Community Forums

Olbie · 12-08-2021, 11:39 AM

An update on our GC L towing issues... Saturday we got a call from the dealership saying that engineering had found the issue with our jeep. They said that there was some sort of 50 amp fuse blown that was causing all of the problems and it was now fixed.

We picked the car up and the work order had no explanation about what had been done to the car and neither the service manager or technician were available to explain. I took the car for a drive and everything did seem to work fine... tried shifting the transfer case in and out of gear and everything went fine. No warning lights on the dash... everything was great! Took the car on an 800 mile drive to Alabama and everything is working great! Love the car again.

Have since called the dealership back and no one was available to explain the repair and then called Jeep Customer Care and they said they would find out for me what was done but have not heard anything back yet.

Hope anyone else out there having troubles is able to get their rigs fixed as well.

jeremyaz · 12-08-2021, 03:06 PM

My update today isn't quite as positive as Olbie's.

I was expecting a call back from the Dealership with some news on the 7th but received no communication from them then or today so far. I have another follow up email out to them now this afternoon.

I spoke with Jeep Customer Care on the morning of the 6th and was told it would be assigned a case manager who would also call me on the 7th but I did not get a call. I just called them and spoke to my case manager who told me the Jeep was denied for buyback though I am not sure how they determine that as it was denied before they contacted the dealer or me for any further details. The case manager said she is going to need until the 10th to confer with her end as well as the dealer's end to see what is going on. She also let me know this is the first she has heard of the issue and she is very surprised as this is something they were designed to do. When asked what additional steps I should take she advised I speak with the dealer's general manager and she attempted to provide me with their contact information but the dealer apparently has a list of managers so she had not good contact to provide.

No very thrilled with this, maybe they will share the 50amp fuse secret with each other and I can put this behind me.

huntnski · 12-08-2021, 05:54 PM

I would suggest someone contact Jeep and give them directions to this forum and thread. I first posted on this thread just to see how this new vehicle is going to work out. Thus far I’m very reluctant to move away from my 2011 Tahoe with no issues into a Jeep with multiple issues. I’m sure I’m not the only one. With as many Jeep’s that are being towed I would expect better from the company. Still watching and reading.

Nascarfan · 12-08-2021, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by huntnski

I would suggest someone contact Jeep and give them directions to this forum and thread. I first posted on this thread just to see how this new vehicle is going to work out. Thus far I’m very reluctant to move away from my 2011 Tahoe with no issues into a Jeep with multiple issues. I’m sure I’m not the only one. With as many Jeep’s that are being towed I would expect better from the company. Still watching and reading.

I forwarded this forum and thread to the Jeep service manager at Lithia Jeep in Santa Rosa, CA middle of October while they were trying to figure out what was going on with my GC-L Summit Reserve. He sent it to Jeep Engineering via their STAR network. I updated the service manager with several more posts through November. So far it has gotten me no where.

Nascarfan · 12-08-2021, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olbie

We picked the car up and the work order had no explanation about what had been done to the car and neither the service manager or technician were available to explain. I took the car for a drive and everything did seem to work fine... tried shifting the transfer case in and out of gear and everything went fine. No warning lights on the dash... everything was great! Took the car on an 800 mile drive to Alabama and everything is working great! Love the car again.

Am I understanding you correctly that you're no longer getting any warning lights on your dash display after towing?

Bagelboy · 12-09-2021, 05:27 AM

Something tells me that Olbie hopefully got something fixed, we just don't know what.....don't know if I buy the 50 amp fuse story from his dealership, but hey, if it's true, and hope it is, than we all need an answer.....my car is scheduled 12/13 for all the flat tow installation......Im watching this thread closely....thanks everyone

Olbie · 12-09-2021, 05:58 AM

I really am not getting any messages any more on the dash and everything seems to be working well.

I spoke again with Customer Care and they told me that they would find out what was done to the car to make things work and told them about all of the problems being reported on these forums. They told me that they would contact the dealer themselves to find out what was done, but after two days we have heard nothing back. It really seems to us that Jeep is trying to sweep the whole thing under the carpet... I suppose that is ok as long as they get whatever the fix is done to all Jeeps. I mentioned to them that the dealership would only tell us they replaced a 50 amp fuse... I also told them that there are a lot of other folks out there ready to blow their own mental 50 amp fuses if a solution isn't offered soon...

Driving cross country with everything working, the Summit Reserve really is an amazing car to drive.

Bagelboy · 12-09-2021, 06:17 AM

Thanks Olbie.....you would think they would happily tell you where this fuse is so the rest of us can flat tow without problems. By the way,, are you using Voltdoc's procedures for hookup and detachment? Please keep us posted.

Deek · 12-09-2021, 07:25 AM

I started this thread being very excited about the Grand Cherokee L being able to be used successfully for flat towing, but experience has now shown that there are many reports of problems in doing so. Really sorry to see these present results.

In late September, we traded our 2021 GCL Summit, which we loved, for a Wrangler Sahara Eco-diesel, and have been very happy with that choice. Lost a little money but not much, and the peace of mind with a tow vehicle we know we can reliably flat tow was worth the hassle. It wasn’t what we wanted or expected, but it was the right choice, at least for us.

I so sympathize with all of you struggling with GCL flat tow issues. Hope there can be a solution soon to resolve this for all of you.

I, along with Forum member Lass, spent a huge amount of effort with FCA on the ‘death wobble’ issue vis-a-vis Grand Cherokee a few years ago, both of us trading wonderful post-2015 Grand Cherokee Summits at significant financial loss when we could not safely tow them due to FCA changing the electronic steering design in 2016 models and creating - even if inadvertently- the ‘death wobble’ risk in GC models beginning in production year 2016 (which is exactly why the GCL was such a hope for us with its redesigned electronic steering system).

Unfortunately, both Lass and I found FCA to be almost deaf to our concerns - and dismissive to the point that we sold our vehicles at a loss and ended up buying Wranglers to know we could safely tow with. FCA paid some lip service to the issue to both of us, but never spent the engineering energy and resources to fix the issue for GC owners as we asked them to do - leaving all of us who had these affected vehicles in a huge and unsafe lurch.

This time with GCL, frankly, looks to be about the same.

It is a real shame that Jeep will not fully and completely acknowledge the issues here, solve them with the engineering expertise they have which would certainly be able to come up with a proper and effective fix and then reach out to fairly address owners with existing units for their trouble in obtaining a fix. A truly responsible vehicle manufacturer who honestly cares about its customers would, in fact, do exactly this.

Deek

bentjm · 12-09-2021, 08:05 AM

Being the first to try something can be an uncomfortable position.

That is why I tow a 2015 grand Cherokee.

With everything else that is going on in the automotive industry, I would be surprised if this issue is on any list anywhere within Jeep.

Pnewman10 · 12-11-2021, 08:00 AM

So, here we are exactly 30 days after we took our Cherokee L back to the dealer for this problem and it appears that somehow they have fixed it! On Thursday our service department had someone come from Jeep to install a “fix” to our Jeep. The dealership was successful in running through the process of putting the transfer case into neutral and then back into gear or ready to drive a number of times and once we got it home it worked for us also. We are headed on a trip Sunday so I guess we will find out if the Jeep actually being towed and not just sitting in the driveway running through the motions affects things differently. I will let you know.

There is another note that I feel I should comment on which is how Jeep deals with their customers and their customers problems. We have always been treated extremely well by our dealership and Jeep. We had a 2014 grand Cherokee diesel that they took back without a fight and we ordered a new one. It would be nice if the current problem didn’t exist and it has been frustrating and nerve racking when you are out on the road and having this problem but we have had the support of our dealership here in Santa Maria California the entire time. As a businessman, when our company has a problem with part of our product sometimes we might step back and try to address it and find a solution that maybe isn’t in the most transparent way because we don’t have a good grip on what the best solution might end up being at the time we realize or discover the problem.

In any event, we are hopeful that this trip is going to go better than our last one towing our Grand Cherokee L Summit.

It would be interesting to know if this problem is affecting all of the new L’s or is just a few of them?

glmsrphd · 12-12-2021, 02:22 AM

Thank you for posting your update and success. I trust your trip will be great.

Did Jeep or dealer tell you what they 'fixed'? Was it the fuse that others talked about? And the specific procedures they used to prepare L for towing (those in car manual or the steps proposed by others on this board?).

It would be helpful for us to pass on to our dealer service folks if/when we have same problem.

Thank you!!
Greg

Olbie · 12-12-2021, 06:46 AM

Another update on our GCL as we work through the bugs... hopefully getting closer to a solution.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had dash warning lights all of the time and that the dealership had fixed them by replacing a "50 amp fuse". The car drove amazing after this fix as we drove the car from where we had had to leave it in San Antonio back to where we had moved onto with the motorhome.

Yesterday was our first real experience towing the car with all systems apparently working and we found that we were not out of the woods... When I hooked up I immediately tried putting the transfer case back into gear and it wouldn't go, (it had worked fine at the dealership when I picked the car up). I eventually decided to go ahead and tow it since the transfer case was out of gear and it towed fine. After 30 or so miles I fulled into a parking lot to just look it all over and all seemed fine until we tried pulling out and I heard the tires squealing as they were all locked up! At this point we were in the intersection blocking traffic and I went through the whole process of setting up for tow again and found that the transfer case was still out of gear, but it immediatly went into gear. I took it back out of gear and noticed that the parking brake had applied itself and all the warnings were back on the dash. Taking the brake off, the car was fine for towing again but had the messages.

Reading the vehicles book we found something Voltdoc had discussed that the brakes would apply if the car was out of gear and a certain combination of things happened like the key turned on, door open, foot off the brake etc the brakes would automatically be set. I tried this again and realised that was exactly what had happened. Glad I noticed as we pulled out that the wheels were locked up.

Later that evening when we were disconnected and began driving the car again, all of the errors on the gauges quickly went away and that is when I realised that what Voltdoc described was exactly what I was experiencing. We went back through the process of hooking up using Voltdoc's process and the car worked exactly as he described. The car actually towed great and I realise now that the car can be towed without stress as long as you follow all of the steps exactly as described. As he mentions, the car can be towed easily and it has some crazy software bugs still that need to get worked out, but for "now" it seems to be towing fine.

voltdoc · 12-12-2021, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pnewman10

So, here we are exactly 30 days after we took our Cherokee L back to the dealer for this problem and it appears that somehow they have fixed it! On Thursday our service department had someone come from Jeep to install a “fix” to our Jeep. The dealership was successful in running through the process of putting the transfer case into neutral and then back into gear or ready to drive a number of times and once we got it home it worked for us also. We are headed on a trip Sunday so I guess we will find out if the Jeep actually being towed and not just sitting in the driveway running through the motions affects things differently. I will let you know.

There is another note that I feel I should comment on which is how Jeep deals with their customers and their customers problems. We have always been treated extremely well by our dealership and Jeep. We had a 2014 grand Cherokee diesel that they took back without a fight and we ordered a new one. It would be nice if the current problem didn’t exist and it has been frustrating and nerve racking when you are out on the road and having this problem but we have had the support of our dealership here in Santa Maria California the entire time. As a businessman, when our company has a problem with part of our product sometimes we might step back and try to address it and find a solution that maybe isn’t in the most transparent way because we don’t have a good grip on what the best solution might end up being at the time we realize or discover the problem.

In any event, we are hopeful that this trip is going to go better than our last one towing our Grand Cherokee L Summit.

It would be interesting to know if this problem is affecting all of the new L’s or is just a few of them?

Olbie, thanks for your update.

Pnewman, hate to burst your bubble but the weird errors and slight difficulties getting the transfer case out of neutral, won't appear until after you have flat towed some distance.

I can sit in my GC-L and switch the TC in or out of neutral all day and it works fine. It's after towing that it gets a little wonky. However as previously posted, when getting ready to unhitch, just start the car first, go do something else for two minutes and when you go to put the TC back in gear it will work first try. I have practiced this for the last about 8 towing sessions and it has worked every time. The weird errors go away within 1/4 mile of driving.

Again I don't consider either of these anything more than annoying. It's the electric park brake you really need to be careful about as Olbie found out. Carefully follow the procedures I've previously described and you shouldn't have any problems with that either.

BTW, I was talking to my neighbor in the campground where we are this week and he described the same issue getting the TC out of neutral on his Tahoe. Friends with a 2019 Jeep GC say they have the problem too, so I suspect this isn't just a GC-L issue.