Hi Scotty,
Am hoping you can help me I kinda am getting desperate, I bought a Jeep Patriot 2009 diesel 2.0 crd European version, had approx 100k miles on it, just few months ago, while still on warranty ( 3 months ) the traction control , esp bas and abs lights came on, and every now and then the 4wd! light comes on, when that happens the car staggers ( drops speed ), when all the lights are on though not having traction control, esp , abs or 4wd it drives without issue. maybe worth mentioning when the lights come up and you brake you actually can hear the abs attempting to break. I remove the abs fuse to be able to drive it now.
sometimes it feels like its in 4wd low, even when not , I dont know how to else explain it, it feels heavy and the revs are high compared to speed.
took it to the dealer I bought it from, first time, they just erased the codes, lights went off, few days later they came back, second time they told me that its just a stuck code that I can delete with an OBD device, i got 2 , there were no codes to begin with, and it did nothing, the 3rd time i left the car with them for a week, I asked him to use it ( because sometimes in test drives nothing happens ), so he used it for few days and the problem happened with him, they tracked it to a steering wheel clock spring and they told me they replaced it, the lights were off, I took the car for a ride, not 2 miles away same issue happened, returned to him they tracked it again to a wheel speed sensor ( not the sensor itself, but the wheel bearings ) so they replaced that, the lights went off, I drove for about 2 hours on the high way ( i live in a different city now ), everything was fine, it drove amazing, was light and reacts great to input, next day, i took it for a test drive in a rough-ish terrain to test the 4wd, everything is fine, later that same day I took it for a small ride to the store, it was raining, and the problem happened again ( i thought maybe the rain ), the lights turned off again on their own this morning, I went to the store, everything is fine, after trying to leave the parking lot, same problem happened ( it wasnt raining, it was actually warm ).
there are no fault codes, I tried all sorts of jeep Wheel Dances, they do remove the lights when I reset the ESP using them, but the problem keeps happening again and again.
1 more issue, sometimes while driving, when I stop at a traffic light or something, try to engage 1st gear, it doesnt go in, i need to press the clutch a second time for it to work ( i dont think this is related to the same problem, but I thought id mention it )
I had a friend who mods cars, I asked him for help, he said he can see the data on can-bus (on the obd port , and from the radio harness), he showed me them on the oscilloscope, but he says for some reason he cant read the data, he isnt sure if its a Jeep thing or something about it is different, but he says , the can-bus network seems to be ok ( no erratic data ).
am taking it to the dealer again tomorrow, but I have a feeling its going to be the same, and I am tired honestly , ive spent soo much on trying to fix this and from going back and forth. please advice me
Just an update, We finally found the problem, A wheel speed sensor was faulty, it reads fine most of the time, but from time to time gives wrong readings, after replacing it , so far everything seems to be working fine.
Load test the alternator. When it starts to fail, all kinds of electrical wonky stuff starts to happen.
Have you has it scanned for any codes yet?
Yes, I tried multiple readers , no fault codes appear, I will be taking it to the dealer again in the next couple days, he feels that its the steering angle sensor could be faulty, Lets hope thats the case, I will update you on what happens.
Hi Doc, thanks for the answer, it actually isn't far away from something that happened, I didn't think it might be related, the car did die at me once and wouldn't start at all, I tried jump starting it but it didn't work, so I thought the alternator, the dealer took the car and checked it, says the alternator is fine , they tested it, the battery was dead though and he got it replaced for me, I checked the alternator output after that fix ( as I saw a couple on youtube) and it reads above 14v, so am assuming he was right and it was just the battery for that fault.
however the problems mentioned in my original question still remains till today, even after the battery, track rod ends and timing chain replacement, today i was driving it again, traction control light came on, and the car staggered so bad it actually shutdown on me in the middle of the road, currently am driving it with the ABS pump fuse removed, when i remove it, all lights are already on, but the staggering doesn't happen.