2008 Jeep Wrangler
This year drew an ordinary 1,255 complaints for a Jeep Wrangler — the model's median is 649. What they were about is the unusual part: 24.1% of them mention tank, against 8.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Jeep Wrangler, which began in 2007 and ran to 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 1,255 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 649 |
| Involving a crash | 18 |
| Involving a fire | 34 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- tank — 24.1% of this year's complaints, against 8.6% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: tank, fuel, fill, pump.
- gas — 16.3% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (4.8×).
- violently — 12.8% of this year's complaints, against 4.2% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: violently, shake, complete stop, began shake.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHEN FILLING THE FUEL TANK AND THE GAS NOZZLE AUTOMATICALLY SHUTS OFF, GASOLINE SHOOTS OUT OF THE TANK AFTER ABOUT A 2 SECOND DELAY. THIS HAS OCCURRED AT MULTIPLE GAS STATIONS. THIS HAS OCCURRED WITH THE JEEP WRANGLER ON LOCAL GAS PUMPS THAT I USE FREQUENTLY T…
GASOLINE OVERFLOWS FROM THE TANK DURING REFUELING AND DOES NOT SHUT-OFF. THIS HAS OCCURRED SEVERAL TIMES AT SEVERAL DIFFERENT GAS STATIONS AND PUMPS OVER SEVERAL YEARS. THE GAS JUST GUSHES OUT WHEN THE AUTOMATIC SHUT OFF KICKS IN ON THE PUMP AND CREATES A LARG…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 16V352000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V290000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13E010000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 11V528000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 13V176000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 09E044000 TRAILER HITCHES Fixed free of charge.
- 09V436000 POWER TRAIN
- 08V202000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Wrangler was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Jeep Wrangler? What happened to yours?
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