So far the Jeep 4xe we purchased earlier this year has been a delightful vehicle. We’ve been enjoying it much more than we thought we would. The electric part of the drivetrain is really sophisticated. Jeep obviously put a lot of thought into this. And when the hybrid system shuts down (as it will when the battery is low) the gas engine picks up. There’s no dropoff in performance. The gas driven drivetrain is exactly the same as in the standard Jeep Rubicon.
However, there has ben one quirk that has popped up repeatedly. That has to do with the Emergency Brake light. That’s the light that comes on when you engage the parking brake. The Brake light on our Rubicon comes on at odd intervals for no apparent reason. This has been happening since we first picked up the vehicle.
Within two days of first picking of the Jeep from Rydell the Brake light came on. Steve had to go back up there anyway so he spoke to the representative. The general assessment was that a fuse might be loose. He proceeded to push in all the fuses and about 40% of them “clicked.” Now whether this meant that they were not seated properly or whether they were normal and pushing them made no difference is hard to tell. We weren’t seeing a plethora of warning lights across the dashboard, just the brake light. With this exercise, the Brake light went out, and we thought “problem solved”.
A few weeks later it came on again.
And we went through the fuse box exercise again.
And the light did not immediately go off. But being busy people we didn’t have time to make an appointment right away, and a few days later it went dark again, and we sighed with relief.
Today, the first day of our cross country, 10,000 mile+ trip, it came on again. We checked the fuses and they were all fine. Steve checked the brake fluid pressure and switches and all seemed fine. As it doesn’t seem to be affecting things, we’re content to let it shine until we have a few days to have it checked out later on in the trip.
For now, as our happy little gremlin reminder continues to glow on the dash panel, we drive to our next stop – Tombstone, Arizona and the famous OK Corral. Or as us cowpokes would call it, the “Okey-dokey Smokey” Corral.
The brake light issue is caused by a faulty wheel speed sensor.
I have no idea if that’s true, but on most of the Jeep forums I cruise, a bad wheel speed sensor is indicated as the cause of every Jeep problem by at least one respondent. The top leaks in the rain? Bad wheel speed sensor. The windshield wipers go backwards? Wheel speed sensor. There’s yellow smoke coming from the exhaust? Wheel speed sensor.
The speedometer isn’t accurate? That’s probably radio fuse.