Need advice on Burning JK’s.
I have been reading a lot about burned JK’s. I have an Auto 2009 Unlimited JK. I bought it new. It is my wife daily driver. I have a 2 month old baby that is with her all the time. My biggest concern is the jeep getting burned with my kid inside. A 2 month old baby is not quick to remove in a car on fire. My JK smelled like burned oil after city ride since day 1. I took it to the dealer 3 times and they said it is normal because the car is new . After 4000 miles the odor disappeared but I am still concern about it. Reading about Burning JK's I am associating it with my JK odor. I have a lift kit at home ready to install with tires and everything(Recived it Friday). Is Ok! to install bigger tires and lift kit on the JK or it will put more pressure on the transmission getting more risk to get fire?? My JK has 13500 milles now.
What would be your advice considering my 2 month old baby is on the Jeep almost daily? Do I need to sell it and buy a manual Trans. JK since the dealer says the car is in perfect working condition??. What would be your advice? I am really concern about it. If I have to change my JK maybe now is the time to find a good deal in a 2010 JK because the 2011 are out there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

You should check and see if you need the transmission recall done on it. Sounds like if it's been to the dealer ship it has been done. I had mine done a couple weeks ago but I'm still going to install a trans cooler and that will take care of it for good. IMO

 

Your concerns are valid and there are two things you should do with your rig. First is installing a transmission cooler. Second is with larger tires, make sure you have the appropriate gear set to support them. Every JK with an automatic is under geared. Kicking down and unlocking the converter places strain on the automatic transmission fluid, possibly boiling it and that is the root cause of the fires. Not just for JKs, but a variety of chrysler vehicles.

If you can't afford to re-gear with larger tires, run with OD off. This will limit the amount of stress on the fluid and transmission. It's much preferable to spin the motor a bit more than having the transmission hunt gears. It's also extremely important to use something like a ProCal or Superchips to calibrate your speedometer as the speedometer is an integral part of determining shift points.

 

I've witnessed a single event in a JK in which the engine compartment caught on fire. The reason was because the owner put on aftermarket ceramic headers and didn't protect his sparkplug wires. The wires were supposed to be either wrapped with heat wrap or tied up away from the headers. Well that didn't happen and whille 4 wheeling (slow speeds + lots of engine work = hot engine compartment), a sparkplug wire melted and spaked against the header and ignited. Luckily there were plenty of extinguishers around. In the end, no permanent damage except three burnt plug wires.

You mention being worried about bigger tires. If you run huge tires with crappy axle ratios, then your tranny has to work harder. The "right" answer is to regear your axles to match your tires, then your tranny will NOT have to work harder. A secondary option would be to put a tranny cooler on to keep temperatures down.

I've gotten the "hot oil" alarm once, I was trying to climb a long steep hill in 4 hi (I have 4.11 gears with 35's). So my advice is to use 4 lo when playing around on steep hills, rocks, etc. Save 4 hi for snow.

Remeber, this is a forum, there is a tendancy for the worst stories to get the most attention. True people's JK's have caught on fire. But that is the 0.0001% of all JK's. Remeber for each bad story you hear there are 10,000s of people who have not had that issue.

In conclusion, you'll be fine, a good precausion would be to keep a fire extinguisher in the JK (I do), with easy access. Di-tech has one that mounts by the driver seat or there are plenty that attach to the rear roll cage.

 

One thing to think about too, just to ease your worries...

You mention that it isn't a quick process to remove your 2 month old from your Jeep. Have you thought about those Graco infant carrier / car seat basis? We used those for both our children, and lamented when they out grew them as getting them in and out of the vehicles are literally a 10 second process.

Regardless of vehicle fires, its a good back saver

 

I am scared of the same, but not because of a baby, but because of the Jeep (I guess she is my baby). But here are some products that you can look at to definitely will make sure you and your baby don't get set on fire.

DJ Saftey
SPA AFFF Designs
OMP AFFF Systems

Halon
More stuff

These are just what I recommend IMO. I am no means an expert on putting out vehicle fires. But from the research I have done, you want AFFF foam, it smothers the fire and does not destroy the plastics and electrical system of the vehicle. The Halon is good, but can blow away in the wind. The powder stuff is a pain to clean up, and wind can take it too.
I would love to install a full system in my Jeep, just a matter of time.

But I would not worry about your Jeep spontaneously combusting. Be smart and check any modifications done to your Jeep. Check electrical work and any re-routing of lines. Crappy electrical work seems to be the culprit of the fires. But considering some of us invest a college fund into our Jeeps, spending the $500 bucks on a real fire system instead of a plastic kitchen fire extinguisher seems smart to me.

Again, all just my opinion.

 

Thank you all for the responses. What is a good place to install the transmission cooler?. Can it be installed at the dealer?.
Ones again many thanks!!

 

Honestly,a JK isn't an extremely safe vehicle to begin with. Chrysler even states that the top and doors are only for protection from the elements.They aren't designed to protect yoou in a collision. The sport cage isn't a "roll" cage and isn't designed for any real protection either.

I'd be more concerned about how your Jeep would protect you in a collision than about it catching on fire.

 

I investigate collisions for a living. I too thought the JK wasnt a very safe vehicle. Based on the last collision I looked at, I was wrong. The JK Unlimited, did a great job of protecting the occupants from a severe frontal collision. I cant speak from experience on the roll-over protection but from a frontal collision, five stars for sure. The occupants walked away, unhurt. Keep in mind a lot of those warnings are there because of attorney's and really stupid people.

Flash

 

Here's a very helpful thread on installing a cooler. Easy enough with simple tools, but even if you had a shop do it, it's not an expensive upgrade for the added peace of mind. I'd also make sure your Jeep is current on all of it's TSB's including the 'hot oil' update;

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...mission-Cooler