Update: Just got off the phone with corporate Jeep customer service, and they were very helpful and understanding. My case has been escalated to a case manager and should be hearing back from them after the holidays. I have not been guaranteed that the headrest will be covered, but there is a good chance that it will be since it is a manufacturer defect and the dealership where I took it this morning has seen this defect in several local WK2s. As I get updates I will post for others that may have this issue in the future.

 

gdasher, how did this get resolved? I just had this happen to my 2014 GC and the tabs are broken. Was just driving down the road and it activated by itself.

 

Hi mds5062,

If you decide to visit your local dealership for further diagnosis I'd be happy to offer assistance if needed. Just PM our page with your VIN and let me know!

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

Thank you. I contacted the Recall Customer Service listed on jeep.com and they are sending someone out to take a look. Appreciate your response here and will follow up with you if I don't hear from them this week.

 

What's the update on this issue?


Sent from my iPhone using JeepGarage

 

Sorry for the delayed response, the notification email got buried in my inbox.

As of now I am still awaiting a call back from Jeep. After I initially spoke with the a Rep from the Recall Support Line (around when I posted my first comment in this thread) I didn't hear from them for over two weeks. I called back and they stated they needed additional information to review my case and asked if anyone was injured, and there wasn't any. After a month, I called back last week (August 10th) and learnt that there was no need for an investigation since no injuries occurred. Would have been nice to receive some sort of notification, they have my phone, email and mailing address on file but nothing. The Rep stated that that my claim/issue will be routed to a different department for a Goodwill replacement since I am out of Warranty. I was told I'd be notified within 1-2 business days but have heard nothing.

Overall, not a good experience.

 

This should not take this long. This is a prime example of the way FCA resolves problems. This should have been a easy and quick item to have been resolved for the customer. Fundamentally their system has to be upgraded to a higher level and more efficient way of expediting these types of issues.

 

So I have a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with 32k miles and overnight in the garage the passenger seat AHR deployed. I watched a Youtube vid on how to reset it but it wouldn't reset. When I looked closer there were broken tabs (plastic pieces). I called the local dealership and they told me likely not covered under my bumper to bumper warranty. They implied that they broke when trying to reset it and wouldn't cover that. When I told them I didn't break them and I wouldn't have been resetting it if it didn't deploy they just repeated that it would likely not be covered. I have an appointment 9/5, so I guess I'll find out for sure then, but seriously how can that not be covered under warranty? How does Jeep expect to get repeat business (or any business at all) without backing up their products?

 

Hi WestSlopeCO,

If you'd like to send us a PM with your VIN I'd be happy to look into this further for you.

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

I tried to PM you, but I'm brand new here and it says I have to have 2 posts before I can send a PM to someone in the Admin Group. I'm hoping this counts as my second post so I can PM you after this is posted ... we'll see.

 

Me too…

 

It worked. PM sent.

 

Same issue here with 2015 Jeep GC Laredo 29k miles. Passenger headrest deployed overnight while parked in garage and also has the same broken tabs mentioned above. Dealer is refusing to replace by pointing out a small front bumper crack from 8 months prior. Can't explain the 8 month gap or the fact that only one deployed.

 

Hi orlando,

We'd be happy to investigate further. Please send us a private message with your VIN and the servicing dealership if we can help.

Kori
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

Same issue with driver side. Dealer is quoting over $600 to fix

 

I had the same issue with the driver's side in my 2014 Laredo while driving. Thankfully I was at a red light when it deployed and not cruising at 70. Took it to the dealer and they quoted me $650, including 2.5 hrs of labor to remove a headrest *eye roll*. After lots of back and forth they offered to replace it free of charge (out of warranty). But that was about a month and half ago and dozens of calls to the dealer have gotten nothing resolved. Seems like this is becoming a fairly common problem

 

I wanted to post an update on my AHR issue. I brought it to the dealer this morning and they called me and said it would be covered under warranty. So thankfully Jeep is backing up their product and my faith is restored in them. It will take a week to get the non-stock part, but that is fine with me. So long as I don't need to pay for anything associated with it, I'm happy to bring it back in. So thanks Jeep. Good luck to everyone else who is having this issue. Really seems like this is of the scale where it should be a recall ... but I'm sure that won't happen unless they legally need to (because recalls are expensive!).

 

Update on my AHR situation, dealer called and said that my GC shipped with a cloth interior, which was news to me. Apparently the first owner had the interior reupholstered with Katskin. But since the headrest that deployed was leather, and the part the dealer requested for my car is cloth, the dealer refuses to replace the headrest. I said it was fine that it was cloth and I can have it covered in leather later, but no dice. I asked if they would replace it with a leather headrest instead, and they said they would get back to me on that. Now the service department won't respond to me whatsoever; I've tried calling a dozen times in a day, I've tried emailing, I've tried calling the head of the service department directly. Every time I get told that the manager "will call you right back" and never hear from him. (stay far away from Meador Dodge in Ft. Worth)
I'm going to try the whole process over again with another dealership this week, hopefully they will either be able to replace it or at least have the balls to tell me they won't replace it. But if they won't fix it, next step is gonna be to file a vehicle safety complaint with NHTSA. Safety equipment on a 3 year old vehicle should NOT deploy on its own, and with the number of complaints on Jeep Garage about the AHR it seems like its to the level of a recall.

 

Hi don_draper,

Sorry to hear about this! Please send us a PM with your VIN so we can look into this further for you.

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

What year is your Jeep GC?

 

It is easy to change the cloth cover on the headrest with the leather one on you Jeep. Super easy. Look at You Tube. Sounds like they were pulling your leg all along. Sorry about that. The dealer wanted to charge me $798 to replace my headrest. Better to contact Chrysler Corp directly.

 

I just had the same issue in my 2013 GC Overland Summit as WestSlopeCO. Got into my Jeep after a few days of not driving, and headrest separated (AHR triggered). The plastic pieces that would "lock" it back in place are broken off. Contacted dealership and no help. Tried to call Jeep Customer Support, but keep getting bounced around automated menus.

Any updates from you all about Jeep fixing issue?

 

Hi freeridemikey,

I just responded to your PM!

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

Also a new member, so apologies in advance for posting a second post to be able to PM JeepCares

 

I have just had the same problem yesterday, only I was driving in traffic with my 6mo son in the backseat when it happened. Hit me in the back of the head and made me almost drive off the road from the shock. I pulled into a gas station really quick and found some pieces that looked broken inside, and it won't reset.

Has anyone actually got this issue resolved, or just got some run-around? I'm stuck driving around with this right now as I don't have a bunch of extra cash to pay for a repair.

 

Hi mmoegling84,

Sorry to hear about this! If you would like to send us a PM with your VIN I'd be happy to look into this further for you.

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

Sorry for the late reply. I am still trying to resolve this issue. Andrea reached out to me and asked for my VIN. I see she did the same to you. Let’s see where this goes. I did contact Chrysler customer service, but they would not help me because my car was serviced for unrelated items when I brought it to the dealer. So because my car was not in the original condition when the headrest broke they are denying my claim. I told the dealer not to fix it because they wanted $798. That is outrageous. So, do not service your vehicle until someone inspects it first. It will just make things more difficult for you. It is silly because the dealer inspected the headrest before they service my car.

 

Sadly, if Jeep refuses to fix a safety defect like this, there won't be a recall until there is a serious injury or death due to the AHR malfunctioning. You can file a complaint with the NHTSA, but that won't refund the cost of replacing your headrest. And what happens when the replacement deploys unexpectedly? Will that need to be replaced every few years? This seems to just be an issue with MY2014+, which is stupidly unsafe. A less than 3 year old safety component failing on dozens of vehicles around the country should raise alarms with FCA, but since they haven't been sued yet they aren't taking notice. Even when they get sued over this there's no promise of a fix. GM allowed 124 deaths and 275 injuries due to the faulty ignition switch before they settled.

 

The same thing happened to me. Sitting here at the Jeep dealer right now. Just had to pay $114 for them to look at the obvious safety issue!

 

Good news, Andrea helped me get my headrest fixed. Best of luck to those of you still dealing with this problem. Hopefully there will be no wrecks caused by these faulty AHRs.

 

Lucky. I was basically told to suck it up and pay to have it replaced for $500+ we can change the headrest ourselves $300-400 for just the headrest is outrageous when this is a known issue.

 

I've just become victim of this as well. Woke up to this exploded headrest.
I called JEEP customer care and they gave me a case #.

Anything I can do to make sure its covered? No accidents in my vehicle. I'm at 53k miles, 2014 Jeep GC Limited.

 

Ravi,
Like in post one, can you upload a pic of the area "Plastic Carrier" so we can see which plastic mechanical components have failed. I guess it will look like the first post.

The question was raised about the deployment parameters and I don't believe the system can individually send a signal to only one seat.

The Active Head Restraint (AHR) units activate from a signal from the Occupant Restraint Controller (ORC). The ORC monitors inputs from the front and rear impact sensors along with information from the CAN Bus to determine when to send a signal to both head rests. When a sufficient impact has been detected the ORC will send the electrical signal to the deployment solenoids in each front head rest.

The ORC monitors these circuits and will illuminate the airbag light if an internal fault is detected.

IMHO, if these were to deploy as per design you would see a double deployment, not just from one side. They are designed in a way to allow them to be reset following a deployment. However, this still requires a visual inspection of the latches mechanism and the plastic carrier before re-installation.

 

Here is what I can see from the top view:

 

As expected, the plastic has fatigued at the same location with an almost identical look as the first image post.
Interesting to see that your second mounting point had not failed however, just below that attachment point there are signs of component clearance issues, which maybe contributing to the fatigue failure of the plastic.
These are good picks to have in the Jeep Garage knowledge bank.