2021 Jeep Compass Electrical Problems

Your Jeep unexpectedly accelerated while driving, and you lost the ability to control the brakes and steering wheel. The dashboard and radio screens went completely black, causing you to lose control of the vehicle, hit an embankment and tree, resulting in injuries including a wrist fracture and facial abrasions. The vehicle won't start, preventing diagnosis of the electrical and speed control systems that may have failed.

Your car displays a "Coolant Temperature High: Shutting Down" warning and shuts off while driving, even though your temperature gauge shows the engine is running normally. After waiting several minutes, the vehicle restarts and drives fine. This creates a serious safety risk if it happens at highway speeds or in heavy traffic. The issue may require diagnosis of the coolant temperature sensor, wiring, or engine control module to determine why the warning triggers incorrectly.

Your high coolant temperature warning light turned on and your engine shut off while you were driving. The engine wouldn't restart, and you had to have the vehicle towed home. This issue has been reported on other Jeep Compass models.

Your car has experienced multiple electrical and engine issues since purchase. Starting in April 2024, your battery began melting internal components, and even after replacement and fuse repairs, the problem continued. Most concerning, since August 2024 your car has been stalling unexpectedly during driving — sometimes multiple times per trip — which created dangerous situations including on a highway with heavy traffic behind you. Currently, your car is displaying a Check Engine light and a Service 4WD warning, and it continues to stall at unpredictable times. A complete electrical system diagnostic and potential wire harness replacement may be necessary to identify and fix the root cause.

Your infotainment screen is glitching and not displaying properly, making it hard to see navigation, backup camera, and vehicle settings. Restarting your vehicle hasn't fixed the problem, suggesting a hardware issue rather than a software glitch. This could impact your ability to safely navigate and use backup features while driving. The fix will likely require replacing the display unit or its internal components.

Your car's temperature gauge randomly spikes to overheating and triggers a "high coolant temperature" warning, causing the engine to shut down temporarily—then it instantly returns to normal and resumes driving. This happens unpredictably whether you're driving or stopped, creating a safety hazard because you can't move out of traffic. The thermostat housing and sensor have already been replaced, but the problem persists with no diagnostic codes appearing.

While backing out of your driveway, your rearview camera started glitching with colored lines, then your car made loud banging noises and the check engine light began flashing. The car wouldn't restart after you turned it off. The dealership found a fluid leak in the transmission pump area, a failed battery, and noted that your rearview camera signal runs through the radio unit. You've also experienced oil leaks previously on this vehicle. Addressing this will likely require replacing the battery, repairing the transmission fluid leak, and diagnosing the rearview camera/radio system.

Your vehicle's information screen isn't working, which means you can't connect your phone for hands-free calling or access your backup camera. Since you can't use hands-free calling or see the backup camera, this affects your ability to drive safely. The fix will likely involve diagnosing the infotainment system's hardware or software to restore connectivity and camera display.

Your Compass's stop/start system has malfunctioned for the second time, causing the engine to shut off unexpectedly when it shouldn't. This problem previously required dealership repair and is now happening again, leaving you worried about larger repair bills and potential vehicle failure. The manufacturer will likely need to diagnose the electrical system controlling the stop/start feature and may replace faulty sensors, wiring, or the stop/start module itself.

Your driver's side headlight stopped working, and when a dealer inspected it, they found that the headlight, electrical connectors, and wiring harness had melted and needed replacement. After this happened, you experienced difficulty starting the vehicle one morning, and your instrument cluster and overhead map lights began flickering on and off. The underlying cause appears to be an electrical issue that caused the melting.

Your backup camera screen goes blank when you shift into reverse. This means you lose the camera feed that normally helps you see behind your vehicle. The fix will likely involve diagnosing the camera wiring, connector, or the camera unit itself to restore the video feed.

While driving my vehicle the parking brake engaged itself and my vehicle stopped suddenly without me engaging the brakes. I took the vehicle to the dealership and they stated it was an issue with the emissions system that caused the vehicle to do an “emergency stop”. I paid the amount required by the warranty and they stated they fixed the issue. However, while driving in the freeway (approximately 75 mph), the vehicle began to have the same issue and began to stop while I was driving. My daughter and myself were in the vehicle, during high traffic and we were fortunate not to be hit while driving when this happened. I have contacted the dealership again to have them inspect the vehicle again. I am concerned there is a manufacturing issue that is causing this problem and I am afraid to drive my vehicle especially with my children in the car.

When it's hot outside and the car gets hot inside car it messed the radio up lines all over the radio can't see nothing radio plays, but you can't use backup camper are see the air set on this needs to be recalled so reson for it to stop working

When ESS is Engaged, car does not want to start from stop/engine off after pulling from a stop. Car then turns off Lane Departure and Blind Spot Warning and ESS says needs service. Battery has been replaced 2x by Jeep.

The touchscreen started flashing off and on and the dash lights also turn off and on. The lane assist and fuel warning pop up even when there is ample fuel. The blinkers do not respond when it is glitching and the high beam/ low beam light disappears on the dash. I have taken it to the dealer twice and they said their were multiple codes triggered in the touch screen/radio and they cleared the codes but it started doing this again a few days later. The 2nd time they downloaded an update to Uconnect system, I have reset the uconnect system back to default and remived all paired devices and even just turned off the entire radio but it continues to effect the dash lights and also effects the inside Temperature which gets stuck. The dealer said they will have to find time to try to figure it out and I do not even have an appointment scheduled yet and they don't seem confident about a solution. I have looked online and have seen many people with uconnect having these issues and it does not seem safe due to not being able to see the dash at night in particular and the blinkers being effected. I am not sure if they still blink on the outside of the vehicle.

The contact owns a 2021 Jeep Compass. The contact stated that the check engine, crash avoidance assist, START/STOP, air bags, and other warning lights were illuminated. While driving at various speeds, the transmission was slipping. Additionally, the vehicle could be started without depressing the brake pedal. There was a burning odor entering into the cabin of the vehicle. The vehicle had been taken to the dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The contact stated that the dealer had placed an electronic chip in the vehicle; however, the contact was unable to recall the exact name of the computer chip. The vehicle failed to start after the chip was installed, causing the dealer to remove the new computer chip and replace it with older chip. The contact stated that when the battery was replaced, the warning lights were no longer illuminated. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 38,000.

My Start/Stop feature will bug out and not Start up after releasing the brake at a red light. It has happened multiple times and will display a maintenance required symbol in my dashboard until I restart my vehicle. It happens infrequently. One day it will work fine and the other day it will delay and not turn on immediately.

The contact owns a 2021 Jeep Compass. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the vehicle failed to start. The vehicle was towed to a dealer where it was diagnosed that an unknown computer had failed and simultaneously made other electrical components fail. The contact stated that the Radio Frequency Hub, Electronic Control Unit, and Body Control Module needed to be replaced. The failure recurred. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50,100.

While Auto start stop is active, and when the vehicle comes to a stop the engine stops but then doesn't restart like it's supposed to, the cluster says vehicle needs to be restarted, then after putting shifter into park I can restart the vehicle normally, but this has happened 3 times now at busy intersections causing my vehicle to block traffic when the light turns green. I have to remember to manually turn Auto start stop off everytime I start my vehicle to prevent this from happening or keep my climate turned up since the auto start stop won't engage while cooling or heating the cabin.

The car only has 47,000 miles on it and the steering wheel buttons stopped working, then while the car was off the windshield wipers started going and wouldn’t stop until the battery died, then when the car battery was charged and the car was started the windshield wipers stopped working, the brake lights stopped working and then the signal lights.

Just driving down the highway at the speed limit the car will suddenly say over heating coolant level low and shut off for 1 second. Has done this 3 times in last few weeks. This was after I just had to replace the 2nd battery that controls all the extra functions on the car and a temperature sensor. The coolant level is fine

The following message displays on my dashboard "Coolant Temperature High. Shutting Down" and the vehicle wants to shut down or sputters. Car shakes like it wants to turn off and then it starts to run like normal

My car has been operating fine. No complaints or any reason to believe there was any problems. I pulled up to a stop sign at a 4 way intersection and my just car shut off. The indicators on my dashboard panel were blinking on and off. It also said my car was on but it was not. The MPH gauge when i tried presssing the stop/start button would slightly move up and back down again. I was able to get my car into neutral but the emergency brake was on and it would not release. After 20 to 30 minutes i tried the start button and it thankfully started back up. I was in an industrial area. Semis and lots of cars and i was unable to even move my car off to the side of the road.

On multiple occasions my 2021 Jeep Compass will have a "Coolant Temperature to High," and then shut my car off. So far I have been able to turn it off and it comes back on. I have taken it to our local Jeep dealer and they basically said there is nothing they can do. The safety issue is that it has just stopped while I am in motion in the middle of traffic risking a collision from the sudden stop. The dealer had it for 3 days and was unable to recreate the problem or find any issues. My Jeep worked fine with no other issues. It has never missed a maintenance appointment and never caused other problems.

When the vehicle is in fuel economy it turns off completely and I have to change the transmission to park to turn it back on. This happens when I stop at a light, at a stop, or just stop to wait for someone to cross the street. Both the dealer and the manufacturer are aware and have not been able to find the reason why this is happening to the vehicle. This situation has been occurring since 2021 and the alert appears in the bus cluster. It is a risk for my family to have a vehicle with this situation, since we could have an accident that could cause death.

The Jeep's engine decided to shut off at a red light. This jeep has the automatic shutoff for the engine when idling too long. I could not restart the engine. I blocked 2 lanes of traffic, and was unable to push the vehicle out of the way. I Tried restarting the engine several times. The accessories would come on, but the parking brake would NOT disengage and I had several issues trying to get the shifter into neutral to push the car out of an intersection. The fire department lucky was behind me after this happened, and helped me so did local police. 5 different people could not get the car to start or engage into neutral and disengage the parking brake to move the vehicle to a safe location. This was a rental so lucky I am not the owner of a failure of a jeep. This was an emergency situation while it was raining in traffic at an intersection. Police called a tow truck to tow the jeep out of the intersection because it was inoperable at this point. This is the strangest issue I have ever had with a vehicle and I am a automotive mechanic. Jeep had only 50,000 miles and no previous issues. Engine light was illuminated and I didn't have a scan tool with me (out of town). The vehicle was taken to a service shop requested by the rental company. We never knew the root cause. My advice if you have to spring for a jeep go for a bigger and better model. These and the patriots are the worst jeeps in terms of reliability.

It’s happened 3 times now. I’ll be driving and everything is fine, and suddenly an error will pop up on the dash that will read “coolant temp too high” and the entire car will power down while driving. It’s almost caused me to wreck all 3 times. The coolant had been at a normal temperature all 3 times. 2 of the times it has been able to turn right back on and continue driving, 1 time I had to sit and let the car cool down for 30 minutes before it would turn back on (it was the middle of summer)