22nd May 2007, 11:39

My wife's 2002 Jeep Liberty has 72,000 miles on it and the extended warranty just ran out, she was driving it home about a week ago when she heard a clanking noise and then the car cut off, turns out it was a broken valve and no compression in cy. number one, obviously there is some flaw in there design b/c this should not happen on a car with 72,000 miles. I have had a 1999 Mustang GT and almost every week raced it at the drag strip and have never had a problem like this and it had 140,000 miles on it. I will never buy another Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge car ever.

15th Oct 2007, 14:28

My 03 Liberty was just drove to the dealer 90k+ miles. It was running real rough and the engine light came on. I was told no compression in cyl #4. I sure hope this isn't what you all are reporting.

29th Nov 2007, 17:20

I bought a Jeep liberty limited for my wife last year. We were on a six hour car trip when we pulled over for something to eat. I was sitting in the Jeep and all the sudden there was a clanking noise and the entire vehicle began to jerk. Had it towed 100 miles and mechanic says it was the valve spring. Does this have a high percentage of reocurrence? I obviously do not want to keep fixing it.

6th Dec 2007, 19:44

This happened to me. My valve spring on cyl 1 broke at 103,000. I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty. When out on a cold morning and it was running rough. Felt like it was running off 3 cyl. It's in the shop now for a valve job estimated cost $1,150.

OBDII read misfire cyl one.

4th Jan 2008, 14:23

My '05 Liberty has 77,000 miles and the same thing happened in cylinder 4. For those who had this happen just past the warranty, did Chrysler provide any coverage? It's getting towed to the dealership as we speak and I'd like to know what my chances are.

Brian.

14th Jan 2008, 22:04

As an update... Chrysler agreed to pay for the cost of the new engine >$5000, but I had to pay for the labor - $2200. The engine came with a 3yr/80k mile warranty. A lot more than I wanted to pay, but could have been worse.

Brian.

15th May 2008, 10:30

I had the same issue. No Compression in #4 valve. My '02 Liberty has 126k miles warranty expired. Very expensive to get fixed. The head had to be replaced. I'll never buy Chrysler again. I think it's a conspiracy.

12th Dec 2008, 23:04

Number 3 broken exhaust valve spring. 05 liberty 3.7 with 55k.

26th Mar 2009, 15:28

I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty. The shop told me that the #2 and #4 cylinder is misfiring. In order to just pull the valve cover and grind the face of the head will cost me $2100. That does not include the labor on fixing it. I WILL NEVER BUY A JEEP AGAIN!!!

13th Aug 2009, 16:18

Was on a 600 mile trip when my 2002 Jeep Liberty dropped a valve while driving on the interstate. The check engine light began to flash then it lost all power and died, stranding myself and family about 600 miles from home. At this time it's sitting at a Jeep dealership in South Carolina awaiting repair. Luckily I bought the extended warranty when I got the Jeep, the repair estimate is $1798.00 so far, and they haven't pulled the cylinder head yet to check for piston damage. The mileage was about 88,000 when this happened. This has been a travel nightmare.

14th Sep 2009, 14:57

I just got rid of my 2002 Liberty Jeep and will never buy another Chrysler product again. :o (

My Liberty had 89,000 miles on it. The engine light came on and I took it into a Jeep dealership. They said there was a misfire on cylinder #2. They replaced the coilpack and spark plug.

The engine light came on again... I decided not to go back to the same dealership... I took it to a couple more places to have it diagnosed. One place told me that there was a head problem (misfire on cylinder #2) and the repair would cost $1600...

Another place told me that they could repair the head for $1600 but did not promise that it would take care of the problem because... they found more than the misfire on cylinder #2 and the head problem. They found low compression on another cylinder and antifreeze leaking into cylinder #2. They said they could replace the engine... but recommended getting rid of the vehicle.

19th Jan 2010, 00:38

Yep flashing engine light, valve springs 113k miles. Feels like it running on a few cylinders. They want to replace the engine with a used one at the tune of 4k. Bye bye Jeep, never again!

6th Feb 2010, 17:47

We have an 05 Liberty Limited. Constant misfires on #4 & #6, we replaced plugs, coil, did the carbon clean up. Still misfires and are told we need a $2500 valve job. We have a 96 Grand Cherokee with 180000 miles, still going strong. I can't believe all of the misfire problems they are having with the Liberty.

9th Mar 2010, 15:59

Had a misfire on cyl. 3. Pulled valve cover and the spring fell out. I called Chrysler and they said they would make a note of it. If you have had this problem, please email me @ butter5333@embarqmail.com and I want to send in names and phone numbers to Chrysler. This is obviously a fault of theirs and needs to be recalled.

16th Mar 2010, 06:19

I'm in the same boat. Cyl #5 no compression. Was told bent valve. I have an unlimited lifetime power train warranty. Hoping it's covered. 2002 Liberty with 50,000 miles.

lawler333@yahoo.com

29th Apr 2010, 11:18

I own a Jeep Liberty 2002. Same issue. Recently, at 82000 miles, engine light came on when my wife was driving and started flashing. Car was misfiring. She pulled over and we had the car towed. Valve spring problem. We had a new engine installed for $4200 with a 3 yr - unlimited mileage warranty. This should not be happening is an engine with relatively low mileage.

30th Apr 2010, 13:00

Last Friday during rush hour traffic on I-5, where the express lanes merge with the mainline, going 60mph, my car did the flashing engine light and died. I was stuck in the middle of the freeway, was finally able to restart and get it to the left hand side of the road. I had it towed to the mechanic, and on Tuesday they diagnosed it as a broken spring valve, and said it was an extremely rare occurrence for a vehicle like mine. I have a 2003 Jeep Liberty with 90,000 miles on in. My mechanic says other than the valve spring, the engine is in great condition (it has been well taken care of), and everything else checked out fine. He has been concerned about just replacing it because he feels it could be a factory defect, and there is another valve spring that could go, so we are deciding whether to replace both valves, or the whole engine (both expensive, and should be unnecessary of a car this age $3000-$4500 repair).

We have been doing some research and the results have been a bit alarming. First, we have found this seems to be a common problem with the Jeep Libertys from 2002-2005, and you have to assume only a small percentage of people are actually writing about it on the web. The mechanics he has talked to say they have seen it before in the Libertys too.

Next we did some research on the part replacement. The two red flags are;

1) The part is listed as being able to get rebuilt/refurbished, or new. However, there seems to be no rebuilt ones available, only new. What could this mean? If there is in fact a flaw in the materials or the spring valve, they wouldn’t want to refurbish the old ones and reuse, because you would have the same problem, so a new one, with different components (better than the old) are the ones available.

2) I wrote above that it seemed the flaw appears on the 2002-2005 models, and when looking at the valve spring for a 2003 part number versus the 2006 part number, 2006 is when the part number changed, which probably means they figured it out, and put the newer and safer part in the 2006 model. What is even stranger is it seems to be the intake, and not the exhaust with the defect, and in the 2003/2006 part numbers the intake part is different, but the exhaust is the same.

I called Jeep’s national customer complaint center, filed a complaint, and short of calling me crazy, they gave me the runaround, and told me because my mechanic was not a Chrysler mechanic, they couldn’t really trust his findings. They also said over and over it was my car that was old, and yet a lot of people who has posted have said the same thing; their mechanics say this is a very rare occurrence that a valve spring breaks, especially with the mileages we are reporting.

Today I am reporting this to the NHTSA, the website is http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm, or you can call them. I encourage everyone to do the same to see if we can get a recall, or be reimbursed, or have the repair or replacement paid for.

Given where I was when this happened to me, it could have been a horrible accident, I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.