CarComplaints.com Notes: How many transmission complaints can a new vehicle really receive? You'd be surprised. Unless you're a 2015 Cherokee owner, then I bet you're not surprised at all.
I bought my Cherokee from the original owner at 19k miles. From the first day, the shifting had always been rough. I could feel and hear a bump every time it shifted. Starting around the 23K mile mark, it started having hard shifting problems. Every now and then, when shifting into 4th gear (35 to 45 mph) there would be a very hard and audible shift.
The frequency that these shifts were occurring steadily increased until around 7 September 2016 while I was driving home, I heard two extremely loud bangs, all the warning lights on the dash came on, and I was limited to a single gear (I think it was 2nd). I limped it in to the Jeep dealership in Jacksonville, NC (this was not the first time it was there for this problem). They did their diagnostic and said without hesitation that it needed a new transmission.
They provided me a loaner during the month that it was there for the new transmission install. The day I picked it up, I asked them if they would work with me with the factory warranty that expires after 36k miles. They said absolutely not. I told them that it is completely unacceptable for a modern car to blow a transmission after 28k miles but they didn't care. Whipped into a rage at this point, I decided it was time to jump ship. I drove down the street to a Toyota dealership and, after some careful negotiation, tried to trade in the Jeep on a new car. What I learned was, thanks to the transmission issues of the Cherokees, their values were in free fall, and there was no way I could afford to trade it in.
So here I am stuck several thousands of dollars underwater with a ticking time-bomb. I figured I would just drive the Cherokee as carefully as possible until I was in a better financial position but, as of this writing, I have 3k left on the warranty and the hard shifts have started happening again. Buying a new Jeep is leading me to complete financial ruin.
When we bought this brand new in 2015, we had noticed the transmission was shifting fairly hard when put it in Reverse and Drive, along with randomly driving. We asked the dealership about this and we were told it had to program itself... over 2 years later and the transmission shifts harder now than it ever did.
I OWNED A 2015 JEEP CHEROKEE I HAVE TO BRING THE AUTO TWICE ALREADY WITH PROBLEMS. AT THE BEGINING OF THE YEAR AROUND APRIL 2016 THE STARTS WITH THE JERKING UNTIL STOP, I HAVE TO TOWED TO THE DEALERSHIP THE CAR DID NOT FUNCTION AT ALL. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPEN BUT THEY TOLD ME IT WAS THE BATTERY AND THEY CHANGE IT. NOW AGAIN I CONTINUED WITH THE SAME BUT NOW IS MORE OFTEN, I TOOK IT AGAIN AND THEY TOLD ME THAT THEY FOUND NO PROBLEMS AND THAT THEY TEST DROVE IT AND IT WAS OK.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK ABOUT THIS BUT IS TOO MUCH THAT THEY CAN'T FIND THE PROBLEM. I HAVE NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEM WITH NEW CARS BEFORE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME AND I'M DISSAPOINTED AND I'M GOING TO CONTINUE COMPLAINING EVERYWHERE THAT I CAN UNTIL I GET THE PROBLEM RESOLVED. NO WONDER THEIR WARRANTY IS ONLY UP TO 36000 MILES. OTHER AUTOS AND TRUCKS THEY GET MORE BECAUSE THEY WARRANTY THEIR PRODUCTS. I WILL CONTINUE TO BRING MY CAR AS SOON AS IT DOES IT AGAIN, UNTIL THEY FIND THE PROBLEM.
When I got in my car in the morning the vehicle would not get out of the parking break. I would get tons of error messages in my instrument cluster..."Service Park Brake" "4x4 unavailable" "transmission light on". I called roadside assistance to tow my car and the tow truck driver when he turned off and on the vehicle, it was ok to drive.
I drove to the dealership that day and they performed tons of software updates. My Jeep was returned back to me the same day. 6 days later, it happened again. I remembered restarting the car helped, which it did, so I started driving it back to the dealership. I got about 1/4 mile down the road and the steering wheel locked up and started to shut down, WHILE I WAS DRIVING! I pulled over, restarted the car and continued to drive. This time I was in the middle of an intersection making a left turn when it happened again, and almost got rear ended by a school bus!! This was a very scary moment and decided I was no longer going to drive this car. I pulled into a parking lot and called roadside assistance.
The dealership had the vehicle for a week and told me it was fixed. I received a recall in the mail, "S55 - Transmission May Shift Unexpectedly To Neutral". I called Chrysler and told them I refuse to drive my call until this recall is fixed. The part is not available so I've been driving a rental for the past 3 weeks. I'm terrified to drive this car again. I drive on the expressway everyday for work and can not imagine what would happen to me if the car shuts down again.
After trading in a great Wrangler, this Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk starting jerking when downshifting when slowing down. I hoped this would go away after breaking in. This past Sat. it decided to take off in a mid range gear and then decided this was the only gear it would use. 55 MPH had RPM of 3000. Called my dealer and asked the question "is this vehicle safe to drive to the service dept.? Their answer: we can't tell until you get it here.
Went on line and read for hours about this nine speed transmission being a piece of junk dating back into 2014. Hundreds of people talk about the dealer "flashing' the program to get it to work, only to have to replace the tranny soon down the road. I don't understand why they kept selling the 2015 model, knowing that the tranny was not correct. Going to the dealer tomorrow, really don't have much faith in the repair system. I see dozens of people had the tranny fail after a dealer oil change. Same thing here, 200 miles after oil change, tranny locked up in this mid range gear. People think the dealer flashed the program to determine which had tranny that were going bad at a later date, I would have to agree with that
Update from Jan 27, 2016: Took to dealer, service writer was very honest when I asked him if they had this huge problem under control. His answer: NO. It is not the same problem every time. Based on the error code, they replaced the valve bodies AND the wiring harness to the transmission. Upshifts OK, as it did before, downshifts terrible, will actually throw you forward in the seat to the point passengers ask you what is wrong. I guess I will wait until the thing falls out or FCA comes up with something different for a fix. I talked to a different FCA dealership about this problem, the service writer tried to tell me they had had xero problems with transmissions on Jeeps, so that told me he was not straightforward with customers, probably a good place to stay away from.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I bought my Cherokee from the original owner at 19k miles. From the first day, the shifting had always been rough. I could feel and hear a bump every time it shifted. Starting around the 23K mile mark, it started having hard shifting problems. Every now and then, when shifting into 4th gear (35 to 45 mph) there would be a very hard and audible shift.
The frequency that these shifts were occurring steadily increased until around 7 September 2016 while I was driving home, I heard two extremely loud bangs, all the warning lights on the dash came on, and I was limited to a single gear (I think it was 2nd). I limped it in to the Jeep dealership in Jacksonville, NC (this was not the first time it was there for this problem). They did their diagnostic and said without hesitation that it needed a new transmission.
They provided me a loaner during the month that it was there for the new transmission install. The day I picked it up, I asked them if they would work with me with the factory warranty that expires after 36k miles. They said absolutely not. I told them that it is completely unacceptable for a modern car to blow a transmission after 28k miles but they didn't care. Whipped into a rage at this point, I decided it was time to jump ship. I drove down the street to a Toyota dealership and, after some careful negotiation, tried to trade in the Jeep on a new car. What I learned was, thanks to the transmission issues of the Cherokees, their values were in free fall, and there was no way I could afford to trade it in.
So here I am stuck several thousands of dollars underwater with a ticking time-bomb. I figured I would just drive the Cherokee as carefully as possible until I was in a better financial position but, as of this writing, I have 3k left on the warranty and the hard shifts have started happening again. Buying a new Jeep is leading me to complete financial ruin.
- 15jeepklth, Jacksonville, NC, US