Our Long-Term Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe Left Us Stranded

2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe on a tow truck

written by Mike Schmidt^{Associate Director, Vehicle Operations
Mike Schmidt has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. He has written nearly a thousand car-related articles and has been responsible for the upkeep of countless test fleet vehicles over the course of his career. Mike is associate director, vehicle operations at Edmunds and got his start working behind the scenes on the car manufacturer side of the business. Mike spent many a weekend working on the family car with his dad and was promoted from flashlight holder to tool gopher at a young age. He's had an appreciation of cars ever since.}
edited by Steven Ewing^{Director, Editorial Content
Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of editorial content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. Steven has also contributed to Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and dozens of other publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook, and drive his 2000 BMW M Roadster.}
5/18/2024
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Our Grand Cherokee 4xe stranded us 300 miles from home.
It spent 14 days at the dealership being fixed.
A friendly tow truck driver was the bright side to this experience.

We just finished filming our second-to-last Edmunds U-Drags race of the day when our radios crackled to life. "Um, the Jeep just bricked. Will somebody please come pick me up?" I looked up the runway about 400 yards from where I stood to see supervising producer, John Adolph, standing beside our long-term 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, waiting for a ride.

What's the deal?

A typical U-Drags day involves a lot of sitting in cars, safely distanced from the action, followed by purposeful hustling between races to reset cameras and make adjustments. The 4xe hybrid regularly cycled its engine off and on during the day. So my first thought was that maybe the 12-volt battery was tired. Blank display screens and lack of interior lights supported my hunch. We hooked jumper cables to a donor car and the Grand Cherokee sprung to life immediately, as did a slew of warning lights. There were seven by my count plus a flashing odometer. When I tried driving it to a safer location, I discovered it was also in limp mode and wouldn't go more than maybe 2 mph.

I called roadside assistance. To tow the Jeep from our filming location 300 miles home to Santa Monica, they told me, would cost $2,300. A tow to the nearest dealership, 20 miles away, was free. Option B it was. The roadside operator dispatched Moe, owner of TW Towing. He called within a few minutes confirming his ETA. He arrived on time and was friendly and professional. In no time the car was loaded and gone. About 30 minutes later I received a text showing the Grand Cherokee parked at Turlock Jeep. It read, "First in line. Thank you again and nice meeting you." I didn't know it then, but working with Moe ended up being the easiest part of this experience.

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Is there anybody out there?

Early the next morning I received a call from our service adviser, Mickey. I explained what happened, he took notes and said, "I will call you back once we check it out." That was on a Thursday. Crickets. The following Monday I called and left a voicemail. I called again Tuesday and Mickey answered, "We cleared the codes and went on a 3-mile test drive. The tech told me it was good to go but I asked him to drive a little more. At 5 miles all the lights came back on and it went into limp mode. I will call you tomorrow with an update."

Over the next six days I called four times and left two more voicemails before I heard from Mickey. "It's ready," he said, "We found a pin disconnected from the back of the electronic control unit." My confidence in their work was not high at this point. So I asked him to take the car overnight for a road test. I wanted to be very sure it was fixed before I asked two people to drive 300 miles to pick it up. The next afternoon I called (yet again). The car was indeed fixed.

The last few bricks

In the end, our Jeep spent 14 days out of service. All repairs were done under warranty. We learned it was also due for two safety recalls. The tech performed one and part of the other while troubleshooting the main issue.

The recap:

Problem 1: The car bricked.
Solution 1: Reconnect pin 10 to ECU and repair wire leading to pin 10.
Problem 2: Safety recall 04B; defroster.
Solution 2: Update parts and software.
Problem 3: Safety recall 10B; steering knuckle to control arm bolt.
Solution 3: Parts not available.

Edmunds says

This incident with our long-term 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

by Mike Schmidt

Mike Schmidt has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. He has written nearly a thousand car-related articles and has been responsible for the upkeep of countless test fleet vehicles over the course of his career. Mike is associate director, vehicle operations at Edmunds and got his start working behind the scenes on the car manufacturer side of the business. Mike spent many a weekend working on the family car with his dad and was promoted from flashlight holder to tool gopher at a young age. He's had an appreciation of cars ever since.

edited by Steven Ewing

Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of editorial content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com, CNET, and was the U.S. correspondent for Top Gear magazine. Steven has also contributed to Automobile magazine, Car and Driver, The Drive, Jalopnik, Porsche Panorama, and dozens of other publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook, and drive his 2000 BMW M Roadster.

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Our Long-Term Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe Left Us Stranded

A pin somehow unplugged from the Jeep's ECU, transforming the car into a brick

What's the deal?

Is there anybody out there?

The last few bricks

Edmunds says

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