Our 2018 Jeep Wrangler Hit 80K Miles and It's Been a Bumpy Ride

We just can't bring ourselves to part ways with our 2018 Jeep Wrangler. It has become a handy support vehicle on our video shoots, particularly when things get dusty, dirty, grimy ... you get the idea. That's why it's one of the rare vehicles in our long-term fleet to get a whole heap of miles put on it. We usually run our long-termers for about 20,000 miles, but we just hit a whopping 80,000 in the Jeep, more than 30,000 of which have come since we officially wrapped up its long-term test.

But the Wrangler suddenly went from mogwai to gremlin a little more than a year ago and has been plagued with problems since. Most of its issues have been electrical, including the alternator and the automatic start-stop system. The constant ferrying of the Wrangler to and from dealerships and service centers has left us a little exhausted, but perhaps that's just part of owning an exotic animal. Still, this recent experience with mounting expenses and ownership headaches seemed to warrant a recap.

Auto stop-start system can't stay healthy

This love-it-or-hate-it feature can't seem to stay off the injured list. We first picked up an error code for it last October. The feature was disabled but the truck drove fine, right up until it didn't. The Wrangler's battery died, requiring a tow to a dealership in Alhambra, California. It appears a bad sensor led to the Jeep draining both the battery that powers the stop-start system and the primary battery.

We replaced both batteries and the faulty sensor, which cost us a cool $1,314.14. Unfortunately, that was not the end of this issue. A nearly identical problem occurred just seven months later, requiring us to replace both batteries yet again. This repair came with additional labor because of contaminated fuel found in our fuel pump. We weren't able to get a straight answer on how the fuel became contaminated, what it was contaminated with, or why an electrical problem caused them to investigate the fuel tank. We paid what was due, $1,741.95, and did not return to this location.

So, we spent more than $3,000 in 12 months in no small part thanks to a feature many of us wish we could throw into the Pacific Ocean anyway. We encountered one more problem with this feature, but thankfully without the wallet-busting cost. In July, the Wrangler would not restart after engaging auto stop-start so we took it into a Santa Monica dealer. The folks there found a completely disconnected power cable, possibly because a previous dealer had failed to reconnect a ground cable. That repair was handled for free.