My wife and I were returning from vacation when without warning the car acted like it was going over a wash board surface for a few seconds and then came a loud bang and then no power. The vehicle pulled hard to the left briefly (we were in the passing lane). I struggled to get the car over to the right shoulder and shut it down. There was a trail of oil on the highway and it continued pour oi out of the engine after I stopped. Prior to the incident, the car was running correctly and none of the warning lights on the instrument panel came on until after the event. The temperature gauge was at its usual twelve O'clock position. Once off the road I opened the hood. There was oil all over the bottom of the engine. The serpentine belt and the tensioner pulley had been ripped off the engine. With a flashlight, I could see the front few inches of the front skidplate. The were fragments of metal on it along with oil. I checked the oil filter under the car and it was intact. The car was towed to gator Chrysler-Jeep in melbourne, fl. The car was examined on 11/30/2010 by the diesel tech who told us that he had never seen one of these engines fail like this. He also told us that he had spoken to a Chrysler engineer and that engineer said much the same. The tech told us that he had found two holes in the front of the engine block and that the skidplate was covered with shrapnel from the engine. The tech also told us that the oil pan looked like someone had taken a shotgun to it. A dealer service writer showed me at least one of the other holes found toward the back of the block on the passenger side. I put in a claim with Chrysler. It was rejected. They claim "insufficient lubrication". according to the service manager at gator, they did not open up the engine to see what really happened as Chrysler would not authorize such activity. Vehicle year: 2005 vehicle make: Jeep Liberty limited 4 X 4 engine: 2.8L turbo diesel mileage at failure: 77,594.

- Gaithersburg, MD, USA

My 2005 Jeep Liberty renegade 2wd has both front upper ball joints with signs of excessive wear. My car has never been off road and I have never hit anything that could cause such of abnormal wear. My car has 56000 miles and according to the mechanic it has been like this for a while. Note that this car had the lower ball joint replaced do to a previous recall.

- Saint Cloud, FL, USA

2005 Jeep Liberty pop noise when make a turn. The car was fixed March 10,2007. I had other people look at it said ball joint replacement. I believe it was fixed with a defective part. Dodge said $67 just to look at it.

- Randleman, NC, USA

Normal highway to semi-hard off-road driving in Wyoming. Destroyed 2 sets of upper ball joint/upper control arm assemblies within 45,000 miles. No serious damages yet but scary, still. $400 for parts each time, quoted $359 for labor. Did labor myself, both times.

- Casper, WY, USA

The contact owns a 2005 Jeep Liberty. While driving approximately 4 mph and making a left turn, the contact heard an unfamiliar noise and the vehicle briefly stopped moving. She is aware of the safety risk involved. She received a recall notice in 2006 for the lower ball joints. The dealer performed the recall repair on approximately September 8, 2006; however, the failure continued to occur. The failure occurred daily and the vehicle vibrated. The dealer advised her to get the tires balanced, but the failure continued to persist. A mechanic later stated that this was characteristic of the Jeep Liberty. The contact read a news article stating that there was an investigation related to the upper ball joints and the failure was not related to her year, make, and model. The failure mileage was 28,000.

- Derry , NH, USA