Mechanical Jack problems of the 2002 Jeep Liberty

The factory jack was unable to hold the vehicle's weight. This resulted in the vehicle crashing down while a good samaritan was changing the front tire. The dealership indicated this only occurred when the vehicle was at an angle and not leveled. It had taken two jacks to hold the vehicle safely while changing the tires.

Jack does not extend to height necessary to raise flat tire off ground or allow replacement spare tire to be installed. On first occasion, I had to obtain a 2x4 piece of wood to raise vehicle to proper height in my garage, but was fearful of stability of auto. On second occasion after church on 8-25-02, I extended jack to full height, could not remove flat, went for something to raise it higher then jack would not retract. Had to borrow a scissor jack from a passing motorist. The jack would be completely useless in any adverse road surface. Need to require a more substantial jack that would be suitable for raising vehicle while remaining stable to avoid injury. I pity any mom who gets a flat with a child on board and no cell phone to call for help!.

I had the pleasure of having a flat. In changing the flat I folllowed the directions and raise the vehicle to remove the flat. When I attempted to raise the vehicle higher to put on the spare, which is full size, I could not raise the Liberty high enough. As I looked at the jack as I was turning the handle, I could see that the position within the jack stand was no moving higher, I had reached the maximum height. This was a mojor problem. How to raise the vehicle high enough to get the new tire on. The only choise I had was to find something to put under the jack. I needed at least 3 to 4 inches to raise the jack up so the I could raise the vehicle by the same amount. I was able to find a tree branch which I placed under the jack. This was happening on a interstate highway. After putting the branch under the jack I was able to raise the vehicle up high enough to put on the spare. The problem is that the piston within the jack will only to up high enough to take a flat tire off, but not high enough to put a spare tire on. The piston is to short by about 3 to 4 inches. I feel that there is a real safety issue here. Putting a tree branch under the jack is not how one changes a tire. As I was raising the vehicle I thought if the weight if the Liberty crushed the branch I was going to have a lot more problems. How I was never going to be able to get the jack in the right position. Or even worse was what would happen if I have myself under the vehicle in someway and the branch came apart, that was going to hurt. What Jeep needs to do is re-design the jack. The stand either has to be taller or the pistion has to be longer to get the vehicle high enough to be able to put the spare. As a side note please make the commet section bigger. Trying to type in current manner is not easy. It would make it so much better to see all the text as one is typing. Thank you.