On a long drive Friday, the compass heading on the dash display was obviously very wrong ... almost the opposite of my actual heading, it seemed.

Has anybody else had this problem? Any possible explanations?

 

You have to re-calibrate it. There are other threads here explaining it.

 

mine acted crazy before , then again the whole dashboard lights , computer system acts crazy all the time , reflashing the computer repeatedly at the dealership seems to be the norm for jeeps

 

I recalibrate mine now and then by going to the compass display, hold in the button for a good 10 seconds until is says VAL or something like that and blinks and then CAL... then you drive in a circle one or two times and it'll switch back to the compass display.

Should be all set.

 

You also have to set the correct compass variance number (VAR), the procedure is in the manual. The default setting is 8, which is approx. Michigan through Florida. Set it for your area and it works much better