Been having intermittent problems with interior lights all on, some on, some off, all off. There is a headlight off delay to allow you to presumably find your garage or house door that stopped working. Then, woke up one morning to find the battery dead as a doornail. Used our computerized battery checker which said battery was OK, recharged it back up. Tester also confirmed alternator OK as well. That evening we looked out our window to find that the interior courtesy lights and door panel courtesy lights were on. Thus the draw on the battery causing it to be dead by morning. Had to remove both the courtesy light fuse and the courtesy light relay to turn them off. However, the door panel courtesy lights were still on and nothing in our dealer manual to indicate where the fuse was for same so removed the bulbs.
We went to an automotive electrical repair shop and they spent a whole day testing and tracing back every wire but could find nothing. They said they would dig further for more info and asked us to return later with the vehicle. In the meantime, I just thought I would go online the see what I could find.
I was shocked and dismayed to find out just how many consumers have had and are having ongoing, unresolved issues with electrical gremlins in all of the Jeep models from XJ's to Sports to Laredos to Cherokees. Many different issues but with the common denominators of faulty switches or relays or BCM's etc. It seems to affect many years including 1993 to 2004 and, perhaps even later models. Many, if not most, of the issues are never resolved. CNET calls it the "famous jeep grand cherokee electrical problem" although these problems exist in many Jeep models. On justanswer.com, a Jeep dealer employee has a lengthy troubleshooting discussion with a most tenacious consumer about changing the brains of the electrical system known as the BCM which is the root cause of many of the problems. This Jeep employee walks the consumer through putting in a new BCM and when it also experiences problems, tells the consumer that he has seen instances of having to order as many as 3 BCM's before getting one that works.
It is appalling to me that what is most certainly an inherent defect in the design of the Jeep electrical system has been allowed to exist over such a period of time without being subject to either a recall by Chrysler/Jeep or a class action lawsuit of some description. The consumer should be getting this defect rectified by the Jeep dealership at no charge since it obviously a flawed design that may even have caused accidents with injury or death as headlights can flicker or go off, interior lights come on without warning, door locks and power windows stop working, dash lights dim, flicker or go off completely, door ajar and seat belt warning signals don't go off and, I'm sure, there are other results I haven't seen or heard of. Makes a person a little nervous to even drive their own vehicle. Surely, the manufacturer should have to rectify this situation.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Been having intermittent problems with interior lights all on, some on, some off, all off. There is a headlight off delay to allow you to presumably find your garage or house door that stopped working. Then, woke up one morning to find the battery dead as a doornail. Used our computerized battery checker which said battery was OK, recharged it back up. Tester also confirmed alternator OK as well. That evening we looked out our window to find that the interior courtesy lights and door panel courtesy lights were on. Thus the draw on the battery causing it to be dead by morning. Had to remove both the courtesy light fuse and the courtesy light relay to turn them off. However, the door panel courtesy lights were still on and nothing in our dealer manual to indicate where the fuse was for same so removed the bulbs.
We went to an automotive electrical repair shop and they spent a whole day testing and tracing back every wire but could find nothing. They said they would dig further for more info and asked us to return later with the vehicle. In the meantime, I just thought I would go online the see what I could find.
I was shocked and dismayed to find out just how many consumers have had and are having ongoing, unresolved issues with electrical gremlins in all of the Jeep models from XJ's to Sports to Laredos to Cherokees. Many different issues but with the common denominators of faulty switches or relays or BCM's etc. It seems to affect many years including 1993 to 2004 and, perhaps even later models. Many, if not most, of the issues are never resolved. CNET calls it the "famous jeep grand cherokee electrical problem" although these problems exist in many Jeep models. On justanswer.com, a Jeep dealer employee has a lengthy troubleshooting discussion with a most tenacious consumer about changing the brains of the electrical system known as the BCM which is the root cause of many of the problems. This Jeep employee walks the consumer through putting in a new BCM and when it also experiences problems, tells the consumer that he has seen instances of having to order as many as 3 BCM's before getting one that works.
It is appalling to me that what is most certainly an inherent defect in the design of the Jeep electrical system has been allowed to exist over such a period of time without being subject to either a recall by Chrysler/Jeep or a class action lawsuit of some description. The consumer should be getting this defect rectified by the Jeep dealership at no charge since it obviously a flawed design that may even have caused accidents with injury or death as headlights can flicker or go off, interior lights come on without warning, door locks and power windows stop working, dash lights dim, flicker or go off completely, door ajar and seat belt warning signals don't go off and, I'm sure, there are other results I haven't seen or heard of. Makes a person a little nervous to even drive their own vehicle. Surely, the manufacturer should have to rectify this situation.
- rhondask, Moose Jaw, SK, canada