A trim issue has forced Jeep to recall every Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer it made between the start of production for model year 2022, on February 24, 2021, and June 7, 2022, when model year 2023 was in progress. The problematic piece could interfere with the deployment of the side curtain airbag.
Jeep must recall a total of 44,708 model year 2022–2023 examples in all, and anticipated that 15 percent of them has a piece of upper B-pillar trim that is not fully seated due to an assembly error. That may compromise the inflation of the side curtain airbag on certain Wagoneers and Grand Wagoneers, which is a safety issue.
The automaker first became aware of the defect on June 14, 2022, but has not revealed how many field reports it has received relating to the issue. It did not disclose whether it has received reports of any injuries in documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Read: Toyota Recalls 110,000 Vehicles Over Issue That Could Cause Driver’s Side Airbag Not To Deploy
Over the course of the ensuing year, Jeep investigated the root causes of the problem, examined potential consequences, and attempted to determine the population of vehicles that were likely to experience the issue.
By June 2023, it had determined that the upper B-pillar trim in the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer was the part to blame. It also found that the issue wasn’t related to the design of the piece, but rather the assembly of the vehicle, and decided to launch a voluntary recall.
Jeep plans to start reaching out to owners of affected vehicles on September 22, 2023, and will ask them to return their vehicle to a nearby dealer. There, the upper B-pillar trim will be inspected to see if it is seated correctly. A technician will then reseat or replace trim pieces as necessary. Since the issue is related to installation, and not design, any parts that are correctly affixed to the vehicle do not need to be replaced.
