• Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Headlight/marker light/turn signal malfunction

luvherinmyjeep32

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Pennsyltucky
Alright people get ready for this one. I hope some one can guide me in the right direction to getting my lights working because right now I'm about to rewire all the jeeps lights.

89 XJ Limited, 4.0L, AW4...yada yada

So about a month ago I pulled out the headlight switch and the lights didn't turn on for a second or two. Delayed action. This happened randomly a few times after the first time.

One time the light's didn't turn on, I drove about 5 minutes and parked the jeep for a few hours, when I came back out, all was fine.

About a week ago I went to drive to work and I lost all lights except for the break lights. No turn signal, headlights, or marker lights.

When I parked the jeep and played with the lights, I pulled out the headlight switch and the front marker lights came on (not the rear), the fog light switch illuminated like it was on (but the switch was not on, nor were the fog lights), and the high beam and both turn signal lights lit up solid and stayed on until I hit the fog light switch, with the key in the off position and the headlight switch "in". Talk about bizarre.

Further inspection showed the marker light fuse was blow and if I replace it and turn pull out the headlight switch it melts. It does not pop. It melts the plastic. This occurs with different brands of 10 amp fuses so...?

Also the turn signal fuse is popped and when I replace it, with the key off, the radio comes on. When I replace it with the key on, the turn signals work until I turn off the jeep and the fuse pops.

CRAZY!

First thing I did was change the headlight switch. No difference.

Next thing was to unplug the trailer wiring harness. I have LED tail lights I made and they are wired off of the trailer wiring harness, and I pulled the regular tail light wiring into the back quarter panels of the jeep and left it sit there with the only the turn signal bulbs in so the resistance of the turn signal circuits wouldn't be screwed up by the LEDs. That made no difference and I checked the wiring of the old tail lights and nothing appears screwed up.

Also I swapped on a wagoneer cherokee front clip with the dual headlights, but the wiring used the same main connector under the hood, so that should not be an issue.

The jeep has the delayed light turn off feature from the factory, so I suspect this could be an issue.

Next thing I'm considering is the turn signal switch, but I might just say the hell with it and make my own light wiring harness with switches mounted on top of the dash or something.
 
I'm not real familiar with the older XJ's but you might want to look at the grounds for the lighting expecially under the dash. I would also look at the wiring where it passes thru the firewall. I seem to recall that the older XJ's have issues with the connector.
 
I'm familiar with the connector issue you speak of but I don't think mine was one of those models, I thought it was on even older of 4 cyl models or something, but I could be wrong.

The body is in decent shape, with little rust, so I would be mildly surprised to find out this is a ground issue, but anything is possible. Jeeps never stop surprising you.
 
Back
Top