At 19,200 miles the whole transmission is gone. I was driving it recently and I couldn't get out of first gear. The care was towed to the dealership and they said a valve body broke into multiple pieces and they had no idea how that happened. They replaced the part which was $1,000 but thank goodness I am under warranty. Then they gave the car back to me and it functioned appropriately for one day before the transmission did not work appropriately again. Now the car is getting a whole new transmission at 19,200 miles -- can you believe it???
Also, after taking it home for two days after I initally bought it, a wire had to be reconnected because the turn signal did not work.
I really love Jeeps, but the reliability is driving me insane.
The car handles very well.
Let us hope nothing else goes wrong!!!
A problem with the tranny (within 20k miles) makes it a lemon, eh? Not quite. That just makes it a typical jeep.
You can't expect a jeep to be very reliable in tranmission. I remember back 2 years ago, I visited my cousins on the farm, they drove a jeep sahara, and the gears barely meshed.
I wrote the original post to start this thread. According to Jeep as well as the mechanics where I dropped it off, the Liberty transmission is supposed to be quite good. The mechanic said that he hasn't replaced a Liberty transmission since they were introduced.
I think that Jeep understood that they had problems with their transmissions which is why they created the power-train warranty. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a transmission to function properly at 19,200 miles. By the way, it has now been in the shop over a week and I still don't have it back!!!
This is what happens when you mass produce something.
The rate these things (as well as any car, I don't care what friggin brand or what country made it) roll off the production line, it's very very easy for something to be put together incorrectly. And it doesn't take much of a mess up for it to screw up something big like a transmission.
Stuff happens. There are lemons out there, in every manufacturer, and every model. The Liberty trannys are pretty darn tough. And how you treat it has a lot to do with it.
1 Wire disconnected, and a Bad Transmission does not make it a Lemon. A Lemon means that everything is going wrong and nothing is going right. A Transmission can have a defect, just like any other part.
However, if the Transmission does not STAY fixed, after two or three tries you can claim it is a lemon. Or if the tranny, and the engine, and the suspension, and the AC, and the radio and the wipers go - then you can claim it is a lemon.
What you have is a defective transmission.
We have a GM van that was just in the shop for 16 business days. It has had more than 12 MAJOR components fail - and has been in and out of the shop for the three years we have owned it. At 27k, I would call it a Lemon - however the government does not because not all the problems have been on one part, and it has not been in the shop enough days per year. (Close, but not quite).
As the original poster of this thread, I should have known that something else was going to go wrong with this car. It now jumps when I put it into drive.. alas, I fear something is wrong with the transmission again. You just gotta love this poor little vehicle... unfortunately, at this rate it will be someone else's problem sooner rather than later!!
As the once again original poster, I have now have the malfunction indicator light come back on again only 2 months after the full transmission was replaced. I always thought that the car did not drive well and I still believe the transmission is faulty. It is going back to the dealer and Daimler Chrysler is getting a very lovely call tomorrow!!!
2002 Liberty on its fourth tranny (dealership can't find one because Jeep doesn't have tranny problems!). Sounds the same as my Heep or I mean Jeep. Funny how you describe the problems as they are almost exact as what happened to mine. Expect more trouble. Sorry :> (.
Reading the trail of comments it appears that most Jeep owners are gullible in not extremley forgiving. This might be what keeps the company in business over these many years.
Keep it up folks, youre helping keep the economy strong!
For me though, I think I'll buy somthing else.
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