Jeep Software Update Problems

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Hilma Kolin

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Aug 3, 2024, 10:08:18 AM8/3/24

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By matching owner complaints with recall, investigation and technical service bulletin data we've come up with a list of the most common Jeep problems for every model and generation. We've even ranked vehicles by their reliability.

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Jillian Kavanagh regrets the day she signed the lease on a 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe, a hybrid four-wheel drive. The vehicle failed during the winter and now only works in gas mode. It also shakes when she accelerates above 70 mph. She wants Stellantis, the car's manufacturer, to terminate her lease and take back the malfunctioning Jeep.

I'm kidding. Every car case that drives through our advocacy department has a fraud angle. But this story is a standout because her Jeep failed on so many levels that I'm inclined to advocate for her. I'll tell you how it ended in just a minute -- and I'd love to get your opinion on the conclusion. (Scroll down for the poll.)

"I frequently got an error message stating that the electric mode was 'not available,'" she says. I was scheduled to go on vacation with my family and planned to follow up with the dealership afterward."

Kavanagh took the Jeep back to the dealership to get serviced, and this time, the technicians found a problem with the car's electric mode. She also learned that there was an ongoing class action lawsuit against Stellantis over the Jeep 4xe. The lawsuit alleges the 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe has a defect that keeps the plug-in hybrid vehicle from running on electric power, especially in cold weather.

Stellantis reached out and offered an incentive to trade in her vehicle. But when she got to the dealership, she learned that her six-month-old car had depreciated by $22,000 from her original purchase price.

"As the weather started getting colder, the electric mode stopped working altogether, and this winter has been the same," she says. "The car shakes once it reaches 70 mph as well." (Related: Was I scammed by my car rental company?)

Poor fuel economy: Although the 4xe has been touted as a fuel-efficient alternative to traditional gasoline vehicles, some 4xe owners have reported unimpressive fuel economy. Some achieve only around 20 mpg combined.

Stellantis and its network of dealerships do not make it easy to study the lease agreement before your purchase, but I managed to find a sample lease online, buried deep on the Chrysler Capital site. (Related: Want your complaint to fail? Just say these five things.)

These are the biggest roadblock to your freedom. Jeep charges an early termination fee, calculated as a multiple of your remaining monthly payments, often ranging from 3 to 6 months. The lease agreement is crystal clear:

EARLY TERMINATION. You may have to pay a substantial charge if you end this Lease early. The charge may be up to several thousand dollars. The actual charge will depend on when the Lease is terminated. The earlier you end the Lease, the greater this charge is likely to be.

Exceeding your allotted mileage also incurs additional charges, typically per-mile penalties outlined in your lease agreement (usually 25 cents per mile). Be mindful of your odometer readings to avoid surprise costs.

Returning a vehicle with damage beyond normal wear and tear can result in additional fees to cover repairs or diminished value. That's why it's important to keep your Jeep in good condition throughout the lease.

The silver lining: You may be eligible for a voluntary lease buyout. That's where you purchase the vehicle yourself before the lease ends. There may be associated fees and financing costs, and it's only a viable option if you want to keep the car.

Carefully review the terms and conditions related to early termination, fees, and other relevant clauses before you sign on the dotted line. Recognize that it's typically difficult and expensive to break a lease once you've committed.

I reached out to Stellantis again to find out if that was its final answer. A company representative said her vehicle would be repaired under its warranty, so it would not charge her. (Here's our guide to contacting the CEO directly.)

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers consumers to solve their problems and helps those who can't. He's the author of numerous books on consumer advocacy and writes three nationally syndicated columns. He also publishes the Elliott Report, a news site for consumers, and Elliott Confidential, a critically acclaimed newsletter about customer service. If you have a consumer problem you can't solve, contact him directly through his advocacy website. You can also follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or sign up for his daily newsletter. He is based in Santiago, Chile.

I just purchased a 1999 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L, with 211,000 miles and have some electrical problems. I noticed that one of the two green wires on the back of the alternator had been cut and ran to the negative side of the battery. I fixed it and spliced the wire back together so its like it was from the factory. When you start the Jeep it runs really rough and stalls sometimes. The check engine light comes on as well as the check gauges light.

I bought a new battery and replaced the terminals. I did a complete tune up (Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, oil, etc.) Changed the TPS sensor and still the same thing. I'm not sure where to turn next and don't want to start throwing money at different things and hoping for the best. Any ideas on what I should try next? Also I tested my charging system and the new battery shows 0 volts. I'm testing the alternator tomorrow, but don't think that would cause all my problems.

If you don't have ground you're going to have to examine the wiring harness especially around the rear of the valve cover. There is a splice in the harness that sends TPS signal to both the transmission computer and the engine computer.

As to the alternator. The wire that was cut, the only one makes sense would be the computer controlled ground wire (dark green/orange) on the alternator plug. Disconnect the plug and with the engine running there should be a pulsed ground signal or constant ground with the plug unplugged.

The simple problem of how far a jeep can travel with a given amount of gasoline if intermediate gasoline dumps may be used is a nice example for problems which seem to have obvious recursive solution algorithms but which may become quite difficult if the problem specification is slightly changed. The classical version allows that arbitrarily small parts of the given amount of gasoline may be filled in the jeep's tank. Wood has restricted the problem to a discrete problem by requiring that the tank can be refilled only when it is empty and that it must be refilled completely, and that the gasoline is available only in cans of the size of the tank. In an earlier note we had shown, by using a new strategy, that the seemingly adequate algorithm given by Wood in analogy to the optimal solution to the classical version is not optimal. The new strategy however is also not optimal. In this note we discuss variants of the new strategy and try to get a better understanding of the influences of (small) changes in the problem specification to the solution algorithms.