— Jeep Compass high coolant temperature problems have caused a federal investigation into why 2019-2020 Jeep Compass SUVs lose power as drivers see "high coolant temperature" or "coolant temperature too high" warning messages.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 15 complaints from Jeep Compass owners regarding the high coolant temperature warnings.
NHTSA says in most incidents, the high coolant temperature or coolant temperature too high dashboard messages suddenly disappear or were temporarily corrected after the vehicles were stopped and restarted.
"Since I purchased my Jeep Compass Trailhawk in February 2019, sporadically a message appears on the dashboard display about 'High Coolant Temperature' and immediately sends the vehicle to shut down and after a couple of seconds the error disappears and the temperature returns to normal. I must clarify that at no time does the vehicle overheat." — 2019 Jeep Compass owner
The Jeep Compass owner said the high coolant temperature problem occurred at any time and several times a week, then could go weeks without occurring.
The customer said the Compass suddenly lost power when the temperature warning appeared, and the incidents caused about 10 to 15 trips to mechanics.
"In each occasion the technical team has tried to solve the problem without success, they even replaced a control module, installed updates, ran the scanner, and made long driving tests trying to recreate the condition that causes the error without succeeding."
NHTSA will use this preliminary evaluation to examine the cause and safety consequences of the high coolant temperature warning messages and vehicle shutdown issues.
According to Fiat Chrysler, about 229,000 model year 2019-2020 Jeep Compass SUVs are involved in the investigation.