In a letter dated April 3, 2013, Chrysler Group LLC submitted a Defect Information Report (DIR) to NHTSA identifying a safety defect in the fuel delivery system in approximately 20,532 model year (MY) 2012 Jeep Patriot (11,624) and Compass (8,908) vehicles manufactured from October 18, 2011 through May 7, 2012 and equipped with certain fuel tanks produced between October 18, 2011 and January 26, 2012 (Recall 13V-120).According to Chrysler, Jeep Patriot and Compass vehicles equipped with saddle type fuel tanks built during the affected period may experience low siphoning rate through the transfer tube from the secondary to the primary side of the fuel tank.Chrysler's investigation determined that a material change by the transfer tube supplier (TI Automotive) led to malformed tubes being shipped to the final tank assembly supplier (Kautex).The malformed transfer tubes may make the siphoning process more difficult to start and maintain under certain operating conditions.Sustained driving during this condition may deplete fuel in the primary side of the fuel tank and lead to engine stall without warning.Kautex established a 100% sort on January 26, 2012 as a countermeasure for the malformed tubes being used in production.Chrysler is able to trace fuel tank build dates by vehicle identification number and Recall 13V-120 only includes vehicles equipped withsaddle tanks made during the affected period.Approximately 97 percent of the recalled Patriot vehicles (11,277 out of 11,624) were from October 18, 2011 through January 26, 2012.Chrysler determined that a few suspect tanks were used on vehicles produced as late as May 7, 2012 and is including any such vehicles in the recall.The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) analyzed complaint data provided by Chrysler as well as complaints submitted to ODI from consumers to identify stalling incidents related to fuel delivery.ODI's analysis identified a total of 64 engine stall incidents related to fuel delivery, all of which involved Patriot 4x4 vehicles equipped with saddle type fuel tanks.The Patriot 4x4 vehicles account for a little over half of the subject vehicle population (59,783 vehicles).Forty-nine (49) of the incidents involved the approximately 11,277 Patriot 4x4 vehicles that were built from October 18, 2011 and January 26, 2012 and equipped with tanks from the period associated with the transfer tube material change.This equates to a complaint rate of 434.5 incidents per 100,000 vehicles sold.Fifteen (15) fuel delivery related engine stalls were identified in the remaining 48,506 Patriot 4x4 vehicles, resulting in a complaint rate of 30.9 incidents per 100,000 vehicles.The rate in the non-recalled Patriot 4x4 vehicles increases to 68.0 incidents per 100,000 vehicles if stalls with no-restart and unknown cause are added to the analysis.The Patriot front-wheel drive vehicles are equipped with single reservoir fuel tanks and are not affected by the saddle-tank fuel delivery issue.Owners of the recalled vehicles will be notified to take their vehicle to a Jeep dealer, who will replace the fuel tank transfer tube to prevent any incidents related to this issue. Chrysler will begin notifying dealers and owners in May 2013. This preliminary evaluation is closed.The ODI reports cited above can be viewed at www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchNHTSAID under the following identification numbers (ODI Nos.): 10481572, 10481452, 10481279, 10481254, 10481222, 10481141, 10481126, 10481110, 10501057, 10478934, 10472705, 10470121, 10468517, 10467488, 10466357, 10464745, 10464449, 10464135, 10462338, 10459383, 10421019, 10410937, 10481392.
