Jeep Recalls 202,000 SUVs After Tire Pressure Warnings Go Silent

• Chrysler parent company Stellantis is recalling 201,976 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee L, Grand Cherokee PHEV, Wagoneer, Wagoneer L, Grand Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer L models because a software fault in the radio frequency hub can stop the tire pressure monitoring system from turning on its dashboard warning light.
• NHTSA opened the case as campaign 26V559, and the agency says the glitch violates Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 138, the rule that requires every new passenger vehicle to flag a tire running 25 percent or more below its recommended cold pressure.
• Dealers began receiving notification on September 9, 2026, owner letters go out between September 29 and October 21, 2026, and Jeep will reprogram the radio frequency hub module free of charge, with no parts replacement required.

A Silent Dashboard Could Leave Drivers Guessing on Tire Health

Owners of nearly 202,000 Jeep SUVs built in the last three model years now have a reason to watch their tires the old-fashioned way, with a gauge, because the dashboard light meant to do that job for them can fail to switch on. Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, has told federal regulators that a software defect in the vehicles’ radio frequency hub can prevent the tire pressure monitoring system from registering a significantly underinflated tire and from lighting the low-pressure telltale that drivers rely on to catch a problem before it becomes a blowout. The company plans to fix the issue with a free software update rather than a hardware swap, and the recall reached dealers on September 9, 2026, with owner letters mailing in stages through October 21.

The vehicles involved span the current Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee L, Grand Cherokee PHEV, Wagoneer, Wagoneer L, Grand Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer L lineups, model years 2024 through 2026, along with a small number of 2026 Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer L PHEV units caught up in overlapping production runs. NHTSA logged the case as recall campaign 26V559, and its recall report lists 201,976 vehicles total, broken out by nameplate: 113,647 Grand Cherokee units, 57,456 Grand Cherokee L units, 526 Grand Cherokee PHEV units, 16,456 Wagoneer units, 9,749 Wagoneer L units, 3,046 Grand Wagoneer units and 1,094 Grand Wagoneer L units, plus a handful of stragglers from other trims.

What Went Wrong Inside the Radio Frequency Hub

The part at the center of the recall is a radio frequency hub, a module supplied by Valeo North America that receives wireless signals from the pressure sensors mounted inside each wheel and passes that data along to the vehicle’s instrument cluster. Stellantis engineers found that a software error inside the hub can misread or drop those signals under certain conditions, so a tire that has lost enough air to trigger a warning under FMVSS 138 never gets flagged on the dash. The driver keeps driving with no visual or audible cue that a tire needs attention, which raises the odds of a blowout, a loss of control at highway speed, or accelerated tire wear that goes unnoticed until the tire fails outright.

Stellantis has not disclosed the software root cause line by line, but the fix is narrow: dealers will connect a diagnostic tool to the radio frequency hub and reprogram its firmware, restoring the module’s ability to interpret sensor signals and trip the warning light correctly. No wiring, sensors, or physical hardware need to be swapped, which is part of why the company expects the repair to take well under an hour per vehicle once a customer’s SUV is in the service bay.

Why Federal Law Requires a Working TPMS

Congress ordered automakers to build tire pressure monitoring into new vehicles after the Firestone tire failures and Ford Explorer rollovers of the late 1990s exposed how many crashes trace back to underinflated tires that drivers never noticed. The resulting rule, FMVSS 138, took full effect for the 2008 model year and requires every passenger car, light truck and multipurpose vehicle under 10,000 pounds to warn the driver within 20 minutes of driving above 31 mph whenever any tire, including a spare mounted for use, drops to 25 percent or more below the automaker’s recommended cold inflation pressure. The standard also sets performance and durability tests the sensors and warning system must pass before a vehicle can be certified for sale.

NHTSA treats a TPMS that silently fails as a safety defect rather than a mere convenience glitch, because the system exists specifically to catch problems a driver cannot see or feel until a tire is already dangerously low. Underinflated tires run hotter, wear unevenly, and take longer to stop, and federal crash data has long linked low tire pressure to a measurable share of highway blowouts and loss-of-control crashes. That history is why automakers, once they identify a TPMS defect internally, are required to notify NHTSA and open a recall rather than treat the fix as an optional service bulletin.

How This Recall Reached Regulators

Stellantis filed its report with NHTSA under the standard safety recall process that manufacturers use once internal testing, warranty data, or field reports point to a defect tied to federal safety standards. The company is not required to prove a crash or injury already happened; a defect that undermines a safety system’s stated function is enough to trigger the notification requirement under the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. Once NHTSA receives the report, it assigns a campaign number, in this case 26V559, publishes the affected VIN ranges, and tracks the manufacturer’s progress notifying dealers and owners.

Stellantis is instructing dealers to perform the reprogramming at no charge to owners, regardless of whether the vehicle is still under its original warranty. Customers who already paid out of pocket for a related repair before the recall was announced may be eligible for reimbursement, a standard provision NHTSA requires manufacturers to offer once a defect covering that repair is confirmed.

How To Check Your VIN and What To Do Now

Owners do not need to wait for a letter to find out whether their SUV is covered. NHTSA’s recall lookup tool at nhtsa.gov/recalls lets any driver type in their 17-character vehicle identification number, found on the lower left corner of the windshield or on the vehicle’s registration card, and get an immediate answer on whether an open recall applies. Jeep owners can also visit the Jeep brand’s official recall page and enter their VIN there, or call Stellantis customer care directly. For questions about the federal recall process itself, NHTSA’s vehicle safety hotline is 1-888-327-4236, staffed to answer questions about open campaigns and to take complaints about vehicles that show signs of a defect not yet under recall.

Owners in the affected VIN range should call their local Jeep dealer to schedule the software update once their notification letter arrives in late September or October, though most dealers will book an appointment immediately for anyone who confirms coverage through the VIN lookup rather than waiting on the mail. Because the defect affects the warning system rather than the tires themselves, Stellantis says vehicles remain safe to drive in the meantime, but the company and independent tire safety advocates recommend checking tire pressure manually with a gauge at least once a month, and before any long highway trip, until the recall repair is complete. Most owners’ manuals list the correct cold pressure on a sticker inside the driver’s door jamb, and that figure, not the number printed on the tire’s sidewall, is the one to use.

Drivers who notice a tire that looks low, feels soft in a corner, or has visibly uneven wear should treat that as reason enough to check pressure immediately rather than trust the dashboard light, since this is precisely the failure mode the recall addresses. Anyone who experiences a tire-related incident they believe is tied to a missed TPMS warning can file a complaint directly with NHTSA through its website, which both documents the case and feeds into the agency’s ongoing oversight of how thoroughly Stellantis completes the repair campaign.

A Pattern Stellantis Has Faced Before

This is not the first time a Jeep tire pressure system has drawn a federal recall. Stellantis and its predecessor Chrysler have issued TPMS-related campaigns in past years tied to sensor battery failures and software calibration errors on other Jeep and Ram models, and the broader industry sees TPMS recalls with some regularity as automakers push more of the system’s logic into shared electronic modules rather than standalone sensor circuits. The radio frequency hub at issue in campaign 26V559 handles more than tire data on these SUVs, which is one reason a single software error in that module can ripple into a recall covering seven different nameplates and three model years at once. Stellantis has not indicated that any other function of the hub is affected beyond the tire pressure warning, and the company says it is aware of no crashes or injuries linked to the defect so far.

Sources:

• NHTSA Recall Report 26V559
• autoevolution
• Carscoops
• Autoblog
• NHTSA Recalls Lookup
• NHTSA FMVSS 138