2014-2018 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM Recall: Cruise Control Cannot Be Cancelled

If the vehicle maintains its speed or accelerates despite attempts to deactivate the cruise control, there would be an increased risk of a crash.


NHTSA Campaign Number: 18V332000

Manufacturer Chrysler (FCA US LLC)

Components ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Potential Number of Units Affected 4,846,885

Summary

Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling certain 2014-2018 Dodge Journey, Charger and Durango, RAM 2500, 3500, 3500 Cab Chassis (more than 10,000lb), 4500 Cab Chassis and 5500 Cab Chassis, Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee and Chrysler 300, 2014-2019 RAM 1500, 2015-2018 Dodge Challenger, 2015-2017 Chrysler 200, 2016-2018 RAM 3500 Cab Chassis (less than 10,000 lb), 2017-2018 Chrysler Pacifica and 2018 Jeep Wrangler vehicles. These vehicles are being recalled to address a defect that could prevent the cruise control system from disengaging. If, when using cruise control, there is a short circuit within the vehicle's wiring, the driver may not be able to shut off the cruise control either by depressing the brake pedal or manually turning the system off once it has been engaged, resulting in either the vehicle maintaining its current speed or possibly accelerating.

Remedy

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the software, and perform a software flash on the engine or powertrain control module, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin July 6, 2018. Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Note: Owners are advised to stop using cruise control until the software update has been performed. In the event that cruise control cannot be disengaged while driving, owners should firmly and steadily apply the brakes and shift the transmission to neutral, placing the vehicle in park once it has stopped.

66 Affected Products

Vehicles

MAKE / MODEL / YEAR

CHRYSLER 200 2015-2017
CHRYSLER 300 2014-2018
CHRYSLER PACIFICA 2017-2018
DODGE CHALLENGER 2015-2018
DODGE CHARGER 2014-2018
DODGE DURANGO 2014-2018
DODGE JOURNEY 2014-2018
JEEP CHEROKEE 2014-2018
JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 2014-2018
JEEP WRANGLER 2018
RAM 1500 2014-2019
RAM 2500 2014-2018
RAM 3500 2014-2018
RAM 4500 2014-2018
RAM 5500 2014-2018

4 Associated Documents

Chronology

FCA US LLC Chronology
2014-2018MY JC CAN-C U0001 Fault Reaction
Submitted 5/17/2018

 In October, 2017, FCA US LLC (“FCA US”) Powertrain Engineering recorded a test observation
regarding the inability to cancel cruise control when the CAN-C bus was fully disabled (no
communication among any control modules, indicated by a U0001 diagnostic code). This testing
was conducted under a recently upgraded validation protocol; no such observations are known from
past testing.

 On October 06, 2017, FCA US Powertrain Engineering Torque Security team advised the FCA US
Vehicle Safety and Regulatory Compliance (“VSRC”) office of the observation and a preliminary
safety investigation (Phase 0) was opened. The FCA US VSRC Product Investigations Team initiated a
two-part investigation approach: understand the technical aspects of the failure and conduct a
comprehensive study of all available records to determine whether this type of event had been
observed in the field among potentially affected vehicles.

 On March 02, 2018, the first and only identified field incident possibly associated with this condition
was submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) in the form of a
Vehicle Owner Questionnaire that described an event matching some of the characteristics
associated with the test observation. This potential field event occurred in a 2017 MY Dodge
Journey, in use at the time as an Avis rental vehicle.

 On March 05, 2018, the FCA US VSRC requested that Customer Care contact the individual who
reported the incident to NHTSA. This information was relayed to engineering for their opinion of the
relevance of the incident to the open investigation. Additional conversations between the customer,
FCA US, and NHTSA have also taken place.

 On March 16, 2018, based on that single unconfirmed incident the VSRC product investigations
team elevated the investigation to Phase 1.

 On March 20, 2018, FCA US disclosed the Phase 1 investigation to NHTSA. Conversations with
NHTSA about the study have been ongoing since that time.

 In early April, 2018, FCA US purchased the vehicle for further study.

 Data continued to be gathered to assess the potential risk due to a CAN-C failure and inability to
cancel cruise control. No additional field incidents have been found.

 It was determined that all vehicles have mitigation strategies available if an event of this nature
were to occur – use of the service brakes to bring the vehicle to a stop, and the ability to shift into
Neutral and Park. Once placed in neutral or park, some of the vehicles will cancel cruise control
when the engine hits a certain high-rpm threshold.

 On April 23, 2018, the condition was artificially created in a vehicle during a demonstration at
NHTSA’s facility in Ohio. In this test CAN-C bus communications were mechanically severed at the
engine control module connector.

 On May 1, 2018, teardown inspection of the one suspected field incident vehicle (2017 MY Dodge
Journey) found dead rodents, their nest in the driver’s side front fender, and damaged wiring.
Identification of the specific wiring and assessment of the outcome for a short circuit among those
wires revealed that these wires could not have caused the CAN-C bus to stop communicating. The
root cause analysis of this vehicle continues.

 In May, 2018, continued analysis of the suspect field incident vehicle revealed that some modules in
the vehicle did have stored U0001 codes from a mileage that could be consistent with the timing of
the customer complaint. However, no evidence of what may have caused the CAN-C bus to stop
communicating has been found. Testing is ongoing.

 As of May 12, 2018, FCA US identified approximately no CAIRs, no STARS, one VOQ and no field
reports potentially related to this issue.

 As of May 12, 2018, FCA US is aware of no accidents and no injuries potentially related to this issue.

 On May 12, 2018, FCA US determined, through the Vehicle Regulations Committee, to conduct a
voluntary safety recall of the affected vehicles.


Defect Notice 573 Report








Recall Acknowledgement






Affected Models