Jeep Gladiator Mojave transmission gets stuck in D position, car is disabled.

[apprentice75]

There are many topics on Jeep transmission getting stuck. With very small mileage. Often it starts, as stories go, with a message: "Electronic Stability Control Failure". Often Jeep owners try to solve it by resetting fuses following suggestions from a next door experts. Which is quite ridiculous considering that 65K+ price cars under original warranty being fixed in such a risky way without finding the root cause...???
Btw, not a single post on stuck transmission was resolved by Jeep with finding a very certain single root cause. Always - "maybe some wiring somewhere is at fault" or some other misty theories.
The same happened to me. My Jeep Mojave 2022, purchased new from a NJ Jeep dealer with 40 miles on speedometer. After about 20K mileage "Electronic Stability Control Failure" message came up on the highway, transmission statrted loosing its traction. After getting off the highway, stopped at the light and transmission got stuck at D while screen suggested to move the shifter from P to D. After 20 min the car restarted as if nothing ever happened. I took the car to the original dealer and they could not reproduced the issue. Gave me the car back as is. Just for the following week getting stuck on the highway and the car being towed to the same dealer. Now they claimed (after keeping the car almost for 3 weeks of research) that the root cause was - the loose electrical socket to the transmission that cause draining both main and auxiliary batteries and thus making transmission stuck. So they changed the socket, both batteries. Solved..?
One month passed... Car is still under 36K original warranty. Now, this week, I am on my home away trip for a retreat in Adirondacks - same thing happened again! Got stuck with the same scenario. Now I have to find a tow from upstate NY to southern NJ dealer (about 300+ miles) and find a one-way rental car to get back home which is hard to find in the area where I am now.
Reading through the topics on this forum I found A NUMBER of similar cases with very little mileage Jeeps. How in the world this can happen with cars with 65K+ price tag while under original warrany??? And not a single case was resolved by Jeep pointing out the exact root cause. Just murky theories and speculations. Hoping that the same issue would magically never come back again.
Anyone knows...???
I am considering to file a case with NHTSA. I don't want to get stuck for the third time in the left lane on the highway I-87 in the middle of the night in upstate NY where everyone is driving at ~75+... Just to get killed.
Thank you, Jeep.

Sponsored

 

[Gvsukids]

How in the world this can happen with cars with 65K+ price tag while under original warrany???

Electrical issues are finicky. I've never had this issue with over 70k miles on my odometer. Humans build cars and make electrical connectors.

 

[apprentice75]

Electrical issues are finicky. I've never had this issue with over 70k miles on my odometer. Humans build cars and make electrical connectors.

Still... the very explicit message: "Electronic Stability Control Failure" should make sense and give some clues to the service people in charge. But that wasn't the case.

 

[Not2Late]

Could be anything, so please don't take this as I am an expert. But, thought I would share my experience. I too have been disappointed with the electrical gremlins on my $60,000 Mojave. I had a similar message and then got the dreaded "service transmission" and it would not start or drive. Long story short, there is a large electrical connecter behind the front passenger tire fender liner on the firewall. All sorts of communication(s) go through there. For me, one of the dozens of wires happened to be the power/communication to my transmission control module. The tech found it by checking every wire for voltage and current to find the one that failed the test. Maybe something similar is going on for you.

 

[toyotafreak65]

My Mojave had less that 100 miles the first time something similar happened to me. I was trying to back out of my garage and it stopped on its own and wouldn't continue to back up. The R was flashing and the message on the dash said Selector not in park. I put it in park, let off the brake, then put it back into reverse. Still wouldn't move. I put it in park and turned the vehicle off. I cranked it back up and then continued to back up.
It did nearly the same thing yesterday (150 miles on it)it backed up braked to a stop with the gear selector R and D flashing. Then wouldn't go into drive. Display said not in park.

I had to turn the vehicle off then restart to get it to move.

 

[Mr._Bill]

My Mojave had less that 100 miles the first time something similar happened to me. I was trying to back out of my garage and it stopped on its own and wouldn't continue to back up. The R was flashing and the message on the dash said Selector not in park. I put it in park, let off the brake, then put it back into reverse. Still wouldn't move. I put it in park and turned the vehicle off. I cranked it back up and then continued to back up.
It did nearly the same thing yesterday (150 miles on it)it backed up braked to a stop with the gear selector R and D flashing. Then wouldn't go into drive. Display said not in park.

I had to turn the vehicle off then restart to get it to move.

If your seat belt is on, the door is closed, and nothing is behind you, then this is something that will require a dealer visit. Take a video with your phone to show them what the problem is.

 

[apprentice75]

Something tells me that it's a somewhat known issue to Jeep engineers. May be hard and too expensive to fix? Something that makes the electrical connector to the transmission box getting burned. Sooner or later. But may be no later that 36,000 miles? Casting of the connector must be done with very high precision that can easily be off from precisely required dimensions?

 

[sharpsicle]

That's quite the statement there. What are you basing all that on? I've yet to see anything that tells me Jeep is actively sweeping it under the rug. Quite to the contrary, they're spending time and money (sometimes significant) on fixes for folks under warranty.

I would think it's reasonable to assume that no singular root cause is out there because maybe there isn't one. There very well could be different issues at play for different folks. And let's be honest, doing a full RCA on a solved warranty issue probably isn't worth anyone's time until it gets to recall territory. The goal here for you and others with this issue isn't to do the RCA, it's to fix the issue.

Your case may not be the same as someone else's. It still needs to get fixed, I agree, but it just might not be the same solution as others. They might try similar solutions that have worked for others, but with varying success. Nothing wrong with that. The uncomfortable truth is that they need an opportunity to diagnose and test it to find potential solutions and try them. Process of elimination. Electrical can be a pain in the butt.

 

[AmosMoses]

Something tells me that it's a somewhat known issue to Jeep engineers.

Sounds like a "misty theory" to me.

Sponsored