Jeep fail (1 Viewer)

[Tikicruiser]

I was heading to a friends Kentucky Derby party in McLean Saturday. My buddy was driving his 2014 JK (mistake 1), when at 35 mph luckily going uphill, he said his steering just went totally out. As we gingered the brakes not too hard, we veered right, hopped the curb and came to rest across the sidewalk. The drag link bar was laying on the ground on the driver side end. The ball of the link bar end which is not a greasabke fitting, was barely still round. The knuckle at the top of the link bar was worn near oval. Pretty scary something like this can happen to a Heep with 75k miles and never seen a trail. Its primarily his 17 yr old son’s car and could easily been full of teenagers going 65mph on the beltway. Pretty scary. Easy fix but not a part you expect to wear out and have detach while you are driving.

 

[94YotaGuy]

"Its primarily his 17 yr old son’s car..."
Any chance that being primarily driven by a 17 year old boy could have influenced this event?

 

[Crusha]

I'm shocked nobody noticed any steering issues prior to total failure...

 

[emorth]

The problem is obvious. This wouldn’t have happened if he was displaying a Virginia Tech spare tire cover.
Really scary! Glad everyone is ok.

 

[Stumpalama]

"Its primarily his 17 yr old son’s car..."
Any chance that being primarily driven by a 17 year old boy could have influenced this event?

Concur... Sounds like there is more to the story. As in somebody (17YO) did something, he thought was inconsequential at the time, which then manifested itself in the failure experience Saturday.

 

[94YotaGuy]

Concur... Sounds like there is more to the story. As in somebody (17YO) did something, he thought was inconsequential at the time, which then manifested itself in the failure experience Saturday.

When I was 17, I did some dumb stuff with my Montero.

 

[1MOA]

"Its primarily his 17 yr old son’s car..."
Any chance that being primarily driven by a 17 year old boy could have influenced this event?

 

[afgman786]

Being 17 I managed to snap the solid axle on my 80.... don't doubt the power of a teenager lol.
Drifting was a fine art of how am I still alive

 

[Stumpalama]

I did a flip with a 1/2 twist in my dad's '85 Supra on the Atlantic City expressway when I was 18.

 

[Tikicruiser]

John (the father) and I were both surprised that the Jeep had no slop in the steering prior to the failure. You would figure if the ball was so worn it was about to detach, the steering would show some indication of being loosey goosey. I wasn’t driving, but John is a car guy, good mechanic who restores classics and has a lift in his garage. Also an F-16 Pilot an Captain with American. He concurs it went from normal to nothing all the sudden. I’m not sure his son has the balls to do anything to the Jeep. There aren’t many opportunities to wheel the piss out of a Jeep in lake Barcroft. Moral of the story is expect this from your Jeep.

 

[emorth]

That could have been a disaster.
Future recall?
He should file a complaint with the NHTSA.

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