Have you ever seen those cheesey hunks of foam they have installed under the hood, along the top of the fenders up close to where the hood meets the window? Right beside the hinges?
Is this our 'baffle' to stop hood flapping?..I just got a voice mail call from my Jeep Dealership yesterday...It seems I was missing one along the right hand side and they went ahead and ordered a replacement..never knew they even did so, tho I did bitch to Chrysler Canada about the hood lift. I'm thinking theres a connection with the 2.. Gotta appointment today for 4;45 pm..keep you posted if this helps the hood lift issue

Could you do a before and after shot of what it looks like?

yes please... keep us posted... i think it will give a lot of us peace of mind if the solution to the hood lift issue is this simple... we can just all go to our dealers and ask for some cheese.... hehehehehehehe...

Sorry Bud....don't have a camera on my phone, and I won't be stopping off @ home on the way to the dealer after work to get the camera.
I will tho take a picture of the afters....its a pretty cut and dry installation..like I said...it's pretty cheesey.

Picture afterwards would be great as well, then we can check and see if we are missing something on ours. Take it on a two lane truck road on the way home :)
thanks!

My Charger has the same foam thingy mojobbers under the hood near the firewall

Well..installation took all of 5 mins....They put another foam piece on the other side...
Here's a link some other Pat owner published a while back.
I really think they will do squat.

http://www.jeeppatriot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2503&page=13

I've got the same thing - the right side is missing. I asked about it when my Jeep was in for servicing; they said it looks like it was put on for shipping and was just missed during dealer prep. I guess I better check to see if they pulled the other side off!
Had your dealer looked at your Jeep before to determine if it was missing or was this just an automatic service recall? I am interested to see if this foam is a "normal" part or just a hit & miss installation.

Well..heres what happened..I opened the hood for the 1st time to put in windshield washer fluid, and I noticed that they never rust proofed along the top of the fender along this area where this foam is installed. The foam piece was missing from the same side where they forgot to apply the rust proofing.
I took it in for an oil change, and at the same time I told them about the missing foam piece, and the rust proofing.
The car came back and the service manager told me that they did apply the rust proofing, and then said they are still looking into the foam piece. I really didn't think much of it, and it wasn't important to me. My thought was..somneone took it off in order to rust proof but they never did the rust proofing. I was just trying to show them the obvious incompetance.
I got a voice mail to come back in as my part was in so please make an appointment. I couldn't understand what part, so i called and made my appointment and at the same time, I spoke with the same service manager. He said they have the foam spacer here.
Went yesterday and thats what happened. I can't see this thing doing much. Im now wondering if they took it off a Patriot they had sitting in the Lot, or indeed ordered one in.
Regardless, Im not a fan of this spacer, and even if I didnt hear back from the dealer about it, I wouldn't have cared.
I did write Chrysler Canada about the hood flapping approx 4 days agao, and they still haven't responded.

OK. I have one of the outside foam pieces missing too. What happened is I had the dealer do the rustproofing. The foam then was loose. I tried to stick it back on but the rustproofing would not allow it to stick back on. My hood does not flap or have more than an eighth inch rise near the windshield when I try and lift it. I had the dealer check the hinges and everything is where it is suppose to be. They have had no compaints about flapping hoods. I understand the issue. I wonder how many Pats actually have this problem. Looks to me that the foam was only temporary and was probably used when the hood is installed to prevent side to side movement and damage to the the fender and nside paint.