While driving our Jeep Wrangler on the highway at about 70 mph last Friday night, there was a sudden drop in power. A red warning light lit up – I didn't recognize the symbol at the time – and the stability control system light began flashing. The engine didn't die, but there was obviously something wrong. Throttle response was sluggish and the engine was running rough...
I thought about pulling over immediately but decided to continue on about 8 miles. (Just to be safe, I keyed in the nearest Jeep dealership via the navigation system's "emergency" function.) After exiting the highway, I cracked the owner's manual to read about the mysterious red light. I learned that it was the Electronic Throttle Control (ETC) warning light. The manual reads: "If a problem is detected while the engine is running, the light will either stay on or flash depending on the nature of the problem."
The manual's recommended solution? "Cycle the ignition key when the vehicle is safely and completely stopped."
It worked. After "rebooting" the Jeep, the ETC and stability control lights didn't come back on, and the Wrangler's engine was back to normal.
So far, the problem hasn't reoccurred. (I took the above photo this morning for illustrative purposes.)
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 7818 miles
dph1 says:
10:46 AM, 10/22/07
This seems really bad to me. What if you were passing someone, and ETC decided to crap out? Ummm, that does not seem to safe. What is worse to me is owner's manual solution of "Cycle the ignition key when the vehicle is safely and completely stopped." That means Jeeps expects this problem to happen from time to time. That seems unaccpetable. If you cannot properly configure a throttle, it may be time to stop producing passenger vehicles. Maybe I am being too harsh; I just would not like my car to randomly lose power and need to be rebooted. Did Microsoft buid this or Jeep??
opfreak says:
10:50 AM, 10/22/07
dph1.. I was about to write the same thing. Maybe they need to add some crtl-alt-del keys for a quick reboot. Or a reset button. Still thats sad that the error happened enough that its in the manual.
Jeep fans will just put this under the "Its a jeep thing you wouldn't understand" file.
skierx420 says:
10:52 AM, 10/22/07
This problem typically has occured for me when I have hit the brakes and held the throttle at the same time. If the Jeep is not in 4 wheel drive it screws with the ESP. The Throttle stays in "safe mode" until you cycle the key. This has hapened to me when driving vehicles in a parade.
alaron77 says:
12:19 PM, 10/22/07
The same issue happened to me in a rental 300C. I kept driving until I could pull over and read the manual. I restarted the car and had no further issues with it.
stovt001 says:
01:57 PM, 10/22/07
Well at least it is something you can fix yourself.
My mom once had a Suzuki Sidekick. The shifter would routinely get stuck in park and wouldn't budge. Luckily, Suzuki knew about this in the design phase and included a handy knob that you could pull on, and doing so would somehow unjam the shifter. Man that was the worst god-awful car in the whole world. Brakes would go out once a year too. You could set your comic-a-day calendar by it. I miss that thing. Nearly killed us a couple times, but we bonded with it.
actualsize says:
09:07 PM, 10/22/07
The fact that this defect is called out in the manual implies a coprorate case of "they all do that" that defies belief. Worse yet, the thoroughly common, but utterly unsatisfying software reboot solution of "turn it off, wait a few seconds, turn it back on" seems to have gained the official sanction of at least one automaker. We're doomed.
"What was wrong?"
"I don't know, but now it works, right."
"Can I prevent it from happening again?"
"Not sure. We could try reinstalling the operating system."
Great.
chrishs2000 says:
09:19 PM, 10/22/07
Typical Chrysler - they know they have an inferior component that may fail, so they put a warning light on the dash in case it does. You won't find an ETC dummy light on a Honda. The Wrangler is a great vehicle and a great concept, but it's held back by Chrysler 'engineering'.
estreka says:
09:20 PM, 10/22/07
In a somewhat related story, apparently Honda has a throttle cutoff point for the S2K. If, for instance, I were to hit 165 mph, the throttle would shut down, forcing me to come to a complete stop. Then I had to turn off the engine, wait 10 seconds, and then I could start it back up again. Needless to say, I got that taken care of. A tech said it was a safety issue. If I flipped the car (or got stuck up in a tree, as he put it) with the wheels just spinning, the intent is to ensure the engine doesn't cause additional safety problems (ie, fire).
benson2175 says:
10:32 PM, 10/22/07
That's lame. Throttle by cable and not computer is the only way to go.
banhugh says:
02:40 AM, 10/23/07
Guys, this is not out of the ordinary. Jeep has the car trail tested not road (or highway) tested. You get what you are promised.
ksm1 says:
11:23 AM, 10/23/07
There was a recall for unexpected power cut off in Wranglers. The TIPM may need reprogrammed.
SubyTrojan says:
01:05 PM, 10/23/07
http://66.160.188.111/roadtests/1235
Perhaps action is necessary?
http://www.autoblog.com/search/?q=jeep+wrangler+recall&searchsubmit=
flicmod says:
12:59 PM, 10/24/07
I think this is the same problem a guy I work with had with his Wrangler. I'll forward him this page and see what his results were with it.
mr_anton89 says:
06:16 PM, 10/25/07
This same issue happened to me. I was going down a straight road at about 45 and the transmission made a very hard shift for no reason, the rpm gauge went past redlline, all the warning lights illuminated like in your picture and I brought the car to a stop. Once stopped I put the car in park, shut it off, then went on my away again.
The following two weeks were somewhat uneasy, I wasn't sure if I would happen again and was thankful I wasn't in the middle of the highway.
I took it to the dealer and they ran a computer test. They said that it showed up that it occured, but nothing was wrong.
Did you/ are you planning on taking it to the dealer?
flicmod says:
01:31 PM, 10/26/07
Ok, my coworker said that his fiance was driving hers and the ESP light came on, but not that red light. He said that it did it throughout the weekend and then it stopped. I guess the dealer didn't have an answer for them either.
Not suprising, however... it IS a Chrysler.
theloonatic says:
10:29 AM, 11/10/07
The lightening bolt (ETC) came up the first time about a month after i bought my Rubicon Unlimited. Now it comes on every time i drive it. It's stalled twice at stop lights and lost power once while going about 40mph. I've checked around online and it looks like a lot of people are having this problem. Contacted Jeep about it online and got some crazy reply that my Jeep was no longer under warranty and other inaccurate information. My next plan is to call them. Don't want to take it to a dealer unless i'm sure they have a good fix. Right now they seem to be in denial. Besides being really annoying, this is potentially very dangerous.