seems that US manufactures use them (TSB's) to limit what they fix to those who complain the loudest or experience the problem all the while hoping that the majority of vehicals will survive without the falure through the warranty period. Others have stated that some of the manufactures from Japan use the TSB's internally to fix problems whenever a car shows up at the door without ever telling the consumer so they catch the problems before the failure and are able to maintain the image of higher quality product.
That's a very accurate description. In addition, on some cars where the TSB may apply, the car may never experience the symptoms or problems that the TSB covers. TSB's are like a database of common problems for the techs to search when diagnosing the customers car trouble. If you see how the TSB's are worded, there are lots of "customer MAY experience" "IF this occurs" ... very conditional.
Recalls are known defects that definetly will or currently do effect a known number of cars.
And yes, the Japanese companies generally will automatically perform TSB's where the "common problems" occur on a large number of their cars ... I have owned several Japanense, German and American cars and even though TSB's were out there on the Gernan and Japanese cars, I never requested they be done - they are/were always automatically done when I went in for oil changes or other maintenance.
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'05 CRD, Midnight Blue. Every option. Nice ride, idles like a garbage truck