2003 Jeep Liberty engine problems

Owners reported engine problems in 64 complaints for the 2003 Jeep Liberty, 4% of the complaints on file.

Complaints: 64 4% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage: 67,000 miles 53 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires: 6 and 4
Injuries and deaths: 5 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When engine problems show up

Based on 53 complaints that include mileage. 42% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.

View the numbers

Mileage	Complaints
0k to 20k miles	9
20k to 40k miles	6
40k to 60k miles	7
60k to 80k miles	8
80k to 100k miles	4
100k to 120k miles	6
120k to 140k miles	1
140k to 160k miles	3
160k to 180k miles	4
180k to 200k miles	1
200k+ miles	4

What the data shows

Of the 53 engine complaints that report mileage, the median is about 67,000 miles, and 42% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 6 crashes, 4 fires, 5 injuries.

What owners wrote

I t-boned a taxi that tried clearing 3 lanes of roadway last minute to make his exit. I was going 30MPH. Upon impact, the priuses airbags went off, and I noticed my airbags in the jeep did not go off. For an impact at that speed, and hitting the car full frontal, it should have definitely gone off.

Reported at 240,000 miles, October 2014 CrashInjury

I have heard this is a very common problem with the 3.7 jeep motors. From what the mechanics have told me is the lifters pop loose in the head and the engine sounds like it has blown. The lifter rattles around in the cylinder head making all kinds of noise. My first one was in I think 2007 on passenger side and the lifter jumped. To replace the broken parts was over 600.00 and my second one on the drivers side destroyed everything in the cylinder head.

Reported at 80,000 miles, June 2007

Engine problems in other years

Engine problems across all Jeep models