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Weird electrical gremlins

W

winkosmosis

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Maui, Hawaii
I'm having 3 simultaneous electrical problems and I'm starting to wonder if they could be related. What do you guys think??

1. Sometimes the alarm remote doesn't unlock unless I first press the lock button. I've had this problem for months.

2. Brake lights don't work. Stopped at Sears as soon as someone told me and they said it was the brake light switch, but I don't know how they figured that out. For all I know it could be some other gremlins. I bought a new switch but haven't put it in yet.

3. My neighbor just came and told me my interior lights are on. I went to unlock with the remote and it didn't work. Could be coincidence, or it could be related to the interior light being stuck... Anyway, the dome light and cargo area light won't turn off. The doors are definitely closed. One of the switches could be bad but again, maybe it's those gremlins.


Anyone know if these problems could be related?
 
Possible, but I'd look separately first. Year of Jeep would help.

Brake light switch is pretty easy to check, and might not even be broken, but loose our out of adjustment. It's mounted near the top of the pedal arm. Check for a blown fuse too.

My 99 has the same problem with the remote, intermittently. It locks more easily than unlocks, and from a greater distance, and often will unlock after you've hit the lock button to wake it up. When I bought it the owner noted this, and it's never gotten any worse. Seems actually to have improved a bit. I think it's just the nature of the beast.

For interior lights, it could be a short anywhere in the wiring to door switches or the switches themselves, assuming that the lights haven't been left on by a fault in the headlight switch. If you have a switch in the cargo light, make sure it's not defective, shorted out or melted.

I suppose the interior lights and remote could be related, since the remote unlock also turns on the interior lights, which should go off again with a timer, but I'd look for separate issues first.
 
Check grounds/door switches for light...
X2 on the brake issue...
I too have a 99 and it has the same remote issues, nothing wrong there...
 
Matthew Currie said:
Possible, but I'd look separately first. Year of Jeep would help.

Brake light switch is pretty easy to check, and might not even be broken, but loose our out of adjustment. It's mounted near the top of the pedal arm. Check for a blown fuse too.

My 99 has the same problem with the remote, intermittently. It locks more easily than unlocks, and from a greater distance, and often will unlock after you've hit the lock button to wake it up. When I bought it the owner noted this, and it's never gotten any worse. Seems actually to have improved a bit. I think it's just the nature of the beast.

For interior lights, it could be a short anywhere in the wiring to door switches or the switches themselves, assuming that the lights haven't been left on by a fault in the headlight switch. If you have a switch in the cargo light, make sure it's not defective, shorted out or melted.

I suppose the interior lights and remote could be related, since the remote unlock also turns on the interior lights, which should go off again with a timer, but I'd look for separate issues first.
Click to expand...


It's a 1999. I thought that was in my sig but apparently my sig disappeared.

I felt the brake light switch and it does reach the end of its travel pretty soon after you push down the brake pedal. No looseness.
The first thing I did was check the manual and no fuse was listed for the brake lights.
 
winkosmosis said:
It's a 1999. I thought that was in my sig but apparently my sig disappeared.

I felt the brake light switch and it does reach the end of its travel pretty soon after you push down the brake pedal. No looseness.
The first thing I did was check the manual and no fuse was listed for the brake lights.
Click to expand...
check fuse 23 in the power distribution center (under hood).

Because the brake light switch serves the cruise control it has a bunch of leads on it. The actual light switch portion is on terminals 5 and 6, which should close when you hit the brake. The wire from the PDC, which should be hot with ignition on, is pink/dark blue, and the lead to the lights is white/tan, according to the service manual. You should be able to test the circuit itself by unplugging the switch and bridging those terminals, or by putting an ohmmeter to the terminals on the switch when it's disconnected. If the brake lights go on when you short the terminals, or if the ohmmeter reads open when the switch plunger is out, you have a bad switch. If you don't have +12 volts at the hot lead, then you have a bad fuse or other problem upstream, and if you have 12 volts and a good switch you have a problem downstream.
 
I replaced the brake light switch and it works fine, so no gremlins there.

Turns out the dome light issue was simple... I had left my hatch open for the whole day, and one of my neighbors (I live on a lot with 4 units) closed it down but didn't slam it hard enough. I didn't even remember opening it in the first place
 
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