Other electrical problem on the 2017 Jeep Cherokee
1 crash 3 fires 1 injury 5 of the 244 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2017 Jeep Cherokee report other electrical problem at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 28,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 144 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 66,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 45,980 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
37% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19,720 miles | 28,000 miles | 40,000 miles | 50,000 miles | 65,700 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash, 3 a fire and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 254; the 2017 has 244. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
New 2017 jeep cherokee has completely and randomly shut off/shut down while driving three times. Extremely dangerous failure mode! Vehicle has less than 2000 miles and is less than 3 months old. First instance: april 27, 2017. Daughter driving. Going up a hill on city road at approximately 45mph. Vehicle just died. Almost rear-ended. Pulled over. Put it in park. Vehicle restarted. Second instance: april 28, 2017. Owner driving. On interstate 376 going 65mph. Vehicle just died. Pulled over. Put it in park. Vehicle restarted. Third instance: april 29, 2017. Owner driving. State road going 40mph. Vehicle just died. Noticed a "ding" sound just before it died. Almost rear-ended. Pulled over. Put it in park. Vehicle restarted. Took car to dealer - preston motors in new castle, pa. Explained situation. Told them "we could have died!" they claim they know of no similar issues or reports of this problem. I presented them with printouts of the numerous similar complaints for 2016 models on NHTSA website. Dealer is currently investigating and guesses (does not know) it may be a problem with the starter button (not the stop/start button)…
I was stopped at the red light, my foot on the brake and vehicle gear in d, I felt my vehicle is reversing (moving backwards), I thought my vehicle gear was in r and foot on gas padel but that was not the case, I double checked to make sure the vehicle gear was in d and foot on the brake pedal, I put my vehicle in park (p) to make sure it stops and then when light turned green, I put it in drive (d) and started driving. In all that bizzareness, I felt I missed a green light as well. I thought may be the vehicle besides me started driving and it was my vision which made me think that my vehicle moved backwards but I am a long time driver and something like that never happened with me before. I was completely shaken up, thinking that luckily no vehicle was behind me during all that time. I also noticed that my vehicle was at least one vehicle space behind the stoppage line when I started driving again. This strengthened my belief that my vehicle moved backwards.
Backed out of parking space into traffic lane. Transmission would show shift to d, but would not engage drive train. Had to disconnect both battery cables to clear electronics. After reconnecting battery cables, vehicle would engage drive train for "d", bust car running/shifting rough, engine dying and svc engine light coming on.
Also reported on the 2017 Jeep Cherokee
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Parking brake failure
Wiring harness or short circuit
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other driver assistance problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 244 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2017 Jeep Cherokee?
Across 144 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 28,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2017 Jeep Cherokee?
244 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed