So did you notice anything out of the ordinary when it showed up?

 

Nope. Ran fine, no other weird icons or performance issues, but just not sure if I should be concerned. Because, well, on another note today I had trouble with my interior dash lighting switch and also the icons that show my headlights and foglights being on were not on even though my lights were in fact on. lol

so not sure if this may be an electrical issue I need to address or not.

 

Same problem, and the fog lights are connected to the fault somehow. Both fog lights work normally when the fog lights are engaged. However, when the autostart error light came on, the drivers side fog light remains on, in all switch settings.

 

i had the auto start/stop warning yesterday too. didn't effect anything, but it was the first cold day since i got my car, maybe that was the reason? My old car would randomly say the All Wheel Drive system is off, but was never a big enough issue to look into. Restart the car and its fine. Same with this situation with the auto on/off warning. probably no big deal. (side note, i wish it were just off all the time with the option to turn it on, instead of the other way around)

 

I can't find anything in the manual that indicates its ok or normal for that error icon to light up randomly. I would take it in to the dealer if it were mine.

 

I had this happen once but I think my purse was resting on the button when I started the car. Next time I started the car the light was off and hasn't come on since. Update. It has done it 1 other time when remote starting. Resets at shut off.

 

My dealer has a 3 week waiting period for service. No bueno. It is set up for service next week though so we'll see what happens.

 

Omg u don't live in upstate ny do u??

 

That is actually normal and not an issue. If it extremely cold or hot and the heat and ac are going full blast or if the battery is in charging mode it will not engage the stop/start feature, I believe that is just telling you its not activating.

 

No, the warning icon in the DIC is in fact a fault indicator. It popped up once on mine and when I went to the screen that shows it's current status, it had a service the system message on the screen. It went away on the next cycle, and hasn't returned since. It was hovering around zero when it did this, and we have another reinforcing blast of cold nasty on the way that will push us below zero.

 

Personally, I don,t think the auto/stop feature saves an ounce of gas. And there should be a way to turn it off permanently.

 

And there should be a way to turn it off permanently.

wink: Get a Euro spec. Compass ....

 

I think that auto stop/start is a joke,should be hard on starters!

 

Just bought a new trailhawk for my kid. It's super cold here, I test drove 5 different compasses out of those 5, 3 of them had the stop/start warning light. I'm not surprised to see it show up IRL. One sales guy tried to tell me that it was normal and that just meant it was too cold for it to turn on. Another told me they were waiting on Jeep to get back to them but they believed it was an issue with the battery and the cold..

 

I will add. I have had two really weird stop/start issues.

First is within a week of getting the car, on two trips with the car when it started post stop it would bring up a warning of a break in attempt. Haven't seen it since (2.5 weeks later) but it's been too cold outside for start stop for a week till this Monday.

The second was this morning. So when the engine isn't warm enough, the outside is too cold, or if not cycling heat from the engine is going to change cabin temps too long, then it won't start stop. Those do no bring up the icon for the start stop, especially one with an exclamation. So this morning I saw the icon as I was heading to a red light. Brought up the start/stop in the dash, it said it wasn't running and needed service. Since I was at a red light I powered off my car and restarted it. No exclamation, engine temp wasn't high enough at the time, but I had a couple stops on my way to work and it worked fine at that point.

I think both are just bugs in the software. Miss reading simple instructions like "Car just started from start stop = Break in attempted" or "Start stop not ready because of X = Start stop not working". If I see it come up again in situations where it would eventually work (Engine temp up, above 20F, and cabin temp stable) if it will pop out of the error and start working.

 

My trailhawk has had the warning with the exclamation mark for about a week now every time it is started. I was waiting until it got warmer, our temperatures are back in the 30's, to see if it went away but it is still on. I have an appointment to get it looked at on Friday. I will update everyone afterwards.

 

Just an update, my auto start/stop is working correctly after the error code was cleared. Dealership said everything looked good with the second battery other than the random code that it wasn’t charging correctly. Hopefully it was related to the cold and doesn’t return.

 

Going on 2 or 3 days so far with no issues since they replaced the Aux battery a second time in ours. Granted, it hasn't been very cold so anxious to see if it remains problem-free with the next cold snap.

 

If you want to disable your stop start thing for good. There is a little black post on the right side facing the hood. Remove that and your jeep will think the hood is open and the auto start / stop will disable.

 

Haha, yeah but the remote start will also be disabled..

 

You can disable it in my sister's 2015 Cherokee permamently in the Uconnect menu. From what I've read they removed that ability in subsequent years. Now they're in the same boat as us. Annoying.

 

The dealer told us that all new cars starting in 2018 will have to have the stop/start. At least we can shut it off (when I remember).

 

That,s just it,,, Remembering to push the button EVERY time you start the engine.

 

maybe you can see,http://dashboardsymbols.com/2012/10/startstop-system-trouble-indicators/

 

I have had my compass 5 days now and 2 days ago I got the stop start icon with an exclamation point also. I checked the error message screen and it said the stop start system needed service. I started the car with the remote start feature. The next red light I put the car in park and restarted it. The icon cleared the I.P. and the error message disappeared from the stored message screen also. It was extremely cold here. It was about 3 degrees at the time. I am assuming it is because of the extreme cold weather. Hopefully I won't see this message again.

 

I can guarantee it is not JUST cold weather doing it. I have never seen the warning and in the few weeks I have had it I can guarantee the vast majority of the time it had been started it has been below 0. The other day I started it and it was -18.. No warning...

 

Agreed, it's not isolated to temperature, though I'm sure it does factor in to a degree (temperature pun hah!). Ours came on an hour into a journey one day and it was close to 50 degrees. Other days it came on right away when the car was cold and it was near 0 degrees. There's no consistency.

My car's going back to the dealer tonight, this time I'm armed with a Jeep Case Manager. Highly recommend others with this issue get a Case Manager too - the more people making noise about this, the better.

 

For those of you having trouble with the auto start/stop, It has nothing to do with the outdoor temp. It operates only if the engine reaches a certain temp.

 

Read the thread closer it's not that it is not enabled and working, you are correct that a bunch of things that will stop it from turning off the engine. None of those things will pop the error bulb on. This is what everyone is complaining about.. a lot of them including several I test drove have the warning light on.

 

ok so i got my car back, apologies that it took this long but alot of people are mentioning it has to do with temperature and such.

not at all. it was an actual fault indicator, and what the dealer did was they had to replace the battery. not the normal battery, but apparently there is a second auxiliary battery which was bad that they had to replace.

it has happened one other time since getting it back but since my dealer is jam packed with appointments im going to keep checking on it a bit more before i schedule another service.

 

This is how my issues started. It's not the ESS system - it's also not the Aux battery (they tried replacing mine twice). Here's my sequence of events for reference:

1. "ESS Unavailable Please Service" Light came on an hour into a highway drive. This was a Friday. Called and scheduled a dealer appointment for Wednesday since everything else seemed fine. By Monday this went away, but soon evolved to a full Check Engine light with every error known to man. As soon as this happened the power steering stopped working while my wife was driving. Dropped it at the dealer that night.

Dealer tested, said it was the Aux battery. Tried recharging it, that didn't solve it. Tried replacing it. Seemed fine.

2. Two days later, ESS light came back on, along with Check Engine again. Take it back into the dealer. They reach out to FCA. FCA goes radio silent on them for 2 business days before coming back "Oh yeah, we totally forgot there was a bad batch of Aux batteries. Try another one". So they put another one in.

3. We get the car back, take it on a 300 mile round trip journey. A day after that trip, the "ESS Unavailable Please Service" light comes back on. I take it to the dealer on my lunch break. A mile away from them, the whole Christmas tree of lights turn on the dash (Check Engine, Traction Control On, Traction Control Off - you name it). Power steering cuts out, 4WD cuts out. I pull it into the drop-off bay at the dealer, try to turn the car off but it won't initially. I finally get the engine to shut off but the dash still says it's on. Power door locks stop working. Car also wouldn't restart for the dealer to move it. Basically went full nuclear meltdown (and actually great timing!).

4. At that point I got a Case Manager with FCA (highly recommend you do this as well). Higher level engineers work with the dealer. They think they tracked it down to a faulty ABS module, which apparently other systems are connected to. They tried updating the software, that didn't work. They tried replacing it, that didn't work. They've been having issues just moving it around their shop, let alone test driving.

At this point it's been escalated further. Case Manager said FCA now knows of at least 3 other Compasses with the same issues. They're still not sure what's up, but their strongest theories right now are pinched wire, faulty ground, bad circuit board, or defective software (that's the scariest one). Whenever any one of those things is a factor, cars will do crazy, seemingly unrelated things. Hence what we're all seeing.

Call up Jeep. Get a case manager. They will pay for a rental since it's warranty work so don't settle for 2WD loaners from the dealer. This is serious stuff - potentially bordering on recall territory.

 

2018 Compass Trailhawk owner here. I have also gotten the "Service Stop Start System" error message on my DIC along with the warning light. Has happened on 2 separate occasions so far and I have had it less than a month. Both times so far have been in sub zero temps while remote starting it but the temp wouldn't cause a service warning light to pop on. I tried explaining this to my dealer's service department multiple times and finally today they actually listened to what I have to say. It is scheduled to go in Saturday to get checked out. Will update with what they have to say.

 

After having mine for a month, I got the A warning light as well. ( Only maybe 20% of the time.) Dealer said it was a door latch sensor. They ordered the new part. Told me if it shows up and I want to use the system in the meantime to just try and open and shut the door again. Lol

 

2018 Trailhawk, Same issue

I purchased my 2018 Compass Trailhawk on the 17th of February. The next day took it on a drive through town (50 degree day, btw), and stopped at a store. When I got back using the passive entry, it said something about a break-in attempt, but there was no one else in the lot to have tried. I used the fob to unlock and re-lock the car, and it wouldn't start by the push button. I tried locking the car via the fob again sitting inside, and then unlocking it, and again started the car. This was re-tried 2-3 times before the car started. Upon starting the (A!) Stop/Start message appeared as well. I drove it home, and parked it, being late on a Sunday my dealer was closed. The error cleared the next morning, and my dealer seemed to think it had something to do with the length I'd pressed the ignition button, but had no explanation for the error, but if it cleared, it shouldn't be an issue.

I had no further issues until this morning, when I Auto-started my car, because it was 20 or just under out. When I went to get in, the (A!) symbol was back again when I pressed the button to turn on the car from auto-start mode. I turned off the car, waited a few moments, and started it again. The error was still present, but the car operated normally. I then drove across town (7-10 miles) to work, parked, and turned off the car. I waited a few moments and attempted to start it again. All of my electronics turned on, but the engine didn't even click. I "turned off" the car, and tried again to manually start the car, and got the same results. After turning it off again, I got out, locked it, and attempted the Auto-start feature. The car acted normal, flashing the lights and honking the horn once, but it never started.

I got my dealer to give me a tow, and comparable 'loaner' while I wait, but I'm not feeling very good about my prospects for reliability reading others trouble with similar issues...