2021 Jeep Wrangler: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Jul 14, 2026 · Acceleration, Electrical · MN

While driving from [XXX] to [XXX], the vehicle experienced two sudden loss-of-propulsion events at highway speed. During the first incident in downtown [XXX], cruise control disengaged, the transmission abruptly downshifted, and the accelerator became largely unresponsive. The vehicle rapidly lost speed in traffic, and another vehicle nearly rear-ended me because I could not maintain speed or accelerate. The engine remained running, but the vehicle appeared to enter reduced-power or limp mode. I pulled over, shut the vehicle off, and restarted it. Normal throttle operation temporarily returned. The check-engine light and “Stop/Start Not Available” warning remained illuminated. After approximately three hours of otherwise normal driving, I activated cruise control again. The same condition immediately returned: cruise disengaged, the transmission downshifted, throttle response was lost, and the vehicle rapidly decelerated. Restarting again restored normal operation. This unexpected loss of propulsion created a serious collision risk because the vehicle abruptly slowed in moving highway traffic without allowing me to accelerate out of danger. The problem appears directly associated with cruise-control activation, although the exact mechanical or electronic cause is unknown. The vehicle has approximately 40,300 miles, was purchased as Jeep Certified Pre-Owned, and had a new OEM battery installed by an authorized Jeep dealership shortly after purchase. I am requesting that the federal safety agency investigate similar reports involving sudden throttle loss, abrupt downshifting, reduced-power operation, or loss of propulsion at highway speeds. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Feb 1, 2025 · Acceleration, Electrical · KS

While cruising control is engaged, turning the steering wheel 5-10 degrees to the right will result in disruption of the cruise control and displaying a message "cruise control cancelled." This results in an abrupt deceleration during a turn that is unexpected and can create a safety hazard. Additionally, the illumination of steering wheel switches flickers with 5 degrees of right turn. This appears to be consistent with the findings of recall 15B, but my VIN is not included in the recall.

Filed Jan 6, 2025 · Engine, Fuel system · OK

Recent recall 95B was performed December 15th, 2024 on my Jeep 4xe. The vehicle passed the road test involved with the safety recall to detect a defective high voltage battery. On December 26th, within 100 miles of the recall test being performed, the vehicle cruise control involuntarily shut off, check engine light illuminated and the vehicle lost power on the freeway. We were able to return home with the vehicle lurching while driving, having erratic acceleration from a stop and pushing through braking. The issues continued a few days later when delivering to the Jeep service center and the Jeep died in the service lane and had to be pushed the rest of the way to the service bay. The "fix'' that Stellantis has provided seems to simply later detect the battery issue that the recall test was designed to detect under their care during the test procedure. There are numerous other 4xe owners that I am aware of that are having the same post-test failures and motive power losses in traffic soon after their vehicle 'passed' the battery test. This 'solution' is causing a dangerous situation for the owners and the general motoring public. The Jeep has since been reevaluated and determined that the battery that the recall was intended to detect is indeed defective and is being replaced.

Filed Nov 16, 2024 · Driver assistance · TX

I had the most recent incident driving Westbound in the evening hours shortly before Sunset around October 10, 2024. It appears the sunlight from the setting sun triggered my adaptive cruise control and forward collision alert and triggered an alarm sound and activated emergency braking at the same time. I have had two previous incidents like this. One at the exact same location on my commute home at around the same time and maybe a week before. A third occurrence was on an Eastbound morning drive with the rising sun. All three incidents triggered emergency braking from a speed of ca. 65mph. I was able to react fast enough to deactivate the ACC by lightly pushing the brake pedal and could avoid serving or complete stopping of the vehicle. Luckily during all incidents I had no close traffic behind me, otherwise the incidents could have caused a rear end collision.

Filed Jul 10, 2024 · Engine, Transmission · WA

While climbing a mountain pass between 2000' and 2500' MSL and passing some vehicles at approximately 70 mph, the vehicle suddenly lost power and multiple warning lights illuminated. These included: Service Electronic Throttle Control, Check Engine Light, Automatic Emergency Brake system failure, Adaptive Cruise Control system failure. After the initial power loss, the engine seemed to partially recover and could be driven below 60 mph until the vehicle was shut down and restarted. There were no signs or warnings of any impending failure. The coolant, engine oil, and transmission temperatures were well below the published limits. The danger was the power loss was sudden, unexpected, and at a critical time when passing large trucks and in the vicinity of heavy traffic with no emergency parking available. This reported event is the fourth time it has occurred. The vehicle has been taken to the dealer to repair it, and the dealers have attempted three times to fix it (all three times dealer fixed something different). All three times they reported the issue had been fixed, yet it has re-occurred after each time. It is currently scheduled for a fourth dealer visit.

Filed Jul 27, 2023 · CA

When cruise control is engaged at high speeds the Jeep has a serious and dangerous wobble Also, the fuel saver auto shut off and start no longer works. The dealership is claiming both issues are out of warranty and are my responsibility to fix. Finally the recall fix left me without my jeep for 6 1/2 weeks. That is not a timely repair. They were only willing to cover 5 days of a rental.

Filed May 23, 2023 · Acceleration, Engine · NY

Car shut down in the middle of the highway at around 30 mph. While using the adaptive cruise control, i stepped on the gas to accelerate. The car then shut down and many warning lights came on. The car did not respond to restarting, shifting or anything. Screen just said charge fault error.

Filed Jan 25, 2023 · Acceleration, Steering · OK

While turning at low speeds (pulling into a parking spot) and the cruise control is turned on the "set cruise" button is elevated and can be accidentally hit. If the speed of the vehicle is under 20mph it will automatically set the cruise speed to 20mph causing the vehicle to accelerate. This elevated "set cruise" button actives the regular cruise and not the adaptive cruise. This has happened to me over a dozen times. I am lucky it has not caused a wreck.

Filed Oct 17, 2022 · Acceleration, Engine · DC

The incident occurred when I attempted to shift the transfer case into 4-Low. The sequence of events is as follows: 1. I stopped the vehicle and shifted into Park. 2. With my foot on the brake, I shifted into neutral and attempted to move the transfer case lever from 4-High, to 4-Low. 3. As I started to move the transfer case lever, a warning appeared in the instrument cluster stating, "Vehicle speed too high to shift". 4. Auto-Park engaged 5. The engine, uncommanded, with my foot still on the brake, began to increase in revs slowly. 6. Check engine light illuminated, the engine continues to increase in revs. 7. When the engine reached 6-7k RPM, I hit the engine start/stop button and held it down until the engine turned off. The engine was still climbing in revs until this point. 8. I restarted the engine and could shift into 4-Low successfully. "Off-road cruise control disabled" warning light illuminated and remained on until I shifted back into 4-High. Check engine light remains on after multiple starts.

Filed May 14, 2022 · Engine · MT

We had just reached highway speed of 70mph and the Jeep began a normal regen cycle. However, the engine revved up on it’s own and the check engine light came on and a message that stated the exhaust filter was 100% full see a servicing dealer. Then without any warning, the Jeep went into limp mode from 70mph-50mph. With no notice, we were thrown forward due to the sudden decrease in speed. This action caused the vehicles behind us to swerve to avoid collision. My adaptive cruise control shut itself off and the electronic throttle control warning light started flashing. My throttle control was weak and unreliable, taking a lot of pedal to respond and then not needing hardly any pedal and would surge forward with sudden speed. It was a very dangerous situation. We continued driving in limp mode as there were no safe locations to stop and we didn’t have any cell service. Both malfunction lights remained on and we drove straight to our dealer. They said the EGR cooler failed and clogged up all of the EGR system with soot and then burned out the catalytic converter. They were able to clear the soot out of the system and cleared the malfunction lights so we could drive it home as they didn't have any loaners to offer us. The service advisor told us if we had another vehicle we should park the Jeep and not drive it until the parts come in. They have no ETA on either the EGR cooler nor the catalytic converter. I have been in contact with the manufacturer and there has been no progress on sourcing parts, I am looking in to pursuing a lemon law claim as this vehicle is not compliant with any emissions standards and if not repaired will injure us and others. It is available for inspection with notice, as it is parked at my house I would prefer advanced notice of any inspectors arrival. The warning lights are no longer on, but it sounds and runs like crap and even if the parts are replaced I will always worry that it will do it again. We could have been killed.

Filed Nov 17, 2021 · Driver assistance, Transmission · FL

I was driving down the highway when the engine on my Wrangler 4xe suddenly shut off forcing me to cut off traffic to get to the shoulder. Numerous error messages were displaying but I did not have time to see them all. Final message I could see was "Charging System Error". After turning the Jeep off then back one the problem cleared. I suspect this was caused by the Adaptive Cruise Control system. It had started to brake hard for a car not actually in my lane. At the same moment people were pulling in behind me to move over for a police car on the shoulder. The Adaptive Cruise Control started what was a hard brake check on this traffic, so I overrode it by pressing on the accelerator, at which point it died. At the dealer they determined from the codes that the transmission control unit had shut off the engine control unit. Otherwise nothing could be determined as being wrong with the vehicle. Seeing all the other complaints of similar incidents involving Wranglers I think there is bad software code in the vehicle's control systems.

Filed Apr 6, 2021 · Driver assistance, Electrical · 2,000 miles · LA

' immediately after purchase of my 2 door 2021 jeep wrangler jl (anniversary) the rear video camera stopped working at start up, and continued to be an ongoing issue, despite software reinstalls. ' two and a half months after purchase and with just 2000 miles on it, while driving in the rain I noticed that approximately 10 seconds after I put on the windshield wipers, the dashboard light would dim significantly, which made it difficult and distracting to see the speed at which I was driving, or the cruise control. Dimming migrated quickly after that to the monitor which became hard to read or see. Uconnect was also not working with images and audio being in discernable. ' not long after that, I noticed that the cruise control was also increasing the MPH on its own while it was being set. Clearly having electrical issues. ' five days later going somewhere between 40-50mph on a highway, the jeep shifted into manual and I could no longer accelerate. Luckily, there was not a lot of traffic and I coasted to the side of the road and pulled into a parking lot where I stopped the car, shut it off, turned it back on. The car was still working, but I was scared by what clearly could have been a life-threatening circumstance. ' at the dealership while the car was being delivered to me in the garage by an employee, it stopped driving in front of many employees and myself. The windshield wipers were going as fast as possible and rain was pouring down, and the car slipped into manual or park, and becoming undrivable. ' the car clearly has serious safety problems with the transmission and my dealership seems unconcerned about the safety of their clients. The jeep continues to be a concern for me, and I do not feel safe driving it. I also believe this is not a new problem for jeeps.