I own a 2024 Jeep Gladiator, and a few days ago, Carfax sent me an alert saying my truck is one of more than a million Jeeps that federal regulators now say can catch fire on their own, even when sitting in a driveway with the engine off. However, I already knew about it, as news reports were already breaking the story. So, I called Posner Jeep in Davenport, Florida, to schedule the repair, where I bought the Jeep in the first place. They never called back. It turns out that it is not a failure on the dealer’s part. There is no repair to schedule yet. The fix does not exist, and that single fact is the most important thing for any Wrangler or Gladiator owner to understand right now. You cannot get this fixed today. Tonight, you can move the truck out of the garage. Just like my wife and I did.
She does look pretty, though. I snapped some photos to share of this now-troubled vehicle.
2024 Jeep Gladiator in Davenport, Florida. Photo taken by Harry J. Kazianis.
2024 Jeep Gladiator in Davenport, Florida. Photo taken by Harry J. Kazianis.
Over 1 Million Jeep Wranglers And Gladiators Can Catch Fire Even When Parked And Turned Off. Regulators Say Don’t Park Them In The Garage
On June 9, 2026, Chrysler’s parent company, FCA US, the North American arm of Stellantis, announced a recall over a fire risk in the power steering system, and the official guidance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is blunt: park outside, away from your house and other vehicles, until the vehicle is repaired. The reason regulators are saying park outside rather than simply get it fixed is that the fix is not ready, and the fire can start while the truck sits unattended.
What The Recall Covers, And Whether Yours Is One
The recall covers 1,076,999 vehicles in the United States, split between 787,887 Wranglers and 289,112 Gladiators, all of them built at the Toledo, Ohio complex, across the 2021 through 2025 model years. Counting Canada, Mexico, and other markets, the global total comes to about 1.3 million. The federal campaign number is 26V363000, and Stellantis tracks it internally as recall 21D.
If you own one of these trucks, the fastest way to find out whether yours is specifically affected is to enter your VIN at NHTSA.gov, where these vehicles have been searchable under recall 26V363 since June 11, 2026, or at recalls.mopar.com. My 2024 Gladiator falls squarely inside the window, since the suspect Gladiators were built between August 2020 and December 2024. Worth knowing, though, is that being in the recalled population does not mean your individual truck has the defect, a point I will come back to, because it matters for how alarmed you should be.
Why You Park It Outside, Even Switched Off
The problem is a connector in the wiring for the electric-hydraulic power steering pump.
The connector was manufactured outside its intended tolerances, which meant it took more force than designed to seat at the factory, and that extra force could spread the terminals apart or keep the plug from fully connecting. A loose connection like that builds high electrical resistance, high resistance generates heat, and enough heat can melt the connector and ignite combustible material under the hood.
2024 Jeep Gladiator in Davenport, Florida. Photo taken by Harry J. Kazianis.
2024 Jeep Gladiator in Davenport, Florida. Photo taken by Harry J. Kazianis.
The detail that makes this recall different from a typical one is when the fire can happen.
The power steering pump in these Jeeps draws electrical power even when the vehicle is switched off, so the overheating can occur with the truck parked and the ignition in the Off position. That is the scenario regulators are worried about. You park in your attached garage at night, you go inside, and hours later, a connector under the hood overheats while the truck just sits there.
That is why the guidance is to keep it away from your house and anything else it could set alight, not just to get it serviced eventually.
There Is No Fix Yet, Which Is The Whole Point
What I ran into with the Posner Jeep here in Davenport, Florida, is built into how this recall works.
This is known as an advance-notice recall, meaning owners are being told the defect exists before the repair is ready, specifically so we can take the park-outside precaution immediately rather than waiting weeks for a remedy to be engineered.
FCA has said it is working to accelerate the fix and anticipates a solution no later than July, and that it will notify owners by first-class mail when repair services can actually be scheduled.
The sequence is two letters, not one. The first owner notification letters started going out around July 9, 2026, with mailings running through early August, and those letters explain the recall and the precautions. A second notice follows later, once the remedy reaches dealers, telling you to book the appointment. When that day comes, the repair is free, including an inspection of the power steering pump wiring and replacement of the harness and the pump, as necessary, at no cost, as required by federal law for safety recalls. Until then, calling the dealer gets you what it got me – no clear fix.
How Worried Should You Actually Be
Here is the part that should keep this in perspective. NHTSA is aware of 51 fires and one injury believed likely related to the defect, and no crashes. More to the point, Stellantis estimates that only about 0.1% of the recalled vehicles actually carry the problem. The recall is deliberately broad, sweeping in more than a million trucks out of caution, and the overwhelming majority of them will be completely fine.
The reason to follow the warning anyway is that the failure mode is fire; it can happen while the truck is unattended, and you cannot tell from the outside whether yours is in the unlucky fraction. Low odds against a serious consequence, with an easy precaution available, is a bet worth taking on the side of caution. Stellantis has also said that a loss of power steering assist or a “Service Power Steering” warning message is a strong sign that a particular vehicle actually has the issue, so if you get either, along with any burning smell, treat it as urgent and stop driving.
Why It Took Years To Get Here
The fair question is why a recall announced in 2026 traces back to fires the company had been looking into years earlier.
Stellantis began investigating power steering connector fires in these Jeeps in May 2023, then closed the investigation in April 2024, concluding that the fires were not occurring often enough to constitute an unreasonable safety risk.
After an uptick in reports, it reopened the inquiry in August 2024, and the following month, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened its own probe, PE24-024. From April 2025 into 2026, the company ran vehicle buybacks, part analysis, CT scans, X-rays, and bench testing. In April 2026, it was determined that a loose connection could cause a fire, and on May 28, 2026, a safety defect was formally determined to exist. The recall followed in June.
The numbers around it can look confusing, and it is worth being clear that they are not contradictory. The public figure is 51 fires that NHTSA considers likely related. Stellantis’s own records as of mid-May 2026 showed a larger universe of reports, 63 customer-assistance records, 72 field reports, and 12 other service records, with 35 of those field reports confirmed to have started at the connector.
That larger set is a different data set, the broad pool of complaints rather than the subset of confirmed fires, not evidence of a hidden higher count. Still, an investigation that was closed once for low frequency and then reopened and escalated into a million-plus-vehicle recall is the kind of timeline that deserves the scrutiny it is getting.
What To Do Right Now
Until the fix is ready, the steps are simple. Park the Jeep outside, away from your home, garage, and other vehicles. Check your VIN at NHTSA.gov under recall 26V363 or at recalls.mopar.com to confirm your status, and watch for a power steering warning light, a loss of steering assist, or a burning smell. When your second notice arrives, schedule the free repair. For questions, FCA customer care is at 1-800-853-1403; reference recall 21D. The NHTSA Vehicle Safety Hotline is available to owners at 888-327-4236.
As for my Gladiator, it is sitting outside until Jeep has something to install. That is all any of us can do at the moment, and given that the thing can apparently catch fire in a closed garage, it is worth the inconvenience.
About the Author: Harry J. Kazianis
Harry J. Kazianis (@Grecianformula) was the former Senior Director of National Security Affairs at the Center for the National Interest (CFTNI), a foreign policy think tank founded by Richard Nixon based in Washington, DC. Harry has over a decade of experience in think tanks and national security publishing. His ideas have been published in the NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many other outlets worldwide. He has held positions at CSIS, the Heritage Foundation, the University of Nottingham, and several other institutions related to national security research and studies. He is the former Executive Editor of the National Interest and the Diplomat. He holds a Master’s degree focusing on international affairs from Harvard University.
