2016 Jeep Renegade: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Apr 18, 2026 · Fuel system · ID · fire

my car suddenly caught fire while driving on the freeway. i heard a boom, felt my car shake and saw flames out my back window, i pulled over immediately and got out of the car. going around the passenger side to inspect my tires and car. as in doing this i noticed that the entire car by then underneath was completely consumed in flames. i ran from the car in fear of my safety. my car burned to the ground in front of my eyes. there were no warning lights on my dash, no flashing, no indication of anything wrong.

Filed Mar 4, 2026 · Engine · 80,000 miles · MN · fire

The contact's son owned a 2016 Jeep Renegade. The contact stated that after his son parked the vehicle in the driveway and turned the vehicle off, the son entered the home and moments later noticed an orange glow coming from outside. The son went outside to investigate and discovered a foot tall flames coming from under the hood of the vehicle. The son attempted to use a fire extinguisher to extinguish the flames, but was unsuccessful. The fire department was called to the scene and extinguished the fire. During the incident, the vehicle was destroyed, and the detached garage was also damaged by the flames. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 80,000.

Filed Jan 6, 2021 · Engine · 58,213 miles · CT

Notice a change oil light started popping up although I did not need to change oil according to records I was not due to change oil until another three months, I only been driving the vehicle around 4900 since I purchased it in july 2020, their last service was done at the dealer on july 6 2020 which included oil change. Its on the service history record. I also started noticing a burning smell when I got out my vehicle so I decided to check my oil level and to my surprise I was 2 quarts low at only 58213 miles this should not be happening. I called and scheduled to get it looked at. According to the dealer, they are aware of this issue, so why not a courtesy call to the consumer? I just don't understand that. I can understand if the vehicle issued a warning light that stays on and won't go away then I would of done something about it, but it was just a change oil light and went away so I thought it was just reminding me and being that I was getting close to 58,000 and again only been driving it over 4,000 miles since last oil service. My fear is the dealer may try and hold me liable and have to pay for service for the issue because I did not take the vehicle in right away when I saw the oil service light first appear.

Filed Mar 16, 2020 · Engine · 50,000 miles · KY · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 jeep renegade. The contact stated that while driving 20 MPH, there was gray smoke coming from under the hood and inside the vehicle from the vents while the temperature gage warning light illuminated. The contact mentioned that the vehicle stalled and was able to restart. The contact stated that the smoke extinguished independently. In addition, after coolant was poured into the vehicle, the check engine warning light illuminated continuously. The vehicle was taken to cross chrysler jeep fiat (1501 gardiner ln, louisville, ky 40218) where it was diagnosed that the radiator coolant fan assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage 50,000.

Filed Jun 26, 2019 · Engine · 48,000 miles · PA

I took vehicle to dealership on 5/2/19 after the cooling fan made a loud squealing noise when it was idling with A/C on. Dealership stated that they could find nothing wrong with the vehicle & sent me on my way. On 6/22/19 while returning from my lunch break ( jeep had been idling with A/C on in a drive through & fan began making a rattling noise - fan turning on/off in cycles) smoke started pouring from under hood, accompanied by a strong smell of something burning. I turned the vehicle off immediately & when I restarted it the service engine light came on. I had the jeep towed from my place of employment to the dealership ( I'm a nurse, and missed a day of work due to this! ). Picking my jeep up from dealership today to the tune of $484.52 to replace cooling fan. I see that this is an ongoing issue, and that a class action lawsuit was filed on 2/11/19 due to numerous consumer complaints. I'm thankful that this happened at 7pm rather than at midnight while driving home on the highway...... At the end of the day my vehicle could have caught on fire. Apparently defective cooling fan is something jeep has known about for years & I can't believe there hasn't been a recall.

Filed Jun 3, 2019 · Engine · 65,000 miles · MA · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2016 jeep renegade. The contact stated that while driving 2 MPH, the vehicle overheated and stalled. The vehicle was restarted after four hours. The contacted stated that there was an abnormal burning smell emerging from the vents. The check engine warning indicator light was illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000. The contact mentioned replaced the coolant fan and fuse. The VIN was not available.

Filed May 26, 2019 · Electrical, Engine · 80,000 miles · WA · fire

Electric fan assembly for the cooling system failed. Burned up the electric fan, smoke pouring out of the engine bay. Vehicle was in motion on a city street.

Filed Apr 30, 2019 · Engine · 48,000 miles · NC

Sitting in event traffic car sitting still and smelled burning from air vents, the panel instrument was reading car overheating. Once we were able to get out of traffic and get car up to speed the car stopped overheating but could not let car idle/sit still or car will overheat. Car has 48k miles purchased new, told dealership this should not be happening and service tech stated this was the 3rd to 4th one this week they have worked on with same problem. Now looking at close to $600 to replace cooling fan. I feel this should be looked into as a manufacturing issue for recall with so many complaints that I have found online with this model with the same issue of cooling fan problems

Filed Apr 16, 2019 · 56,000 miles · FL · fire

Car running in park waiting at bus stop , heard a pop, then smelled smoke, then got out and fire under front passenger side , called 911 and fire went up in flames and completely destroyed whole front of my car everything lost . Got me and son out and that was it. This is a safety risk!!

Filed Jan 11, 2019 · Engine · 36,120 miles · NY

While driving at 36120 miles I noticed a burning smell inside my passenger cabin. Shortly thereafter I noticed the engine temperature gauge went to its hottest reading and my check engine light came on. After pulling over and turning the vehicle off I opened the hood to the engine compartment and noticed that although the engine appeared to be extraordinarily hot, the electric fan was not operating. I then went into my house and did some online research and discovered that it quite possibly was a defective electric engine fan that was prone to failing due to no proper heat shield. This had been noted by many owners of the same vehicle. I made arrangements to have the vehicle brought to my jeep dealer who then confirm that this was indeed the case.

Filed Oct 23, 2018 · 14,000 miles · AK · fire

2016 jeep renegade caught on fire while driving down highway. Cause of fire is unknown. First saw smoke while going down the highway at 65mph. Fire was seen coming from the dash and immediately pulled over. The fire quickly spread, basically burning everything inside the vehicle.

Filed Oct 6, 2018 · Engine · 22,045 miles · PR

The radiator fan is wobbling and causing a rattling noise. This is a known issue among other renegade owners. It may catch on fire or rupture the radiator. It will certainly lead to overheating if it isn't replaced.