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need help with electrical gremlins

M

mitsumotors

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Winnipeg
here is the deal, my 91 xj is draining the battery if i let it sit for more than a couple days without starting it. i've narrowed it down to something on the "dome" fuse under the dash. its drawing .21amps and i cheched the current draw on my buddies 91 xj and he gets exactly .21amps draw when he opens a door, then when he closes it it continues to draw the same amount of current for like thirty seconds or so then drops to zero. i figured that it must be some kind of time delay for the interior lights? although he doesn't have any bulbs in his interior lights. and i don't either because if i stick a bulb in one of my interior light it goes on immediately, and pushing the button, or the door switch, or turning the headlight switch doesn't help, its always on. so i figure that there must be some kind of timer module for the interior lights and it must require .21amps to work, and it must be broken and staying on all the time which would explain why my interior lights are on all the time. so my question is this...... has anyone else every heard of one of these modules and where is it? or am i way off here?

thanks:wave1:
 
Ok, looked up the interior light circuit in the 1990 FSM, so what I found may not be applicable to your 1991.

First, let me ask you this: As you say you have no interior light bulbs, is it possible that the light switch has been turned so that the interior light circuit is hot all the time? Don't mean to offend, just needed to ask.

Second, are you sure all the interior light bulbs are out, including the glove box light?

Third, the chime module is tied into the interior light circuit, it is located above the fuse block (on my 90), around the clutch/brake pedal. Try locating yours and unplugging it.

Fourth, I didn't see any "delay" module in the interior light circuit, and I am A**uming that function is provided by the chime module.
 
The interior lights in my 87 would draw the battery down. Drove me nuts, I triple checked every door switch and the glove box. It turned out to be a splice under the drivers side carpet, that was shorting to ground. The interior lights are constant power and the door switch is the ground.
Also have a look at your cargo light, I've seen a few different configurations depending on the trim level and year of your XJ. Some configurations will turn on all the interior lights and they won't go out until you turn off the cargo light switch.
The cargo light switch in my 88 was stuck on, it turned out my hatch switch was a globe of rust and corrosion
 
checked headlight dimmer.
there is no rear hatch switch.
the glove box has a new bulb in it but doesn't work for some reason?
i'll have to check into that chime module. sounds like it could be a possibility.

thanks for all the response, and if anyone else has ideas please share.
 
Do you have a manually operated rear dome light? If you do, check to make sure the switch is not on.
 
sounds like a short somewhere, particularly on the ground side. i would go thru and start disconnecting bulbs, connectors, etc while watching your meter. look for a change, disconnect, reconnect it and move on.
 
mitsumotors said:
checked headlight dimmer.
there is no rear hatch switch.
the glove box has a new bulb in it but doesn't work for some reason?
i'll have to check into that chime module. sounds like it could be a possibility.

thanks for all the response, and if anyone else has ideas please share.
Click to expand...

I may be wrong, but I believe most all the Renix have a hatch switch (most die an early and painless death). It's been many years since I messed with it, my memory may be playing tricks on me, but it is near the inner part of the latch assembly behind the hatch inner panel.
 
i have unplugged the radio, it didn't change anything. i find it kinda strange the interior lights stay on all the time if i put a bulb in them. not all of them though, in the overhead console there are two front lights and two over the rear seats. the ones over the rear seats have no bulbs but if i put a bulb in them they stay on, even if i push the button, i checked the headlight knob and the door switches and neither one of them turn those lights off.
 
From a purely electrical standpoint, if you have no bulbs (or if none light up) there should be no electrical draw, even if the switches are all on.. So the "check for bulbs" route seems pointless to me. In my XJ the dome light was always on (so I took it out). My light was always on because my drivers side door sagged a bit and the drivers side door open switch never pushed in enough to actually turn off the lights.

If you have no lights on and you have traced it to that circuit, it's most likely a short.. You could always hard wire your stereo, :D
 
IIRC, my rear cargo light turns on when you push in the lens. A switch inside clicks on and off. You could always pop the light down out of the headliner and unplug it from the wire harness to make sure.
 
i did unplug the harness, still the same draw. i unplugged the whole front overhead console too. but if there is a short in the wiring before it gets to that point i guess that wouldn't help.
 
Could the problem be in the light switch itself? That controls interior lights too, and I wonder if a cooked switch could cause a current drain.

I think you can unplug the whole light switch if you can reach the back of it. Perhaps you should try that and see if the current drain stops. If nothing else you could then determine whether the problem is up or down stream from that.
 
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