Stellantis announced a recall on Tuesday affecting 1,076,999 Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator vehicles, 787,887 Wranglers and 289,112 Gladiators spanning the 2021 through 2025 model years, for a fire risk tied to a single electrical connector in the electric hydraulic power steering pump.
The specific and alarming detail that is driving urgency around this recall is the one that the NHTSA's official notice leads with: the fire can occur when the vehicle is parked and the ignition is in the off position.
The car does not need to be running. The car does not need to be plugged in. It just needs to be sitting there, and under the right failure conditions, it can catch fire under the hood.
NHTSA is aware of 51 fires and one injury likely related to this defect. Stellantis's internal records as of May 2026 show 63 customer assistance records, 72 field reports and 12 additional service records, 35 of those field reports confirmed to have originated at the specific connector.
If you own a 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025 Jeep Wrangler or Gladiator, do not park it in a garage tonight. Park it outside, away from your house, away from other vehicles.
That is what NHTSA is telling you to do. The repair is free. The owner notification letters go out July 9. In the meantime, you park outside.
What's Failing In The Jeeps?
NHTSA recall 26V363 puts the blame on a connector in the electric hydraulic power steering pump, the component that provides power steering assist in these Wrangler and Gladiator models.
The connector between that pump and the vehicle's wiring harness has a specific manufacturing vulnerability: the parts were sometimes out of tolerance, meaning they required more force than designed to insert during assembly.
That excess force caused connector terminals to spread apart or prevented the electrical connector from fully seating. Stellantis also found instances where terminals could move out of position within the connector over time.
The result in either case is a loose electrical connection. A loose connection means increased electrical resistance.
Increased electrical resistance generates heat. The NHTSA documents describe the process plainly:
"In some circumstances, high resistance electrical activity may take place in the area of the EHPSP connection causing overheating of combustible materials."
Heat melts the connectors. The melted connectors expose combustible materials. The combustible materials catch fire.
What makes this failure mode particularly concerning is the off-state fire risk. Most vehicle fires are associated with the engine running, the fuel system being active or a high-voltage battery in a plug-in hybrid discharging abnormally.
The Wrangler and Gladiator fire risk here is happening in the wiring of a power steering component, a system that remains electrically active even when the vehicle is turned off, because the electric hydraulic power steering pump draws power independently of the ignition state in these models.
You park the car in your garage at night. You go inside. Sometime in the hours that follow, a connector in the power steering pump develops high resistance, generates heat and ignites combustible materials under your hood. Inside your garage. Connected to your house.
That is why NHTSA issued the park-outside advisory rather than simply saying bring it to a dealer when you get a chance.
How Long Has This Recall Been Building?
The recall announced Tuesday is the conclusion of an investigation that began more than three years ago.
Jeep first became aware of a potential issue in May 2023 when fires in Wrangler and Gladiator models started appearing in its internal records. Stellantis investigated those fires between May 2023 and April 2024, then closed the investigation, determining that the fires did not occur frequently enough to pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.
That conclusion did not hold. Additional incidents surfaced and the investigation was reopened in August 2024.
The NHTSA launched its own independent defect investigation in September 2024 covering the 2021-2023 model years specifically.
In early 2025, the manufacturing issue with the out-of-tolerance parts was identified. Testing and additional investigation continued through 2025 and into 2026.
By the time the recall was announced on June 9, NHTSA had confirmed 51 fires it considered likely related to the defect. Those 51 confirmed fires represent the fraction of incidents that generated enough documentation to be attributable to the specific failure mode.
The 35 field reports that Stellantis confirmed originated at the connector represent another data set. The 63 customer assistance records and 72 field reports represent the broader universe of complaints that may relate to the same issue.
One injury has been confirmed. The trajectory from no crashes and one injury to 51 confirmed fires is the specific data picture that moved the investigation from closed in 2024 to a recall of 1,076,999 vehicles in 2026.
What Owners Should Watch For Before Getting To The Dealer
The repair, an inspection of the power steering pump electrical connection and replacement of affected components as necessary, will be done at Jeep dealers at no cost to the owner. Owner notification letters go out by mail beginning July 9.
If you are a 2021-2025 Wrangler or Gladiator owner who wants to check your specific vehicle rather than wait for the letter, you can enter your VIN at NHTSA's official website.
The two specific warning signs that can precede a fire in the affected vehicles are a "Service Power Steering" warning notification on the dashboard and a loss of power steering assist, the steering wheel suddenly becoming much harder to turn.
Either of those symptoms in a 2021-2025 Wrangler or Gladiator should be treated as serious and the vehicle should be moved outside immediately and a dealer appointment made promptly.
Stellantis estimates that approximately 0.1 percent of the recalled vehicles actually have the defect, roughly 1,077 cars out of the 1,076,999 in the recall pool.
That low prevalence rate does not diminish the urgency of the park-outside advisory because a 0.1 percent defect rate across a million vehicles still represents approximately a thousand vehicles that could catch fire with no warning on any given night.
The recall covers five model years of the Wrangler and Gladiator. The vehicles are among the most popular and recognizable in Jeep's lineup, the Wrangler in particular has been the brand's core identity for decades.
More than a million of them built between 2021 and 2025 share the same vulnerable connector. The repair is free. The letter arrives in July. In the meantime, park outside.