Jeep Grand Cherokee on the hot seat, recall-wise
DaimlerChrysler is recalling more than 260,000 Jeep Grand Cherokees because of breaking cooling fan blades and seat fires.The hot seats can be found in 112,000 Grand Cherokees from the 2003 and 2004 model years, equipped with seat heaters. Apparently the passenger-side seat can overheat, a problem which led to at least 32 vehicle fires.
The cooling fan recall affects about 150,000 Grand Cherokees equipped with the 4-liter six-cylinder engine and sold in the 2000 and 2002 model years. Blades can break off the fan while it's running, potentially injuring anyone within range if the hood is open. The NHTSA has received nearly 200 complaints about the problem.
[Source: Automotive News]
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luis Longo 1:17PM (7/29/2006)
I'm not a fan of math,
but 260,000 sounds
awfully a lot,
and by the way
32!! CARS HAVE GOTTEN FIRE.
NOTE TO MYSELF> DO NOT BUY FROM JEEP.
Reply
John 4:17PM (7/29/2006)
Your math is bad.
The fire issue is on 112,000 vehicles. You do not add up the two numbers; and it's not ok to sacrifice 32 people out of 112,000 people. You shall return to your home communist country where standards are lower.
The cooling fan issue is separate, affecting 150,000 vehicles. The number of failures here are those that failed within 5 years of use. As these vehicles will last for longer than 5 years, the number of units that fail will climb.
Reply
dakota 4:57PM (7/29/2006)
Old news.
"You shall return to your home communist country where standards are lower."
Your a moron. The poster said nothing about "sacrificing 32 people" at all. You need to go back to grade school and learn reading comprehension.
Reply
Marilyn Kubik 6:01PM (7/29/2006)
Personally, I love my little black 2000 Chevy Tracker. It zips in and out of tight places, gets 26 mpg on the highway, and the 4 wheel drive has never failed to get me home safely in ice and snow. The Tracker has been my car of choice for over ten years. I'm not interested in a Jeep.
Reply
len simpson 12:41PM (7/30/2006)
where can i find info concerning supplier/assembler relationships? how much of a recall does a supplier eat? that's a dark world.
Reply
desertkarma 6:08PM (7/30/2006)
5.
That's going to depend on whether the failure is caused by faulty design or a defective part. The fan thing sounds like the vendor who supplied the part did not have an up-to-spec fan... b/c I would assume Jeep would have requested "a fan that can 1. blow xxx mass flow rate of air, 2. fit within xxx dimensions, and 3. last for xxx operating hours".
For the seat, let's say the wiring/heating coils are bought from a vendor and then put into the seat by Jeep. That would mean that Jeep had to design the "seat inside" layout, so they would have been responsible for making sure the padding is properly insulated from the heating coils (granted I'm sure in reality, the makers of the heating system were given specifications on how much heat radiation was desired, and so they designed an outer layer to prevent this.
What I find interesting about the fire issue is that the passenger side seat can "overheat". So, a short is not causing an electrical fire... That means whoever chose the seat padding picked a material that burns at temperatures lower than the heating coil generates? WHOOPS!
Reply
Stop The Bias 8:10PM (7/30/2006)
Story conveniently hidden on the weekend. Old journalism trick to editorialize. If this was another Toyota recall, Autoblog would have waited until Monday when more people would read it. Of course Toyota would have recalled the vehicle before 32 people caught fire. The Domestics wait until lawsuits would be more expensive than the recalls.
BTW, how come no blog entries about Hummer wheels flying off at high speeds. It's currently under investigation, ya know. But if a little plastic cap has the potential to fall off, and might fall behind a pedal (though it hasnt happened yet) of a European Toyota, leading to a proactive recall, it'll be headlines on Autoblog.
Reply