jeepgirl513

hi all I'm new to the forum and I'm curious to find out if anyone has had an issue like this: back on 7/26/19 I was the passenger in my 2018 Jeep Wrangler JKU and my sister was driving. We were pulling up to a red light starting to slow down when the brakes weren't working and the car started making a grinding noise. she kept trying the brakes and nothing was happening, the pedal felt normal she said but it just wasn't working. we slowed down a tiny bit but it mostly felt like we were skidding on ice or something (mind you its summer and a dry hot day out). the brakes never engaged and we rear ended the car in front of us which is how the car ultimately stopped. I called the police and they seemed to have doubts about our brake story seeing as we are 2 young girls. They impounded the car because it's not safe and investigated it. They said they don't have proper tech in their body shop to really investigate a Jeep so they didn't have much of an answer. The car was finally towed to Chrysler today for the black box to be investigated after they gave us a hard time. Also, the Jeep dealership I got the car from is backed up 3 weeks and can't have any more cars on their lot (according to the fire Marshall) and for that reason they can't give us a rental car.


Mind you, I don't off-road and the car only has about 11-12,000 miles on it.


BTW this car is a lease so it is definitely still covered under warranty.


Sorry it's so long but I figured I would give the whole story, please LMK if anyone has had a similar experience and has any recommendations on what I should do!!

LC Boyer

Sounds pretty weird. Let us know the outcome

rob_engineer

That "grinding" noise could have been the ABS trying to kick in. I've been following this forum daily for 7.5 yrs. I've never heard someone with brake failure post on here. Thinking maybe a ruptured brake line, but that pedal wouldn't feel normal.

LC Boyer

It’s highly unlikely both brake systems failed.

Rednroll

Based on my personal experience, what you described sounds like a failing wheel hub. The grinding noise would be the bearings in the hub. The speed sensor is mounted on the hub, and when the hub starts to go bad, the speed sensor will get a false reading and think your wheel is spinning on ice, and when you apply the brakes they will not fully engage and feel like they're slipping because it is thinking you are on ice and it would be bad to lock up your brakes while driving on ice.

At least that is the exact scenario I witnessed when one of my front wheel hubs went bad. I was hearing a grinding sound, my brake, traction and ABS lights on the dash came on, and my brakes felt like they were slipping and not engaging when I pressed on the brake pedal. So that would be my best guess of what happened based upon your description.

jeepgirl513

hello again, unfortunately i have just received this bullshit letter in the mail... I really don’t know what to say or do at this point. They are claiming they checked the black box and it says we only braked 1.3 seconds before we crashed into the other vehicle. Obviously that is not true the brakes must have not registered if that’s possible? Or they are just flat out lying to us to avoid having to claim responsibility...
I have seen other people in other forums talk about issues where there brakes would stop working and then start working properly again so it’s possible that that’s why it was fine during the driving test. If anyone has any idea on what I should do that would be greatly appreciated!

rob_engineer

Sounds like you don't have much to stand on. The only thing I would do is ask to see the actual data that showed the 1.3 second braking interval before impact.

Rednroll

You're in uncharted territory, so I don't know what to tell you. Essentially, they have insight to information and analysis that you don't. You would need someone with the expertise to be able to analyze the data on your behalf. Are you entering into some type of litigation for this accident? If that is the case then it will likely come down to having experts on your side, analyzing the black box data on your behalf. Another option would be to seek any video evidence. If this occurred at an intersection, there is a chance camera's were present but you would likely need an attorney to be able to get that evidence. What's interesting to me in the letter is that they used "Bosch" to do the analysis where I have no doubts Bosch would have experts who would be able to do such an analysis, but I would hardly consider them or any subsidiary of Bosch to be an unbiased 3rd party since Bosch is one of the largest automotive suppliers and a supplier to FCA. You have to also take into consideration that any analysis Bosch did was also likely subjected to many eyes at FCA before you received the watered down version interpretation.

An expert doing the analysis of the data on your behalf would be able to provide you the speed you were traveling, what the wheel speed sensors were reading and be able to determine if the ABS was active prior to the 1.3 seconds the braking occurred, as well as provide actual brake pedal data prior to the 1.3 seconds of actual braking.