Fiat Chrysler recalling nearly 56K Jeeps to fix water leak

DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler is recalling almost 56,000 Jeep Cherokee SUVs worldwide to fix a water leak that can cause an electrical short in the power tailgates.

In June 2015, Chrysler recalled over 163,000 model year 2014-2015 Jeep Cherokee SUVs equipped with power liftgates.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles today recalled 55,687 Jeep Cherokee SUVs for a problem with power liftgate components that could lead to a fire. In the affected vehicles, water mater leak into the Power Liftgate Control Module and result in a high resistance short circuit.

Ahead of the formal recall, FCA revised its engineering design and began building Cherokees with an additional water shield and plug to help prevent water from entering the control module. Engineers went back to the drawing board and devised a new water shield, now fully encasing the failure-prone control modules to prevent water intrusion from any direction.

If you own one of these vehicles and have questions in the meantime, you’re asked to call FCA customer service at 800-853-1403 and ask about recall #R67.

The Jeeps were manufactured from February 18 to September 10.

FCA said 32,784 of the Cherokees recalled today are in the US, 10,138 are in Canada, 924 are in Mexico and 11,841 are “outside the NAFTA region”. Dealers will also install the new water shield that provides complete protection from water.