Jeep Grand Cherokee facing new recall over headlight issue

On the heels of a recall for fuel tank issues, Chrysler’s Jeep division is now facing another recall, this time over issues involving headlights in all 4,458 of the auto manufacturers 2014 Grand Cherokees which were manufactured from January 14 through March 20 of this year.

The issue for this recall involves the Jeep Grand Cherokee and applies to vehicles equipped with premium headlights. The software that controls them has been discovered to turn them off at random, which could cause a serious safety concern for night driving, particularly in areas with no street lights or moonlight.

The Jeep Compass is also being included in the recall, despite those vehicles being from Canada. In the case of the Canadian vehicles, the drivers that switch from daytime running lights to parking lights may discover their lights will turn off inadvertently.

For this particular recall, Jeep will have registered owners take their vehicles back to the dealerships for a free inspection and software upgrade.

Last month, the National Highway Safety Administration asked Jeep to recall over 2.7 million Jeep Grand Cherokees in order to reposition their fuel tanks saying they are susceptible to fire in a rear end collision. The recall involved over 630,000 vehicles with most of them being sold in the United States. Despite the NHTSA request, Jeep has refused to issue the recall claiming they have data revealing the vehicles are safe.

Additionally, in June Jeep issued two recalls unrelated to the fuel tank issue. The first involved the 2012-2013 Jeep Wrangler which is equipped with the Pentastar 3.8L V6 engine and automatic transmission. In these vehicles there is a potential defect in the steering line which could rub against the transmission cooler oil line and over time wear a hole, thus causing a transmission leak which could ultimately lead to extensive damage to the transmission.

The other recall involved the 2010-2012 Compass and Patriot vehicles built between March 6, 2008 and July 20, 2012. The issue with these particular vehicles involved a potential software glitch which might not deploy the seatbelt pretensioners and side curtain airbags if the vehicle were to be involved in an accident where the vehicle were to roll over.

As with the other recalls, Jeep will have the owners bring their vehicles into the dealers for repairs. For the Wrangler, technicians will replace the power steering return tube assembly. With the Compass/Patriot they will reprogram the software which will allow the seatbelt pretensioners and side curtain airbags to properly deploy in the event of an accident.