Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee
1 injury 1 of the 40 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 32 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 142,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 136,961 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
28% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,339 miles | 35,120 miles | 80,500 miles | 130,000 miles | 141,300 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 an injury is 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 $700–$3,000 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 52; the 2005 has 40. 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.
Our 2005 jeep grand cherokee limited gets stuck in 3rd gea and will not shift. It has 12,000 miles and has been in the shop 4 times for the same problem. It is very dangerous because the car will not accelerate in an intersetion and cannot move out of the way of traffic on the highway. The local chrysler service manger in san rafael has told us that he cannot solve the problem and that the chrysler regional manager has not responed to him or to us. The folks at chrysler's 800 numer has told us that they cannot help us and referred us to the dealer.
2005 jeep grand cherokee laredo death trap. 1) engine shut off on driveway 2) check engine light on and off in 3 engine cycles 3) 70 MPH on freeway. Instrument panel dimmed, gauges went to zero and the engine shut off. Veered to right and applied light brake pressure resulting in a brake lockup and freeway spin. Car came to halt facing oncoming traffic. Vehicle would not restart. Placed in neutral and pushed off freeway. Approximately five minutes later turned ignition switch and vehicle turned on 1st service true cause of check engine light reported unknown. True cause of driveway stall unknown. Two codes stored in memory 01411 fuel rational, p2302 ignition circuit. Vehicle test driven 200 miles with starscan. True cause of incident 3 reported as unknown true cause of stored codes reported unknown. Car was released with undiagnosed problem 2nd service circuitry was tested and all values appeared to be within service manual specs no repairs were made and problem undiagnosed daimler chrysler recommended co-pilot recording device installation reluctantly were forced to become unpaid crash test dummies for a company who clearly…
Dt*: the contact stated that the automatic brake module light on the dashboard illuminated causing the vehicle to be locked in park. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who can not find the cause of the problem
Also reported on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 40 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
Across 32 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee?
40 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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