3 of 4 odi investigation (nhtsa ea01017) & chrysler recall for inadvertent roll-away in reverse...

8/7/2019 3 of 4 ODI Investigation (NHTSA EA01017) & Chrysler recall for Inadvertent Roll-away in Reverse when Parked - RE…

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0 ODIRESUME

us. Depa1ment IN VE ST IGAT ION: E AO l..()17o f T r a n s p o r t a t i o n DATE OPENFJ)~ 01-11-01 DATE C LO SED:

D E C f a a mNatIonal HIGhway SUB JECf: R oll-aw ay inReverse When Parked

TraIIIc SaIaIy PRO :MPTED BY : PEO I-02 1AdmInistraHan PRINCIPAL ENGINBER~ Peter Kivett

MANUFACTURER : D aim le rC h ry sle r C rn po ra tio n

MODEL(S); Jeep Grand Cherokee

MOnEL YEAR(S): 1993-Cmrmt ProducUon

VEHICLE POPULATION: 2,497.981

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION: Drivers allege that after placing th e vehicle inPARK while

stopped on 4 level surface with th e engine running, and at some : t ime- after exiting th e vehicle

( th is tim e 'V a rie s from seconds to ID.O£C tho:n a "ouple or minutes) , the vehicle spontaneously rollsaway inREVERSE.

FA ILU RE -R EPO RT SUMMARY-,

ODI MANUFACTURER TOTAL

COMPLAINTS: 671 361 1038

CRASHES : 142 2 8 2 42 4

#IN1URlES~ 136 56 192

#FATALS ,0 4 4

_ .

,ACTION : T he E ngine ering A na ly sis (HA) has b ee n c lo s ed . Rtor.all 02V - o ' { " f J J _ _

~ ~_ Ll JEN OIN EHK.;_ .. ..

.-;;#~DIVCBF: __,,~ ~CDlR :

DATE : l Q ( f o / " D . ; l . . DA~ ~ A t . - DATE; /2.-1 I' -02...,, /

SUMMARY: On February 13t 2002t DaimIerChrysler submitted a Defect Infoonation ~

to ODI descnbing a condition inapproximatoly 1 .6 million mode l yair (MY) 1993 Ihrough 1998. Jeep Grand Cherokee ("-z.r platfunn) and Grand Wa.goMM" vehicles that oouId contribute to

unexpected reanvanl powered 101lawa.y if a driver has not placed the sIri.fter fully into the ' "Park"

position while the mginc is left running (NHTSA Recall 02V-OS3, Dai.ml~ Recall i f .

B02). DaimlmChryBle r advised ODI inFebruary 2002 that it was developing a modificat ion to

th e shifter assembly to be used as th e recall remedy. The modification involved the instalIatioo

of a sccondmy detent device inthe shifter assembly to promote proper shifting into ~"Park.~'

DaimlerCbryslc r sent interim notices to owners co nce rn in g this p ro blem o n Much 22 " 2002~pending final validation of tim recall parts. Owne r notification filr the recall campaign began

Septembec 23 " 2002 .F ollo wing D aim le rC hry sle rs re ca ll o f th e :zJ v eh icle s, 0 01 cOIlt inued to investigate

sirnilar complaints in th e redesigned M Y 1999 through cu r ren t product ion Gnmd Cherokee

vehicles r~J" platform). The WI vehicles are equipped with a redesigned shifter assembly

that is located closer to the driver and incorporates a secondary detent device. Inaddition, the

WI v eh ic le s equipped with th e 4.7L V -8 engine have a r ede s igned t ran smi ss ion . and transmission

"Park"" sys tem .

~



EAOI-017

MY 1993-02 Jeep Grand Cherokee False Puk

The alleged defect oondition involves a scenario whm the driver attempts, but

fails, to place the shifter ful ly into t he '"Park" position with the engine numin.g and the

parking brake disengaged. Inmany of the reported incidents~ including most of those

involving crash or injury. th e rearward m O v e m e n t did not begin until after the driver had

exited the vehicle, A typical incident involve8 the following elements: (1) the driver

attempt!: to place th e shifter inth e "Park" position with th e engine numing and the

vehicle resting stationary on a level surface; (2) the shifter is mt placed fully into th e

'"Park" positioa, but is perceived by the driver to be in~"ark;" (3) " t h e driver- exits the

vehicle to perfoan an errand without turning off the engine, !CUing the paIking brake, or

removing the keyti; from the ignition - note that the keys cannot be removed from th e

ignition unless the shifter is fully inth e ~ark" position; and (4) after some: delay ranging

from IIfew scoondB to s e v e r a l m inu te s, the rev ers e circuit inside the tmnmJiuiou

develops sufficient hydraulic pressure to cause the vehicle to move rearward,

While the condition is initiated by dr ive r e r ro r~there a re ce rtain vehic l e designclmmcteristiQi that have been identiti.ed by ODI and Daimlc:rChrysIer that ctUl influence

th e opportUnity for the error to occur. DaimlerOlrysl.er maintains that ~A uniqueoombination of four elements - ergonomics, shifter desi~ tnms.miEsion design, and1rannni!sion Pat:k. system des ign ~may be a contributor to the operator errors leading to

- a b e cmnplaint rate: for the 1993-1998 Grund Cherokee [ZI]population.. . ODI believes

that certain aspects of the shifter and transmission desigDB are important oontnbuton to

th e risk of the alleged defect .

One important c lmnte te ris tic o f the 1Iansrnission d e s i g n is the u se D f a manu aldetent lever w ith • "flat" area between the "R ev ers e" a nd "Pmk'~detents (Figure l) ,

'l'hiI D I I I D I B l de«:J:n lem' is OQ all

ZJ IlDil:l1Im1missiom1 and all 6eyI, WJ m o d . e - ] transmi.l1imIL

..Figure 1

The manual detent lever conveys the driver's gear s c l e c 1 i o n to the trausmission and starts

the hydraulic activity inside the transmission. The flat spot: on the manual detent level"

u sed inthe se tra nsm is sio os d iffe rs from the tooth profile de sign th at is mo re c ommon ly

used in the industry. Tbis flat spot on the manual detent 1 e v m - ca n increase theopportunity for 1Mdriver shifting errors to occur, Ifthe driver fails to completely engage

"Puk" t the &hifter can allow the manual valve to stop inthis area (on the flat spo tbetween "Park" and "Rev e rs e ") and hydraul icQ] ly activatE: the reverse circuitry within th e

transmission. Thu s, failu re of the driver to fully engage "Park" Clanresult in8 powe red

mllaway.



EAOI-017

MY 1993-02 Jeep ~ Cherokee False Park

'Ibis scenario does not apply to th e M Y 1999 and later VB transmissions dneto a

significant design change that incorporated a sharp ~~ peak and qu ick drop off

into "Park" a s s een inFigure 2. These transmissi0D3 are unique indesign inthat they

incotpotate, among other things~ a "~manual v al ve mechan ism that Jiydraulically

engages the selected gear . Un1ike the design used on earlier t ransmissions, this

mechanism does not incorporate a ~~ Comb" (Figure 1)that rotates around its axis.

The poeJibly of leaving the shifter between "Revene '~ and UPZ-k" is therefore

significantly reduced.

F igu re 2

Inaddition to the Changes in the transmission. DaimlerChrysler~ in moving from

t i m earlier ZJ pla tfbrm to the newer WJ platform. inMY 1999 Jo improved the floor IbifterfimctionaJity end ergonomics infour differmt ways; (1) locnting the shifter closer to the

driver; (2) adding a secondary detent spring to the shifter inan ef for t to aJhance feedback

from the shift detent to the driVClr (Figme 3); (3) decreasing the size of the PRNDL

window to make it more visually defined; and (4 ) designing a geambiR selector button

. 1 hat cre ate . a n audible click and tlctile feedback when th e sbifter is properly engaged in"'Padr.."

Figure 3



·1EAOI-0l7

MY 1993-02 Jeep Grand Che ro ke e Fal! le Park

COMPLAINT RATES OBI AND DAIMLRRCHRYSLER COMBINED:

Tables 1 and 2 provide failure data for b oth th e :recalled zr " V e h i c l e s and the WJ

vehicles that have not been recalled . Table1 shows the total figures and a s s oci at ed ratest ha t have been received by ODI and DaimlerChrysler. Table 2 shows the data tb r

complaints received before July 5:t2001.

Table 1

"

Tolaf

lJ Roo3\Ied Popu la ti onW J 1 998-02 M Y,_

1993-98MV

i f t r t : : ! g _ O O Q : : l A ., 1513.630 894.351

Inddants 703 241~85 309 13~

l r:-iuri&8 1 4 6 47

Fatalities 2 0

~100K Incidents - 4 6 . . 4 27.6

RataltOOK Crashes 20A 15.1

Ratel100K Injuries 9.6 5.3Ratel100K fala1ffies 0.1 0 . 0

The WJ Platform complaint rate before July 5, 2001 crable 2), when there wasa u bs tlm tia I mOO ia co ve ra ge is 2 .5 in cid en ts p er tO O ~ O O Ov eh icle s s old . ·Th is rate increased

abruptly after Ju ly S, 2001.· T o as ses s the relevatlCe o f c on s ume r oomplaintn RceiVed inthis investigatioo,. ODI b B d to take into account the potential fo r inflated·rates du e to

publicity as well as exposure. Themfore~ ODI compared the average elapsed time

between the: reported rollaway incident date and campIaint date for each model

yearfplatformflramroission combination. This in fo rm atio n w a s then categorized so as to

dettmnine the effect of the July S t 2001 meWa ccw era ge .. C ompla ints re ce iv ed p rio r toJuly 5, .2001 pGrllililing to incidmts that also occurred priot1o this date averaged f ou r

m . o n t : 1 m between in cid en t and c omp la in t date. Complaints received after July S , 2 00 1 tIWrelated to incidents prior to thi6 date averaged 1 9 m onths betw een incident and complaint

dates . Complaints received after July S~ 2001 that iIwolved incidents that doo 0 C C U I r e d

after this date averaged one month between incident and complaint date.

Table 2

Before July 6 , 2 00 1

iZ J Ra cs Jle d P opu latio n 1 99 3-W J 1 998-02 M Y

9BMY

P r O c : b J c t i o n 1,513630 814.074

nclden1s 219 20. . . . . " A . 163 14

. . . .

--~W o I u r ie : S 42 5

! E _a t a l l t i t l s 0 0

~100K Inckfents 14.5 2.5

RatW100K Crashes 10.8 1 . 7

iRa te tJOOK l rW_rI e5 2.8 0.6

~te.r1 O O K F B t a lJ l ie s 0 . 0 0 . 0



EA01...o17

My 1 993-02 Jeep Grand Cherok e e Fa ls e Park:PageS

TESTING:VRTC conducted a comprehens ive testing program that compared th e Z J to th e

W I phrtfunn for both 6 and 8 cy L m odels . F urtherm ore; V RT C com pared the shift

c ha ra cte ris tics o f th e s u bj ect vehicles with those of certain peer SUV vehicles that also

used floor ..mounted shiflers.

VRTC tested for:

• S hift F on.clD ct1 cd:io n

• Shift ergonomics .

• Inspeeeed oomplaint vehiclesTest results can be found in the test report, wbidJ. is entitled: ""Unintended Pewee Roll-

a.way inREVERSE- alter Paddng Jeep Grand Cherokee.'~ Rq:Iort #VRTC-DCDI 030

A summar y of testing pafonned by V RTC to support this inves tiga tion .

d emon s tr ate d un in te nd ed powered rollaway inreverse was more likely to occur on the ZJ

Jeep Gnnd Cherokees than other vehicles tested. Unintended powered r o11away in

reverse was found to be poss ible on W J G rand C herokees . more so with 6 eyl. engines

using the Mod el4 2RB tra nsmis sio n than with VB tmgin es and th e Mod el4 SRFE

transmission.

F IE LD ANALY SIS :ODI inspected atotal of eight subject vehicles inthe field and five at VRTC . Peer

vehicles werc also : inspected at VRTC. The investigator w a s able to induce a "False

PadC" inall Z J models anc rin ~all 6 cyl. WJ models, but not inthe 8 cyI. WI models.

REASON FOR CLOSING:

DaimIeJChrysler has re ca lle d th e ZJmodels to jn oo rp ora te a s ec on da ry detent

spring into the shlfter. Even though the WJ 6 cyl. vehicles use the same manual.detent

lever that a s . the vehicles inth e recall p op u la tio n,. OD I b elie ve s th at th e WI redesigneddrifter, which improves floor shifter functionality and ergonomics as previously

discussed, helps to provide feedback to the driver to indicate whether "Perk" bas or has

not been achieved, Although tilt: investigator was able to induce a "False Pm" inthe WJ

pJatfonn for 6 cyl. vehicles, the level of difficulty was greater than that requi red for all Z1models, and the complaittt rate was significantly lower than th e recalled ZJ popuktion.

Further. the ODI investigator was also able to create a "False Park" inpeer vehicles with

the s am e level of difficulty .and frequency as the subject vehicle WJ platform, The WJ

c omp la in t r ate wa s inflated du e tonational exposu re through the pIe Ss . T he compla intmte prier to th e July S, 200t m edia coverage for the WI v eh ic le s is s im ila r to the peer

vehicle incident rate.

Based on the above, a safety-relatcd defect trend "basnot been identified at thistime m th e WI populldion. Accordingly~ this invest igation is dosed with a safety recall(02V.Q53) for th e Z 'J models. T he clos ing of this inves tigation does not cons titu te a

iinding by NIITSA that no safety-related defect exists in the W J models. The agm.cy

will take fur ther action if warranted by the ciroumstances.

3 of 4 odi investigation (nhtsa ea01017) & chrysler recall for inadvertent roll-away in reverse...

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