really weird lighting problems

CBB311 · Nov 7, 2008

i have an 89 xj and i am stumped. first of all, all my lights work fine when my headlights are off. but when i turn my headlights on, my brake lights dont work (my tail lamps however do) and my front turn signal doesnt blink on the pass. side. any thoughts? my flashers are brand new and all of my bulbs are fine. is there a relay somewhere? thanks in advance

tommyr · Nov 7, 2008

This is probably going to be a bad ground somewhere. Bad grounds do strange things.

I would start by unplugging the headlights from the harness and cleaning the prongs on the headlights, then maybe stick a small emery board into each of the headlight connections on the harness and cleaning them up a little. If that doesn't work, try doing the same to the rest of the lights.....

Could take you quite a while to track it down, but you have to start somewhere....
HTH.

scottmcneal · Nov 7, 2008

Check an clean all your grounds.. My 89 was being a pain in the rear till i went thru all grounds... I even added some .. 5-90 sells a nice set of high end ground cables..

CBB311 · Nov 7, 2008

how many are there and where are the grounds on the 4.0? i know there are a couple am i right?

wim hoppenbrouwers · Nov 7, 2008

CBB311 said:
how many are there and where are the grounds on the 4.0? i know there are a couple am i right?

Hallo Jeeper,
There are 3 big ones. 1 from battery- to engineblock. 1 from battery- to chassis.
1 from battery- to fireboard.
But there are many small ones and these are also very important.
Next by the ECU,On the front crossmember, under the dash,behind the plastic sidewalls in the front and in the back. haha search and you will find them.:conceited

p.s. don't forget the headlightswitch and all the fuses and the battery contacts.
Check the wires under the carpet.

wim hoppenbrouwers · Nov 7, 2008

wim hoppenbrouwers said:
Hallo Jeeper,
There are 3 big ones. 1 from battery- to engineblock. 1 from battery- to chassis.
1 from headbolt/engineblock to fireboard.
But there are many small ones and these are also very important.
Next by the ECU,On the front crossmember, under the dash,behind the plastic sidewalls in the front and in the back. haha search and you will find them.:conceited

p.s. don't forget the headlightswitch and all the fuses and the battery contacts.
Check the wires under the carpet.

And use jumpwires to find the trubbles.

really weird lighting problems

CBB311

NAXJA Forum User

tommyr

NAXJA Forum User

scottmcneal

NAXJA Forum User

CBB311

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wim hoppenbrouwers

NAXJA Forum User

wim hoppenbrouwers

NAXJA Forum User

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