Jeep Gremlins - No start

[Duncan]

Hey Everyone,

New to the forums and new to the Jeep Gladiator world. I have owned several TJ's in the past then switched to a 2017 Tacoma TRD Pro for 7 years since I wanted a truck. Finally decided to switch back to a Jeep again and picked up my new Jeep on Friday. It is a Mojave edition with 31,000 miles.

It was an hour away from my location and the dealer was nice enough to drive it to our place for us that day as well. The previous owner was a master mechanic at the dealership where it was purchased and everything was installed by himself (clayton offroad suspension kit and 37" tires). No other work has been done to it and the previous owner has had no issues with it.

I have been driving it around every day for multiple hours over the past weekend (Fri-Sun) without ANY issues. Vehicle has been running great and everything has been working flawlessly.

Then Monday happened.

I drove the work in the morning (5 minutes away from where I live) and there was still no issues with the vehicle. I left work for the day and got home and pulled into my driveway (again no issues). My wife and I were meeting with my family for evening and we headed over the my parents house. I put it in reverse, backed out of my driveway, put it in drive and we felt a "lurch" from the transmission.

Both my wife and I thought that was interesting as it's never happened before. But I also have come from a Tacoma and the transmission in that thing was always lurching, so I didn't think anything of it.

Got to my parents place fine, no issues along the way. We got there before my parents so when they got him, needed to do a reshuffle of the vehicles. I backed out of their driveway in reverse and then put it into drive. Again felt another "lurch" from the transmission then heard an odd sound. Sounded like a wind tunnel or something coming from the vehicle. At this point I was concerned.

I drove it about 20 feet forward, put it in park and put it back in drive. Everything seemed fine again. Did a lap around the neighborhood and no issues. Backed into my parents driveway and noticed that there was the red battery icon in my center console lighting up. Thought this was strange, so I decided to shut the vehicle off.

At this point everything went downhill. Vehicle will not start now. Everytime I push the start button it will switch to "run" and I also hear a few clicks underneath. All electronics fire up and were working, I could unlock the doors and use the fob. Even tried to do the remote start with the fob. Still no luck. The shifter at this point was locked into Park and there was no way for me to move it. I also had the "service transmissions" message come on as well during this time.

My dad and I tried a few things from letting it sit on a tender for a bit to charge the battery, jumping it, and even disconnecting both batteries and letting it sit for a while. Nothing wanted to get it started. Even tried pulled the manual transmission release to see if maybe that would help. Still locked in park and would not start.

At this point, decided to get it towed to a local dealership that I trust and have had them start to look into things. Here's what they've done so far.
- Both batteries were bad, they have been replaced.
- Starter was checked to make sure it's good, it is.
- They have looked over all wires and grounds to make sure things aren't out of place, everything looks good.
- Fuses and fuse box was check everything looked good.
- Verified that the engine is not seized (never thought it was an issue but thanks for checking)

They are able to get power the vehicle but still are not able to start it. The vehicle is also not throwing any codes now so they don't have an exact source to pinpoint things to.

This dealer has been good to us on vehicle services in the past and I trust their work. But it's a bit scary/disappointing that this is happening after I just received it.

Could the transmission be locked into a position where it thinks it's in drive but actually isn't and that's why it won't start? I'm assuming no since I can't move it out of park and the shift release has been pulled. I have not taken this off-road or have done any crazy driving with it. Just enjoying the experience of having a jeep again and taking the front top off for a few days on normal roads.

They are going to look into the transmission today since I told them about that last night and are planning on contacting Chrysler for some assistance. They have never experienced this before and are hoping Chrysler can provide some assistance. Unsure if @JeepCares would also have any advice in this area?

Thankfully it's still under warranty and the dealership said they'll do everything they can to get it functional again.

I've been scouring the forums for the last few days trying to find any bits of information I can from others that have posted similar topics and relaying that info to the dealer.If anyone has any advice or thoughts on what might be going on I'll take any additional information I can get!

Thanks!

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[Duncan]

TLDR Post,

Jeep won't start and locked in park. All electronics fire up and work. Dealer replaced batteries since they were bad. They checked the starter, grounds, wires, fuses, and engine. Everything is good and no codes are being thrown. They are looking at transmission next.

 

[Stphnmcknz]

We just got ours back after months of electronic issues. See attached for the work completed. Also a fix from a factory tech found on this forum. Fingers crossed the gremlins don't return.

 

[Duncan]

Thanks Stephen, I'll get this sent over to the dealership so they can look it as well.

 

[Duncan]

Update - Dealership has contacted Chrysler and is going through all wires and connections right now to figure out source of issue.

 

[Not2Late]

The connecter behind the fenderwell referenced by Stephen was exactlty the problem I had. Mine manifested as the the "service transmission" notice and loss of communication with the Transmission Control Module (TCM) codes and it would not start. Tech ended up creating a jumper (power) for the wire that goes to the TCM and that fixed it. My understanding is this is a major connector for alot of communications for the various systems. Would need to check each wire one by one and make sure there is both voltage (some techs stop at this test) and that it can also carry a load (the real issue). My tech was really good and used this as a training exercise for the others in the shop.

 

[Duncan]

I checked in with the dealer today and they had ran through all the connectors and everything looked ok. I also sent them the note Stephen sent and had them investigate that area. Everything looks good.

As of right now it's not throwing codes but won't fire up. Seems strange to me. They submitted a S.T.A.R to Chrysler and are waiting to hear back from them after reporting all connectors and grounds look good.

I remembered the brake pedal was INSANELY hard to press down on when everything went haywire. I was pressing all my weight and pushing up out of the seat and it would barely move. So wondering if that's what's causing it to not wanna start if I can't depress it down enough.

I mentioned that to them today so they said they'll check into that today for me to see if the pedal is still stiff.

Been in the shop for about 4 days now so I'm hoping this gets resolved soon. Really loving the vehicle but bummed as I've only owned it since last week Friday.

 

[Duncan]

Another update,

They got it fired up at the dealership. Apparently had a poor ground connection in the wheel well. That's the good news, bad is news is they're pretty sure the alternator is fried, engine bay was smoking when it started up.

They're going to be looking at the alternator on Monday and getting that replaced as well as back tracing wires and connections to the alternator to make sure everything is good on that end.

 

[Duncan]

Alternator is fried. Got one on order, 5-10 days out. Only driven it for 4 days and it's been sitting at the lot for much longer. Quite disappointing at this point but it is what it is.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The connecter behind the fenderwell referenced by Stephen was exactlty the problem I had. Mine manifested as the the "service transmission" notice and loss of communication with the Transmission Control Module (TCM) codes and it would not start. Tech ended up creating a jumper (power) for the wire that goes to the TCM and that fixed it. My understanding is this is a major connector for alot of communications for the various systems. Would need to check each wire one by one and make sure there is both voltage (some techs stop at this test) and that it can also carry a load (the real issue). My tech was really good and used this as a training exercise for the others in the shop.

Seems there's a TSB on similar.
It doesn't take much of a voltage drop (resistance) on a connection to impact CAN or LIN bus operations.

As far as fried alternator - wow, how the heck? Hope it's warranty as alternators so rarely "fry" without human intervention. (meaning poor connections, mis-placed connections, etc.) They just handle a heck of a lot so frying one to me is something extraordinary. To see smoke? Ouch - they'd better be looking at all sorts of things before connecting a new one up and hitting "start".
Whatever caused it could still be there, waiting to do the same to a new one.
I'd watch output - volts and amps, and first sign of anything out of the ordinary, kill that thing fast, if I was them.

 

[Duncan]

They said that they were going to do testing on connections and electrical components going into the alternator to make sure there's not a problem "upstream" so to say.

I'm surprised as well. I did take look at a few diagrams and it does look like the alternator, battery, ESS, starter, and some more electrical components around battery/vehicle power all flow to the same ground. So it makes sense that it couldn't start. Assuming the ground got too loose on Monday last week and could have been causing too much or to little draw on the alternator and over did it. After they got the ground sorted out, the Jeep fired right up again and at that point the alternator couldn't do its job properly and took a dump (I'm not an expert in this area so I could be way off base).

Still shocks me that the previous owner had 0 issues with the vehicle for 31k miles, then 4 days after I get it and it's out of commission for the next few weeks. Just trying to stay on the positive side of it as I still love the vehicle after driving it for a short amount of time. Might personally check a few of the others grounds just to be safe as I'm a little paranoid something else could go wrong.

Thankfully everything has been under warranty so far and should be for the rest of the repair and an extended warranty was purchased. The dealer has been very responsive on everything and seems to be making sure everything will be ready to go once the repairs are complete. At this point time will tell!

 

[Duncan]

Jeep came back today. They checked over all the other electronics connected to the alternator and it all looked good.

Seems to be running fine now but will see how things go in the next few weeks!

Update - Been close to a week since I've made this post (October 19th is when I've edited this comment) Bad ground must have been the problem. All electronics work, no odd jerky shifts, and it fires right up perfectly every time.

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