In a new recall, some members of the Grand Cherokee family will require a dealership visit to sort out a problem with upper control arm pinch bolts which may have been damaged during vehicle assembly.
According to the company, approximately a quarter million Grand Cherokee L models from the 2021 – 2023 model years and roughly a further 88,000 standard-length Grand Cherokee SUVs assembled for the ’22 and ’23 model years are the target of this recall. It is suggested that only 1 percent of this number have the problem but, as will most campaigns of this type, they’re summoning all of them back to a service bay for checkups.
At issue is the amount of torque hammered into the aforementioned pinch bolts during assembly of these vehicles. Jeep says they combed through “vehicle production torque records” to identify a time period in which this was a problem, proving that car companies have way more data points available to them than they will ever admit.
Torqueing procedures were apparently updated in May of last year, explaining why the problem suddenly vanished. Jeep also notes that similar vehicles not included in the recall were built at a different plant which had a “more robust torque strategy”. This author has decided to adopt that turn of phrase the next time he does a better job of twisting the cap on something like a bottle of Pepsi or jar of Kraft extra-crunchy peanut butter
For anyone keeping score, Jeeps claims to have shifted a total of 244,594 units of the Grand Cherokee last year alone. This is an entire 38 percent of the brand’s sales and stands in contrast to the 156,581 Wranglers (the brand’s next-best seller) which found homes last year. Combined, the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer sold less than 40,000 examples.
The company says that, as of January this year, it is not aware of any incidents or injuries potentially related to this issue for all markets.
[Image: Jeep]
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