The Jeep Wrangler Corrosion Problem Is Worse Than I Thought

You’d expect a modern vehicle to have paint that sticks to the body for a good few years at least. Sadly, as we’ve explored this week, Jeep is struggling quite severely in this regard. So many JT Gladiator and JL Wranglers are suffering with this issue that my inbox is overflowing. More owners keep hitting me up with their tales of woe, and there’s even a class action in progress.

If you’re just tuning in, these are the basic facts: There’s a corrosion issue affecting Wranglers built from 2018 onwards, and Gladiators from 2020 onwards (these dates represent the start of production for the “JL”-generation Wrangler and the related “JT” Gladiator). The issue most commonly presents itself as bubbling or flaking paint, usually around the door hinges or the lower door panels. However, as I’ve since learned, it can also show up on the hood, hood hinges, tailgate, or tailgate hinges, too.

This issue is common enough (Jeep sells 200,000+ Gladiators and Wranglers annually (combined)) that I’m still getting a flood of tips. At one point, I’d gotten so many pictures of corrosion I totally lost track of whose was whose. I headed back to the Facebook group to post the pics and hunt down the owner, with hilarious results. “Mine looks like that but yellow!” declared Mario. “Mine looks like that but blue!” said Jacque. And the riffing continued ad nauseum in a perfect “I am Spartacus”  moment.

It turned out the images belonged to Paula Kay, whose story we heard in the previous article. Still, I met another one owner convinced that the images were from their white Jeep—Anthony, from Massachusetts. He’d faced exactly the same problems. “My 2018 Jeep JL has been to the body shop three times now over the past five years for paint bubbling issues all over the vehicle,” Anthony told me.

Some have raised the question as to whether this issue comes down to paint color. Without having Jeep’s warranty stats on hand, we can’t say conclusively. What I can say is that I’ve seen terrible bubbling on Jeeps of all colors, from white to red to green to black, just like the photos below. They’re from Nicole Smith Martin, who has recently left her Jeep with the dealer for repair.

It’s not obvious at first, but if you look closely, you can see the paint has totally flaked off the hinge. The second photo shows bubbling on the hood. “Mine started this year, [and the] warranty expires in August,” explained Nicole. “Hopefully, the dealership is ordering four new doors and a hood like they said they were.”

Meanwhile, Shannon Geyer had a more unique problem. She’d wrapped her Wrangler with custom graphics, which had to be removed to deal with the corrosion. “Stellantis would not cover replacement of my custom graphics so I was stuck paying that out of pocket,” she explains. “Now that the graphics are done again I’ve found more corrosion and it will have to go back again, just to cost me more.” She’s found corrosion on the hinges, doors, and hood, and suspects there may be some on the windshield frame, too.

“It makes customizing your rig a huge risk,” Shannon told The Autopian. “My graphics would have lasted me several more years if not the lifetime of me owning my Jeep.” It’s a poignant note, given how many Jeep owners love customizing their vehicles.

A Big Deal

As it turns out, this issue didn’t just pop up overnight. A class action suit was filed back in 2021 over this very matter. The matter of Orozco, et al v. FCA US, LLC is being heard in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Of course, the slow pace of the legal system means that this case is still apparently moving through the courts, with a status conference slated for July 9.

Stellantis did get back to us for this story. Sadly, it didn’t tell us a whole lot.

Model-year 2018 migration to an aluminum door design – a weight-saving measure – inadvertently coincided with, initially, occasional variation in the manufacturing process.

The issue described may occur in a fraction of these vehicles. Accordingly, we are providing affected customers with a solution.

Okay, so Stellantis is telling us there’s a “variation” in the manufacturing process. That means some part of the process isn’t being controlled properly and is leading to defects. We don’t get to know what that might have been or whether it’s still happening.

As we discussed previously, a current repair TSB from Stellantis involves fitting a zinc shim in between the door and the hinge. “The shim helps mitigate material properties that may induce corrosion,” a Stellantis representative told The Autopian. Zinc is often used as a sacrificial metal in this regard in applications like boat hulls or marine structures. This is because it preferentially corrodes over other metals like aluminum and steel under certain conditions.

Many have speculated that dissimilar metal corrosion is the root cause here. The zinc shim added more fuel to that suspicion. However, it still seems unlikely given the evidence out in public. The hinges and doors are both made of aluminum on the affected vehicles. Plus, we’re seeing hoods and doors corrode in areas where there is no dissimilar metal contact. That seems to tell us this is a paint or sealing issue of some sort. On doors and hoods, moisture might even be playing a role. It’s worth noting most photos show bubbling near edges of panels and seams.

I could give you a stack more photos and case studies, but instead, we’ll talk about what affected owners can do. The best course of action is to pursue a repair within the five-year corrosion warranty period. Contacting a dealership with a good body shop on hand seems to be the best bet according to affected owners. Getting a repair with a good color match to your original paint seems to be down to the luck of the draw in some cases.

Rust bubbles: Any advice?
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Sadly, a repair is no guarantee that the issue is solved. As shared by YouTuber Evolved Jeepin, the problem is recurring for some owners.

I did, however, want to get the lowdown from someone on the other side of things — an owner who hasn’t had these same problems. I chatted with fellow auto writer Zerin Dube, who owned a 2018 Wrangler until quite recently. His Jeep was luckily spared from the rot, and his photos from 2023 give us a great example of what these hinges are supposed to look like. “No issues whatsoever, corrosion or otherwise, but we sold it last summer,” he told me.

Still, Zerin understands the frustration of his fellow Jeepers. “My honest thought is FCA didn’t acknowledge the issue fast enough, [and] didn’t give dealers the tools or SOP to fix the issue,” says Zerin. “[It] made customers have inconsistent experiences when trying to get repairs covered and the entire thing was one massive cock up.” He also questions why the issue has rolled on for so long. “It happened across multiple model years, despite this being a known issue early on,” he says. “FCA should and could have addressed it.”

In any case, if you’re out of warranty, your situation is altogether tougher. Some owners have posted that Jeep has covered their repairs under goodwill, others have been left wanting. Many are flocking to forums and Facebook groups in search of advice to get the best results.

We’ve talked about this at length this week, so let’s wrap this thing up. It seems like Jeep got something a little wrong with the paint on these Wranglers and Gladiators, and those chickens are coming home to roost—in big numbers. That really sucks for a vehicle that is otherwise a bonafide American icon. Here’s hoping Jeep can sort these issues once and for all, and restore the confidence of its customers.

Image credits: Shannon Geyer, Mike Haines, Nicole Smith Martin, Jeep