2020 Jeep Cherokee Limited 4x4 "4wd overheated temporarily unavailable"

1186 Views 19 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Mark_, 2 mo ago

2020jeepcherokeelim

Discussion Starter · 4 mo ago

I just bought a used 2020 jeep cherokee 2 weeks ago. Was in the mountains last weekend and got stuck at the bottom of a moderately steep driveway covered in hard packed snow. I got the message "4wd overheated temporarily unavailable" every time I tried to get out. The rear wheels were not spinning at all. All temps normal. It was 10 F outside. I had no issues going up the driveway the previous two days on auto or snow mode. It took me over an hour to get out and had 6 guys push my car and used a ton of gravel to get traction. Got the same message about 10 times after turning the engine on/off Did I buy a lemon with broken 4wd?

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2020jeepcherokeelim

Discussion Starter · #8 · 4 mo ago

Flybynightcru said:
Sounds like the traction control was fighting you to me. That's about the only way to overheat the RDM enough to shut it down. I'm going to guess OP has an ADI equipped Cherokee with all season tires on as well. The next time you are having trouble getting up something, push the TC button and hold it for about 5 seconds until the little "skidding car" light flashes up on the EVIC screen. You would have probably crawled right up that driveway...😎

does turning the traction control off allow the rear wheels to spin in that situation? It was basically a FWD jeep with zero traction. I don't have snow tires on it yet but it has decent all season tires

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2020jeepcherokeelim

Discussion Starter · #12 · 4 mo ago

Flybynightcru said:
Snow is pretty much a non issue for our Cherokees when approaching the situation correctly. Here's a great little video to prove it. I've been up and down many trails like this, some even deeper, and never had an issue, in fact, I've tried to get stuck, but was unsuccessful like the guy in this video. I've never been stuck, or had to be winched or pulled out of any situation (knocking on wood) ever in my Trailhawk...😁😎

Edit to add-
I see he did get stuck at the end...LOL!!!😎

what tires do you have on in this video?

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2020jeepcherokeelim

Discussion Starter · #19 · 2 mo ago

OP here. I got a new set of tires because the dealer said the original issue was due to mismatched tire treads. Now i have Falken Wildpeak AT Trails but I had the same “4wd overheated, temporarily unavailable” message last night when trying to drive up a moderately steep driveway with packed snow. I couldn’t make it up. I tried turning traction control on/off, but the back wheels still would not kick in and i got the message almost immediately after the front wheels started spinning out. Any suggestions? Is this jeep just defective? Thanks.

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