Comment by jasonl99 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jasonl99 | Hacker News Reader

I have a 2013 Jeep Wrangler, that while unrelated to the hacking incident, is quite disturbing in its own right. An Atlanta TV station did a story about the TIPM (Totally Integrated Power Module): http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/channel-2-investigates-...

In my case, the TIPM has failed -- completely -- twice. The first time, I lucked out -- it happend while I was in my condo's parking lot. The Jeep completely died -- engine shut off, power windows didn't work, lights, radio, everything dead. If this had happened on the freeway during the 40-mile freeway drive I was about to do..yikes.

The second time the part failed was overnight. I was awoken at 3 am by my Jeep with its reverse lights on, the horn intermittently beeping, and the headlights and windshield wipers coming on. I could not get it to stop until I disconnected the battery. In both cases the dealership replaced the TIPM. I asked specifically if the part number showed that they had "improved" the part -- but no. It's the same.

There's even been a lawsuit filed to get them to do something about it:

http://www.autosafety.org/cas-calls-nhtsa-investigation-chry...

Long story short -- if you are in the market for a Jeep, PLEASE make sure you are fully informed about the TIPM situation.

Some interesting discussion on the TIPM, complete with pictures, is here: http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f96/oem-tipm-study-1200238/

I wonder how much Chrysler saved by putting so much functionality into one "god object", compared to what it costs them to replace all the failing ones. Also would like to know the exact causes of these failures; the thread linked above suggests bad solid-state relays, which would probably fail regardless of whether they were all put into one TIPM or scattered in separate modules throughout the vehicle.

Edit: in that thread someone experienced the wiper switch behaving like an inverted ignition switch, and another user had a fire related to headlight wiring that apparently is not fused(!) on these models.

I recently bought a two year old car. I was thinking of a Patriot or GC.

I didn't buy it because:

- Everyone that I told I was thinking about this immediately said that Jeep reliability is crap. I didn't do my own research on that, but that this is apparently a front of mind meme was disturbing.

- I had recently read about the gas tank problem. It's mounted aft of the axle. You can see it if you drive just off the rear quarter of a jeep on the highway.

- I also read about Chrysler's handling of the tank problem. Their solution is to mount a tow bar on the vehicle. I guess that's about the best they can do, you're not going to move the tank on an existing vehicle.

- But, they aren't going to do this for all affected vehicles. Because some of them are too rusted out to accept the tow bar. This is apparently in violation of the rules: if you recall a car, you have to fix all of them.

Relability: When it comes to Jeeps their super reliable phase was pretty much pre-2007. Mechanical was reliable because it was all old proven technology.(Thus, very outdated too.) Electrical was very good 1997 through around 2004. AMC based electrical before 1997 was just okay. The AMC electrical had numerous fundamental design issues with the wiring harnesses that made them prone to killing systems if a ground wire was disrupted.

The Gas Tank Thing: The Cherokee (XJ) was designed in the 1980's and the Grand Cherokee (ZJ/WJ) was based on the Cherokee (XJ) even though it debuted in 1993. Locating the gas tank behind the axle in the rear was fairly standard back then. I really can not blame Chrysler when they get defensive about it since that was how vehicles were being built in that time period. They had even switched to double walled plastic tanks by early 1990's which are much less prone to being ruptured. Adding a tow hitch can help, but only other practical solution is to toss on a skid plate.

Even the Wrangler had behind the axle mounted gas tanks through 2006. Both the Wrangler (TJ) and Cherokee (XJ) are not part of the gas tank recall even though they both could be similarly affected.

Volvo 240 has gas tank behind the axle so I'm not sure what all the commotion is about.

The commotion is about people who have died or been injured in Jeep fires.

I don't know why the Volve 240 doesn't suffer from this (I assume it doesn't). Maybe there's more car behind the axle.

Took my 2003 Honda Civic into the dealership for an oil change once, afterwords it starting having electrical issues.. the entire car would shut off at seemingly random times. No stearing (not just loss of power steering, but no steering at all), foot break does not work. This happened momentarily several times while on a freeway.

Turns out it was only a loose battery terminal.

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