Summary
The Jeep Gladiator has 9 recalls covering 2020 through 2023 model years, with the most serious being a rear driveshaft defect on 2020 models where a joint built without grease can overheat, fracture, and cause the driveshaft to fully separate from the vehicle, creating a road hazard and sudden loss of drive power.
On 2020-2021 models with manual transmissions, the clutch pressure plate can overheat and fracture, raising the risk of a fire. The 2021 model year has a separate powertrain control module software issue where the engine can stall without warning, cutting drive power at speed. Note that this software concern persists on 2021 vehicles where a prior repair attempt did not fully resolve the stalling behavior.
The 2022 model year has a transmission parking mechanism that can fail to fully engage, allowing the vehicle to roll away when left in park. On 2019-2020 models, a front seatbelt retractor can fail to slow the occupant's forward movement properly in a crash, reducing the protection the belt provides.
Several recalls affect visibility when reversing. On 2022-2023 manual-transmission models, a gear sensor fault can prevent the rearview camera from displaying and leave the reverse lights dark, so neither the driver nor anyone behind the vehicle gets a warning when it backs up. The same combination of failures affects 2022 manual-transmission models under a separate filing. Going back a bit, a radio software error on 2021 models can also cause the rearview camera image to go blank while reversing.
