Jeep Gladiator Driver Voids Warranty For Driving In The Mud

[bikeama]

This is a WTF. Damage not covered but also voided warranty.

As one of the most capable off-roaders on the market, the Jeep Gladiator can take a lot of punishment, but components can still get damaged or develop faults. In most cases, a factory warranty will cover mechanical issues, but one Gladiator owner managed to void their warranty for simply doing what the truck was designed to do.

 

[afm199]

Doh. Abuse vehicle, lose warranty.

Plus, it's a jeep. They do that parked in a garage.

 

[Blankpage]

No warranty (maybe 30 day) on dirt bikes for a good reason. The off-road is a destroyer of machinery.
Dude learned an expensive lesson about reading the small print.

 

[auntiebling]

Ooops. Design is shit so it's the customers fault?

 

[TheRobSJ]

For all you non car people, let me quote this one little part from the article here...

FCA also claims they can't remove the restriction on the factory warranty because they "submerged" it in mud. However, the owner claims the mud was only a foot deep.

Now here is the engine bay of the Jeep Gladiator...

Ya’ll see that silver thing with the fins pretty much in the middle of the picture? That’s the alternator. Manufacturers try to position those on the engine when possible in the highest place. For serviceability and also to keep a very key portion of the electrical system out of harms way, like you know...water.

Still think the owner only went through a foot of mud?

 

[mikev]

obviously he didn't have one of those stupid fucking snorkel things going up above his door.

 

[Butch]

Its a Fiat, right?

 

[Kornholio]

For all you non car people, let me quote this one little part from the article here...



Now here is the engine bay of the Jeep Gladiator...

Ya’ll see that silver thing with the fins pretty much in the middle of the picture? That’s the alternator. Manufacturers try to position those on the engine when possible in the highest place. For serviceability and also to keep a very key portion of the electrical system out of harms way, like you know...water.

Still think the owner only went through a foot of mud?

Boom. Seen this shit so many times in the past on different vehicles and still see shit like this on a regular basis with my current fleet's trucks. In over 20 years of doing this shit, I've learned one single immutable fact. Drivers/operators/owners lie pretty much 98% of the time. This one may end up going the owner's way for political reasons, but it honestly shouldn't. FCA is absolutely not the only manufacturer that deals with this same problem.

 

[Shaggy]

For all you non car people, let me quote this one little part from the article here...



Now here is the engine bay of the Jeep Gladiator...

Ya’ll see that silver thing with the fins pretty much in the middle of the picture? That’s the alternator. Manufacturers try to position those on the engine when possible in the highest place. For serviceability and also to keep a very key portion of the electrical system out of harms way, like you know...water.

Still think the owner only went through a foot of mud?

Well..... 12” of water at 35mph becomes like 8ft of water almost instantly. I guess they could both be truthing.

:dunno

 

[TheRobSJ]

This one may end up going the owner's way for political reasons, but it honestly shouldn't. FCA is absolutely not the only manufacturer that deals with this same problem.

Sadly, you’re right. Now that the case has hit social media, I’m sure FCA will maybe even go so far as to just give them a brand new vehicle to save face. But that customer abso god damned lutely doesn’t deserve it.


The time I’ve spent in my career playing forensic detective trying to determine if a customer complaint is truly warrantable or not, is not measured in hours. But fucking days worth of life at this point. Most common one is some electrical issue in a door (adjustable mirror doesn’t work, power lock doesn’t work, etc). I see the fresh blemished paint on the door from some recent body shop work, and in some cases the customer foolishly leaves the frigging repair order from the body shop right there in the car proving that a body shop was in that door recently.

 

[TheRobSJ]

Well..... 12” of water at 35mph becomes like 8ft of water almost instantly. I guess they could both be truthing.

:dunno

Bombing an amount of water that fast would be pretty dumb. Dare I say...abuse? I’ve seen enough videos of fools trying to drive fast through waves hitting the beach and they catch one too deep and next thing you know...truck is washing away.

 

[Johndicezx9]

Rob is right; even the sweetest, nicest, kindest, most honest person in the world becomes the most loathesome lying sub-human when they're trying to warranty something after they know they've done something wrong....

I take these stories with a grain of salt, and really, the dealer has very little say in it.

In the 90s I worked at a SeaDoo dealership and a really nice customer that blew up the motor on his new GTX. Rightfully, he was pissed. I would be too. When he brought the craft in, and we opened it up and saw the reason. He felt inclined to install a fuel filter, ON AN OIL LINE. :facepalm

He denied putting it on.
He lied to Bombardier and said we must have put it on.
He whined to the factory, they kept calling us up with a litany new complaints from him. They sent a rep, and he saw what we saw.

They offered a $300 credit for parts. The craft owner scoffed and refused to pick it up. I had to call him every day to let him know the status of his storage fees....

We finally told him we'd drop the fees if he came and picked it up. He showed up within an hour.

 

[Eldritch]

Bombing an amount of water that fast would be pretty dumb. Dare I say...abuse? I’ve seen enough videos of fools trying to drive fast through waves hitting the beach and they catch one too deep and next thing you know...truck is washing away.

Those videos always make me smile.

 

[AbsolutEnduser]

Good stories.. :laughing
Everyone, do read the article for the details....

Is there a possibility there are sensors around the vehicle that mark when the vehicle was flooded? Sensors record directly in the ECU, next time the vehicle goes to a dealer BAM it takes one "plugging in" and it goes to central--the warranty is void now?

And BTW that would even give veracity to the detail "[the first dealer claims they do not have the power to void the warranty]"

For all you non car people, let me quote this one little part from the article here...

Ya’ll see that silver thing with the fins pretty much in the middle of the picture? ..

Still think the owner only went through a foot of mud?

cool. appreciate the pointer. that sure is higher than on my vehiclel

so yeah, actually maybe it is just "visually flooded" and that's wh it failed and so on.

 

[TheRobSJ]

Good stories.. :laughing
Everyone, do read the article for the details....

Is there a possibility there are sensors around the vehicle that mark when the vehicle was flooded? Sensors record directly in the ECU, next time the vehicle goes to a dealer BAM it takes one "plugging in" and it goes to central--the warranty is void now?

And BTW that would even give veracity to the detail "[the first dealer claims they do not have the power to void the warranty]"



cool. appreciate the pointer. that sure is higher than on my vehiclel

so yeah, actually maybe it is just "visually flooded" and that's wh it failed and so on.

There really aren’t sensors that can detect water intrusion. There are some measures in place though. Manufacturers are tired of warrantying expensive key fobs that were damaged by water, so many of them have a sticker inside the fob that changes color if exposed to water. Drop your keys in the pool and now you’re faced with $2-500 (maybe even more) to replace it? Some people get a case of amnesia as to why the key suddenly stopped working and just say they were using it normally so they think it should be warranty. I open the key fob, see the red (which used to be white) dot, and jog their memory.

But many other electronic devices are in vehicles. Things that are outside the passenger compartment and can be exposed to the elements do have very crude silicone rubber “gaskets” in the wiring connectors going into them and so on. But think of that more as water resistant instead of water proof. Submerge it, and water eventually will get in. This is why they try to keep the most sensitive and mission critical components, like the powertrain control module, as high up as possible. In the Jeep under hood picture, that is the other silver thing with fins on it on the right side. See it’s positioned about as high as they can get it.

However, there are in fact things that store in the computer which can be read by a dealer to determine other forms of abuse though. Has the “tune” been modified? How many launch control starts have been done? Has the engine ever been over the redline? And some other things, all of which vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

[Pushrod]

I wonder how many YouTube views the original incident garnered . . . .

 

[berth]

Also, isn't it my understanding that if you submerged the rear diff, you need to drain it and change out the oil in it?

I've heard something like that. Not just a Jeep Thing.

 

[msethhunter]

When your advertisement includes pictures like this, you're on the hook for people taking the vehicle in the mud, and the mud breaking it.

I spent a decade at dealerships. Jeep dealerships, fixing Jeep's. If it came in muddy and broke, I'd send it to a lot porter to get it cleaned before I fixed it...under warranty.

It's a Jeep. It's going to get dirty, even muddy. Had it been submerged, the engine would be locked up. It would have hydrolocked. I've seen far to many techs literally try and fuck over a customer, and service advisors do the same trying to turn a warranty claim in to a customer pay job because customer pay jobs pay better. Just fix the fucking thing, and move on to the next job.

 

[Johndicezx9]

"Profession Driver on Closed Course. Do Not Attempt." :laughing

 

[AbsolutEnduser]

However, there are in fact things that store in the computer which can be read by a dealer to determine other forms of abuse though. Has the “tune” been modified? How many launch control starts have been done? Has the engine ever been over the redline? And some other things, all of which vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

:thumbup Yep I got the idea from a former dealer mechanic on the Youtube. He took his recent car to the dealer for something, I forgot (probably a recall), and they automatically voided his engine warranty... because he had "changed the tune". I think remapped or reflashed completely. But that's OK in his case--he was just doing a warning video actually... he is able to fix problems himself.