Guys, I cracked the handle for the retractable cargo cover (apparently if you bend it down too far it will crack at the screw attachment points). Anyone have to deal with this before? Are there replacement handles or am I stuck having to live with it or shell out 250 bux for a new one?
I bet you can find someone willing to pull their cover out of the closet or garage and sell it to you. Ours was removed as soon as we got the Jeep home and tried it once. Honestly, I don't even know where that cover is right now...
Guys, I cracked the handle for the retractable cargo cover (apparently if you bend it down too far it will crack at the screw attachment points). Anyone have to deal with this before? Are there replacement handles or am I stuck having to live with it or shell out 250 bux for a new one?
Haven't had that problem, but the handle on the spare tire cover broke the same way on my 2014 GC. Warranty will cover it, but the handle is not an available part - they will replace the entire cover (basically, the cargo floor). Wonder how long before Chrysler realizes that it would be a lot cheaper just to provide the handles...
If Jeep manufactured the covers they would have easy access to the handles. But these covers probably come from Mexico or China. To make it worth it for Jeep to stock handles, there would need to be a large demand. If there was a big enough demand for just the handles, you would see somebody selling them on eBay.
Of course, I didn't check. Maybe you can buy them from eBay.
I think they are more likely getting broken when they are retracted, with the handle hanging down, and something is thrown in the back. The handle portion will stay up out of the way if you fold it across the housing.
i'm going to try super glue first lol. I have a feeling that will work. And if it doesn't then I'll see if someone here will sell me theirs for 50 bux before going to ebay haha. But thank you for the responses! I could probably make a really cool metal one myself actually...
I have the same exact problem. It cracked when bottom of it rubbed against large plastic box I had in the trunk. It didn't break completely and I have been using it like this for over a year.
Rather than super glue, you might want to try glue designed to "weld" plastic. Usually, these products have something like MEK in them (use in a VERY well ventilated area), but they literally melt the plastic together by initially dissolving it and then evaporating away.
What he said. Superglue tends not to work well on a lot of plastics.
Matching color Dow Corning Silicone glue works, as would a plastic specific one if you knew the type of plastic in the handle.
If you can use silicone glue to pretty much fill up the inside, you might try a non-cheapo hot melt glue gun along the surface to fill in cracks. Clean the surfaces with MEK first, and watch out you don't pass out.
If you use MEK...you likely don't even need any additional "glue" since the MEK dissolves the plastic and you can weld the two sides together. I used this method to build a custom over-arm blade guard for a table saw a number of years ago. It would have taken a sledge hammer to break it! As always, it's good to do a small test in an inconspicuous place to make sure the stuff works as expected with the particular plastic compound in question...
That's actually a great idea. Is it just me or does anyone else find it preposterous that customers need to engineer their own fixes to something that should have been engineered properly to begin with? The old Mercedes Benz montra of overengineering even the littlest things should apply to all car parts.
Mine broke too. Crappy thin plastic, if you pull it up with enough force along with the screw too tight ends up breaking it.
Gonna try to see if it's covered by warranty, if not the glue it is.