When I needed it most…

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Fresh off the press, just got home after a scary J**p event during the winter storm:

Imagine this, you are driving your wife to her hospital night shift, because essential workers must come in to work during the storm and you of course chose to take your extremely capable rig to handle the task. Because you have a toddler and it’s just the three of you, you have to take him along for the ride.

On the way back from the hospital, when the ice rain and 40mph wind gusts are at their fiercest, your car decides to give you a check engine light. It then tells you “Service Electronic Stability Control”, and it refuses to shift out of gear and stays stuck in D5, even when coming to a halt. You try putting it in park, back into gear. Engine on/off. Play around with shifting in/out of 2H/4A/4H. Nothing. Car starts normal, lets you shift into D, but won’t move.

After 10min parked at a red light, right lane, on the road, you start getting concerned about the fact you are still on a highway with your toddler in the car. You give it one last shot. Your car starts. The CEL is still on. You are in 2H, shift into D and drive off. Traction control functioning as intended. Vehicle driving normal. You make it home. Phew.

Your J-Scan won’t connect. Great. You try for ten minutes inside your garage and give up. You won’t know the codes today. But tomorrow morning at 6AM you need to do the whole spiel again to pick your wife back up.

I had hoped my first J**p moment with my 3rd JL would not happen in this way. I knew it was going to eventually.

Any thoughts/ideas what could be causing this? Two events preceded the CEL and Traction warning:
- Testing how slippery the road is by hitting the breaks and having the ABS kick in.
- Shifting from 4H into 4A and back.

Both of these could be related or unrelated, individually or collectively.

Any ideas, “feel good” comments or just simple commiseration greatly appreciated.

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[TheBirdie72]

Glad you and yours got home ok!

 

[Terrymo]

Is your steering wheel off center when going in a straight line?

I have read that some have cleared the Service ESC by turning the steering lock to lock a couple of times. Sorry that’s all the guesses I got. Hopefully you can pull some codes and get a real answer,

 

[3TV]

ESC is supposed to turn off when in low range. Did you try shifting into low range and driving a short distance before shifting back into one of the high ranges? I wonder if that would have reset it. Then there is the old disconnect the battery and wait a while before reconnecting it trick. That wouldn't have been fun in the middle of a storm when it was 30 below zero and your young child was in the car getting cold. Good luck sorting it out.

 

[calemasters]

Just a guess, ABS wheel speed senor(s) affected by the ice.

 

[Pape]

Look like jl is worse for that. Got a similar experience back in the day in the jk, same setup heavy snow storm, needed to be somewhere, got the check traction control abs the all shebang, but back than the transmission will continue to operate, got out of the highway and told my self ok, what is actually not working here, so I give it the bean, sure enough traction control kick in all light go away. Never came back, I suspect snow was interfering with a wheel sensor.

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Is your steering wheel off center when going in a straight line?

I have read that some have cleared the Service ESC by turning the steering lock to lock a couple of times. Sorry that’s all the guesses I got. Hopefully you can pull some codes and get a real answer,

Will report back on codes hopefully by tomorrow morning. My steering has been dead center since I dialed in my MC lift kit a few months back. 6000 miles on it so far and the vehicle still tracks like a champ, even on those big, heavy 37” RT tires. However, I do feel like I get an easier “traction loss” warning light in my dash whenever I take a turn a bit too passionately. I’ve never given much thought to it but maybe it’s related.

The vehicle is going back into the shop in a few days for Bilstein B8 8100 install and since I did the lift kit myself, I’m going to ask the shop to do a full alignment after the new shocks are on. Maybe that’ll clear at least one of the issues!

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

ESC is supposed to turn off when in low range. Did you try shifting into low range and driving a short distance before shifting back into one of the high ranges? I wonder if that would have reset it. Then there is the old disconnect the battery and wait a while before reconnecting it trick. That wouldn't have been fun in the middle of s storm when it was 30 below zero and your young child was in the car getting cold. Good luck sorting it out.

I never went into 4L so I didn’t try this yet. I was moving between 4A and 4H because the road had cleared a bit too much for my taste to have remained in 4H at one point, and then went back to a slushy ice snow mix, so I went back into 4H.

I do think you’re onto something with the battery though. While I didn’t disconnect it, I was standing with engine off for 10+ minutes. After that, I could restart and drive. I think maybe the vehicle was off long enough for systems to go to sleep so that it would let me get going again, akin to having the battery briefly off.

Right now my hunch is this is wheel speed sensor related. While my 37” RT Pro’s are perfectly configured in the system, with Wolfbox Precision GPS, iPhone GPS and Speedometer all reading within less than 0.1% of each other, I believe the ice rain may have caused an issue with the sensors.

I’ll have the shop take a look at the wheel speed sensors when they do my shocks next week!

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Just a guess, ABS wheel speed senor(s) affected by the ice.

Look like jl is worse for that. Got a similar experience back in the day in the jk, same setup heavy snow storm, needed to be somewhere, got the check traction control abs the all shebang, but back than the transmission will continue to operate, got out of the highway and told my self ok, what is actually not working here, so I give it the bean, sure enough traction control kick in all light go away. Never came back, I suspect snow was interfering with a wheel sensor.

Right now I am also thinking this is most likely a wheel speed sensor related + weather related event. But unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first wheel speed sensor code I got since putting the MC lift and 37” tires. Wondering what the long term fix would be for finicky wheel speed sensors since replacing them with another OEM unit might just cause the same problems.

Anyway, until I can report back with codes, it’s more soap opera than investigative gold that I can provide you guys with.

 

[BXFXJeep]

When I first got the 2021, a couple of months later there was a heavy snow storm, deep snow, somewhere along the line the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, then it went into limp mode.

I was a few blocks from home so limped home, since it was new, there was a lot of chatter here about fuses not seated etc.

I disconnected the battery for a few hours, went back it fired up fine except for the CEL.

Driving to the dealership, I stopped and fiddled with the gas cap in case, got to the dealership, no one was there, snow day.

Got back in, I noticed the CEL wasn't on anymore, since the dealership isn't far from me. I decided to hot dog it all the way home.

Never had any thing like that happen again.

While I was in my own plight with limp mode in knee deep snow, there was a guy in a Grand Cherokee stuck ahead of me, I went to help push him out, I asked him if he had in in 4x4, he said it wasn't a 4 wheel model, I was like WTF, a 2x4 Jeep, it reminded me of the 2x4 JK fiasco.

 

[THAW]

Right now I am also thinking this is most likely a wheel speed sensor related + weather related event. But unfortunately it wouldn’t be the first wheel speed sensor code I got since putting the MC lift and 37” tires. Wondering what the long term fix would be for finicky wheel speed sensors since replacing them with another OEM unit might just cause the same problems.

Is it possible you stretched the sensor wires while installing the lift?

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

Is it possible you stretched the sensor wires while installing the lift?

I was thinking this too. Either that or the new setup just causes the sensor to be more exposed to the elements. I will be check this as well today morning.

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

When I first got the 2021, a couple of months later there was a heavy snow storm, deep snow, somewhere along the line the dash lit up like a Christmas tree, then it went into limp mode.

I was a few blocks from home so limped home, since it was new, there was a lot of chatter here about fuses not seated etc.

I disconnected the battery for a few hours, went back it fired up fine except for the CEL.

Driving to the dealership, I stopped and fiddled with the gas cap in case, got to the dealership, no one was there, snow day.

Got back in, I noticed the CEL wasn't on anymore, since the dealership isn't far from me. I decided to hot dog it all the way home.

Never had any thing like that happen again.

While I was in my own plight with limp mode in knee deep snow, there was a guy in a Grand Cherokee stuck ahead of me, I went to help push him out, I asked him if he had in in 4x4, he said it wasn't a 4 wheel model, I was like WTF, a 2x4 Jeep, it reminded me of the 2x4 JK fiasco.

At first I was thinking whether I should be sad or happy. Sad that one of the best 4x4 vehicles of the automotive world gave up on me during a snow storm. Happy that said 4x4 vehicle was handling the situation like a champ even in 2H.

 

[Tr4ckD4ys]

P0701. Here’s what I found in the Gladiator forum:
“ Error code P0701 indicates a transmission control system range/performance issue detected in the TCM. If the P0701 was a true fault, then your transmission should have defaulted to limp mode and had a noticeable change to how the transmission acted/shifted. That code can possibly be caused by either a rapid deceleration (actual), or by a false rapid deceleration indicated by faults in the ABS.

an inspection of the underside of the truck would be a good idea, with special attention paid to the ABS wheel speed sensors/harnesses and transmission harnesses.

*edit to add*
There's also a decent sized connector for the transmission harness located at the rear of the passenger front wheel well behind the fender liner, couldn't hurt to take a peek there too.”

 

[Pape]

P0701. Here’s what I found in the Gladiator forum:
“ Error code P0701 indicates a transmission control system range/performance issue detected in the TCM. If the P0701 was a true fault, then your transmission should have defaulted to limp mode and had a noticeable change to how the transmission acted/shifted. That code can possibly be caused by either a rapid deceleration (actual), or by a false rapid deceleration indicated by faults in the ABS.

an inspection of the underside of the truck would be a good idea, with special attention paid to the ABS wheel speed sensors/harnesses and transmission harnesses.

*edit to add*
There's also a decent sized connector for the transmission harness located at the rear of the passenger front wheel well behind the fender liner, couldn't hurt to take a peek there too.”

I do recall reading about that connector being loose but not sure if it was the driver or passengers side that is often mentioned on this forum.

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