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-   -   Breakdown experience of my Jeep Compass (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/258560-breakdown-experience-my-jeep-compass.html)

Went through an experience over the Diwali weekend (21-Oct-22 to 25-Oct-22). Although, the service levels of FCA was surely better this time.

I and wifey were on a south coast drive on our 24 month Compass (Diesel BS6 Longitude AT 22,000kms) starting last Friday and made the first halt at Madurai. On Saturday morning, we were headed for Varkala in Kerala and left NH44 after Kovilpatti to take the SH75 which goes to Kerala via Tenkasi.

At around 11 am, 30 kms before Tenkasi, the car a/c suddenly started blowing hot air. In a few seconds, other indicators started blinking and error messages for every part started showing up. I was perplexed for a moment as the car was serviced for the 30k mark just two days back at the Yashwanthpur ASC! My first thought was that the ECM was acting up and I cautiously steered the vehicle to the left of the road.

In another couple of seconds the car stalled and even the steering got locked. The only message we were getting was to Service the VPS. I called up the RSA and they were quite efficient in getting the necessary details and I was informed that a mechanic was being dispatched within 60 min. A mechanic turned up within the hour and after preliminarily checks hinted at a depleted battery. I was not very sure as a bad battery should not cause a running car to stall. Also, as per practice, I had checked both the voltage and the DEF levels before starting the car in the morning. It had shown 14V that morning.

The local mechanic did not need to jump as the battery had regained enough juice by that time to crank on its own and was suggesting to tow the car to his own garage. I desisted and sent him away. Anyways, the engine died within a couple of minutes again.

I again called up the RSA and they offered to tow the car back to the nearest ASC. My car was almost equidistant from Tirunelveli, Trivandrum and Madurai. But finally settled for Tirunelveli which was 80 km away. The flatbed arrived after a painful 4 hrs and then I flagged down a passing taxi and requested him to jump my battery using my own jumper cables. This was needed as I had put the auto lever on Park mode in those dying moments of battery charge in the morning. But to winch the car up the flatbed the lever had to be brought to the Neutral mode.

Luckily, the taxi agreed and in no time I could jump the battery for a minute enough to shift the lever.

Meanwhile, my Bangalore ASC was in constant touch with their Tirunelveli counterparts. Between both Service teams it was almost concluded that the issue was with the Alternator assembly. Tirunelveli ASC confirmed that they have the necessary spares in stock, if that indeed was the problem.

The RSA also offered a taxi drop to move us and our luggage for a max fare of 2k/- They could not arrange one immediately and requested us to book one locally and sent us the reimbursement form on mail. We got a local cab and proceeded for our balance holidays.

On Tue, after the Tirunelveli workshop opened after the couple of holidays, they immediately looked at the car. As expected, the Alternator pulley was found to be corroded. Being under extended warranty, they has changed the part, collaborated with the Bangalore team for the necessary paperwork and called me around 1 pm to inform that the car was test driven and was ready for delivery.





I came down from Kanyakumari and picked up the car at around 4 pm. Drove down to Bangalore on Wedn keeping an eye on the console. We reached back without any more troubles. On Thurs, Yashwanthpur ASC called up and offered to pick up the car for another round of inspection at their end. I will be sending the car to them on Monday now.

Other than the hassles faced by the equipment failure, cannot really fault the ASCs/FCA much on the actions taken.

Just a few lingering questions -

1. Is it not possible for the ASC to check the electrical components more carefully as these cars are so heavily dependent on technology?
2. The flatbed took 4 hrs to reach us whereas the RSA estimate was 90 min!

But, I also realised that we need to be prepared well once on the road. A few things are surely required.

1. Battery jump starter kit, preferably with its own cell.
2. Your own portable power bank to keep your mobile phones charged during this period. You will be constantly on calls.
3. Your own tool kit to match some of the screws and nuts in the engine bay.
4. If you are driving an auto then stop in the Neutral mode. Hold the car in the old fashioned way of putting stones as wheel chokes.
5. A strong tow cable rated to match the car weight.

Sorry to hear about your breakdown experience. It is certainly a holiday spoiler to have in back of your mind, that you have to take care of a breakdown after the fulfilling vacations.

Coming to your question, The part shown in your pictures is a decoupler pulley. My friend experienced similar kind of battery discharge alert in his Compass, although the Odo was much higher, yet i understood this an issue of compass in general. We discussed with Sky Moto technician that time in much detail regarding this battery drain issue.

My understanding is that, Decoupler are extremely reliable. The biggest reason of a failing decoupler could be the engine resonance, more precisely the Idle resonance vibrations (The reason of resonance could be many, most predictable are calibration and driving behavior).

To answer your first question- If the parts (alternator assembly) is working fine at ASC during service, the ASC can not do anything about it. No checking will help as the part is functioning properly anyways. The part failed subsequently because of prolonged resonance (or fatigue) it is experiencing.

Do you have more picture of part? These parts come with a cap attached to it to save guard from external environment, i could not see the cap so i am guessing if cap is installed or not?

On your last comments: No tools can help unless one is equipped with the knowledge about parts, basic functioning, hands on etc. So keeping different variety of tools (apart from some basics like air inflator, puncture repair, jumper cable, basic tool box for tyre change etc.) is not feasible and not very practical either.

Sorry to read about your experience, particularly when on a trip after service, it hurts. I’ve had one experience of getting stranded for some time, had judiciously serviced the car before the trip.
Also, appreciate you putting together all points to take care about. Very much commendable gesture.
Hope things are sorted out with your Jeep and enjoy miles for fun drives.

I'm curious if you could elaborate a bit more on how you know about resonance being a source of decoupler pulley failure :)

Also, it appears from the photo that there is a ring of dark grime/dirt on this part (between the central maetal part and the black outer ring)- which I think is unusual because they should come with caps (according to videos on youtube) - to protect the bearings from damage caused due to dust...

This is based on my profile of work in my previous company, where i dealt with all kind of isolation systems including decouplers. low mileage failures usually are caused by the resonance of the engine at idle speeds ( or lugging speeds - which in laymen terms assumed as 100rpm lesser than idle). On rare occassion we found that, the user driving pattern can also sometimes trigger the resonance.

There have been many threads in the internet, including this forum that talk about the reliability issues, breakdown rates and user bad experience with the JEEP brand. So the one question that needs asking and that which was not asked is, why Jeep, or for that matter why German cars or French cars? After the initial fun, most of them will give you problem killing all that fun. Sorry!

If the cause is excessive engine vibrations could a Compass owner premptively avoid this by changing the engine mounts well ahead of schedule, or is it not as simple as that?

Getting the delivery of my Compass in the next few days. Guess these are the accessories I should invest into immediately. :coldsweat

The alternator failure issue is coming up quite frequently in the forums. I guess I have read at least 3 in last couple of weeks.

Once burnt twice shy, understandable! You are now going to doubt the reliability for the next few years until proven otherwise with time. As far as the preparation is concerned, it is a good idea to carry a rechargeable jump starter kit in your car and not just for you but all car drivers. These kits are very reliable and the charge seems to last for more than a year, the drop is only about 10 percent in a year. Another 10 min of recharge and it is back to full power. I recharge my two jump starter kits (one in each car) once a year. It can start the dead battery car at least 10 times before the juice gets completely drained. Buy the one with high charge rating and it also doubles up as mobile phone charger. Most even have a flashlight incorporated in the same jump starter kit. I bought mine from Amazon. Read their reviews.

Congratulations you finally decided on a model. I remember many months back you and I were simultaneously looking at this car.
I have personally gone from completely falling in love with the Jeep and almost booking Compass day 1 to now almost removing it from my list after the numerous(importantly varied) failures, the complete engine seizure after 40 days report I saw was the last straw, I can tolerate some issues here and there as these are complex cars but for an engine to fail was a big no no, last I heard of engine failures were in the carburetor days.
I wish you the very best in reliability with your new Compass and hope you will share an ownership thread with us : )

As for me I am now looking at cars which while still not known for their reliability but with the Octavia and Tiguan the way I saw it, atleast its the 'devil you know'.

Thanks Maky. Just took the delivery today. Yes, ownership review is in the works. Hopefully (and I am keeping my fingers crossed ) I will not have to write about engine seizure on a highway. :D