Hood latch failure

An NHTSA Engineering Analysis into Jeep vehicles. Closed 10 February 2004.

Investigation
EA02029
Type
Engineering Analysis
Opened
16 October 2002
Closed
10 February 2004

What NHTSA investigated

Odi opened EA02-029 to determine whether a safety-related defect trend existed in the my 1997 jeep grand cherokee hood latch assemblies.during EA02-029, there was no specific failure mechanism identified that could differentiate the my 1997 vehicles from other vehicles containing this same hood latch assembly or could account for their higher complaint rate.as a result, odi expanded the scope of this investigation to include all grand cherokee vehicles equipped with the subject hood latch assemblies.in performing EA02-029, it was determined that some of the secondary hood latches in the subject vehicles may exhibit increased operating frictional resistance; however, since none of the primary hood latches showed any evidence of mechanical or operational deficiency and the complaint rate of hood fly-ups measured over an extended exposure time was low, a safety-related defect trend has not been identified at this time.

Vehicles covered

MakeModelModel years
JeepGRAND CHEROKEE1993–1998

Source

From NHTSA’s investigation file, rebuilt daily. To report a problem with your own vehicle, go to nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem. All open investigations.