About a month ago we reported that Chrysler is recalling 1,900 1998 Jeep Cherokees because the front-seat belt shoulder anchors may give way. We recently came across some recall information about the 1997 Jeep Wrangler. It seems that Chrysler is recalling 1,600 '97 Wranglers with manual steering because the steering wheel, turned to lock position, can damage air-bag wiring, making the bag inoperable. According to 4x4now.com's Jeep Jamboree Calendar, it is looking like quite a few of this year's Jeep Jamborees are already fully booked. If you were planning on attending one of the Jamborees, you probably need to check out the list. There are wait lists available for several of the Jamborees. We've been following a discussion of a possible year 2000 problem with Jeep microcontroller-based systems. While searching Dejanews we came across what appears to be a letter from David A. Pruett, the Supervisor of "Jeep Platform Electrical Engineering" to a Y2K consultant for the state of Washington. In the letter, Mr. Pruett writes: I am an electrical engineering supervisor with Jeep Electrical microcontroller-based systems currently installed on Jeep products. The question of year 2000 has been asked on at least two occasions here at Jeep since the beginning of 1997. In response to these inquiries, we have reviewed the software functionality of all of the modules used on Jeep vehicles and confirmed that none of these include any usage of calendar year information. In our previous discussions, we have found that in many cases, people raising the year 2000 question often point to the clock/calendar feature of the Vehicle Information Center (VIC) which is optional equipment for the Jeep Grand Cherokee. However, the calendar function in the VIC is month/day/day-of-week, and does not use calendar year information. Even adjustment for leap year must be done manually by the operator since the calendar year is not tracked. We are confident that year 2000 will not pose any problems for the operation of Jeep vehicles.
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