2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee: shudder or vibration when accelerating

Filed Apr 10, 2004 · Brakes · 33,000 miles · UT

Disc brake rotor failure. Vehicle has 33000 miles. Severe shuddering at the front end occurs when braking at highway speeds due to front rotors having warped. Severe enough to effect control of vehicle, especially if were to occur in emergency or bad weather situation. Shudderring is not as severe at less than highway speeds. Such warping of the rotors is not normal and from the number of other posts there is clearly a manufacturing defect occuring.

Filed Jul 25, 2003 · Brakes · ND

There is a design defect within the brakes which causes them to pulsate excessively, resulting in severe shuddering of the steering wheel. Notified dealer and the dealer told the consumer that there is a service bulletin on the brake system it required that the calipers, pads and rotors need to replaced because of the engineering of the calipers were faulty. Consumer fells it could lead to loss of control. *ak

Filed Dec 13, 2002 · Brakes · 46,000 miles · MI

Front brake rotors have warped, causing deminished stopping distance, and control of vehicle during braking (steering wheel shudders). Dealer will not cover under warranty, even though we purchased an extended warranty up to 96000 miles.

Filed May 2, 2002 · Brakes, Transmission · 11,226 miles · CT

The vehicle is "hopping" up to stop signs/stop lights. The steering wheel shudders when applying brakes at 50-60 MPH. The differential was faulty from day "one", and has been disassembled and reassembled/ parts replaced up to four times. It will be fine for awhile then the whinnying/whistling/groaning progressively gets worse until I fear for my safety and take it back to the dealer for repair again. I believe this repair is faulty from the factory. *ts *jb ****dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12-12-02 cut over to artemis****761448

Filed May 1, 2002 · Brakes · IL

Just before 10,000 miles, the brakes started to shudder with every braking motion. It steadily got worse. I checked a few websites, called chrysler and discovered the problem was no doubt the rotors on the anti-lock braking system. The chrysler phone rep all but admitted that they had heard of this in other years of grand cherokees and the websites confirmed that. I took it in on february 15, 2002, to the dealer. They confirmed that the rotors were bad and replaced them. They did not charge me because I had just hit 10,000 miles, but indicated that the warranty would not cover future such failures. From my website reading, I learned that a recurrence was highly likely. Within the last ten days, I have noticed the shuddering of the brakes coming back -- as before, I expect it will get worse and I will need another rotors replacement. I am now at 12,488 miles so these rotors are failing fast. It seems a safety issue because I am not sure if the brakes will hold particularly at higher speeds, it's very disconcerting to have the vehicle shake as you brake. I have driven for thirty years, had several new cars and never had a problem like this before ever. I do not ride my brakes, have a perfect driving record, and know from the websites that this is a real problem with grand cherokees of more recent vintage. I anticipate the dealer will tell me I have to pay next time, and I feel this would be wrong. Not only should the warranty cover it, but chrysler should fess up that there is a brake rotor defect and fix it. I do not relish the thought of having this happen over and over again, and it definitely is a huge negative while driving - the brakes seem like they could fail. My long phone conversation with the chrysler rep in february LED me to believe that chrsyler would act on this. So far, no news. I would like to have the problem fixed once and for all. Thank you.