I just received notice of an alternator recall; sudden failure - 17V435, here in the states.

 

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the alternator and depending on the part
number, will replace the alternator, if necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin
on August 24, 2017. Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403.
Chrysler's number for this recall is T36.
Notes
Owners

 

Hi, I am Adelaide, South Australia based. My MY 2013 WK2 Laredo CRD (40,000km) experienced what I expect is an alternator failure this afternoon. Had the vehicle towed to my regular Jeep dealer/service centre and I will be talking with the service manager in the morning. Same symptoms as described elsewhere: lots of warning lights for various system functions before the the car essentially started to shut down. Ended up being able to just nurse the vehicle off the road after power steering shut down. Moments later the car was undriveable. I'm reading up on US recall bulletins, but what other advice can anyone give me? Thanks very much, Dick.

 

I wonder will this failure mode extend to the 180Amp ALT down the track?

 

Read in the WA Sunday Times today there's a recall out for alternators on 12-14 GC but appears to be the 5.7 & 3.6 engines. Could be wrong but check it out.
I'm only on ph at moment.
Did say fault caused power steering issues.

 

Thanks 67HR, I spoke with Jeep dealer this morning and they are advising there are no recalls or tech advices active for my WK2 model. I searched online for the advice in the WA Sunday Times but could not find it. Did you see this notice in the weekend just gone's paper?

 

Sorry, might have been viewing online perhaps!

Here's the link I found: https://www.cars.com/articles/2011-...enger-charger-durango-2012-2014-jeep-grand-cherokee-recall-alert-1420696205875/

 

Thanks again 67HR. Could be useful ammo depending on what I hear back from the service folks. Much appreciated.

 

How did you go with the alternator problem? Warranty?
Mine has just shit itself and seems to be the exact problem as the T36 recall but mine is the diesel.

 

Make sure you contact Accc as the more of us diesel owners that do will increase pressure to have the fault rectified by recall.
Cheers

 

Have contacted FCA Australia and they told me to contact ACCC for the same reason. The more that lodge complaints the more chance of a diesel recall.
ACCC were not easy to deal with and tried my best to explain over the phone, Also went online and lodged a complaint with the Vehicle safety standards
see link.
https://infrastructure.gov.au/vehicles/reporting/index.aspx


FCA know of the problem but say they can not do anything until a recall is issued.


No genuine alternator in Australia for about 2 months so have to go non genuine


Have been told buy FCA I will have to pay for repair (approx. $1200.00) and try to claim back from FCA when and if a recall is ever issued.

 

Have you had the Alternator issue Monaro?

 

Hi All, As it turns out I was very lucky. My dealer (Adelaide City Chrysler Jeep) took the issue up with FCA, as I was very low km's and not long out of warranty. Full replacement at no cost to me. The $ estimate if I had to foot the bill was north of $5k. I think the fact that I had quoted US recall bulletins may have helped my cause. Good luck!

 

Xdra10
Yes,Im in pretty much the same situation as you.
Managed to get aftermarket one fitted as no oem in Aus.
Contacted FCA,told to keep receipt for possible future claim .ACCC as well.
After all it is a safety issue when it decides to stop working when you are travelling at 110 ks in traffic.
Cheers

 

Great to see FCA coming to the party for dickyknees .
It would be admitting there is a fault with the alternator surely.
If its good enough for one customer it should be good for all.
We all have the same faulty alternators.
Pretty poor customer relations by FCA.

 

Another Jeep GC Limited CRD WK2 Alternator fail here while driving vehicle with Suttons Main Dealer for repair - have lodged ACCC Product Safety complaint

 

Another 2012 WK2 alternator failure.
No warning, got the jeep off the road to safety.
I was not towing at the time but very scary all the same, no steering, no abs braking, no stability control, heater blowing flat out on heat, could not operate Windows, etc.
Department of infrastructure paper work filled out and submitted.
Jeep notified.
1200 dollars later, alternator changed and now electrical issues with sensors failures.
Why can't jeep Australia just admit that there is an issue with the alternators and replace before some one is injured.
Could not get a jeep dealer at Hervey Bay to examine the jeep for the alternator failure, so got a third party to replace the alternator.
Getting an alternator was a challenge when Qld had NO stock, NSW had no stock and the alternator was freighted from Melbourne.
The sensor faults were at Gladstone and again had to get a 3rd party to repair faults.
Jeep would not look at the Jepp for another 4 days.
When the 3rd party tried purchasing parts Jeep could nor or would not supply parts for 4 days so the 3rd party purchased parts from another supplier.

Thanks Jeep

 

Had a catastrophic failure on my 2013 GC diesel. I was miles from no where in north Western Australia when the power steering made some noises, the cruise control wouldn't set, the battery light came on and then everything went mad. No power steering, extreme heat in the cabin and then the car eventually stalled all while towing a large caravan. Waited nearly 40 mins and the car started again and got to Coral Bay.
The car has just been trucked away to Exmouth whilst we are stuck with the caravan in Coral Bay. Have to now wait for the bad news...

 

The alternator recall is for certain lots of alternators that they traced to have defective diodes used in the rectifer. What is defective in these diodes is that they will short when they fail, when diodes are suppose to fail to an open circuit. If the diodes in the rectifier short, you will have uncontrolled AC power of all levels of voltage going through the electric system. It likely will fry all the electrical components and start a fire.....

In short, the recall is for certain alternators with a failure mode that is very dangerous. It is not for an alternator failing, early or otherwise...

I recently had my alternator fail, I'm in the U.S., everything worked perfectly despite the alternator failing. I of course had the Electric System warning light, and took appropriate precautions, but I was still able to make it to work, then the auto parts store to pick up a new alternator and then got home, without losing any electric equipment or system....

Perhaps the electric loads are different with the Diesel, and I can see if you're towing a large load with an electrical load, you'd undervolt right away and start losing electrical system. The big thing is, if you ignore the electrical fault warning (the warning light that looks like a battery) you're likely running on battery power and can do that only so long. Once the battery drains down, you start to loose electrical systems, until the there is not enough power to run the PCM and the engine dies......

 

What is defective in these diodes is that they will short when they fail, when diodes are suppose to fail to an open circuit.

Do you have any support for this statement? Everything I've seen regarding the recall is silent on the underlying issue, and simply offers that affected units will be changed out.

It would be great to see any additional information that you have at hand.

Cheers, Steve

 

I think it was a TSB I read, or perhaps the recall itself. It was discussed on a previous thread on this forum as well, IIRC. Last time I tried a search of the forum, it only returned posts since the overhaul of the forum interface a few weeks ago, if they haven't fixed that, a search is not likely to turn up the thread.....

 

First Return from a Google Search....

https://www.chrysler.com/universal/webselfservice/pdf/P60.pdf

Someone posted they lost many critical electric systems when their alternator failed.... ...which is described in the recall...

Of course that could happen with any alternator failure... ...the difference is time... ...if you have a good battery and you drive an hour to several hours on just the battery because the alternator failed, (you got the warning light on the dash, the little battery symbol)... ...then it is a normal alternator failure, you just drove too long on just the battery and didn't head the warning on the dash.... ....if you have a bad battery and the alternator fails, then you'd also get the same symptoms much sooner if not right away....

BUT, if you have a good battery, the alternator fails, and the moment the warning light comes on the dash, you've lost ABS, PS, etc, etc.... all those electric systems... ....that is the alternator failing in a short condition and killing the current coming out of the battery... ...this is the dangerous condition that can cause a fire.... ...in even rarer failure mode, it might short in a way that it conducts unrectified and uncontrolled AC voltage from the alternator, plan on hot time if that happens, likely burning up all electronics and starting a fire....

Remember the recall is for certain "a bad lot" of bad alternators that have a very dangerous failure mode.... ...it is not for all alternators and not for all alternator failures.... ....the recall defines the years and type of alternator and then they identify if its part of the bad lot by serial number from there.... So you don't have a 2012-2014 3.6L V6 gasoline engine with the 160 amp alternator, then you don't have one of these bad alternators, and even if you do, your alternator might not be of the bad lot, and thus this recall is not for your alternator.....

 

Dont believe everything you read.
Fca wont admit to a fault with the diesel models.
Quite incredible really with the numbers of catastrophic failures in Aus.
Cheers

 

.....Ok, I won't believe what I just read in your post.......

Honestly, perhaps there are other recalls, Australian Jeeps are export models and have a different configuration and equipment than the U.S., so there might be different equipment.. ...alternators might not have been tested thoroughly enough for the Australian environment, there could be dozen of things..... ...or it could be anecdotal evidence that the alternators are failing more often....

In the U.S. the WK2 does seem to fail a bit sooner. More posts here about them failing than I typically see on forums for other makes/models, mine failed on my WK2 at 100k miles, which is a lot sooner, like by half then I've seen them on other vehicles I've owned...

 

FCA Australia have just reimbursed a GC diesel owner for alternator failure.Maybe the heat has been applied.

 

 

Gents,

Add me to the list of failures.
My 2013WK2 diesel has just suffered similar fate.
Luckily i managed to get it home as the power steering etc failed

Typical just before xmas so no chance to fix prior to holiday season.
Question I have is, do i fix myself or take to a jeep service centre and get them to fix?
I'm handy with tools and typically do all the work on my XP Falcon

How easy is it to at home?
Does anyone have approximate costs?
Any advise help appreciated.

Andrew

 

Go onto the ausjeepoffroad forum,plenty of info.Some Aust suppliers stock alts Google do not buy from a company with figure 8 in advertising! Real Chinese rubbish.

 

I replace the Alternator on my WK2, pretty straight forward and didn't take long at all. If you've ever replaced an alternator before, you're more than capable of tackling the job on a WK2. Only thing I remember being more difficult in the past, some of the bolts were just a tad bit harder to reach than older cars, but that's true of most modern vehicles where elevated crash standards requires more body metal making the engine compartments more crowded.

 

Thanks for your help. Replaced it myself at home. And yes those bolts are hard to get to but not impossible. Found a you tube video that helped with how to do it.

 

Gents,

Add me to the list of failures.

When the vehicle is running, the battery symbol is displayed on the instrument panel, and the text prompt needs maintenance. The engine fault symbol appears and various symbols flash. After that, the electronic products stopped working until there was no power steering. It's very dangerous on the road! After barely driving home, it can't be started again after flameout.

After charging all night, the maintenance symbol disappears. In the morning, it's normal to light a fire and drive 16 km. In the evening, when driving nearly 10 kilometers, the battery maintenance symbol appears again. After that, all kinds of electrical appliances were cut off in 5 minutes until they suddenly stopped at an intersection. It was very dangerous! Cannot start again. After emergency replacement of a new battery, start the battery normally and drive it home.

My detection and judgment: according to the above experience, this car should be charged because the generator can't work normally.

The voltage does not change before and after the vehicle starts normally. When the positive pole of the battery is turned off, all the vehicles are cut off and flameout.

Maybe first, the generator is damaged; Second, the generator regulator is damaged; The third is the control program of automobile computer power generation.

I think this should belong to the campaign number: T36 "2012-2014 (WK) Jeep Grand Cherokee
" recall issue. The VIN of this vehicle was not in the range of the VIN list released at that time. But the problems are consistent with many generator problems. Therefore, a recall is strongly recommended.

2014 WK2 diesel Overland
Registration Number
Km:105500
Located in PERTH, WA, AU


Waiting for a response from Jeep Australia.

 

Gents,

Add me to the list of failures.

When the vehicle is running, the battery symbol is displayed on the instrument panel, and the text prompt needs maintenance. The engine fault symbol appears and various symbols flash. After that, the electronic products stopped working until there was no power steering. It's very dangerous on the road! After barely driving home, it can't be started again after flameout.

After charging all night, the maintenance symbol disappears. In the morning, it's normal to light a fire and drive 16 km. In the evening, when driving nearly 10 kilometers, the battery maintenance symbol appears again. After that, all kinds of electrical appliances were cut off in 5 minutes until they suddenly stopped at an intersection. It was very dangerous! Cannot start again. After emergency replacement of a new battery, start the battery normally and drive it home.

My detection and judgment: according to the above experience, this car should be charged because the generator can't work normally.

The voltage does not change before and after the vehicle starts normally. When the positive pole of the battery is turned off, all the vehicles are cut off and flameout.

Maybe first, the generator is damaged; Second, the generator regulator is damaged; The third is the control program of automobile computer power generation.

I think this should belong to the campaign number: T36 "2012-2014 (WK) Jeep Grand Cherokee
" recall issue. The VIN of this vehicle was not in the range of the VIN list released at that time. But the problems are consistent with many generator problems. Therefore, a recall is strongly recommended.

2014 WK2 diesel Overland
Registration Number
Km:105500
Located in PERTH, WA, AU


Waiting for a response from Jeep Australia.

FCA are well aware in Aust of the alternator failures in both the diesel and petrol models ,same alternator in both.This is recognised as a serious safety issue.If FCA refuse your claim I would also send another covering note to ACCC with copy of your letter to FCA.I might add some owners of the GC diesels have had new alternators fitted foc.Go onto ausjeepoffroad forum site ,more info there