2005 Jeep Wrangler
This year drew an ordinary 649 complaints for a Jeep Wrangler — the model's median is 649. What they were about is the unusual part: 46.2% of them mention tank, against 1.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 649 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 649 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 15 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- tank — 46.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.6% across the model's other years (28.4×).
- fill — 32.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.5% across the model's other years (62.2×). Owners wrote it as: fill, time fill, fill gas, fill tank.
- fuel — 39.9% of this year's complaints, against 3.4% across the model's other years (11.7×).
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE FUEL TANK FILL WITH OVERFLOW GASOLINE DURING FILL UP. THIS HAPPENS WITH EVERY FILL UP SINCE 2006. THE JEEP WAS PURCHASED IN 2005. THIS SEEMS LIKE A COMMON PROBLEM WITH JEEP WRANGLERS.
WHEN FILLING FUEL TANK, FUEL COMES OUT WITHOUT WARNING AND SPILLS ALL OVER THE GROUND AND THE VEHICLE. WHEN ADJACENT TO A HOT BRAKE CALIPER, THIS COULD CREATE A FIRE HAZARD. ABOUT A PINT OF FUEL IS SPILLED WITH EVERY FILL-UP. IF THE OPERATOR TRIES TO LISTEN FO…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 06E022000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 05V460000 POWER TRAIN
How this was worked out
Every year of the Jeep Wrangler was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Jeep Wrangler? What happened to yours?
Loading comments…