Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2007 Jeep Compass 4X4
1 crash 1 of the 30 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2007 Jeep Compass 4X4 report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 20 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,784 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31,693 miles | 42,000 miles | 51,551 miles | 67,000 miles | 91,477 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $700–$2,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure, every year of the Jeep Compass 4X4
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I have a 2007 jeep compass with 55,000 miles, the lower ball joints and tie rod ends have to be replaced. In my opinion and the repair shops opinion this is extremely premature for replacement of these parts. The cost of replacement of these parts are not cheap either. I know I am not the only one with this same problems with this vehicle or the sister vehicle to this, the jeep patriot. I have read numerous other complaints on various websites about this same problem with jeep customers with less miles than mine. What really frustrates me the most is that chrysler will not even acknowledge the problem. And keep charging $800.00 to repair this part that will happen again and again! This is a very dangerous problem. My vehicle was at the point where the ball joints and tie rod ends are about ready to break. Thanks for your time. *tr
I have a 2007 jeep compass with 55,000 miles, the lower ball joints and tie rod ends have to be replaced. In my opinion and the repair shops opinion this is extremely premature for replacement of these parts. The cost of replacement of these parts are not cheap either. I know I am not the only one with this same problems with this vehicle or the sister vehicle to this, the jeep patriot. I have read numerous other complaints on various websites about this same problem with jeep customers with less miles than mine. What really frustrates me the most is that chrysler will not even acknowledge the problem. And keep charging $800.00 to repair this part that will happen again and again! This is a very dangerous problem. My vehicle was at the point where the ball joints and tie rod ends are about ready to break. Thanks for your time. *tr
My jeep compass 2007 went in to have the two front tires repaired. The repair man found that my lower ball joints and left outer tie rod were "trash". The left side had fallen apart. I called jeep to speak to them in regards to this after checking it out online to find that many jeep compass owners have had the same problem. Obviously the equipment they are using or the people who are putting them together are not either faulty or not well done. This is a wide spread problem. Jeep did offer to pay for the repair in the "event that it truly was a defect". The problem is my jeep is not a chrysler dealer and where it's at and the condition it is in, it would cost me nearly $500 plus to get to one. With that jeep would not help me. I am stuck paying for the repair of a vehicle that has faulty parts and workmanship. This is not a single event... And I ask that you force jeep chrysler to recall this vehicle for this defect. I will be getting my car repaired right where it's at, but I will be pursuing jeep legally through the attorney generals office, better business bureau ect until this matter is resolved. *tr
Also reported on the 2007 Jeep Compass 4X4
Other suspension problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other fuel system problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2007 Jeep Compass 4X4?
Across 20 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2007 Jeep Compass 4X4?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 221 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed