Jeep Grand Cherokee (WJ) - Sticky Power Door Locks

When: May, 2002
Categories:

After a couple days of driving off-pavement , my not quite two-year-old 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee's power door locks stopped working. All four of them.

The Jeep was still under warranty when I brought it in to be fixed. My dealer decided the appropriate fix was to replace the entire inside panels of all four doors. This was well over $1000 in parts that Chrysler would pay for. I expressed concern that this might be fixing only the symptom (not the problem). What would happen the next time I went driving off-pavement? I was told to wait and see if that happened, and they'd worry about it then.

Sure enough, a couple days into my next off-pavement trip , my power door locks gradually stopped working again.

When I brought the Jeep back into the dealership, it had 38000 miles on the odometer, so I was beyond the primary factory warranty period, but I thought the extended warranty which I had purchased would be equally valid. The Service Representative disagreed. He now considered this same problem to be my fault, and not a factory design issue. The Service Representative explained that (and I quote), "The Grand Cherokee is a 'pavement pounder'... It's not an off-road vehicle." The dealership had not fixed the problem the first time — dust was still disabling my power door locks. But it was now financially my problem. I would have to pay $300 to have them clean out my doors.

I complained to the Service Manager, and he quickly backpedaled when confronted with the "not an off-road vehicle" comment. Apparently, this statement had originated from the mechanic who had inspected my doors. The Service Manager was polite, but steadfastly unhelpful in getting Chrysler to fix the power door lock issue.

Dusty Door - How did all that dust get in there? Slider - Unlubricated

At home, I took apart the Jeep's doors myself. It was amazing just how much dust was getting in behind the door panels. Why was all that dust allowed to get in there?

The problem with my Jeep's sticky locks was immediately apparent: The power mechanism worked just fine, but the door locks' hand-operated slider levers were of a poor design, where dust-aggravated friction would cause the tabs would bind in the soft plastic slots.

Fixing this was easy: I simply sprayed the sliders with white lithium grease. Why was this not done at the factory?

What I've learned from all this:

  • The Jeep's power door locks are easily foiled by dust, but easily fixed with grease.
  • The dealer is willing to waste Chrysler's money rather than taking the time to find the real fix.
  • Extended warranties aren't honored like factory warranties.

[Update 2008: This Jeep Grand Cherokee now has 82000 miles on it, and the dusty but lubricated locks are still working fine.]