Unbelievable corrosion on 2008 Jeep Liberty Front Axles

[Michaelmcgo]

I took the wheels off my wife's Liberty last night to replace the brakes and noticed something I've never seen before. Both front axles (I only inspected the visible portions) and axle nuts were severely corroded into a yellow powder. I was able to easily remove chunks by hand. There is no hint of the hex feature left on the axle nuts and no remaining thread on the ends of the axles. We are the second owners and the Jeep has always been a daily driver, not a trail Jeep. These are the factory original axles.

At first I thought the problem might be more widespread but a quick check showed only the two front axles suffering from this extreme corrosion. I called Jeep sent these pictures to our dealership so we'll see if they help us out here.

I am an Engineer and deal with different steels a lot as well as some corrosion testing and have never seen corrosion like this before. Something weird is going on here but our dealership claims they never saw anything like this before.

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[tommudd]

A "LOT " of the KKs I have been around have the same issue
Owners should be inspecting and taking care of their Libertys better.
Only saw a very few KJs like this, well not even half as bad really.

 

[dude1116]

That's absolutely incredible. My 04 doesn't look anything like that.

I'd imagine you may have to replace the hub assemblies along with the axles. Only way to really tell is by getting it all apart...somehow...

 

[Michaelmcgo]

A "LOT " of the KKs I have been around have the same issue
Owners should be inspecting and taking care of their Libertys better.
Only saw a very few KJs like this, well not even half as bad really.

You have seen corrosion this severe on other KKs? I called Jeep corporate and they said there was no recall related to corrosion or axles. I'll be taking it into the dealership for further investigation but I assume they're going to want to hook me with the $1k bill...

 

[k99jk99j]

If you can't get the axle splines out of hub, can you take the axle through the hub hole?

 

[CzarKJ]

Ya just take the whole hub off and the axle should come with.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[k99jk99j]

My 2012 axle splines and nut is corroding in a similar way, but is not as bad as the picture.

 

[tommudd]

You have seen corrosion this severe on other KKs? I called Jeep corporate and they said there was no recall related to corrosion or axles. I'll be taking it into the dealership for further investigation but I assume they're going to want to hook me with the $1k bill...

Yes seen some just as bad as yours on KKs
But just minor on KJs even from the rust belt
strange

 

[Dave]

Wow, that's a lot of rust. My KJ is 12 years old and not like that. I have never seen rust that bad and confined to one area too. (the rotor looks ok)There should be a recall if there are many like that. Keep photos/records, etc in case of a recall at a later date to help get reimbursement.

Dave

 

[tommudd]

My 03s when I was checking it out before I bought it just had minor surface rust, have changed the CVs and were real easy to remove.
BUT yes the KK, not sure what it is but have seen 5 or 6 almost as bad and a couple just as bad

 

[tjkj2002]

I took the wheels off my wife's Liberty last night to replace the brakes and noticed something I've never seen before. Both front axles (I only inspected the visible portions) and axle nuts were severely corroded into a yellow powder. I was able to easily remove chunks by hand. There is no hint of the hex feature left on the axle nuts and no remaining thread on the ends of the axles. We are the second owners and the Jeep has always been a daily driver, not a trail Jeep. These are the factory original axles.

At first I thought the problem might be more widespread but a quick check showed only the two front axles suffering from this extreme corrosion. I called Jeep sent these pictures to our dealership so we'll see if they help us out here.

I am an Engineer and deal with different steels a lot as well as some corrosion testing and have never seen corrosion like this before. Something weird is going on here but our dealership claims they never saw anything like this before.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Wow, that's a lot of rust. My KJ is 12 years old and not like that. I have never seen rust that bad and confined to one area too. (the rotor looks ok)There should be a recall if there are many like that. Keep photos/records, etc in case of a recall at a later date to help get reimbursement.

Dave

I've seen worse at work and it's 100% owner neglect,lack of proper washing and rotations.

Read the owners manual and it states to wash your vehicle,more often in the winter.

 

[Michaelmcgo]

I've seen worse at work and it's 100% owner neglect,lack of proper washing and rotations.

Read the owners manual and it states to wash your vehicle,more often in the winter.

We wash the car often, and the tires were last rotated less then a year ago, it wasn't caught at that time. My wife gets a car wash almost weekly in the winter.

Maybe without you knowing me at all you can't be 100% sure this is owner neglect???

As an engineer, I would argue a part exposed to the environment should be able to maintain it's integrity in that environment. This part has not. I suspect Galvanic Corrosion is at work here...

 

[tjkj2002]

We wash the car often, and the tires were last rotated less then a year ago, it wasn't caught at that time. My wife gets a car wash almost weekly in the winter.

Maybe without you knowing me at all you can't be 100% sure this is owner neglect???

As an engineer, I would argue a part exposed to the environment should be able to maintain it's integrity in that environment. This part has not. I suspect Galvanic Corrosion is at work here...

"Rotated less then a year ago"

The average person puts 12,000 miles on so you should be doing tire rotation every 3-4 months,should never go beyond 5000 miles between tire rotations.

Going through those automatic car washes does nothing for keeping the under carriage clean,and that area would be considered "under carriage".They most likely use salt in your area in the winter and it sits behind those center caps and corrodes everything,and yes that area is well exposed to the elements.Got to get a little more hands on doing the washing with a manual operated power washer.

Like I've said I've seen worse and it's never cheap to fix.

 

[Michaelmcgo]

"Rotated less then a year ago"

The average person puts 12,000 miles on so you should be doing tire rotation every 3-4 months,should never go beyond 5000 miles between tire rotations.

Going through those automatic car washes does nothing for keeping the under carriage clean,and that area would be considered "under carriage".They most likely use salt in your area in the winter and it sits behind those center caps and corrodes everything,and yes that area is well exposed to the elements.Got to get a little more hands on doing the washing with a manual operated power washer.

Like I've said I've seen worse and it's never cheap to fix.

You're way overestimating my milage. This is my wife's car used to get groceries and go to the zoo. Some days it doesn't even get driven.

So it's my fault that Jeep axles are rusting away to almost nothing because I washed my car with the most popular method available? I'm very thankful you don't work for Jeep...

I design high end made in America products that are sold all over the world. If I EVER designed something that corroded away in 9 years for any reason we'd be looking at a recall and full investigation into that part. Look up Galvanic Corrosion, that is what appears to be happening here and something that an engineer is at fault for when it does happen.

 

[tommudd]

You're way overestimating my milage. This is my wife's car used to get groceries and go to the zoo. Some days it doesn't even get driven.

So it's my fault that Jeep axles are rusting away to almost nothing because I washed my car with the most popular method available? I'm very thankful you don't work for Jeep...

I design high end made in America products that are sold all over the world. If I EVER designed something that corroded away in 9 years for any reason we'd be looking at a recall and full investigation into that part. Look up Galvanic Corrosion, that is what appears to be happening here and something that an engineer is at fault for when it does happen.

Just sitting around is more harmful than actually driving one at times

and by the way all that I have seen were ones that were " ones that did not have a good overall cleaning/washing etc ) driven and put away wet as the saying goes

 

[tjkj2002]

Just sitting around is more harmful than actually driving one at times

and by the way all that I have seen were ones that were " ones that did not have a good overall cleaning/washing etc ) driven and put away wet as the saying goes

X2...................

Parking it in a garage,even not heated, is the worst thing you can do if salt is used in your area.

 

[Dave]

X2...................

Parking it in a garage,even not heated, is the worst thing you can do if salt is used in your area.

Yeah, mine is an "outside Jeep"....LOL. It stays outside except when the weather dude says we are getting a storm, and then it gets to go in the garage and sleep for the night so I don't have to shovel it off and it is not in the way of the sno-blower. Then it comes out and stays out and plays in the snow.....LOL


Dave

 

[k99jk99j]

I think the metal used for the splines and threads are different from kk to kj. My 06 looks almost brand new and my 12 is starting corrode like the pictures in this thread.

 

[tjkj2002]

I think the metal used for the splines and threads are different from kk to kj. My 06 looks almost brand new and my 12 is starting corrode like the pictures in this thread.

They both are made out of heat treated steel.If you really search you most likely find out both were made in the same factory.

 

[Michaelmcgo]

They both are made out of heat treated steel.If you really search you most likely find out both were made in the same factory.

There are thousands of types of steel and hundreds of which axles could be made from. Most structural automotive parts are made from either Alloy Steel or High Carbon Steel. Both are heat treatable and hard, but have very different properties. Alloy Steels are ususally tougher than simple High Carbon steel but some alloy steels (such as the 5160 used in leaf springs) is designed to corrode in a way that the oxidation forms a layer on the outside and never actually pits deep into the steel. This is why leaf springs can look rusty but work great for decades even when they are directly exposed to snow salt. High Carbon steel on the other hand (such as 1095) corrodes aggresively and can be completely corroded away over time. There could definitely be a huge difference in material between years of production of axles.

Galvanic Corrosion on the other hand is a corrosive process that occurs when 2 disimilar metals have an electrical contact with eachother where a electrolyte is present. If these axles are high carbon steel and have an electrical path to galvanized steel or aluminum it could easily cause galvanic corrosion. Where most people are familiar with galvanic corrosion is when iron pipes are (improperly) joined with copper pipes and the iron pipe becomes the anode that corrodes away at a much faster rate than if it was not connected to the copper pipe (which doesn't corrode at all):

Did Jeep changing anything in the area of the front wheels from unplated steel to either aluminum or galvanized steel with the change from KJ to KK? I owned a KJ for years and changed out wheel bearings no problem with the stock axles. That Jeep lived in the exact same environment as this KK and had 50k more miles on it...