2021 Jeep WranglerJL (2018–present), fourth year — first year of the 4xe plug-in hybrid and the 392

Updated 2026-09-29NHTSA counts read on this date — 938 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2021 Wrangler Is Two Different Used Cars. The 4xe Loses Power, the Gas One Gets the Death Wobble.

389 of the 938 complaints on this model year came from 4xe plug-in hybrids, the version that arrived in 2021 — 41 percent of the record in the car’s first year. The VIN attached to each filing is what says which one it was.

Split the record by drivetrain and the two halves complain about different things.

                              4xe 389    everything else 549
losing power while driving      98 (25%)      50  (9%)
the death wobble                51 (13%)     145 (26%)

“Everything else” is the 549 filings that do not decode to a 4xe — mostly gas cars, plus 14 whose VIN does not decode at all.

Both columns are shares of filings, not failure rates. Nobody knows how many of each drivetrain are on the road, and a filing is not a car.

What the split does say is that the two halves of this model year are not interchangeable used cars. The thing to check depends on which one is in front of you, and a free VIN check settles which one that is.

ODI 11429535, a 4xe:

“Vehicle shut down in middle of road. All lights on dash came on and vehicle became disabled. It repeated it self two more times that week and i finally had it towed to dealer.”

ODI 11571440, a gas car:

“Over 60mph, hit a small road imperfection and steering shakes violently with the full loss of steering control until vehicle speed is reduced to below 45mph”

The wobble is the older story — it ran through the 2018, 2019 and 2020 cars and it is still here. The loss of power is new, and Chrysler answered it with a recall whose remedy is worth reading twice.

Jeep sold 204,610 Wranglers in calendar 2021 and 201,310 in 2020, and 2021 cars were sold across both years. 938 complaints against a few hundred thousand vehicles is not a failure rate, and 938 filings are not 938 owners.

The basics

The JL’s fourth year, and the year the engine list gets crowded. The 4xe plug-in hybrid arrives, the Rubicon 392 puts a 6.4-liter V8 in a Wrangler for the first time in decades, and the 3.6, the 2.0 turbo and the 3.0-liter EcoDiesel all carry over.

Four engines in six configurations, and the complaint record splits along them. 570 of the filings came from cars with the 2.0-liter block — that covers both the plain turbo four and the 4xe, which use the same engine — 253 from the 3.6, 94 from the diesel and six from the 392. One more comes back as a 7.3-liter, an engine Jeep has never put in a Wrangler, which is what a mistyped VIN looks like.

The VIN is the only thing that separates a 4xe from a plain 2.0. They share the engine and they share the model name. Every 4xe figure on this page comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing.

Specs

Output figures are from Stellantis press material — the 4xe launch kit and the Rubicon 392 announcement. Fuel economy is EPA, city / highway / combined, in mpg.

EPA rates the 4xe at 49 MPGe combined and 22 miles of electric range. The 20 mpg in the table is what it returns once the battery is empty, which is the number that matters on a long drive.

The 392 is the thirstiest Wrangler EPA has ever rated. The diesel is the only engine here that does better than 25 on the highway.

What owners filed

The 938 is two NHTSA model names added together. 934 filings come back under Wrangler and four more under Wrangler Unlimited PHEV, so if you look the car up under one name you get the smaller number. NHTSA files the recalls under a different second name again — Wrangler 4XE — so the recall section below counts them the same way.

Sections below are sorted by count. Each complaint is counted once, under a two-step rule. Step one: if a filing names a specific failure — the death wobble, the high-voltage battery, the instrument cluster — it goes to that section. Step two: everything left over gets sorted by NHTSA’s own component labels, in a fixed order — steering, suspension, driver assistance, brakes, engine, transmission, fuel, electrical, body.

The same rule applies to every year in this series. The cross-year table on the model page uses NHTSA’s labels alone, so a section here can come out bigger or smaller than the matching row on that page.

The sections below add up to 890. The remaining 48 are spread across the smaller categories, and the last section breaks them out.

Death wobble — 196

Counted the same way as every year in this series: filings that use the words “death wobble,” or that describe the front end or the steering wheel shaking violently and name what set it off in the road. 152 use the name and 44 describe it without.

This is the count that went the wrong way. 454 on the 2018 car, 132 on the 2019, 57 on the 2020, and 196 here.

2021   4     2023  73     2025  27
2022  22     2024  51     2026  19

It peaked in 2023 and has come down since, but it has not gone quiet the way the 2018 car’s did — nineteen filings in the first nine months of 2026, five years into the car’s life.

67 name the steering damper or the steering stabilizer, 11 say the part was replaced and the shaking came back, 6 name the track bar. Three say the dealer could not make it happen.

51 of the 196 are 4xe and 145 are not. Against a record that is 41 percent 4xe, the wobble leans hard toward the gas cars — 26 percent of the non-4xe filings against 13 percent of the 4xe ones.

Nothing in the record explains the lean. The 4xe is heavier, sits on the same front axle, and is four-door only. Any of that could matter and the filings cannot tell which.

Engine — 142

The largest of the label-sorted sections and the hardest to summarize, because it holds both drivetrains. 57 of the 142 are 4xe, which is almost exactly the record’s own share.

23 mention a check engine light, 22 coolant or overheating.

The biggest story in this section is not counted in this section — see the loss of power below.

Battery and charging — 132

130 of the 132 are 4xe. This section belongs to the plug-in hybrid alone — no other section on the page leans this far.

25 describe losing power while driving, five say the car would not charge, three say they are waiting on a part.

ODI 11613441:

“All codes began to display, errors delaying to charging port initially then gradually progressed. car would not turn on and would not move had to be towed to dealer ship.”

Three of the 132 carry NHTSA’s fire flag. Three campaigns cover the high-voltage battery on this car and the recall section below has all three.

Steering — 101

Everything NHTSA labeled steering except the death wobble, which gets its own section above.

74 of the 101 name no steering part at all — just the symptom. 27 describe the steering as loose, wandering, or having play, the complaint that was 155 filings on the 2019 car; the two groups overlap, so they are not halves of the section. Eight name the steering box or gear. No filing on this model year names TSB 08-074-20, the bulletin that runs through the 2019 page.

14 of the 101 are 4xe, against 41 percent of the record. Like the wobble, this section is mostly the gas cars.

Three filings say the steering locked or seized, against 43 on the 2018 car. 13 say the power steering failed. Both counts are taken across the whole record, and neither number gets added to the section counts below.

Electrical — 97

72 of the 97 are 4xe, against 41 percent of the record. Separate from the battery section above, this is the rest of the 4xe’s electrical behavior: warning lights, screens, modules that stop talking to each other.

Transmission — 70

18 filings here describe a clutch problem, and three campaigns cover the clutch on this car. Only 12 of the 70 are 4xe — the 4xe is automatic only, so the clutch story belongs to the manual gas cars.

Fuel system — 37

17 of the 37 are 4xe. Two recalls cover the high-pressure fuel pump on the diesel, 22V767000 and 23V263000, and both say a pump failure can stall the engine. 13 of the 94 diesel filings mention the fuel pump.

Suspension and wheels — 28

With the wobble counted separately, what is left is shocks, bushings, wheels and tires. Three of the 28 are 4xe.

Instrument cluster — 24

Counted as filings that name the instrument panel, the gauge cluster or the dash display, or say the speedometer went dark.

24 out of 938 is 2.6 percent, against 17.4 percent on the 2020 car. Recall 24V652000 covers both model years and every year from 2018 through 2024. The 2020 page is where that story lives; on this one it is a small section.

Body and structure — 18

Thin. Frame, welds, doors and paint, in ones and twos. Two of the 18 are 4xe.

Visibility and lighting — 18

Ten mention the windshield. Recall 24V111000 is a hybrid-control software error that can leave the defroster inoperative, and it covers 2021 through 2024 Wranglers — a software fault in a system that has nothing to do with the heater.

Brakes — 15

Nothing groups. Five of the 15 are 4xe.

Driver assistance — 12

The forward collision and lane departure warnings, in ones and twos.

The rest is thin

36 filings carry only NHTSA’s UNKNOWN OR OTHER label. Nine are air bags and seat belts, three cruise control. Nothing there forms a second story.

The loss of power doesn’t live in any one section

148 filings across this record describe the car stalling, shutting off, or losing motive power while driving. NHTSA spreads them across its component labels; the four most common are electrical 77, engine 74, fuel 36 and power train 29. A filing often carries two of them at once, so those four do not add up to 148 and are not meant to. No section on this page holds the whole story.

98 of the 148 are 4xe. That is a quarter of every 4xe filing on this model year, against nine percent of the rest.

2021  28     2023  24     2025  19
2022  21     2024  35     2026  21

Six years and it never stops. Four are flagged as crashes and two as fires.

ODI 11509039:

“The vehicle shut down on its own while driving. All warning lights were displayed. Vehicle was unresponsive and caused a crash. Vehicle is at dealer. I filed a complaint with FCA.”

The recall changed what happens, not whether it happens

Chrysler recalled this in November 2022 — 22V865000, 62,909 vehicles, 2021 through 2023 Wrangler 4xe. The summary is one sentence:

“A loss of communication may cause an engine shutdown.”

The remedy is the part worth reading:

“Updating the calibration software in the Transmission Control Module, Hybrid Control Processor and Auxiliary Hybrid Control Processor that changes fail safe from shut down to limp home.”

The fault is still a loss of communication. What the update changes is what the car does about it — instead of shutting down it limps. That is a real improvement for a car in traffic, and it is not the same as the fault going away.

Eight filings on this model year name 22V865000 by number. 35 of the 148 arrived in 2024 and 40 in 2025 and 2026 together, which is after the campaign.

What the record cannot say is whether those later filings are cars that never had the update, cars that had it and failed anyway, or a fault the update was never meant to reach. The filings do not carry repair histories.

Recalls

Sixteen NHTSA campaigns reach a 2021 Wrangler, against thirteen on the 2020 car and nine on the 2019. Fifteen are filed under the model name Wrangler. The sixteenth is filed under Wrangler 4XE and does not come back if you look the car up by the plain name.

Sizes below are the manufacturer’s estimate of vehicles potentially affected across every model and year each campaign covers, not the number of 2021 Wranglers in them.

The high-voltage battery, three times

All three say the same thing about the defect: the high voltage battery may fail internally and lead to a fire while parked or driving. The number of vehicles goes up tenfold in two years.

The last one is explicit about what that means for a car that already had the work:

“Vehicles that were previously recalled for the same issue under NHTSA Recalls 24V720 and 23V787 will need to have the new remedy performed.”

Until the work is done, all three tell owners the same thing: park outside, away from structures, and do not charge.

24V720000 is the one filed under the Wrangler 4XE model name. 59 filings on this model year name one of these three campaigns.

The power steering pump — 26V363000

June 2026, 1,076,999 vehicles, 2021 through 2025 Wranglers and Gladiators. This is the largest campaign that touches any car in this series.

“The electric hydraulic power steering pump wiring may overheat and cause a vehicle fire, even when the vehicle is parked with the ignition in the ‘Off’ position.”

Owners are told to park outside and away from structures until the repair is done. Letters were expected to go out July 9, 2026. Seven filings on this model year name the campaign, and the count is three months old.

Two separate problems on this car carry the same interim instruction: park it outside. The three battery campaigns are one, the steering pump is the other. A 2021 Wrangler 4xe that has had neither job done is a car the manufacturer has twice told the owner not to leave in a garage.

The engine shutdown — 22V865000

Covered above. November 2022, 62,909 vehicles, 2021 through 2023 Wrangler 4xe.

The clutch, three times

21V028000 and 23V116000, manual transmissions only, same defect described the same way in both, and the second says vehicles repaired under the first need the new remedy. Then 24V572000, filed August 2024, re-does 23V116000 for vehicles already remedied under it.

The chain starts a year earlier with 20V124000, which does not reach this model year — it is here because 21V028000 describes itself as replacing it. So a 2021 manual has been recalled for the clutch three times for what reads like one unfixed problem.

The diesel fuel pump, twice

22V767000, October 2022, 60,413 vehicles, and 23V263000, April 2023, 45,832 vehicles. Both are the high-pressure fuel pump on the 3.0-liter diesel and both say a failure can stall the engine. Dealers replace the pump.

The defroster — 24V111000

February 2024, 199,143 vehicles, 2021–2024 Wranglers and 2022–2024 Grand Cherokees. A hybrid control processor software error may leave the defrosting and defogging system inoperative, which puts the vehicle out of compliance with FMVSS 103. Dealers update the software.

The rest

22V638000 and 24V676000 are the two rearview camera campaigns that run through the 2020 page. 24V652000 is the instrument cluster campaign that is the whole story on the 2020 car and a small section here. 22V766000, October 2022, covers front seat belt retractors with an improperly welded micro gas generator. 23V191000 covers a frame stud that may puncture the fuel tank in a crash.

Nine campaigns and no part

105 filings on this model year say the recall part was not available. That is 11 percent of the record, and it is the largest single thing owners write about the recalls themselves.

2021   1     2023  34     2025   6
2022   4     2024  57     2026   3

The campaigns they name: 23V787000 36 times, 23V116000 21, 22V767000 18, 24V720000 nine, 25V741000 four, 22V865000, 24V111000 and 26V363000 twice each, and 21V028000 once. Two filings name two campaigns, and 12 name no number at all.

ODI 11629714, in full:

“The contact owns a 2021 Jeep Wrangler. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V720000 (ELECTRICAL SYSTEM); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.”

90 of the 105 open with the same sentence, because NHTSA’s intake staff write them. Fifteen are in the owner’s own words. The value here is in the count and the dates, not the wording. 2024 is the peak — the year 24V720000 went out.

For a used buyer this is the practical shape of the problem. An open recall on the VIN means the work is owed. It does not mean a dealer can do it this month.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

IIHS rates the four-door as one group covering 2018 through 2023, so this car is inside that rating. Good in the original moderate overlap front test, the original side test, roof strength and head restraints. Then IIHS updated two of those tests and the Wrangler did worse on both:

The updated moderate overlap test adds a rear-seat dummy. The updated side test uses a heavier barrier at a higher speed. A car can be Good on the old test and Poor on the new one without changing at all — what changed is the question.

NHTSA gave this car four stars in the frontal test and three on rollover, with a 27.9 percent rollover risk. It never rated the side impact.

Nobody files a complaint about a crash test. None of that is in the 938.

What the complaint curve says

2020    6     2023  220     2026  128
2021  100     2024  231
2022  106     2025  147

2023 and 2024 are the peak and the count has not come back down to where it started. 128 in the first nine months of 2026 is higher than 2021 and 2022, both full years.

The wobble and the loss of power are what hold the later years up. Both are still arriving.

A count that stays high is not the same as a car that keeps breaking. Recall notices bring filings, and fourteen of the sixteen campaigns on this car were filed between 2022 and 2025. But unlike the 2020 car, where one recall accounts for most of the late spike, no single campaign here explains the shape.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the battery held.

If you’re looking at one

Ordered by how much it hurts if it goes wrong, not by how many people filed.

Decode the VIN and find out whether it is a 4xe before anything else. It is free at vpic.nhtsa.dot.gov, and it decides which half of this page applies. The 4xe and the plain 2.0 share an engine and a model name, so the badge and the listing are not enough.

If it is a 4xe, check all three battery campaigns by number, not by whether any recall is open. 25V741000 explicitly says cars repaired under the two earlier ones need the work again. A dealer service department can pull the completion record by VIN for free.

Check 26V363000 on any 2021 Wrangler. The campaign says the steering pump wiring can start a fire with the car parked and switched off. Letters were due July 9, 2026, so a car sold before then may never have been brought in.

Ask whether the recall work was actually done, not whether it was ordered. 105 filings here say the part was not available. An open recall means the repair is owed, and 2024 was the year owners waited longest.

Drive it over a bridge joint or broken pavement at 55 or better. 196 filings describe the front end shaking after exactly that, and it is the gas cars that describe it most. Three say a dealer could not reproduce it, so one clean test drive doesn’t prove much. Ask the seller straight out: “Has the front end ever shaken after a bump?”

If it is a 4xe, ask whether it has ever shut off while driving. 98 filings say it did. The 2022 recall changed the failure from a shutdown to a limp-home, which is better and is not a fix.

Run the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. Sixteen campaigns reach this model year and the site only lists the ones still open.

Numbers worth writing down

The 2022 car is next. The 4xe grows to more than half the record and the death wobble starts down again.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 938 complaints, looked up under the model names Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited PHEV; quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — sixteen campaigns, looked up under both the Wrangler and Wrangler 4XE model names; quoted from the campaign summaries, consequence and remedy text
• NHTSA vPIC — drivetrain and engine, decoded from the VIN attached to each filing
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2021 Jeep Wrangler SUV 4WD
• IIHS 2018–2023 Jeep Wrangler 4-door ratings
• Stellantis media — 2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe
• Stellantis media — 2021 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392
• EPA fuel economy — city / highway / combined
• GoodCarBadCar Jeep Wrangler sales figures

Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved September 29, 2026; each quote lists its ODI number so you can look it up. The 938 is the union of two model names — 934 filings come back under Wrangler and four more under Wrangler Unlimited PHEV. Drivetrain comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing: 924 of the 938 decode, and 14 either carry no VIN or do not decode. One of the 924 comes back as a 7.3-liter, which no Wrangler has ever had. Every 4xe share on this page is a share of filings, not of cars on the road. The 2026 figure covers nine months. Recall applicability depends on the VIN — check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls. This summarizes what owners reported. It isn’t buying or repair advice.