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Update:
- U.S. District Judge Judith E. Levy granted preliminary approval to a Fiat Chrysler class action settlement made to resolve claims it sold certain Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Ram and Fiat vehicles with an engine defect.
- The plaintiffs claimed Fiat Chrysler sold vehicles with a design defect that caused their engines to burn off more oil than what would be normal.
- Fiat Chrysler agreed to provide cash reimbursements, extend vehicle warranties to seven years or 100,000 miles and supply no-cost software upgrades as part of the agreement.
- The settlement agreement will benefit a class of nearly 1.7 million drivers.
- Drivers may be eligible to get $340 if they receive a service notification informing them they need an engine long block replacement, according to the settlement.
(May 5, 2020)
Fiat Chrysler has been hit with a class action lawsuit by Jeep owners who claim the company’s cars contain an engine defect that causes them to consume an excessive amount of oil.
Plaintiffs Amber Wood, Ashley Schuchart, Karen Burke and Danielle Oates say their Jeep vehicles, which are equipped with a 2.4L Tigershark MultiAir Engine II, consume too much oil, causing the oil pressure to drop dangerously low before recommended oil changes.
The plaintiffs claim the oil consumption defect can cause the vehicles can shut down during normal operation, which places the driver at risk of serious injury.
Wood, a citizen of Illinois, alleges she purchased a 2018 Jeep Compass from Bettenhausen Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM in Tinley Park, Illinois. She claims her vehicle is equipped with a defective 2.4L Tigershark Multi Air engine and fails to function safely, as advertised.
Wood says that, before she purchased the Fiat Chrysler vehicle, she reviewed the window sticker that was placed on the vehicle which advertised the car’s various features. She claims that she relied on the advertisements contained on the window sticker when deciding to purchase the vehicle.
The plaintiff says since purchasing the car, she has experienced excessive oil consumption and oil indicator lights persistently in the vehicle. While driving her car to work and making a left turn, the Fiat Chrysler vehicle shut off and would not move, she says.
Wood states she was finally able to get the car to start; once she got home, she called the dealership where she purchased the car.
She brought the vehicle to the dealership and was told the vehicle was sucking down oil and needed a new motor, the Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit alleges.
The dealership then replaced the engine, but Woods argues the oil indicator light recently came on even though it was only 2,000 miles since her last oil change.
“FCA never told Plaintiff about the Oil Consumption or Oil Indicator defects, so Plaintiff purchased her Affected Vehicle on the reasonable, but mistaken, belief that her Affected Vehicle would be reliable and safe and would retain all of its operating characteristics throughout its useful life,” the Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit goes on to say.
Wood explains she purposefully shopped for a Fiat Chrysler Jeep vehicle because she believed the advertising that went along with the car meant they were safe and reliable.
She states none of the advertisements disclosed there was a defect in with the engine and that Fiat Chrysler would refuse to repair the defects.
Wood says in the Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit that, if the company had disclosed that her vehicle had the oil consumption and oil indicator defects, she would not have purchased the vehicle or would have paid less for it.
Other plaintiffs in the Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit allegedly experienced similar issues due to an underlying defect affecting all of their vehicles.
The FCA class action lawsuit points to a March 2019 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) complaint regarding a 2015 Jeep Cherokee which states that a dealership indicated that there is an oil consumption issue having to do with the pistons.
Another complaint to the NHTSA, lodged in 2020, states that an owner of a 2019 Jeep Cherokee required a new engine because the piston rings in the engine broke and scored the cylinder which led to the engine to consume too much oil.
“Because of the Oil Consumption defect, the Class Vehicles are prone to sudden and unexpected shut down, creating unsafe driving conditions when the vehicle stalls or shuts off without warning,” the Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit argues.
The Fiat Chrysler class action lawsuit alleges that prior to 2013, consumers had complained that some of the vehicles in the class were not powered enough. In response, the larger yet defective 2.4L Tigershark MultiAir II Engine allegedly supplanted the older engines.
The Class vehicles that were equipped with the new defective engine are 2015-2016 Chrysler 200, 2013-2016 Dodge Dart, 2016-2020 Fiat 500X, 2017-2020 Fiat Toro, 2014-2020 Jeep Cherokee, 2017-2020 Jeep Compass, 2015-2020 Jeep Renegade and 2015-2020 Ram ProMaster City.
“Owners of these vehicles are terrified of sudden, unexpected engine stalls, and left empty-handed by FCA dealerships and technicians who continue to ignore this serious safety hazard,” counsel for the plaintiffs said in a statement.
“It’s only a matter of time before this defect leads to a fatality, with millions of affected vehicles sold by FCA on the road.”
Do you own one of the class vehicles and are having trouble with the engine? Leave a message in the comments section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Steve W. Berman and Elaine T. Byszewski of Hagens, Berman, Sobol, & Shapiro; E. Powell Miller of the Miller Law Firm; and Jeffrey S. Goldenberg and Todd Naylor of Goldenberg Schneider LPA.
The Fiat Chrysler engine defect class action lawsuit is Amber Wood, et al. v. FCA US LLC, Case No. 2:20-cv-11054, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
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350 thoughts onFiat Chrysler class action over faulty engine claims settled with extended warranties
FCA produces nothing, but junk! Bought a fairly new 2014 Dodge Dart Areo with the 1.8l turbo… Not the same engine, but the transmission had a verifiable design flaw… They put in 5 different TCMs during my entire ownership of 3 years… Couldn’t take advantage of Lemon Laws because I wasn’t the original owner… And yes, it stalled when the oil became unexpectedly low. Traded it in (for relief) for a 2017 Chrysler 200… It unexpectedly stalled on me in traffic one evening, with my wife in the car! Everything stopped working… Shifter locked… And when manually over-ridden into Neutral, the parking brake automatically engaged and the car couldn’t be pushed out of traffic into a safe area… Eventually, it had to be towed on a four-wheel trailer to the Dealership. Is that nutty engineering or what? Thought it was another dreaded transmission or TCM issue and it turned out to be unexpectedly low on oil! The dealership determined that my number 2 cylinder was scored due to the burning of oil… After painfully verifying my maintenance records, they drop a new (or rebuilt – who knows) long-block engine… At only 32,000 miles! What junk! Occupying space in the back of my mind, I’m wondering when the next unexpected brake-down will occur. My car is in it’s 6th year of ownership… For most Chrysler 200 owners, the extended warranty will not be available. For owners, like me, an extension to 7 years will only give us less than 1 year of (a false sense of) warranty. Would recommend a flat 100K mile warranty.
You know, when the Chrysler 200 came out, it had the more reliable 2.4l GEMA engine… Which was also implemented in other makes besides Chrysler… FCA or Fiat, decided to modify that proven design with their “multi-air” technology in order to make a more fuel-efficient engine… Their effort yielded no change in efficiency – go figure! So much for Chrysler taking cues from Fiat… It should have been the other way around!
I also have a 2016 Jeep Renegade and I have had a lot of dealership recalls for oil consumptions. And about the shutting off, it happened to me once and thankfully I was on a normal street not the highway. I was so terrified because my car is new and I have been taking care of it and doing maintenance regularly. What is required from us Jeep owners? I am worried my car would stop suddenly because of this problem. The thing about my Jeep as well is that the dashboard settings suddenly changed to mother language which is Italian and I cannot get it back to English nor the dealership can. We all tried and no one knew exactly how to change it back. The car gives me warnings sometimes and I do not understand what it is saying. I guess I will have to learn Italian or smth…
I had to have a replacement engine installed in my renegade due to oil consumption. The dealer had the car five days forcing me to pay for a rental. New engine installed but it runs rough fan comes on constantly engine not running as it should and gas milage way off glad this class action happening maybe i can get some car rental money back
Do u have the link to start a claim I was sent a postal card but misplaced it
I also experience some of the same problems just a couple months after buying my 2018 jeep renegade the dealer told me I was supposed to get my oil changed more frequently but I was only a couple thousand miles from my previous oil change it was almost record slow when I brought it in 🤦🏽♂️
I have a 2015 chrysler 200 which i had to replace 2 pistons because they broke
Stalled many times on highway and almost hit a truck
I have a 2018 Jeep Renegade, and I have already had issues with the oil leaking. How do I find out if I am eligible?
I have a 2018 jeep compass: experienced all these issues of oil consumption and stalling. Dealership blew me off; said to check oil when I put gas in. Went through more quarts than I could keep track of. So angry since they refused to do anything until the recall to replace module. Still don’t trust it to drive far! What a disappointment and waste of money. If I was rich I would have bought another vehicle and got rid of it.
Do u have the link to start a claim I was sent a postal card but misplaced it
I’m having this issue with my 2018 Jeep Renegade. I was told months after buying it that the stalling was due to a computer error that needed to be updated. I just stalled 3 days ago with my daughter in the car and found out today I had very low oil and I wasn’t due for another 2,000 miles for an oil change! I did not sign up for a vehicle that did this. I had to pay for a rental car for 3 days and an oil change.
I have a 2015 Jeep Trialhawk and it burns a lot of oil. Even the transmission goes into a lower gear. Goes into a lower gear when climbing hills. Lack of power.
Do u have the link to start the claim I didn’t receive the postal card
I had the same problem with my Jeep!