Caribbean 4xe Saga (Help!)

[MoBayJeep]

I’m going to warn you up front that this post is incredibly long. If reading long posts isn’t your jam, move on, nothing to see here. Full candor, I probably wouldn’t read the whole thing and I love to read. You’re also likely to see this on a couple forums – because I’m desparate).

Hi all,

I realize that 4xe battery issues litter the internet and forums. So I appreciate you taking a little time to consider my plight.
This all began when I had the brilliant idea to purchase a hybrid Jeep and send it down to Jamaica. Did I go hybrid because I love Mother Earth? Okay, sure. But I would be lying to you, my newest friends, if I didn’t admit that I also did it because the custom import duties were 50% of the cost of importing an ICE. To answer your next questions: Was I concerned that there is no Jeep dealer/service shop anywhere on the island? No. Did I consider that there are probably fewer hybrids in Jamaica than I can count on my fingers and toes? Of course not. But did I at least look to see if there were any recalls in place when I bought it? Also no. There are countless other questions you may have. Let’s just assume that the answers reflect my impulsiveness and lack of deep thinking.

So, here we go.

In June, I test drove (drove like a dream) a lifted Jeep 4xe Unlimited (Christ, this thing is limited in so many, many ways). I shipped it down to Miami to be sent to Jamaica. But before doing that my uncle mentioned that there was a neat jeep custom shop downtown. So I take it there and have it repainted in Kevlar and have them install an LED bar, rock lights in each wheel well and in the grille, and LED halos around the headlights, all controlled by a Rough Country MLC-6 controller. Oh yeah, I also installed a winch. Why? Because let me tell you, if I had a dime for every time I found myself in a situation where I wish I had a winch to move a fallen tree, or pull a friend out of a ditch, or pull an atm out of a convenience store, I’d have exactly zero dimes. Most humbling is when my son asked, “Dad, let’s use the winch.” And I had to respond, “Uh, sure. Do you know how? I don’t.”

In DC and Miami (before the customization) the Jeep ran fine.

Because two customs brokers tried to defraud me and then once it actually got to customs they had no idea what the tariff is, it sat in customs for nearly three months. Once it finally got to my house, everything seemed to be working great. Plugged it into a Level 1 charger, got her up to 100%, took a few drives and I sat, smug and self-satisfied, that I had the baddest and most environmentally friendly rig on the island.

But the Jeep gods LOVE a smug and self-satisfied weekend warrior.

First, I keep getting an error that the key fob is not in the vehicle. Then the car will beep three times (while I’m driving it!) to tell me that the key has LEFT the vehicle. No, silly Jeep, here it is right in my hands. Another thing I notices is that I cannot open/lock the car until i’m within 5 feet of it. I assume that it was a weak key fob in the battery; I now think it is a problem with the RF Hub. But I’m an adventurer, who needs the creature comfort of remote unlocking, I’m the type of rugged individual who can live without that piece of technology.

Then all hell breaks loose. Coming back from a golf outing (yeah, you’re right, doesn’t square with my rugged individualism) I notice an alert that says “Service Charging System.” Weird. I decide to turn off the vehicle and restart, assuming that the Ctrl-Atl-Delete approach would surely work on this glorified mobile computer. Bad idea. The car turned off just fine, but starting again…not so much. All of a sudden, warnings galore: Blind Spot Monitoring Not Available, Service Required; Battery light; Lights on (they weren’t); Hood open battery cannot charge (it wasn’t). A few puppies came out of the woods were I was stuck to laugh-bark at me.

Someone tries to jump my car with a Tercel – no dice. Someone else comes and jumps the car with a suburban and she starts up like a dream. A dream that reminds you that your charging system needs to be serviced, that is. I get the car back to the house turn it off and nothing. Lights and accessories all work fine, but car will not start. If I plug in the charger it spits back some (really judgmental) red leds at both the charger and the dash.

Using the Tazer JL Mini that was installed during the “Miami Super Modification,” I can see that there are a host of error codes. I clear them all, but nothing really changes. I simply cannot charge the vehicle and it is stuck at 78%. I have tried to hard reset the vehicle removing the IDCM fuse and removing the battery terminals. No luck.

I am, however, able to drive the truck using the ICE…sometimes. Basically, when I get into the Jeep I have to quickly hit the brake, grab the key fob, push it up against the start button and it comes alive. But if I turn it off (whether immediately or after a long drive) it will not start for at least 10 minutes or so. What I’ve been able to figure out is that as long as the battery voltage is about 13.0, it’ll generally start. And while it’s running, the battery voltage will hover around 14.0. But immediately after you turn off the car, it plummets to 12.2 or so and won’t start. After a short amount of time, it will, however, return to 13.0 and allow you to start. Needless to say this isn’t any way to run a railroad (or drive a Jeep) and at some point, I fear getting stuck.

My plan is to send down a Vlinker MC+ and try to remove the code using JScan. There is a youtube clip – the fella below - – that seems to address the charging system error. It’ll be a couple weeks before it gets down there. I’m hopeful that we just need a reset and TERRIFIED that I need a new hybrid battery. If I need to replace the hybrid myself this entire saga changes from an Idiot Buys Hybrid He Can’t Drive story to an Idiot Gets Blown To Smithereens By Hybrid He Can’t Drive story.

So, now that you’ve managed to get to the bottom of this story, I have a couple questions:

1. Has anyone see this happen?

2. Are there any issues that I haven’t considered?

3. Am I doing any damage to the vehicle driving it under ICE until I get this charging issue sorted out?

4. Does the fact that Jamaica runs on a 50hz grid rather than 60hz make a difference.

5. Are you in the Caribbean looking to rent a tricked out Jeep for a movie shoot, where you don’t need the Jeep to actually go anywhere.

Thanks, guys (and gals). Happy New Year.

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[Chris A]

Sorry to hear about your experience. We absolutely love our 4xe. All vehicles but I believe FCA more so will throw faults if the 12v battery is weak. The high quality stock battery sitting for 3 months likely weakened it. If you haven’t tried replacing it this certainly would be a good place to start. Not sure how the 50hz vs 60hz affects the charger. But EVs are world wide so I’m sure there is a charger if yours doesn’t accept the incoming power.
I’ll be watching this thread to see were it goes. Good luck.
PS seems to be a lot of hate for the 4xe so don’t expect everyone to be positive about it.

 

[3arl0fBruce]

No clue what the problem is, but I enjoyed reading your post.

 

[1Evil55]

Also no clue, but I love vacationing in the Ochi!

 

[BXFXJeep]

Try the 12v, if it solves your problem, drive it to 40 Shades of Gayle, then sell it off to a stranger.

 

[alphawolff]

Alright, I'm sorry man but you really jumped into this feet first. The 4XE does weird shit compared to a normal vehicle. It can throw many warning indicators when it's just a normal battery voltage issue and the lights can persist once the battery is recharged. Buying a 4XE in an area without a dealership is incredibly risky.


The key issue is just a key issue. Try replacing the key battery and if the issue persists replace the key. Try using your spare if you're unable to do the above two. The 12v battery has failed. Replace it.

The 50hz power grid may cause intermittent service charging system lights, and generally any power supply issues will cause it. The IDCM is VERY sensitive to voltage spiking. The code will be a "battery charger input too low" DTC. Sometimes this will hard lock the IDCM until cleared and prevent charging. You very well may not be able to always charge it like you'd expect.


This vehicle is a hybrid. You can drive it in ice 100% of the time. You will not harm the vehicle.


1. Replace 12v battery
2. Replace key FOBIK/Replace FOBIK battery (Try battery first)
3. Clear all codes and re-test level 1 charger

 

[Slate]

100% replace that 12V battery. Low 12V causes all kinds of weird issues in the Jeeps and even more so in our 4XE's. Yeah, I know, "but its new!" - doesn't matter, replace it with a high quality AGM one - there are plenty of posts here about that.

You should be ok with the 50Hz. You might want to look and get a Level 2 installed at your place and use that.

 

[LAM]

Just from reading many of these forum posts I would also suspect the 12V battery. Seems if the voltage drops too much people start seeing all sorts of error codes.

If you are getting the Vlinker and Jscan, don’t forget the security bypass cable and you might as well get the extension cable set (Zautomotive or Amazon) which makes it much easier to connect the bypass cable without having to taking off the front panel every time.

I’m not much of an expert but with Jscan you can reset error codes and also reset control modules (ecu’s). There is some magic to this as well. For some changes you need to turn off the ignition, close the door and wait some amount of time for it to really shut down. The changes take effect on the next startup. You can run the Jscan app in demo mode before you buy it and hopefully make sense of which of the many modules you can access, but I would look for the error codes first and search around for what they mean.

Just be patient, you are after all in Jamaica.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Sounds like the N1-N7 fuse array ( if the 4Xe has one) got blown, likely when wiring lights.

Also, check the fuse box/PDC to make sure all of the fuses and relays are fully seated.

 

[MoBayJeep]

UPDATE: Jeep had to be shipped back to Maryland. They ran an update and all is good. Well not for me, as I am terrified to send it back down to the island. Thanks for the interest and good humor.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

Maybe trade it for a less complicated model, then have the new one shipped.

 

[MoBayJeep]

Maybe trade it for a less complicated model, then have the new one shipped.

Yup. We have a 6spd JL that my kid is gonna learn to drive stick on. Once that’s done, it goes down to . We’ll lose the duty paid on the hybrid, but that’ll be the cost of this lesson I’ve had to learn.

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