To start out my mom bought my this Jeep when it was a year old with 23k on it and we have taken great care of it. Always maintained regularly by the dealer. At about 65k it began to whine very noticeable when you drove it for an extended period of time. I’ve the next year and a half this got much much worse where it would be screaming and then it would start to jerk very violently upon take off. We took to dealer 2 separate times and paid a diagnostic fee for them to say nothing was wrong with it and we are were past due for transmission fluid change. ALWAYS READ YOUR MANUAL! I read the manual and it had stated the fluid doesn’t need to be changed until 120k so there was no excuse. It began to get much worse and we were not comfortable driving it long distances at all. The whining got so bad we took it to another dealer and they had it for a day and called us up and told us our transmission was completely shot and that it would be replaced within a week and a half. Thankfully! But we fought with a failing transmission for years. The Jeep also burns high amounts of oil to where it is almost none dry in 3,000 miles after a oil change. STAY FAR AWAY FROM AND JEEP PATRIOT AND ANT CVT TRANNY!!

First issue happened Monday, September 10, 2018. Drove from South Portland, Maine to Auburn, Maine, which is about a 45 minute drive northbound on I95. Transmission started slipping, going anywhere between 1000RPM to 4000RPM very inconsistently and having issues downshifting. A few minutes before going to my exit, the dashboard lit up with a transmission overheat light and the vehicle became very sluggish and difficult to drive, forcing me to go from 70MPH to 40MPH. I pulled on the side of the road and got car towed to a transmission workshop only to have them return me the vehicle as they could not replicate code and transmission did not record an overheat.

My second issue happened September 25, 2018 while driving from Brunswick, Maine to Van Buren, Maine. This is a 4 hour drive. The transmission overheat light went off again, and I was forced to pull on the side of the road. Due to the nature of my job which involves traveling, I let the trans cool off, and attempted to drive, only to have the transmission overheat numerous times. Eventually the car became extremely sluggish even without the transmission light going off. The car was then towed over 200 miles to the repair workshop where a month later, the transmission was replaced and two front axles replaced after being destroyed by the transmission damage.

In conclusion, this is a terrible and unreliable car. These CVT's are notoriously bad. I'm praying that my CVT replacement doesn't fail because it came from another Jeep Patriot in a junkyard. This is a car with 92,000 miles; it shouldn't have needed a complete replacement. Apparently CVT's can't be fixed, only replaced. At least that seems to be the case with these Patriots. This problem is so persistent on these cars, I would have wanted to sell the vehicle but unfortunately I was stupid and have a larger loan on this car. Don't get this car, especially if you have a long commute or drive a lot for work.

The first time my Jeep Patriot overheated was June 1, 2017, going to Sivierville Tn. The light came on and it lost power to pull. I pulled over and after a few minutes, it cooled off and i was able to go on. In a little while it occurred again. I finally got to Sevierville and it was fine for a while. This has happened several times over the past 13 months. I don't pull a trailer with it, don't even have a hitch. I noticed others are having this same problem. I was told by a Chrysler Jeep dealer this was a safety feature to keep the transmission from burning up. They told me you couldn't repair the transmission, it had to be replaced. But, what causes it to overheat? There has to be a reason. Thank you.

Bought my daughter Jeep Patriot 2011 automatic 4 cylinder. She always complained of it overheating and the trans light come on and having to pull over because loss of power when driving 45 min or more. She said it has happened half a dozen times. She finished college in FL and I went to drive her back to NJ and took HWY whole way. Middle of busy intersection car overheated and lost gas power immediately, there was also a whining sound. Tractor trailer was coming down highway while we were trying to cross it with no power. Almost got hit and crushed because we could not cross. What is Jeep going to do about this and take responsibility before someone gets hurt and dies? So many people are complaining of this and I'm sure Jeep knows about it, what are they waiting for? Someone to lose their life. Sad.

Same problem as most of the other CVT overheating issues all over the internet. Was somewhere in Utah while driving from Denver to Los Angeles. Cruising around 70-75 mph with the a/c on. Engine RPM began increasing and speed reduced. Got the trans overtemp idiot light. Pulled over to see what the owners manual said, which was basically nothing. Called the service dept of a local (to where I was) dealer. He said it's a very common and well known problem with no known solution. He suggested I turn off the a/c, and pull over to let the trans cool EVERY TIME IT HAPPENS.

Update from Dec 23, 2016: December 2016. Drove from Los Angeles to New Mexico. Something is most certainly wrong. Sucking down the gas. Used to get around the advertised 29-30 mpg highway ... this trip was around 20 mpg. No overheating this time, but RPM much higher than normal for the speed I was going. Took it to a dealer in Farmington, NM. Of course, they found nothing wrong ... shocker. Recent internet searches indicate that most dealers are servicing the CVTs at 30,000 mile intervals, even though the owners manual says 120,000 miles. Jeep knows something is definitely wrong here and won't do a thing. Nissan used the same CVT for some of its models and is happily doing whatever they can to make their customers happy ... Jeep, not so much.

Had the battery replaced. A week later, went to an animal rescue park. Walked around for a couple hours. Got in the car to leave and BOOM the transmission over heat light was on along with the ESC light. Could understand the ESC as there was rough terrain but there was no way the tranny could be overheated after sitting for 2 hours. Car would not shift from first gear.

Pulled over, turned it off. Wiggled the battery cables, looked everything over. Could not check the transmission fluid level as this is a sealed system. Cranked up and it was fine. Took it to a repair shop. No codes. They got to looking and a battery cable clamp was broken. They thought this could cause the car to do crazy things so they replaced it. Been fine for 2 weeks. Went to Walmart last night. Got home, put it in park and before I turned it off, the same lights came on again.

Decided to research this online and found that this is quite common yet Jeep/Chrysler has no plan to correct the issue. If this were to happen doing 70 down the interstate, my car would drop to about 30mph and you can't tell me that's not dangerous. I'm going to take it to the dealer so I can see what they have to say.

Of course my 5 year, 100,000 mile warranty on the power train expired 2 months ago, GO FIGURE, lol. It's almost paid for and when I pay it off, if this hasn't been resolved, it won't be a Jeep I buy next and I will plaster this issue on every social media site I can possible find. I'll post every single day if necessary to get the word back to Jeep that you can't let things like this go. As many complaints as I've seen, this should have been dealt with already.

Update from May 21, 2016: Well I went to the dealer yesterday. They hooked it up and said it had stored codes from where the computer lost communication with the transmission control. Their suggestion was to erase those codes and that should do it. This costs $95. Yep, just to hook it up and erase codes. $95. I told him that I had it checked with a diagnostic tool that had just been updated and it didn't show any codes current or stored. Anyway, I took it back to my friend and still no codes so he just ran it through a code erase routine and said maybe it they were there but not showing for him, that would erase them. So now I get to wait and see if it happens again. Fun huh? I am fortunate that it hasn't happened when I was driving yet. It's usually when I'm sitting still. I told the guy at the Jeep place that I knew it was a faulty code because usually there's no way the transmission could be hot, let alone overheating. He said it if it were true, the light would flash rather than just come on and stay on. I guess I'll take his word for it. lol

Time will tell if that fixed it or if I need to go see if the codes are still there and pay my hundred bucks to erase them. Of course, that might not fix it either but it's a step by step process I suppose.

Since I purchased the Jeep I been having trouble in the freeway when the weather is hot and been driving almost 2 hrs. The transmission temperature warning light came on. The Jeep automatically slowed down to a complete stop and I could hear a buzzing sound after I pulled to the side of the freeway. Last month, January 2015. was 7 times doing it. Started with 5000 miles and now have 50,000 miles.

The Jeep Dealer where I purchased my Jeep was aware of this issue and instructed me to drive to the nearest Jeep dealer if this ever happened again so that they could run diagnostics. However, by the time I found the nearest Jeep dealer, the light had gone away and the Jeep started running again fine. The Dealer could not do anything until they will find the problem.

I'm so tired of this situation. I bought a new car to drive safe and now I'm afraid to drive my Jeep for a long ways.