Photo: Dodge
On January 6th, a representative of Nexteer Automotive contacted FCA US LLC over a potential issue related to the incomplete hardening process of the steering gear rack bar used in certain Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles. Nearly one month later, the safety experts at Stellantis opened an investigation and reviewed production records.
The automaker’s U.S. arm isn’t aware of any accidents or injuries related to this problem, but nevertheless, a voluntary recall will be conducted for extra peace of mind. The replacement steering gear assembly was manufactured with a properly hardened rack bar as per the peeps at Nexteer Automotive.
Dealers have already been informed of the callback while customers have to wait until May 3rd to receive their notifications. The faulty rack bar is prone to yielding, causing the rack bar to bind within the steering rack. That makes it hard – if not impossible – to maintain directional steering control.
931 vehicles are called back, split between 759 examples of the 2022 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee and 172 examples of the 2021 to 2022 model year Dodge Durango. Bear in mind we’re dealing with the previous generation of the Grand Cherokee, codenamed WK2, rather than the current fifth-generation Grand Cherokee, which is internally referred to as the WL.
The suspect period for the WK2 began on January 2nd, 2022 and ended on January 15th. In the case of the Durango, make that December 23rd, 2021 to January 15th when the suspect modules were no longer used by Stellantis.
Interestingly enough, Jeep continues to sell the previous generation of the Grand Cherokee. The configurator lists it from $37,375 excluding destination charge, whereas the WL starts at $38,720 for the regular wheelbase and $39,220 for the long wheelbase. As for the gray-haired ‘Rango, the Dodge brand wants at least $36,995 for the Pentastar V6-engined base variant while the no-nonsense SRT 392 kicks off at $68,590 sans destination charge.
Dealers have already been informed of the callback while customers have to wait until May 3rd to receive their notifications. The faulty rack bar is prone to yielding, causing the rack bar to bind within the steering rack. That makes it hard – if not impossible – to maintain directional steering control.
931 vehicles are called back, split between 759 examples of the 2022 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee and 172 examples of the 2021 to 2022 model year Dodge Durango. Bear in mind we’re dealing with the previous generation of the Grand Cherokee, codenamed WK2, rather than the current fifth-generation Grand Cherokee, which is internally referred to as the WL.
The suspect period for the WK2 began on January 2nd, 2022 and ended on January 15th. In the case of the Durango, make that December 23rd, 2021 to January 15th when the suspect modules were no longer used by Stellantis.
Interestingly enough, Jeep continues to sell the previous generation of the Grand Cherokee. The configurator lists it from $37,375 excluding destination charge, whereas the WL starts at $38,720 for the regular wheelbase and $39,220 for the long wheelbase. As for the gray-haired ‘Rango, the Dodge brand wants at least $36,995 for the Pentastar V6-engined base variant while the no-nonsense SRT 392 kicks off at $68,590 sans destination charge.
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