NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation PE17003

The Office of Defects Investigation opened this Preliminary Evaluation to investigate VOQ complaints alleging a failure of the Occupant Restraint Controller (ORC) module in model year (MY) 2012 Jeep Liberty.The purpose of the investigation was to understand Vehicle Owner Questionnaire (VOQ) complaints stating that the air bag warning light remained illuminated while the vehicle was in operation.In many cases the warning light issue was reportedly corrected by a replacement of the ORC module. In 2013 FCA issued NHTSA safety recall 13V282 to address ORC module failures caused by an electrical over stress (EOS) condition that damaged an internal resistor.The failure lead to non-deployment of the active head restraints in rear impact crashes of sufficient severity to require deployment.This condition would also result in illumination of the air bag warning light and set a B2208 diagnostic trouble code (DTC).Recall 13V282 involved two different remedies based on the model year and model of the recalled vehicle.Some models were repaired by replacing the ORC with an updated unit.However the subject vehicles of this investigation, which made up the largest population in the recall, received a software update to the Totally Integrated Power Module (TIPM), another electronic device that is involved in powering of the ORC. After the investigation was opened, FCA began collecting failed subject vehicle ORC modules so they could be analyzed for failure causation.From June 2017 to August 2017 FCA obtained 13 ORC modules and analyzed 10 of them.FCA determined 9 contained evidence of the resistor over stress condition.Of that group, 7 had experienced resistor failures prior to the TIPM being re-flashed under the recall action.In these cases, replacement of the ORC module would have been the only effective repair to extinguish the air bag warning lamp.This observation correlates well with VOQ complaints ODI received from consumers who experienced an airbag warning light illuminated