AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 67 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2016 Jeep Wrangler

2 crashes 2 injuries 4 of the 67 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.

Reports of this failure 67
With an odometer reading 21
Reports per 1,000 built 0.7 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 43%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 4
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

Owners of the 2016 Jeep Wrangler report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 75,000 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.

43% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 21 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
21,000 miles 26,835 miles 40,600 miles 75,000 miles 96,000 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, 2 a crash and 2 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 $500–$2,400 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 32 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 95,000 miles.

By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 68; the 2016 has 67. 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.

Median
  1. 1997 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 97k
  2. 1998 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 49k
  3. 1999 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 45k
  4. 2000 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2002 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 12k
  6. 2003 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 23k
  7. 2004 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 46k
  8. 2007 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 2k
  9. 2008 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  10. 2009 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 20k
  11. 2010 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 49k
  12. 2011 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 60k
  13. 2012 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 55k
  14. 2013 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 68k
  15. 2014 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 85k
  16. 2015 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 69k
  17. 2016 (this one) 41k
  18. 2017 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  19. 2018 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 29k
  20. 2019 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 32
  21. 2020 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  22. 2021 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 28k
  23. 2022 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 3k
  24. 2023 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2024 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  26. 2025 Jeep Wrangler abs module or sensor failure 103k

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.

While driving in normal city conditions the "esc" light illuminated followed by the "ABS" warning and the "hill decent control" flashing. I was nearly at my intended destination so I continued then parked at my destination. Once I finished with my business, I started the vehicle and noted the "esc" and "ABS" lights on steady, as I turned right onto the city roadway the "esc" started flashing and the vehicle would not accelerate, RPM's decreased, but the engine did not stall. I eased off the accelerator and it seemed to stabilize, then as applied the accelerator again, same thing, vehicle hesitated and would not accelerate. I turned right, off the roadway, onto a side street at which time the "esc" and "ABS" lights extinguished and the normal operation returned. The entire scenario occurred two more times during the next 3 miles of city stop and go driving, after which the "esc" and "ABS" lights remained on steady and the vehicle no longer had acceleration issues. I was able to get the vehicle home safely with the "esc" and "ABS" illuminated steadily. Plan to take to warranty repair facility, suspect faulty wheel speed sensor, but…

19,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1418475 filed 2017-10-27

While driving in normal city conditions the "esc" light illuminated followed by the "ABS" warning and the "hill decent control" flashing. I was nearly at my intended destination so I continued then parked at my destination. Once I finished with my business, I started the vehicle and noted the "esc" and "ABS" lights on steady, as I turned right onto the city roadway the "esc" started flashing and the vehicle would not accelerate, RPM's decreased, but the engine did not stall. I eased off the accelerator and it seemed to stabilize, then as applied the accelerator again, same thing, vehicle hesitated and would not accelerate. I turned right, off the roadway, onto a side street at which time the "esc" and "ABS" lights extinguished and the normal operation returned. The entire scenario occurred two more times during the next 3 miles of city stop and go driving, after which the "esc" and "ABS" lights remained on steady and the vehicle no longer had acceleration issues. I was able to get the vehicle home safely with the "esc" and "ABS" illuminated steadily. Plan to take to warranty repair facility, suspect faulty wheel speed sensor, but…

19,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1418476 filed 2017-10-27

Around 8:00 pm on 9 nov 2017 I was driving on a busy highway going approximately 60 - 65 MPH in the far left lane when the check engine light, ABS light, and traction control light came on. Then the vehicle engine shut off. It would not turn back on and I had to slowly coast to the far right lane. I let the vehicle sit for a few minutes and it started right up, the same warning lights were on and when I tried to press down on the gas pedal it would just make a thumping noise and would only move a little bit. Waited an hour for a tow truck. It is currently at a dealership to find out what is wrong with it.

27,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1423839 filed 2017-11-10

Also reported on the 2016 Jeep Wrangler

Other engine problem

57 reports median 53k

Other powertrain problem

55 reports median 31k

Other electrical problem

30 reports median 37k

Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure

29 reports median 58k

Other brake problem

26 reports median 37k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 67 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2016 Jeep Wrangler?

Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2016 Jeep Wrangler?

67 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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