The problem I have is the swing control arm on the back gate broke when parked with a slight grade. When I opened the back gate, the swing control arm pulled right out of the body causing safety issues. Finally, I got an appointment with the service department where I bought the Jeep after waiting several nerve wracking months worrying about the door. I found out that the swing control arm had been fixed by the dealership just before I bought the Jeep. They were glad to fix it, so I waited. I presumed they knew what they were doing.

Less than a week later it broke again in a similar scenario to the first time it broke for me. I noticed that they did not fix the mushroomed door hinges, so of course that latch didn't stand a chance of working if replaced in the same manner. Once again the same run around with the dealership to try & get someone to help me with this. This issue is not safe & should be addressed by JEEP to come up with a solution to fix it.

This is the 3rd time the swing control arm pulled out of the body on the back gate causing safety issues for me after being fixed. A long awaited appointment, took almost 6 months, to get this swing control arm finally fixed at their service department after getting the run around. I emailed the Manager a copy of the estimate from the Jeep dealership stating what needed to be fixed, called & left numerous messages and finally the head of the Service department helped me.

I took it in & dropped it off for a couple of days, as they said they needed to get the parts to fix it. A few days later I was able to pick up my jeep and low & behold before I left the lot, I opened the back gate & the latch broke. I brought it to the attention of the only person there... of course both Managers of Sales & Service were not there so he could not help me except by removing the swing control arm to get the door closed & sending me along without the fix. He had the Service Manager call me the following week.

When he called, he suggested I take it to a JEEP dealership to get an estimate to fix it since it seems they are not fixing it correctly, then they would see what they could do about it. Now, this is going to cost me another $115 just to have it looked at by the JEEP dealership. Apparently the one I had given them 8 months or so before was not good enough. I am very patient with all the run around and hope that JEEP does something about this issue so I can Safely drive to my destinations without constant worry about someone or their property because of a faulty swing control arm!

The swing control arm on the back gate broke when parked with a slight grade. When I opened the back gate, the swing control arm pull right out of the body, it swung all the way almost into a nearby vehicle which I caught before that happened. After examining the swing control arm it was broken. I knew that trying to push it back in would get me home anyhow, but it would not go, so now I was stranded in the dark trying to figure out a solution. Being that I just purchased the vehicle, I did not have much inside to help me. I had my phone so I called until I found someone available to help me out. I told them to bring me a rope to at least get me home. I tied the back door to the inside roll bar to help keep the door somewhat closed while I drove it. I went to an auto parts store & purchased the tools to remove the arm from the door so I could close it. Besides the unsafe night event being by myself unable to close my door, this could have caused damage to another vehicle or person parked nearby or in passing.

I tried repeatedly to contact the sales person I bought the jeep from with no avail at this time. Since the place I bought the vehicle from was giving me the run around I took it to a Jeep dealer & had them look at it. They said it was going to cost about $730 for me to have it fixed since the back gate hinge was mushroomed out.

I did some research online about this issue and found it to be a common problem & surprised that jeep has not fixed this issue due to potential hazards.

I am returning to the Dealership I bought it from to have them fix it.

Jeep cheeped out on the swing control arm on the back gate. If you're parked on any sort of grade, the back gate will swing open and the swing control arm, which does nothing to control swing, will pull right out of the body. There's nothing to keep this from happening. Luckily, it did not break the arm or damage the mechanism that holds it to the body.

The way I fixed it was: took the whole assembly off the body, drilled a small hole in the end of the arm, slipped it back through the mechanism, fixed a small screw through the hole and replaced the mechanism on the body. Now, when the gate is opened, the swing arm will not pull out.

Why this is not done when the Jeep is built is beyond me. It's a simple little thing that would prevent a lot of damage to the back gate.

I read about this problem on the Jeep forum and found it to be very common.