Sean Heiney of Ann Arbor, Michigan was driving his 2010 Jeep Wrangler home when all of a sudden the brakes failed. Then his power steering went. Then he noticed smoke. Within a minute his car was surrounded by flames.
His was not the first late-model Jeep to catch fire, as a number of incidents of Wranglers experiencing massive system failures with no warning before bursting into flames have been reported to the Department of Transportation. Owners have also mentioned this issue on forums.
Heiney even claims he was offered more money than the value of his car — an amount Chrysler termed "generous" — in return for never discussing the matter publicly. So what's going on here?
"I was driving for about five minutes from a cold start near downtown — and it's unusually warm in Michigan so I wasn't running the A/C or anything — I was driving around 25-35 mph on a busy city street and the brakes failed — I noticed the light was turning yellow — I ran the red light because my brakes weren't stopping," Heiney explains.
"I thought my car stalled and I noticed the dash was still lit up," he says. "I see smoke coming up the dash and I see flames coming up the window."
Heiney was able to get the car off the road and bail before it was completed engulfed in flames. It took just a minute for the fire department to arrive but at that point it was too late.
Heiney's situation isn't unique.
The 2008-2010 Jeep Wrangler — part of the JK series of Wranglers — has the unfortunate distinction of being an American vehicle that was banned from import by the Chinese government over fires, an issue Chrysler says it resolved.
At the time, Chrysler said they were aware of the fire and said they issued a recall in February 2010 to deal with an issue where transmission fluid could overheat under "extreme and/or abusive driving conditions under rigorous off-road conditions."
Chrysler in their statement went on to say that "Outside of China, Chrysler Group is not aware of any vehicle fires related to this condition once the recall was completed."
Except reports of fires have continued. A search of the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration's (NHTSA) Office of Defect Investigations (ODI) going back to October 2010 — eight months after the recall — shows five reports of 2010 MY Jeep Wranglers experiencing fires similar to Heiney's.
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After the incident occurred with Heiney he said he banged his head against the wall trying to get someone to answer him. He looked into the issue and discovered all the other customers with similar issues.
Eventually, he heard from Chrysler and says they offered to buy his Jeep back at full sale value plus some additional funds — but he'd have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. He refused, saying he demanded to know why this keeps happening and what Jeep planned to do about this.
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