The engine of a 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon has been destroyed after the off-roader was improperly towed.
This particular Wrangler was recently dropped off at a dealership in North Florida and while it looks totally fine from the outside, its engine has been totally destroyed after it was towed behind the owner’s RV. The problem? The off-roader had been left in 4-Low and in first gear.
Speaking with The Drive, dealership shop foreman Toby Tuten revealed that the Wrangler has a crawl ratio of 84.13:1 when in first gear and low range. Had the RV been towing the Jeep at 60 mph (96 km/h), the Wrangler’s wheels would have forced the engine to spin at over 54,000 rpm, well over eight times more than the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6’s 6,600 rpm redline.
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The damage caused is shocking. The crankshaft has been ripped off and two pistons and rods have been sent through the engine block. The clutch and flywheel also destroyed the transmission’s bell housing and tore off the input shaft. A video of the carnage posted to TikTok shows just what all of this damage looks like.
Tuten estimates the cost of replacement parts to fix the Wrangler to be about $30,000 not including labor. It remains to be seen if the off-roader’s owner will actually be willing to pay that.
Jalopnik did a bit of digging and found that Wranglers equipped with the manual transmission are actually supposed to be flat-towed in gear and the transfer case in neutral. The mistake the driver made was putting the vehicle in four-low.