Six problems related to front suspension control arm have been reported for the 1998 Jeep Wrangler. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
"tj Wrangler frame rust" - severe rust occurred in the frame of my 1998 Jeep Wrangler. Vehicle would no longer pass PA state inspection. Rust was due to no drainage hole and frame rusted from inside out. Rust occurred on both driver and passenger sides just in front of the rear control arms and extended front to the transfer case mounting points. I have researched this issue and it is very common and many poor Jeep owners are parting out perfectly good Jeeps due to them not being able to pass state inspections - luckily no one has been harmed due to this frame damage that I am aware of - some videos on the internet show the entire frame rusted away! this needs to be brought to the attention of Jeep as this is obvious a design flaw and owners should be compensated. If there is any doubt of how severe this is simple do a google search! Toyota took care of their customers!!!.
Due to excessive rot that is common on this vehicle, while traveling I hit a bump and snapped my driver side control arm. This consequently made for a dangerous ride. While attempting to repair it I noticed how bad the frame was rotted, but unlike normal circumstances where the outside and inside would have equal corrosion. The inside was was rotted much worse, and parts of the frame easily crumbled.
The frame around the control arms are rusting, this could be a serious problem that needs addressed and there are more 97-06 Wranglers with rusted frames than not.
Noticed a noise while driving home the other day thought it may have been my exhaust rattling around, so I got under vehicle to inspect the noise, and what I found was that the rear part of the frame has rusted away and the brackets for the rear trailing arms had detached from the frame allowing the arms to drop, and on this particular side the brake lines are attached to this control arm. I know that Toyota had a similar recall on the truck frames for rust perforation, and that Jeep had one on the liberty for the rear lower control arms rusting and breaking. I am an automotive technician and my personal Jeep is not the first one I have seen with this potentially dangerous condition. I also googled this problem and found that its very common in these vehicles as well.
The frame is rotten out, and this is a common problem with the Jeep tj's. I have a hole on my my tail section of frame and on the rear control arm area.
Control arm bracket snapped. Consumer stated that the right control arm bracket snapped off and left control arm bracket twisted causing the vehicle to swerve and ran off of the road.