Week in Off-Road: Wrangler pump letters, Bronco transfer case, fastener week

This was a week of letters rather than filings. Stellantis's 26V-363, filed in early June, covers 2021 to 2025 Wrangler JL, Wrangler 4xe and Gladiator JT. The electric hydraulic power steering pump wiring may overheat and cause a fire, even with the vehicle parked and the ignition off. Owners are advised to park outside and away from structures until repaired. Dealers will inspect and replace the wiring and pump as necessary. Owner notification letters were expected to be mailed this week.

That is one of the more serious open campaigns on our list because of the park-outside advice, and the desk has been repeating it since the filing. If you have a 2021 to 2025 Wrangler or Gladiator and have not heard from Stellantis, check your VIN on the NHTSA site rather than waiting for the post.

Ford's 26V-236 on the Bronco U725 platform also had letters going out this week. It covers 2021 to 2025 Broncos where the transmission to transfer case joint may be misaligned due to an incorrectly performed previous repair, which can wear the output shaft and input splines. Dealers will inspect and replace the transmission and transfer case as necessary. This one is specific to trucks that have had earlier work, so the letter is your best indicator of whether you are affected.

Also in the post this week: 26V-327, the Stellantis rearview camera module campaign covering 2024 to 2025 Wrangler JL, with letters expected mid-month. And 26V-373, Ford's re-repair of 2018 to 2020 F-150s on the Raptor platform whose daytime running lamps stay bright after an earlier fix under 20V-097, had letters due the following week.

Maintenance week was fasteners. The UTV and ATV files both put a re-torque of wheel and suspension fasteners at 25 hours, and the reason is simple: vibration walks fasteners loose. The explainer's point was that several real recalls on our list are fastener campaigns, including 25V-308 and 25V-260 on the Bronco where control arm and ball joint fasteners may not have been tightened properly, and 23V-283 where lug nuts on 2023 Broncos were the issue. Those were stop-drive notices. The factory can get it wrong; so can you. The values are in your service manual.

The desk also ran the truck file's 10,000-mile steering and suspension joint inspection alongside the problems entries on steering shaft play and lower control arm and ball joint wear from lifts and larger tires. The theme was the same: impact loads find weak joints, and a joint that has been loosened by vibration is a weak joint.

The upgrade desk covered lift kits with a caution. The Rough Country lifts for the JL and JK and the SuperATV 3-inch lift for the Ranger XP are all in the parts database, and the explainer on what a lift kit changes was re-run with a link to the death wobble entry in the problems file. A lift on worn front-end parts is how that starts.

Regionally the trails desk's guides spent the week on the Sierra, where the Rubicon, Fordyce Creek and Dusy-Ershim are open, and warned Desert Southwest readers off daytime riding. Midsummer in the low desert is genuinely dangerous, and Johnson Valley, Ocotillo Wells and Imperial Sand Dunes all wait for autumn. Confirm any permit or seasonal restriction with the managing agency before you go.

Talon and Pioneer owners got a piece on the Honda dual-clutch transmission and the problems entry on shudder and hesitation, with the note that a fluid change on the manual's interval clears more of those complaints than a dealer visit does. And the RZR XP and X3 crowd got the beadlock explainer, tied to the same fastener theme: a beadlock ring has a lot of bolts, every one of them is in your manual, and every one of them needs checking at the 25-hour mark.

Upcoming: the Sand Sports Super Show in Costa Mesa is listed for mid-September and is the first date on the autumn desert calendar. Check the organizer. Next week the maintenance desk looks at water and grease, and the safety desk keeps watching the 26V-363 letters.