Can someone tell me what this plug is for?

Here's the deal. I was putting in some new speakers to replace the stock crappy ones and i noticed this plug was unplugged. So i plugged it back in and buttoned everything up. I then went to drive home and i had no parking lamps, tail lights or dash lights so i checked the fuses. The fust for my parking lamp/ instrument cluster had a 25 amp fuse in it and it only requires a 10 amp. I then pulled the fuse to see it was blown. I then pulled the panel back off the lift gate and unplugged it. put a 10 amp fuse back in and everything worked fine again. I put the plug back together and i blew the fuse again. so i unplugged it and left it unplugged. i put a 10 amp fuse back in and everything is fine again.


now let me try to explain the exact location of the plug. it is on the inside of the liftgate on the drivers side above the speaker. it has 2 blue wires coming in the female part and 1 black wire coming into the male part.

now to explain the jeep

its an 88 limited 4.0 4x4 and the rear wiper, defrost and backup lights dont work. as far as the defrost goes i think it might just be a switch because i dont get the little amber light to turn on when pressed. as far as the rear wiper goes i have no clue yet i just haven't looked into it yet.

i'm not sure what it is, but i did the same thing ended up with a dui because it kept blowing fuses and didn't know it. i took it to a garage and it cost $400 in labor to find out why i was blowing fuses and my running lights wouldn't work(headlights still worked). they never told me what it was for, but told me it shouldn't have been plugged in. third brake light maybe?

92tahoexj said:

i'm not sure what it is, but i did the same thing ended up with a dui because it kept blowing fuses and didn't know it. i took it to a garage and it cost $400 in labor to find out why i was blowing fuses and my running lights wouldn't work(headlights still worked). they never told me what it was for, but told me it shouldn't have been plugged in. third brake light maybe?

Click to expand...

it doesn't have one and i dont think they came with a 3rd brake light till 91 when the went non renix.


btw my headlight also worked

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say that there were probably other contributing factors to your DUI that had nothing to do with your vehicles lighting.

wolfpackjeeper said:

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say that there were probably other contributing factors to your DUI that had nothing to do with your vehicles lighting.

Click to expand...

lol:roflmao: :eyes:

Ho damn. Thats the plug for the flux capacitor. Didn't ya know?

Actually, I have absolutley no clue. Plug it in and see what works?

85xj4dr said:

Ho damn. Thats the plug for the flux capacitor. Didn't ya know?

Actually, I have absolutley no clue. Plug it in and see what works?

Click to expand...

i tried that and it blew the fuse perfectly

Hmm.... That would lead me to beleive that theres no load on that circut, but there is current flowiing.... AKA short.

Does anything not work when you un plug this?

Edit: I should read more. The backup light may be the sensor in the trans, or somewhere in the wiring for the backup lights - no reason to be on the hatch.

Wiper - No clue. Motor could be bad. Have someone hit the switch while you hold a volt meter to the connector. if you have power, motors bad. If you don't, it may be a fuse, or the switch, or a wire that was cut.

Defroster - mine doesn't work either. -shrug-

not that i know of

I have the same connecter on my 85... I think its something thats just not there. Black is usually negitive, blue is... ah who the hell knows.

delete

Can't tell you what the connector is for, but can maybe shed some light on the 25A fuse in place of the 10.

- U-Haul instructs XJ owners to replace the 10A fuse with a 15A fuse to handle the extra load of their trailer lights. -

don't remember which fuse exactly, but I remember looking for it on my 97 and not finding it- maybe on older models-

anyway, my thoughts would be that someone wired up a trailer at some point in time, kept blowing that fuse, put in a bigger one, fried the wires instead of the fuse, add in a decade of exposure to the elements, and now you have a short to ground.

good luck

-B

delete

wolfpackjeeper said:

I am gonna go out on a limb here and say that there were probably other contributing factors to your DUI that had nothing to do with your vehicles lighting.

Click to expand...

got pulled over because i had no running lights, just headlights. the chp then asked me if i had been drinking. it was 4th of july and the opened bottle kinda tipped him off.

well, at least you were driving when you got one, my boss go one while he was changing a tire for someone else

Seeing as that wire is black and the hatch is fiberglass----its a ground wire for some option you dont have.

Wayne

92tahoexj said:

got pulled over because i had no running lights, just headlights. the chp then asked me if i had been drinking. it was 4th of july and the opened bottle kinda tipped him off.

Click to expand...

You are just a regular brain aren't you?:doh:

the trailer extra load could very well be why i had a higher fuse in there hadn't thought of that. However my Jeep doesn't have a hitch on it now. Mabye i should also mention that i've only owned it for about 2-3 weeks and when i crawled onto the passenger floor to look at the fuse box i found 2 more 25 amp fuses on the floor already blown. So even though we havent come to an exact conclusion as to what it is or does, is it ok to just leave it unplugged?

thanks for all the input fellas

I have the same wire / plug /socket combo (same colors also) on my 89 I6 5-Sp
I could not find the wire color combo in my All data wiring for the rear of the XJ.

Like a dumb ass, I too plugged them together, and they wires got HOT FAST! I unplugged them with no discernable positive or negative effects.

They remain unknown and unused.