2009 Jeep Wrangler
This year drew an ordinary 455 complaints for a Jeep Wrangler — the model's median is 649. What they were about is the unusual part: 16.9% of them mention gas, against 3.4% 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 | 455 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 649 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Involving a fire | 15 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| EPA combined | 17 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- gas — 16.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (5×).
- fuel — 15.6% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the other years of this generation (4.6×).
- violently — 13.6% of this year's complaints, against 4.4% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: violently, shake, shake violently, bar.
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
USUALLY AFTER HITTING A BUMP, THE TIRE(S) BEGIN TO SHAKE VIOLENTLY AND DO NOT STOP UNTIL SLOWING DOWN SIGNIFICANTLY OR COMING TO A COMPLETE STOP. FROM WHAT I'VE RESEARCHED, THIS APPEARS TO BE A COMMON PROBLEM WITH JEEP OWNERS AND CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS. THIS ST…
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 65 MPH THE VEHICLE BEGAN TO SHAKE VIOLENTLY. THE CONTACT TURNED THE VEHICLE OFF AND AFTER RESTARTING IT THE SHAKING STOPPED. THE FAILURE OCCURRED THREE TIMES INTERMITTENTLY. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V021000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V290000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V352000 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.
- 10V236000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
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 2009 Jeep Wrangler? What happened to yours?
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