Stranded on vacation with my family in Lake Tahoe. Jeep ran
Fine up till tonight. On our way to dinner and noticed a red dot
Light on above the oil temp gauge. Ate dinner and went to leave
And nothing. Checked battery....good. Rocked jeep back and forth
To see if it was a gear/neutral safety switch....nope. AAA said starter
Not getting signal. Security/anti theft issue? Can't be without
A vehicle on our family vacation so any help is appreciated

 

Yep, pretty sure that red light on the coolant temp gauge is the engine immobilizer indicator on the '12s (it is on earlier build JKs anyway). If the light is on & your Jeep won't start then it means the security system has immobilized the motor. On models without an alarm it will go on if a key is used to start the Jeep that doesn't have a correctly-coded chip in it; did you drop your keys in the water or do anything else that may have affected the chip inside?.

With the factory alarm option fitted, I'm not exactly sure what additional circumstances cause the vehicle to be immobilised apart from the obvious (break in while the security system is armed, activating the alarm). If you do have an alarm, you can try switching it on & off a few times. Also, try disconnecting the negative lead to the battery for 15-30 minutes, as this method is used to reset the PCM and clear other electrical gremlins so it may work for this as well; worth a try anyway. Hope things work out for you!

 

I agree... Disconnect battery for 30 min and retry. Hopefully, it will clear the "glitch".

 

Thanks guys. Finally found the light in the manual. "vehicle security indicator"
There is no factory alarm. Maybe there was something in the casinos that erased the micro chip? Damn those slot machines. Took my money and immobilized my jeep.
I will try disconnecting battery tomorrow as it's 12 dg out here tonight.
Really appreciate your help

 

Sorry for the obvious question, but you don't have a spare key with you that you could try, do you?

Also, you mention it is really cold there at the moment. You said your battery is fine, but even a good battery's performance can be affected by very cold weather. In addition, the JK's computer-controlled electrical system is notoriously sensitive to even a tiny voltage drop (often causing the horn to beep and wipers to operate all by themselves) so if your battery is good but not 100% brand-new good, the cold weather may have caused just enough voltage drop for the computer to go nuts and do wierd stuff. Certainly try the disconnect trick though & hopefully all will come good.

 

Not sure it's the same, but on my KJ when the security system immobilized the Jeep, there was a procedure you had to do to gain access again. I think it involved closing all the doors, and locking/unlocking the drivers door with the original key. This would "convince" the Jeep that you were the owner and it would allow you to start the engine again. Good luck.

 

X2. This is the logical place to start

 

Yes do this but you can turn the key to the on position and hook the neg back up and it will reset. Horn will honk. When you hook up showing a reset.

 

I thought the same thing but the AAA guy brought a battery booster and nothing. The imobilizer light is on so it all points to this. Battery is currently disconnected and waiting for 30 min. I pray this works as my wife did not bring "her" set of keys so i dont have a spare. The nearest dealer is in Reno which is about 1.5 hrs away. I assume if this does not work a rental car will be provided?

 

Did it work?