Wiring harness or short circuit on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler
When wiring harness or short circuit gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Jeep Wrangler report wiring harness or short circuit at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 30th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,000 miles | 28,000 miles | 81,000 miles | 91,000 miles | 96,400 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,500 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 1998 carries the most reports, with 15; the 2012 has 8. 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.
2012 jeep wrangler have had intermittent trouble for well over a year. Turn car off and headlights stay on. Finally figured out that if I turn the car back on and roll forward a little I can sometimes turn lights off. Same problem turning the headlights on. Rolling the car a few inches usually corrected the headlights. Windshield wipers will start on their own or stop during use with no warning. This began in late 2014 but the problem was so intermittant we could not duplicate it on demand until august 2015. The dealer replaced the multi function switch and wiring harness but before we even drove out of the parking lot both the lights and windshield wipers were doing the same thing. They kept it a few days and "sealed the cluster". Didn't have a problem for a few weeks and the car is now 700 miles away at school with daughter. Around sept 2015 intermittent issues again but not able to duplicate at dealer. Recently (jan 2016) the problems are daily and include the headlights going out every time the car makes a turn and then come back on a few seconds later. In addition the turn signal cuts off. Windshield wipers have a mind of…
2012 jeep wrangler have had intermittent trouble for well over a year. Turn car off and headlights stay on. Finally figured out that if I turn the car back on and roll forward a little I can sometimes turn lights off. Same problem turning the headlights on. Rolling the car a few inches usually corrected the headlights. Windshield wipers will start on their own or stop during use with no warning. This began in late 2014 but the problem was so intermittant we could not duplicate it on demand until august 2015. The dealer replaced the multi function switch and wiring harness but before we even drove out of the parking lot both the lights and windshield wipers were doing the same thing. They kept it a few days and "sealed the cluster". Didn't have a problem for a few weeks and the car is now 700 miles away at school with daughter. Around sept 2015 intermittent issues again but not able to duplicate at dealer. Recently (jan 2016) the problems are daily and include the headlights going out every time the car makes a turn and then come back on a few seconds later. In addition the turn signal cuts off. Windshield wipers have a mind of…
2012 jeep wrangler have had intermittent trouble for well over a year. Turn car off and headlights stay on. Finally figured out that if I turn the car back on and roll forward a little I can sometimes turn lights off. Same problem turning the headlights on. Rolling the car a few inches usually corrected the headlights. Windshield wipers will start on their own or stop during use with no warning. This began in late 2014 but the problem was so intermittant we could not duplicate it on demand until august 2015. The dealer replaced the multi function switch and wiring harness but before we even drove out of the parking lot both the lights and windshield wipers were doing the same thing. They kept it a few days and "sealed the cluster". Didn't have a problem for a few weeks and the car is now 700 miles away at school with daughter. Around sept 2015 intermittent issues again but not able to duplicate at dealer. Recently (jan 2016) the problems are daily and include the headlights going out every time the car makes a turn and then come back on a few seconds later. In addition the turn signal cuts off. Windshield wipers have a mind of…
Also reported on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler
Other powertrain problem
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 wiring harness or short circuit happen on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is wiring harness or short circuit on the 2012 Jeep Wrangler?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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