Hybrid Jeep SUV’s Sand Contamination
When Jeep announced the development and production of its own electrified hybrid technology dubbed 4xe, everyone held their collective breaths. Here was a heavily off-road-centric brand, venturing into what was previously uncharted territory.
Eventually, Jeep started rolling out production 4xes. There’s just one caveat – they have been facing recalls (we’ll get to these later), with the latest one uttering the dreaded words “engine failure.”
According to the recall report by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are 2 affected models: the Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe built from July 19, 2023 to March 3, 2025, and the Jeep Wrangler 4xe built from June 7, 2023 to March 4, 2025. The recall affects 112,859 units and, unfortunately, all of them are declared to have the defect.
Stellantis
What Went Wrong
The report highlights the main concern as: “Sand from the casting process can contaminate internal engine components, leading to a catastrophic engine failure, which can result in a vehicle fire or an unexpected and unrecoverable loss of propulsion.”
This contamination issue will manifest itself through engine knocking and/or a malfunction indicator lamp (“MIL”) prior to catastrophic failure.
Looking at the chronological order of the issue stated in the report provides some interesting tidbits:
- In August 2025, FCA US determined the root cause of the engine compartment fires to be a catastrophic engine failure due to sand contamination within the engine block. FCA US also identified multiple reports of loss of propulsion, all of which experienced an engine failure.
- As of October 20, 2025, FCA US is aware of 36 customer assistance records, 144 warranty claims, 36 fires and 50 loss of propulsion field reports, and 50 other service records potentially relating to this issue for all markets with dates of receipt ranging from January 24, 2024, to August 29, 2025.
- As of October 20, 2025, FCA US is aware of three injuries and zero accidents potentially related to this issue for all markets.
Jeep’s 4xe Issues Continue
It hasn’t been an easy past few months for the 4xe powertrain. We have reported two major 4xe issues this year – one in September and the other just last week.
The September recall was centered around 91,787 units of the Grand Cherokee 4xe, which had an issue with the Battery Pack Control Module (BPCM). Apparently, the BPCM can become overloaded in some cases and end up resetting. If and when this happens, the Hybrid Control Processor (HCP) could misread the reset, which NHTSA says could lead to “a loss of propulsion.” A very dangerous thing to happen, especially if the vehicle is still moving, and worse still if it is traveling at highway speeds.
Then, just last week, it came to light that over 320,065 units of the Grand Cherokee and Wrangler 4xe had issues with the high-voltage batteries of the PHEV powertrains. An internal investigation by the company said that 19 vehicles had fires resulting from the said fault. This prompted regulators to warn owners not to park next to other vehicles or near any structures for safety reasons.
