I just read the thread below about yet another JK catching fire. That makes 6 now (or is it 7?). But what I find it strange is that we now have 6 or 7 reports here of JKs spontaneously bursting into flames, yet a search of nhtsa.gov yields not a single report of such an incident.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/defects/

and

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/complaints/


160+ complaints about the stall bug, a number of complaints about brake failures, and a few other miscellaneous problems, but not a single word about any fires.

If this happened to me, THE VERY FIRST THING I WOULD DO IS FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTSA. One person here indicated that they had contacted a lawyer. If I were a lawyer presented with such a case, THE VERY FIRST THING I WOULD DO IS FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTSA, so that it would be documented with a government agency to help with my case down the road (as well as any future cases). All have said they worked through their insurance company. If I were an insurance agent or adjuster, THE VERY FIRST THING I WOULD DO IS FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE NHTSA.

Which begs the question...why hasn't anyone done that? Don't get me wrong, I'm not accusing anyone of lying here...the pictures of burned out Jeeps speak 1,000 words, and I am very concerned about this issue. But I find it very very strange that none of the 6 who took the time to report it here bothered to also report it to the nhtsa, a government body that has the authority to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And none of their lawyers did either. Or their insurance companies. Strange. Very strange.

 

if you search 2008 model year 4 door there is a report of a JK burning. it had only 4,200 miles

but yes more people need to file complaints.

 

yeah why are there no complaints filed?? It would be one of the first things I would do also

 

THE VERY FIRST THING I WOULD DO IS........................
GET THE HELL OUT OF THE BURNING JEEP!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Statistically speaking, JK forum members represent just a small percentage of the general JK-driving population. Even if we generously assume that 20% of the people who drive a JK visit JK forum (in reality it's probably less than 5%), that means statistically there should be 30 JKs that have burst into flames in the general population. And if we use the more realistic 5% figure, the number jumps to 100. Yet still only ONE report of a burning JK to the NHTSA (there is one report for a 2008, as someone pointed out - I only searched for the 2007 model year, since I think all of the flaming ones reported here have been 2007s).

So....either (a) JK-forum members are incredibly unlucky in the sense that we have the only 6 Jeeps that have burst into flames, (b) JK-forum members are doing something with their JKs that causes them to burst into flames (something the general JK-driving population doesn't do, such as taking them off road), or (c) something is statistically very wrong here. But no matter what, there should be more than one report of this at NHTSA. There should be at least 6, and statistically there should be many many more. Why is that not the case?

 

Yeah, ok, you got me there lol. But still, the very NEXT thing I would do is...well...change my underwear...THEN I'd report it to the NHTSA (the Jeep, not the underwear).

 

Well to really throw your numbers all out of wack, there were 119,000 sold in 2007, thats not including those sold in 2006 and those sold in 2008, so I'm thinking you might be kinda close with the 5% but definately way off with the 20% though Eddie would be really happy with 20% lol

 

Agreed. So if it's 5%, then there are 5,950 JK owners here. 6 of them had their Jeep spontaneously combust. If we apply that statistic to the general population, then there should be roughly 114 more Jeeps out there that have caught fire. So I ask again, WHY HAS ONLY ONE BEEN REPORTED TO THE NHTSA??? Come on, guys, this doesn't make sense. I refuse to believe that this is happening that often and nobody has reported it. Something is fishy here. Even if you double the number of Jeeps sold (to include 2006 and 2008), that still means more than 50 cases of spontaneous combustion. And only one reported. It doesn't add up.

And even if the 6 we know about are the only 6 to have burned (and that would make us a pretty unlucky group of owners), it still doesn't make sense that only one of them reported it. Unless there's something they're not telling us. Do you guys know something the rest of us don't?

 

Dont forget, one of the first things people do when they have a problem is tell their friends (or join a forum and tell everyone). So you will never get a good statistical representation from a forum that you could project to the whole Jeep population. We have a higher concentration of problems here because most members only joined to find help with a problem.

So are there more then 6 out there? Probably, but there's no way to project a number from this sample.

But yeah, it is odd that only one complaint has been filed Although I wonder how many people know where to go to file a complaint.