[NeonGreenLemon]

2016 Jeep Wrangler owners, please be informed of a potential liability and unnecessary risk to drivers, passengers and others on the road. I purchased a brand new 2016 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon 4-DR with a lit traction light. I was assured and promised by numerous dealership personnel that is was just a glitch from not being driven, that the vehicle was perfectly safe to drive and that nothing was wrong with it; the “vehicle is perfect”. I was promised that the vehicle would be factory reset the very next morning. I would also like to state that my sales associate and I were instructed “local test drive only”. Twenty minutes after purchase on the highway the back tires lost traction with the road, the vehicle started veering to the right trying to take me into the lane to my right, the steering wheel started shaking violently followed by the whole vehicle starting to shake. And I couldn’t slow down. If the road conditions had been anything but dry and smooth, I wouldn’t have gained back control of the vehicle. I’m extremely blessed that there were hardly any other vehicles on the road.

The next morning, I called the Lindsay Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership where I purchased the vehicle the night before. Lindsay refused to see me or honor their promise of factory resetting the vehicle or even to look at the vehicle to find out what was wrong with it. They told me any Jeep certified dealership could look at the Jeep and factory reset it. At Jeep Wave’s behest, Criswell of Gaithersburg, Maryland, agreed to take the vehicle and fix it. Unbeknownst to me, the service advisor who I spoke with diminished and summarized the dangerous driving malfunctions as “vibration when braking”. Two days later when picking up the ‘fixed vehicle’, I questioned why none of the problems were written on the work order. Criswell said everything doesn’t need to be written down and they checked everything. I was informed that Lindsay called dealerships looking for the vehicle. I was told that Lindsay instructed Criswell to just factory reset it and to please explain to me “that’s how Jeeps are supposed to drive”. Additionally, Criswell did not replicate the conditions in which the vehicle dangerously malfunctions due to Jeep Protocol.

Four miles out from Criswell on the highway merging in front of a string of traffic that had not let me over, the vehicle malfunctions again. The back wheels lost traction with the road, the vehicle veered to the right trying to take me into the right lane beside me, the steering wheel started to violently shake, followed by the whole vehicle starting to shake. And the traction light was back on. I couldn’t pull over onto the shoulder due to an accident already being there. I had to struggle to regain control on a winding exit ramp. Once again I was blessed that I didn’t hit anyone or cause an accident.

I returned the vehicle via tow to the Lindsay dealership with both sets of keys and requested a refund plus costs. Which they ignored. Now, they have the audacity to claim the vehicle is fixed. Lindsay says a faulty clockspring caused the vehicle’s erratic driving performance. A clockspring has to do with maintaining a continuous electrical circuit between the instrument panel harness and the driver-side airbag module, the horn switch and the cruise control switches. The problems of a faulty clockspring don’t match up with the problems of this jeep.

The “erratic driving performance” of the vehicle is life threatening not just to the driver and his or her passengers but to others on the road. When speaking with Chrysler, they were as indifferent as Lindsay.

There is someone who experienced similar issues when it just started to drizzle on a highway and ended up hydroplaning head-on into a semi and then rollover. The driver’s prognosis is long-term disability.

If you experienced problems with your jeep’s traction or drivability, please file a complaint on the NHTSA website so this can be addressed and investigated as quickly as possible and no one else is injured or hurt. This is a link to file a complaint with NHTSA, you may need to copy and paste. https: //www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

 

[222Doc]

I lost faith in Chrysler long ago and you can put the rest of them in there too. You are correct as to the function of the CS. But it does have another you did not list. It tells the TC wheel position. So it could have been the TC to steering wheel sensor. What you have not said did the replaced CS fix the TC issue? There are others here that have described similar but not as harsh a reaction, very slight TC issues. Sounds like yours is think your wheel is WAY off and thinks you are in a spin. though what is more troubling is there is other sensors that measure other things involved here too.

I have had two CS fail completely since 2012 and right now its DOA. No horn, nothing on the steering wheel works once again. Though i have NO TC issues, ever from it failing, never have. I had a air bag go off though from it and so have others, if they get wet or dusty it can happen. Jeep has a new warranty now on the CS for like 100k 10 years+ forget the numbers exactly. Do to them failing so much. Back in 2013 when the first one broke and deployed the bag. Jeep did a investigation on my jeep that took 30 days< they never even looked at the CS and only did the Black box investigation. As they were sure it was caused by a wreck. even though the jeep was not in one. The report done by the people that do the Black box found that there was NO indecent(wreck recorded) and that according to the black box the air bag NEVER deployed. The SRS system did show a FAULT though to driver side air bag. At that point Chrysler legal contacted me and said they would do NOTHING and basically i can pound sand. Talking to lawyers i was told since no one died there was no way they would take on Jeep and its many law dogs.

They never repaired it under warranty, since that would show guilt. The dealer offered to repair on my dime. But i told him," why would i do the same thing over again expecting a different result"? I would never trust the system as it is. all air bags were removed. I will ride a horse before i ever by Chrysler again. The jeep though I have still. Its still what i bought it for mainly off road trails as all my past jeeps were.

For ME the issue is the way the airbag and CANBUS system basically pings itself. The CS has six wires that control every function on the steering wheel and the air bag. But 4 wires are dedicated to the SRS air bag since its a two stage explosive. It has a HIGH and low. IE its a smart air bag. the other two wires just relay voltage that is measured by resistance to what ever button you press. The CANBUS does the measuring and through this knows that its a horn or maybe a radio function or cruise control function. The issue is this. That is enough voltage to set off the air bag so when the CS tape of 6 wires breaks if it short to hot signal wire. We have an issue. So i will never use the system. It takes very little voltage to set these off less than 9v.

None of that is related to your issue though. I do think though if the wheel position function that is NOT part of the wires that are where the "Clock spring" gets its name from and were my short came from. Its the part of the cs body BEFORE those wires. Basically its a rotation sensor that measure degrees of rotation. They are rather sensitive too. when people lift there jeep the axle changes laterally. This changes drag link position and the wheel is no longer centered. They drive it and the dash lights up. That there is something wrong here.

The trouble with today's modern cars is they depend TO much on technology that when it fails can not only be overly complicated. But even dangerous. Like the up and coming self driving cars. They work until they dont and were and when that happens well it dont make me feel all warm and fuzzy. Ill buy older cars and rebuild them now the rest off my life. The jeep i will drive to the ground and when most of its complexity fails i will go old school replacement engineering .

Best of luck.

 

[Db Cooper]

Need some advice
I'm having some trouble with the steering in my 2016 Jeep Rubicon sometimes it allows me to turn and sometimes it's very hard to turn corner have no idea what could be causing that thought it was the steering fluid but it's full and I have a red light on my dash and I don't know what that is either any help would be appreciated

 

[cranbiz]

Need more info.

Is it stock? What is this red light? Is it a symbol illuminated red or is it a red dot? Have you jacked the front wheels up and tried steering? Any strange noises?

It could be a failing power steering pump, steering box, drag link, tie rod, u joint in the axle going bad, etc.

 

[222Doc]

You need to have the codes read.

steering issue be it pump, collapsed hose or bad box. any noise from the steering pump? larger tires?