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Had to have our 2014 towed in yesterday

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2014
15K views 55 replies 16 participants last post by  CarlsDad 
#1 ·
My wife was coming home from work when the transmission just quit. All kinds of fault indicators in the cab she said. Still running just transmission would not engage and move forward. She was able to coast to the side of the road. She turned it off and back on and it cleared but she said it was not right. Was shifting loud and had no power. She was able to get it home, only about 5 miles away at the time.

Called the dealer and they said they wanted it towed in. Had us call the road side assitance number and they came fairly quickly and picked it up. The dealership called later that day and said they cleared the codes and could not duplicate, so we should come pick it up. I told him we were about to go on a trip and if it died on me I was not going to be happy. He said they were going to road test it before we came by, which he didn't mention initially. Said he would call back when they had finished checking it out.

So around 5:15 still no call so we called and apparently it died on them during testing. So they are getting us a rental car today and they say it will be Monday before they can start work on it. They said it won't be a complete transmission just several parts. My wife spoke to them so I have no more info than that.
 
#3 ·
Very sorry to hear that. I have a '14 latitude 3.2 I just purchased and all these tranny failures are making me nervous. What engine/trim level do you have? How many miles are on the vehicle? Did you notice anything different about the performance before this happened?
 
#4 ·
Transmission failure on post Dec 2014 models is actually quite rare as that is when they worked out the issue. I am not saying it doesn't happen, just not really more often now than any other model/brand.

Will be interesting to hear though what they replace if they saying it does not need a new transmission, it may be something completely unrelated and just appearing as a transmission issue.
 
#5 ·
We have a 2014 Limited with virtually all options and had a problem very early that resulted in the differential and a half shaft being replaced.

We are nearing 3 years (less than 24,000 miles now) in November and I'm going to pay through the nose for the extended warranty. To much on ours not to trust.
 
#37 ·
Grandriver,
I have a 2014 Cherokee with 60,000+ miles and I have towed it 39,000 more and then the front frame members where the Blue Ox tow bar base plates attach broke all the welds. I was lucky that I only towed 40 miles that day instead of 250 like normal. I would have lost the jeep on a longer trip. Be sure to have the front inspected periodically for cracked welds as those frame members are only aluminum.
 
#7 ·
We got the car back this morning. They said they replaced the valve body and a harness. I don't have the the repair order with me right now but I hope it list a part number so I can see what harness they replaced.

They also flashed three or four modules. So we will see how it goes. The wife said it drove okay going to work. Guess we will need to get it out this weekend and take a drive. :worried:
 
#8 ·
Yeah, I work in the electrical industry where I build and wire control boxes for aviation ground support equipment. Also from time to time build/troubleshoot the unit harnesses depending on our customers needs. It can be very simple, like a bad connection going to a light. Or become a huge pain when a 22ga wire going to the engines computer need to be soldered or swapped inside a 72 pin plug. Point is, it's nothing compared to what's going on with today's vehicles. There are so many sensors, modules, sub harnesses, etc. it's mind boggling. Lots of room for error. Glad to hear that you have it back and hope things run smooth.
 
#10 ·
Had to have it towed in again today, this time it was electrical. My wife called and said when she came out from the pharmacy the car would not start, said she was getting a message about not seeing the FOB and it would not start. I told her to go back in and buy a new battery for the FOB and try that.

She did but said it made no difference, so I ran home and got the spare FOB and took it to her. When I tried to start it did nothing, it was completely dead, nothing was lighting up in the cab. So I get out some jumper cables and it does cause things to come on and it clicks but will not start. So I crank up my truck and then with my truck running the Jeep starts up. So I assume it has a bad battery and I tell my wife to take the truck and I will take the Jeep somewhere and get the battery tested.

I back out of the parking spot and put in in drive and it dies. Can not get it start back with a jump or otherwise. So I call the road side assistance and they have to come pick it up and take it to the dealer again.

I now know the procedure for getting the Jeep in Neutral when it has no power. The tow truck driver knew it and showed me, after that I found that the procedure is shown in the manual. Luckily the parking lot I was in was not too busy as I was kind of out in the middle of the driving lane. I did not know how to put it in Neutral to push it back in a parking space. The gear shift was locked in park and would not move

Jeep is not making this easy. I really don't want to buy a new car, but if it keeps stranding my wife she is going to insist.
 
#13 ·
NOTE:​
• In the event of a power malfunction to the
liftgate, an emergency liftgate latch release
can be used to open the liftgate. The
emergency liftgate latch release can be
accessed through a snap-in cover located​
on the liftgate trim panel.
 
#14 · (Edited)
NOTE:​
• In the event of a power malfunction to the
liftgate, an emergency liftgate latch release
can be used to open the liftgate. The
emergency liftgate latch release can be
accessed through a snap-in cover located
on the liftgate trim panel.


Standing there with the Tow truck driver I was looking in the manual and found nothing in the appendix about the lift gate. I missed it apparently, it's in there somewhere. I will have to make sure I know how to do this in the future.

They say it is the battery. They called my wife and said it's ready to be picked up, since they didn't ask her what she wanted them to do and told here it was ready to be picked up I guess the battery is covered. I would have thought once cranked the charging system would keep it running. Must have been putting quite a load on the system. I am going to go pick it up in a bit.
 
#17 · (Edited)
My wife was coming home from work when the transmission just quit. All kinds of fault indicators in the cab she said. Still running just transmission would not engage and move forward. She was able to coast to the side of the road. She turned it off and back on and it cleared but she said it was not right. Was shifting loud and had no power. She was able to get it home, only about 5 miles away at the time.
A similar thing just happened to my wife, it sounds like. She was on the freeway when she lost throttle power and has a multitude of warning lights illuminate something like "throttle control failure." She had all kinds of problems getting over to the shoulder with no power, but eventually was able to get to a safe spot. About a half hour later she was able to restart the car. It was a 2 hour wait for a tow truck here in Los Angeles, so she's currently driving the car to our local dealership via side streets in case it happens again.

It sounds like the dealer tried to give the car back without solving anything but fortunately replicated the problem just before that happened. I'm very much hoping not to endure multiple trips to the dealership to get this fixed - fingers are crossed...
 
#18 ·
Kind of scary to think this type of thing happening on a freeway. Luckily she didn't get hurt, but losing power on a freeway and having to get out of traffic is a every dangerous situation.

IN my wife's case she was on a fairly busy road and taking off from a red light to make a left turn. If she had been in a situation where she was making a turn with oncoming traffic it could have gotten hairy.
 
#19 ·
The local dealer took 2 days to "fix" my issue last week. They said a ground wire had come loose and they reattached it. Not surprisingly, they were unable to reproduce the issue when they test drove it around.

Unfortunately my wife was driving home at 10:30pm last night and the exact same issue happened again. Again she was on a freeway when a Throttle Control error light appeared and she completely lost the ability to use her throttle. This is about as dangerous an issue as there is, save loss of brakes or steering. Obviously hard to know for sure, but it appears the issue manifests when accelerating at moderate speed (50+ mph). Not enough data to know for sure, but that's when we've seen it.

CarlsDad, do you happen to have more info on how your issue was eventually resolved?
 
#20 · (Edited)
The local dealer took 2 days to "fix" my issue last week. They said a ground wire had come loose and they reattached it. Not surprisingly, they were unable to reproduce the issue when they test drove it around.


Unfortunately my wife was driving home at 10:30pm last night and the exact same issue happened again. Again she was on a freeway when a Throttle Control error light appeared and she completely lost the ability to use her throttle. This is about as dangerous an issue as there is, save loss of brakes or steering. Obviously hard to know for sure, but it appears the issue manifests when accelerating at moderate speed (50+ mph). Not enough data to know for sure, but that's when we've seen it.

CarlsDad, do you happen to have more info on how your issue was eventually resolved?
They said they replaced the valve body and a wiring harness. Also flashed three or four modules. Seems to have fixed it, hasn't happened again. When I get home tonight I can look at the repair order and perhaps give more detail.

I will also speak to my wife and ask her to describe exactly what happened again.

Here in GA on a safety issue like that you could initiate a lemon Law action and give them one more time try to fix it and then they would have to take it back. I think on something like that they only get one or two tries. If that happens under the right circumstance it could be very dangerous.
 
#26 ·
Sadly the throttle failed again last night. Third time in 3 months. Each of the first two times it was supposedly fixed. This time I was the driver instead of my wife so I got to experience what it's like to try and merge into 60mph traffic only to have the throttle not work. I was almost rear-ended, it was frightening. This is turning into a lemon-law situation, so I need to write Chrysler and establish the pattern. Bummer because I generally like the Cherokee but these problems could be deadly.
 
#24 ·
[
How about opening the lift gate without power. I tried to find out how to do that with the manual and could not.[/QUOTE]

Just grab a hold of the handle and pull it like it doesn't have a power open and it will open. Or are you saying unlock it?
 
#29 ·
Here's an update in case anyone is having similar issues.

2014 Cherokee was brought into the dealer about a week and a half ago after the 3rd time experiencing the same issue (Throttle fails under hard acceleration causing car to coast. Throttle begins working again after ignition is switched off for 15-30 minutes).

The repair rep test drove it 20+ miles over 4 days and was about to give it back to me saying it was fine, but finally replicated the issue.

Dealer did not know to fix the issue and asked FCA for help again. FCA replied after a few days and today the fix and part are supposedly being implemented - replacing the entire wire harness, which apparently takes a full 2-days to complete.

At this point, the vehicle has been in the dealer for repair/ recalls for almost a month since purchase.
 
#30 ·
This is terrible. I am so sorry to hear this. I just bought the 2014 GC limited 4x4 last week and it did this to me two days after I bought it. It is at the dealer ship now having the BCM replaced. I am hoping it fixes it. Please let me know the update on yours. I may need to start the lemon law on mine right now as well. I only have 11k miles on mine so this should not be happening.
 
#34 ·
Update from me. Sorry for the delay, writing about this just makes me more angry but I know some of you may learn something, so I wanted to get back to you.

My car went into dealership repair on 3/22 with its 4th throttle failure. It remained there while I started contacting Chrysler corporate. I have a case number and the case was escalated to the compensation and lemon folks. Those are short sentences but the process is far from short. I am keeping a journal that has over 40 entries between calls to the dealership and calls to corporate.

On 4/27 I was notified that the car had finally been fixed after trying numerous other fixes, like a new wire harness, which took over a week to install, and obviously failed to fix the problem. The good news is dealer repair replicated my issue. The final (supposedly) fix was some kind of rubber between the throttle fan and the throttle (it was not explained well and I actually doubt the issue is resolved).

My car has been out for this specific issue for well over 45 days in total. To add insult to injury, when my car was picked up, there were numerous paint scratches around the body the car, several hairline cracks in the windshield, and orange writing on my windshield. I had the car detailed two days before the most recent throttle failure, and the car was in impeccable shape (I am incredibly careful with the care and maintenance of my cars - I'm a car guy!). Now the car, frankly, looks like a piece of junk. I am absolutely livid, to say the least.

I have been jerked around by Chrysler corporate, who hasn't returned my voicemails and to whom I haven't spoken in over a week. I tried to go through the process without an attorney, because I thought Chrysler and I could work out a favorable deal and we'd split the value an attorney would extract. Given the condition of my car upon return, I have no choice but to hire an attorney to get things moving.

This has been the worst consumer-related experience of my life. While cars are just stuff, the amount of time I've had to spend on this is absurd. Additionally, I have no confidence that the issue is resolved and it's a possibly deadly failure, so I'm nervous about having my wife operate the vehicle.
 
#35 ·
FYI, finished lemon law process. Long story that I intend to flesh out and post in case it helps people on this site, but overall I'm very happy with the result. I'm even considering giving the Jeep Cherokee another shot.

Short story: it took a very long time and a lot of effort, but FCA came through and did the right thing.
 
#39 ·
I had no indication of any kind of problem until the morning after I had finished the 40 mile tow. The morning after I noticed about a 1 inch gap between the hood and the drivers fender, so I took it to a body shop and when they looked underneath, the drivers side frame was broken. Upon complete disassembly, they discovered that all of the welds on both sides were completely broken. I plan on taking it to my mechanic shop about every 5000 miles of towing for a thorough inspection from underneath.
 
#40 ·
Thanks for the description and advice! Do you have any pictures of the broken frame members? Curious which welds gave way. I installed the Blue Ox base plates and I'm guessing it might be the vertical welds on the plate the bumper and base plate are bolted to. Here's a picture:



I don't think inspecting those welds is an easy task. I just went out with a flashlight and from under the hood I cannot get a good visual. IIRC, to get a good visual requires removing the fascia which includes the black shield. That shield blocks the view from underneath.

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

1) Did you have any "death wobble" events before installing the flat-tow kit?
2) Do you have the sensitivity and force of the aux brake system turned up such that when the KL's brakes are applied it puts a drag on the motorhome?

Again, thanks for the heads up on this.
 
#41 ·
I had "death wobble" on many occasions as I had towed it about 25000 to 30000 miles before jeep finally came up with a fix.

I have Air Force One installed on my jeep which brakes proportionally to the air brakes on my coach. I have on only 1 occasion felt any braking effect from the jeep and that was very recently when a guy crossed the traffic and stopped right in front of me. I was standing on the brakes and the air horn on that occasion. I was about 20 feet from him when he finally got to moving.
 

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#42 ·
Shouldn't that frame damage be covered by FCA, regardless how old it is and how many miles on it now? It's their engineering problem that caused the death wobble that broke the welds. It took a long time for them to recognize the problem and release a solution.

Thanks for the pictures!!! I had three death wobble events. The first two were at very low speed. The last one happened at 45 mph in an I-75 construction zone in Cincinnati. As you know, there is no way to stop it other than to come to a complete stop. Rush hour people were not happy with me pulling that stunt.

On your pictures, looks like the bumper beam is turned over so the driver's side is on the right. I was surprised to see the bumper mount welds broken since the Blue Ox base plate bolts over it. I'm guessing when the lower frame weld broke, it just ripped the bumper mount weld too? I don't recognize the last picture with the black pieces. Was that collateral damage?

On the driver crossing traffic and stopping in front of you...
That is the reason I put a dash cam in the windshield. I've had that happen to me too, on several occasions. I always keep a ton of space between me and the vehicle in front. But when a Bozo pulls that trick, there's nothing you can do. If someone gets squashed like a bug, I want to have evidence of the foolish move they made before their death.
 
#43 ·
The jeep customer service stated that since I had not taken it to an authorized jeep dealer, they could not do anything for me. I certainly think that jeep should pay for all the expenses that have been expended to fix their engineering problems.

Isn't it shame they could not do the job correctly the first time. All the replacement parts are steel. I'm really not worried about it any more since it is all steel now.

The black piece in my pictures is the radiator frame mounting. I found out from the body shop that when they removed the bolts all the pieces just fell onto the ground.
 
#44 ·
Thanks for all the detailed information. It's sad you had to experience and deal with this. Your story serves as a warning to anyone else reading this how serious that death wobble is. I've already shared your story with a member on another forum.
 
#45 ·
Well another big repair, at least this time we were not stranded somewhere. Back late last year they had to replace a strut mount. When it was cold there would be a scrubbing sound in the front end. A month or so ago my wife stared complaining the sound was coming back. It was not quite the same sound but it was simliar and more consistent. I could sit still and turn the wheel back and forth and hear the sound.

Took it in today and they say they need to replace the rack and pinion. Good thing we bought the extended warrenty as the service guy told my wife the parts would be $2100.00. We have a $100.00 deductable, but better than $2100.00 Also that was just parts no telling how much the labor would have tacked on.
 
#46 ·
Hello CarlsDad,

Keep us updated on your service appointment. If an additional layer of assistance is needed or if you have any questions, let us know.

Jasmine
Jeep Social Care Specialist
 
#47 ·
So back on the 13th we got the car back. My wife has been complaining that the noise is as bad now as it was before. So I went out this afternoon and backed the car out of the garage and I believe she is right. Might even be worse, any turn of the wheel and the front end pops and creeks, sounds like something is rubbing.

The repair invoice list the repair as replaced steering gear and centered steering wheel. The total job was listed at over $2800, glad I didn't have to pay it. I would have been especially angry since it seems to have done nothing to actually fix the problem. Bad enough I had to pay $100.00.
 
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