NHTSA launches recall query into 94,000 Jeep Wranglers

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. authorities’s auto security company is investigating a possible “lack of motive energy” in additional than 94,000 Jeep Wrangler 4xe autos, after receiving complaints for vehicles exterior the scope of an earlier recall involving an engine shutdown situation in the identical SUV mannequin.

The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration says it opened a recall question on Friday “to evaluate the severity of the alleged defect” in addition to the effectiveness of the treatment offered within the beforehand introduced recall.

Again in November 2022, the NHTSA introduced a recall of practically 63,000 mannequin 12 months 2021-2023 Jeep Wrangler 4xe autos outfitted with a plug-in hybrid electrical car engine. On the time, NHTSA paperwork warned that these vehicles could expertise engine shutdown that might lead to sudden lack of motive energy whereas driving.

A calibration software program replace was offered as a treatment to impacted house owners, however extra complaints nonetheless piled up since. In its recall question abstract printed this week, the NHTSA’s Workplace of Defects Investigation famous that it’s recognized 68 proprietor reviews alleging a lack of motor energy for Jeep Wrangler 4xe autos of mannequin years 2021 now via 2024.

In line with the NHTSA, these failure complaints contain each autos that already acquired the treatment for the 2022 recall and people not initially included — though the present price of reviews is increased among the many “out of scope” Wranglers than those who have been later lined by the recall, the regulator famous.

The NHTSA estimates that some 94,275 mannequin 12 months 2021-2024 Jeep Wrangler 4xes might be affected. Presently, all autos lined by the 2022 recall are a part of the investigation, an company spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

When reached by The Related Press, a spokesperson for Jeep’s proprietor Stellantis stated that the Michigan-based firm was cooperating with the NHTSA.

The engine shutdown difficulty isn’t the one recall that Jeep Wrangler 4xe house owners have confronted over latest years. In November 2023, Stellantis introduced a recall of over 32,000 of those hybrid SUVs for posing a possible fireplace danger.