2013 Jeep shuts off at highway speed

[Angler3]

Hello all,
my brother has a 2013 jk with 60k miles. While driving on the highway on more than one occasion it has shut off. He coasts to the shoulder and after repeated attempts, it restarts. usually five minutes later. The other day it happened on a very busy interstate , and it was pretty scary. He thought he was going to get rear ended or worse. We’ve read that maybe the crank position sensor or a wheel speed sensor triggering traction control can do this . But would the traction control shut the car off ? And it did it today with the traction control off. He feels it happens only at highway speeds. There are no check engine lights on, and we took it to a shop and they found no codes . It happens sporadically .
thanks for any help or suggestions

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[Gren71]

I had a very similar issue with my 13 JKU.

my jku would only sputter and/or just randomly shut off while either idling, or while at a consistent speed for a period of time. If i was accelerating and decelerating on the highway it didnt happen. I would also get the ess warning and watched several videos on crank position sensors thinking it was the same thing.

For me it was crappy e3 spark plugs i had put in. As soon as i had them replaced with mopar plugs i never had the issue again.

 

[Trickster]

Could be so many different things.
Similar experience with a 2013 Ram.
Ignition switch was the culprit.
Freaks you out when at speed for sure.

 

[Angler3]

Could be so many different things.
Similar experience with a 2013 Ram.
Ignition switch was the culprit.
Freaks you out when at speed for sure.

How did you figure it out

 

[Trickster]

How did you figure it out

The dealership did.

 

[dcmdon]

I hate to sound like a prick, but It sounds like your brother has to but on his big boy pants and act like a responsible adult. A lot of it has to do with where he drives. If my car suddenly shut off in New Hampshire, then it would not be a big deal. But if it suddenly shut off on Storo Drive in Cambridge (ultra busy highway with no shoulder) it would be very dangerous.

How many times did it happen before he took it somewhere?

Unfortunately an intermittent problem like this can be a nightmare to chase down. But it really has to be done. He needs to find a shop with a real mechanic who knows the ins and outs of the ECU, its logic and its points of failure.

One thought is to just buy some of the possible parts and change them out. A crank position sensor is $15 for example. Swap it.

Did the person who scanned it use a FCA specific scan tool or just a generic one? There might be codes that give insight into the problem that a standard scan too can't read.

 

[Aonarch]

If it drives, runs perfectly normal, then I would try replacing the ignition switch.

If at any speed it doesn't run perfectly, then I'd look at all the normal culprits. Plugs, air filter, coils/ wiring, engine sensors, 02 sensors.

Is the gas mileage normal?

Does he have a big keychain?

 

[IamPro2A]

Does he have a big keychain?

^^ THIS ^^

 

[Angler3]

If it drives, runs perfectly normal, then I would try replacing the ignition switch.

If at any speed it doesn't run perfectly, then I'd look at all the normal culprits. Plugs, air filter, coils/ wiring, engine sensors, 02 sensors.

Is the gas mileage normal?

Does he have a big keychain?

Drives and runs normal… going to change the crank position sensor and see what happens

 

[Aonarch]

Drives and runs normal… going to change the crank position sensor and see what happens

Why did it throw a code?

 

[trailless]

I had a 2014 that would do this. It happened randomly, sometimes while driving 40mph and sometimes driving 80mph on the interstate. The engine would just shut off and I would have to coast to the shoulder. Wait about 5-10 minutes and start it up. Then it would drive normally like nothing happened, well until it would die again. I brought it to the dealer and they couldn't figure it out.

The answer was the crank position sensor. It was $15 at autozone and took like 10 minutes to change. After I changed the sensor it never happened again.

 

[Trickster]

I had a 2014 that would do this. It happened randomly, sometimes while driving 40mph and sometimes driving 80mph on the interstate. The engine would just shut off and I would have to coast to the shoulder. Wait about 5-10 minutes and start it up. Then it would drive normally like nothing happened, well until it would die again. I brought it to the dealer and they couldn't figure it out.

The answer was the crank position sensor. It was $15 at autozone and took like 10 minutes to change. After I changed the sensor it never happened again.

Well that may offer some comfort to the OP, if that’s all it is.

 

[Angler3]

Why did it throw a code?

No code

 

[Angler3]

I had a 2014 that would do this. It happened randomly, sometimes while driving 40mph and sometimes driving 80mph on the interstate. The engine would just shut off and I would have to coast to the shoulder. Wait about 5-10 minutes and start it up. Then it would drive normally like nothing happened, well until it would die again. I brought it to the dealer and they couldn't figure it out.

The answer was the crank position sensor. It was $15 at autozone and took like 10 minutes to change. After I changed the sensor it never happened again.

I have it , waiting for a day off to change it. I’m crossing my fingers

 

[trailless]

I have it , waiting for a day off to change it. I’m crossing my fingers

Good luck. Its really simple to change out.

The thing is, you don't really know if it fixed the problem until a hundred miles or so. You just have to keep driving until one day you realized it's fixed.

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