On May 5, 2006, while turning right into a parking lot at about 5 miles per hour in my 2002 Jeep Liberty, I experienced a catastrophic failure of the lower ball joint on the right side. The ball joint dropped and the bolt at the bottom of the ball joint struck and severely dug into my 5 month old Jeep Chrome alloy wheel. This all took place at traveling about 5 miles per hour and traveling only about 10 feet. I had the vehicle towed to a local repair facility for possible repair or storage as it was evening, and I was blocking traffic. Please note that I did have the vehicle serviced at 20,005 miles in response of the lower ball joint recall, at which time the ball joints were replaced and heat shields installed to avoid future failure of the ball joints. The vehicle at the time of this failure had 38,668 miles, which means these new ball joints only lasted 18,663 miles, with absolutely no off road driving!
I thank God that this failure took place at 5 miles an hour and not while on the highway as I know that I may very well have been killed the result of an instantaneous tire/wheel failure and resulting roll-over.
As I have been a licensed New Jersey driver for 39 years with never having a ball joint failure with any of the many vehicles I have owned, the ball joint recall and subsequent failure are logically related. My driving habits have clearly become more conservative over these years and the fact that my Jeep has never been driven off road, further supports my contention that this ball joint failure is a serious life threatening problem that may very well not have been conclusively corrected with my vehicle or other 2002 Jeep Liberty models.
How many times are you going to post this very same review?
Once is enough dude, we get the point, you're unhappy with Chrysler.
Chill dude! Chill!
No more repeat reviews, no mas, no mas, gracias!
I apologize for the repeat review; I could not find the posting from my first submitted review. Perhaps it was because my 2002 Jeep Liberty is listed under 2001 Jeep Liberty, a model year in which Liberty did not exist. I had correctly completed the review information. I had purchased the vehicle new in 2001, and as a result, my review ended up in an illogical area of the Jeep reviews. I wish I could chill out, however when a manufacturer has a recall and the repaired parts fail, this is a big problem! I am now on my third set of ball joints and don’t know how long they will last! My experience apparently is not just an isolated incident as there are other similar incidents posted on this Web Site as well as other Internet sites. I hope the dealership and Chrysler respond to my request for some indication that the ball joint problem with my vehicle and all Liberty models has been conclusively resolved. I hope that my efforts will help other Jeep Liberty owners avoid injury the result of this apparent design flaw.
To all Liberty owners and mechanics: It is very important to check the ball joints at each oil change. The recall fix did not fix the problem with the ball joints. I recently bought a 2002 Liberty from a dealer on condition that my mechanic look at it first. He told me both ball joints are out. I took it back to the dealer to have them replaced. While at the dealer, they informed me that Chrysler called for the return of all ball joints that they are using to fix the recall. Expect another recall notice soon.
We purchased a 2002 Jeep Liberty LTD with 14K.. It has now about 39K. No problems with it other than the gas mileage. Gee It sure likes to gulp that liquid! We figured we get about 12-14 miles to a gallon and that's straight driving, no stop and go's and its worse for in town driving. We traded in our Ford Expedition for it thinking this was going to be better for us in saving on the fill ups. Not in this case, we had better gas mileage on the Expedition. It a great little SUV, kinda cramped for leg room but other than that its been a good vehical. We are now shopping for something that will be better on mileage. Does not look like gas prices will drop enough for us to keep this on the road.
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