2022 Jeep Cherokee

The contact owns a 2022 Jeep Cherokee. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH and taking an exit ramp, the parking brake engaged without driver input. The vehicle stopped and stalled. The vehicle failed to restart. The vehicle failed to shift into neutral. The contact attempted to jumpstart the vehicle, but the vehicle failed to restart. There were no warning lights illuminated. There was an unknown message displayed. The vehicle was towed to an independent tire and auto center. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified about the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 105,000. The VIN was not available.

On [XXX], we were traveling from Seattle to Portland on [XXX] in my 2022 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk with the cruise control set at around 75 mph. Suddenly the emergency collision braking system applied and all of the lights on my vehicle lit up. While the braking system was being applied the cruise control was simultaneously applying gas resulting in the vehicle RPM redlining on multiple occasions. Fortunately, the weather was good, traffic was light, and I was able to maintain control of the vehicle to pull over once a vehicle in the slow lane passed. When stopped the engine light was on, along with an alarm for loss of electronic stability control (ESC), and an alarm for brake service. After clearing the ESC alarm by restarting my vehicle multiple times as indicated in the owner's manual I tried to operate the vehicle. However, the vehicle would not move properly in to drive (noise and felt like the brake was applied). We then decided to contact Jeep roadside assistance for an emergency tow covered by the warranty. We towed the vehicle to the nearest Jeep dealership which was closed for the weekend. On Monday, the dealership informed us that the power transfer unit (PTU) had failed and would need to be replaced. Regarding additional mechanical damage, a determination could not be made until the PTU was replaced. On Tuesday, the dealership advised that the PTU was on an engineering hold until March 20th as the part was now being produced by a new vendor. At this time it appears my vehicle will be inoperable for more than a month until the part is released from the engineering hold. I am concerned that PTU failure is a serious safety defect similar to what has occurred in past model years of the Jeep Cherokee. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

In late November 2023 I noticed my fuel economy dropping a lot, from 27-29mpg to 22-24mpg. And, soon tailpipes were accumulating a lot of soot in tailpipes and soot was coming out of end of muffler. I took to JEEP dealer in Palestine, TX. See invoice uploaded. Service advisor couldn't find any bad codes. He wrote some guesses as to source/cause of problem & suggested using more expensive, higher grade of gasoline. He said to try some catalytic converter cleaner, also. Seems, he thinks the braking system may be causing soot troubles. This soot problem will cause injector, spark plug, catalytic converter expenses in future! And, I have to spend much more for gasoline? I think main control module is defective and is missing computer code to properly detect this problem or is intentionally designed to ignore the cause of the excessive soot problem. It is not normal to have soot in a new vehicle!!! I've worked on vehicles since 1950s until US Government mandated electronics made us weekend mechanics obsolete. I've seen soot in old cars, pickups, tractors, other engines; but in a properly running newer vehicle. Maybe rings are bad in this engine. Maybe sensors need to be replaces but main control unit is designed to ignore soot producing part(s). Maybe sensors do not work properly especially in cold weather and causes a too rich gasoline mix in engine. But, dealers only obey what codes tell them. This sounds similar to the VW scandal where VW intentionally made software that could evade emissions control tests. JEEP has made soot problem disappear whereby sensors do not see soot being produced by V6 JEEP engine because main control unit software code has been written to do such: EVADE DETECTION THAT CAUSES NO ENGINE LIGHT ERROR NOTICE IN DRIVERS DISPLAY AND NOTHING IN DEALERS INSPECTION/DIAGNOSIS SOFTWARE. HEAVY SOOT NOT DETECTED BY JEEP's ENGINE SENSORS AND MAIN CONTROL UNIT? In person can see more soot, photos don't show 3D depth as it really is.

While driving on active roadways (including major highways during rush hour, a major downtown city at intersections with crosswalks during rush hour, and while exiting a parking garage), the vehicle suddenly stops, sounds a brief alarm and flashes one of 3 error messages on the dash board ("Shift to Drive", "....to shift", "...vehicle must be stopped"), while the "D" on the dashboard and the shifter flash (with the vehicle still in the "Drive" position). On one occasion, an additional message requested to turn the vehicle on. To resolve the issue in the moment, the vehicle must be shifted up to "Park", then brought back down to "Drive". Once returning to back to the "Drive" position, the vehicle resumes operation. The auto start had been turned off for at least most of these events. The stopping while actively driving has happened on 5 separate occasions and has been brought to 2 different Jeep dealers on 3 different occasions (totaling approximately 2 weeks) to try to identify the issue. Both dealerships have been unable to replicate the malfunction and have been unable to identify an error code. There has been no advisement by Jeep Corporation other than to keep driving the vehicle and video record the event if it is safe to do so (I was able to obtain 2 videos). The events have happened in the months of June, November, and December, and in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon, and when both accelerating and decelerating. There does not appear to be any particular condition preceding the failure. A vehicle suddenly stopping on the highway places myself and others on the road at risk of a serious accident, as does the vehicle failing at an intersection in a major city. There was a large tractor trailer behind me honking his horn during the first event, etc.

Traveling in heavy morning traffic in inside lane at approximately 25mph, engine suddenly lost power with simultaneous ‘Shift to Park’ error message and brief flash of amber warning light on instrument panel. Vehicle would not accelerate when gas pedal pressed, engine only revved. Driver (myself) had to slam on brakes and quickly put car in P then back to D in order to get car to accelerate forward, narrowly avoiding multi-car collision from behind. Car is brand new ‘22 (owned only 6 days) with less than 600 miles total. Vehicle will be dropped off at dealership 9/11/22 for diagnostics.