Calling all wiring Guru's (98 XJ Door Locks)!!!

Well this has now become a PITA, and Im hoping to resolve it. My Uncle and I worked on this for a couple hours and no luck. My door locks (electric on drivers side) stopped working some time ago. Everything else works except the door locks, well the windows can be tempermental at time to where only the driver can control them. We checked both passenger and driver's side solenoids, switch boxes, and drivers side wiring harness, and they are all good. We traced the wires from the drivers side solenoid which are red/blk and orange/blk to the male female connectors under the kick panel. What I need to know is what happens to them after that, color wise, etc. All this was done with a professional multimeter, and tried using a Haynes Manual wiring diagrams but they...well...suck! We checked all the fuses under the passenger side kick panel, and the fuse box under the hood. The multimeter said that the fuse wasn't getting an power, just a spike to the needed 12V when turning the the key to the spot right before ignition. The wire actually giving power in that plugs into the box of switched on the drivers side is not recieving any power, but everything else is. We checked to hot plate under the fuse box, made it so the spade connector was actually holding and touching the fuse, since it appeared to be not, but still nothing. There is a red/grn wire coming into the fuse, but I wasn't able to trace it back. There What else could be causing this, any ideas, input. ANy help is welcome, as i hate electrical sh*t. If anyone has any FSM's of the wiring, please send me some of the schematics as the page Ryan tried giving in the sticky up top no longer works. Thanks.

I can see if I have a FSM for that year or close to it, but it would help to know exactly what switches DON'T work and which ones DO. Check them out at all two/four doors, so we can isolate the failing circuit.

Haynes manuals are best for evening out that odd leg on the workbench, or as a target for throwing axes (I stopped using them as a reference years ago, unless I had no choice.)

Even if I don't have an FSM, I can probably find something (I'm thinking of opening up a Jeep Reading Room sometime - use old seats mounted to old wheels for reaching chairs, and allow smoking and/or drinking...) around here to use for a lookout.

Dumb question - but the wiring in the door is still original, right? The tracers aren't any dead lock, it's easy enough to get tracered wire (with up to three tracers) if you know where to look.

I've seen switches in the door panel going bad - but it doesn't hurt to make sure. Those switches are usually expected to handle quite a bit of current - the windows are typically good for 30A, and the lock solenoids can be up to about 20A for feeding.

Anyhow - check the switches all around, and we'll get back to it. It'll be helpful to know how the problem is localized (is it one window that isn't working with all switches, or one switch that isn't working with all windows, or one switch/window not working...)

5-90

I was just about to start a new thread, when I saw this one. I am having a very similar problem on my 96 country. It all started a long time ago when I locked my keys in the car at school (long story, and a very bad day). The campus police showed up. Four of them with four slimjims. They each took a door and tried like hell to get it open. Thats where my troubles started. The door locks began messing up. Only the passenger side would work. That went on for several years, and I lived with it. Then one day, my passenger front window went down and wouldnt come back up. We tried everything, but nothing would work to get it back up. I had to go outta town, so my parents took it by the dealership (yeah, I cried when i found out) while I was gone to get the window up/fixed. Turns out to be a bad wiring harness. No surprise there, after the beating I am sure the wires took from the door commandos... So they fixed it, and charged my parents $10 for the wiring harness and $575 for labor. Ouch. It lasted for about a month, then the passenger rear wouldnt go up or down. They wouldnt warranty their work either. Then the door locks stopped working (keyless entry still works). Then sometime later, when you opened the driver side door, the speaker stopped working until you closed the door. So I was living with that too. This last week I had to go outta town again, so I left my jeep at my house for my wife. She didnt move it or get in it at all, and then when I got in it to go to work, the passenger front window wont work from either switch unless the driver door is open and in a certain position, the pass rear window wont work at all, the door locks wont work at all except for keyless entry, and the driver door speaker stopped working completely. So I dont know what to do now. Do I get a driver door harness (if they make one) and replace it, or what? I was gonna wait until I heard some suggestions before breaking down the door. I did remove the rubber boot around the wires from the door to the body, but everything is wrapped tightly and I didnt see any broken or exposed wires. Thanks in advance.

sometimes I want to light the electrical engineers on fire. you know the ones who designed the xj wiring, my windows and doorlocks dont work. Ive finally had it and am cutting my doors in half for the summer. I know Ill regret it come fall.

interested in this topic as well. Noticed the other day I was the only one who could control the windows. My buddy sitting right next to me couldn't. Got to the store and went to crack them and all of a sudden he could control them again. Then the other day I went to roll the passenger window up from that control and it wouldn't work. Tried the back windows from their controls on the back doors and still wouldn't work, yet the "master control" from my door still did.

Gremlins trying to take over my jeep?

I ran through something similar a while back on my 2000; the door locks and power windows were intermittent on the rear. What was odd was that the rear windows would work fine from the driver's side switch console, but not the switches in the doors themselves. The door locks were noticed to be inoperative when the windows were also on the fritz. The problem turned out to be wiring at the switch console. Pulled the plugs on the back of it, gave everything a good cleaning, now it all works fine.

Oh, one other thing: if you can get the locks working again, you'll need to cycle them a couple of times to get them all in sync. Basically, manually set all of them to the unlocked position then hit the door lock button. Check each one to make sure it locked; for any that didn't, set them to the locked position and try unlocking them. Repeat the lock-and-check cycle until they're all synced. Oh, and also try the doors (including the key locks) from outside while this is going on.