If you’ve owned any Chrysler product from the 1990s, you’ve probably dealt with all sorts of electrical gremlins. Phantom battery drain? Check. Alternator overcharging the battery? Seen it. Ignition switch completely caput? Of course. But I just had a friend send me an electrical gremlin so bizarre, I had to ask him twice whether it was actually real or if he was pulling my leg. But it’s real; and it’s absurd.
Electrical issues have been a huge problem for 1990s-era Jeeps especially, which is why I myself have always preferred Jeeps equipped with manual windows, manual locks, manual side mirrors, and a manual transmission. Back in 2016 when I bought a 1995 Jeep XJ for $600, I found out what happens when you buy a rusty old junker of a Jeep with automatic windows/doors/mirrors/transmission.
It’s bad:
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At one point, I had reverse lights that were constantly on and taillights that didn’t work. So you know what I did to solve that? I took the reverse light bulbs out of the reverse light sockets and…simply put them into the taillight sockets. Problem solved!
Of course, now I didn’t have reverse lights, but taillights are more important and I’ve daily-driven cars that predated reverse lights and it was just fine.
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I also had to use a screwdriver to start the car (see above) and none of the power windows worked — it was honestly a nightmare, which is why I’ve been staying away from well-equipped 1990s Jeeps for a while now.
But as bad as my Jeep electrical gremlins have been, never before have I seen something like this:
What you’re seeing is my friend Hannah — whose Jeep’s cylinder head I replaced back in 2016 — simply closing her 1997 Jeep Cherokee XJ’s door, and as soon as the door hits the dome light off-switch the rear wiper washer turns on, spewing methanol-based fluid all over the ground:
What the?
Hannah’s partner Pat sent me an email explaining the situation.
Hannah gave me a ride to her apartment and when she went to shut her car door, there was a sudden noise of dripping water. She opened it again, thinking she’d bumped the rear windshield sprayer on the center console and it had decided to work for the first time in a decade. The sprayer stopped, thinking the issue was resolved, she shut the door again. Sprayer turns on again.At this point, I’m at the rear of the Jeep and she’s opening the door, messing with the switch and closing it again. It’s at this point we realize it’s tied to the door being open or closed. I come over to the driver’s side and press the dome light switch in the door jam. Sprayer goes off. Release it and it turns back on. Ah ha!We start messing with the dome light switch and notice it fades and the Sprayer pump noise changes when you toggle through the modes. Hannah needs to head inside to take care of some things, so I could continue troubleshooting, now targeting the fuse box. I found this cool interactive diagram: https://www.startmycar.com/jeep/cherokee/ info/fusebox/1997# anchorfusebox1 I pull the sprayer fuse – still spraying. Then I pull the wiper fuse – nothing. Lastly I pull the dome light fuse – no effect. Sprayer and dome lights are still working. OK, something is seriously crossed. At this point, the windshield fluid reservoir is empty and the pump is running dry. I unplug the battery and we go to dinner. This is a ‘tomorrow problem’.The next day Hannah takes my truck and I continue troubleshooting. My goal is to unplug the rear washer pump. No signs of damage to any wiring under the hood or near the pump. The pump for the rear is very forward in the vehicle. After struggling for a bit, I decide that its function won’t be missed (especially as it has been defunct for a decade). I cut the cable and seal every thing back up.Rear sprayer is retired in place and the dome lights still work!
A rear wiper and washer system is an available option on this model. The rear wiper system is a fixed-cycle wiper system. A single switch in the instrument panel center bezel controls both the rear wiper and washer functions. The rear washer system shares the reservoir of the windshield washer system, but has its own dedicated wash er pump and plumbing. The rear wiper and washer system s will operate only when the ignition switch is in tthe Accessory or On positions. A fuse in the junction block protects the circuitry of both the rear wiper and washer systems…[…]The single two-function rear wiper and washer switch is in stalled near the bottom of the instrument panel center bezel below the heater-A/C controls. The rear wiper and washer switch controls the rear wiper and washer functions. The toggle-type switch features a detent in the On position, and a momentary wash position. The rear wiper and washer switch also has an integral illumination lamp with a serviceable bulb. The switch knob is pushed down to its detent to activate the rear wiper system, and down again to the momentary position to activate the rear washer system. Both the rear wiper and rear washer motors will operate continuously for as long as the switch is held in the momentary Wash position. The rear wiper and washer switch cannot be repaired and, if faulty or damaged, the entire switch unit must be replaced[
Grounding issues. Thus the groundng block I installed on the front wall of my ’67 VW squareback with wires going to each dash instrument which previously relied on tangs properly grounding to the backside of the dash which weren’t work well when I bought the car in ’78.
Back in the day my mom bought an ’02 Durango, if you flip the electric lock switches back and forth repeatedly to tease your little brother the engine will start and run until you touch another control, then it shuts off. No key in the ignition, no remote start module, no aftermarket anything, just a strange quirk.
First step in my experience with a Cherokee is to establish ground-path. Verify that the firewall-to-engine head strap is still there and in decent shape. I have seen several different weird issues in these mitigated by just re-establishing ground for various sections of the vehicle.
I think it was the common neutral-safety switch problem that led me to this: replaced switch, still no go. Once I got everything grounded, she was g2g. Also can fix that one dim headlight issue.
just my .2 cents (inflation)
Similar to my Fiero; accelerate hard and shift from second to third and the wipers go off…
It’s like the Bob Hope joke about how his neighbor got a pacemaker, and now every time his neighbors have sex their garage door starts opening and closing.
Cue the Blues Brothers: “Electrical issues have been a huge problem for 1990s-era Jeeps especially, which is why I myself have always preferred Jeeps equipped with cop manual windows, cop manual locks, cop manual side mirrors, and a cop manual transmission.”
Something is wrong with that rear wiper switch diagram. In the off position the pump switch shows sending power to directly to ground which would cause the fuse to pop anytime the wiper wasn’t in the on position.
There is a video game called Pacific Drive that centers around a station wagon in a supernatural zone in Washington. In it, the wagon can develop “quirks” like a door opening when you turn on the wipers or the headlights turning off when you turn.
This would fit right into Pacific Drive.
Do they have a painless wiring for jeep engines? Rest of the car already needs a hotrod wiring kit to replace all the factory corrosion pretending to be wires.
You found its J-spot.
Electricity is one step removed from magic.
Magic being more reliable in this case.
There’s likely multiple shorts in the rear hatch harness at the hinge where it’s subject to bending.
This is a unique one. I’ve put up with quite a few electrical gremlins over the years, and even successfully diagnosed a number of them. My two favorites (neither of which I fixed) were in the ’68 Coupe deVille I drove in high school. The first was when the auto-dimming headlights would malfunction. Sometimes it actually worked, which I was amazed by, but sometimes the lights would go into “strobe” mode and just continuously go from bright to dim and back again until I shut the headlights completely off and turned them back on again. I’m sure any oncoming drivers loved this.
The other was completely bizarre – when I’d hit the horn, sometimes it would work, sometimes nothing would happen, and sometimes the fuel-light would come on and the gauge (which normally worked okay) would spike over to the full mark. It was weirdly random.
The car also had finicky window switches and an electrical drain related to the driver’s seat switch. All of this was related to the previous owners leaving the windows down during a massive rainstorm and then not attending to the soaked interior immediately afterwards. Of course, if that hadn’t happened, I would never have been able to afford the car in the first place.
A. What Hannah’s partner is calling the “dome light switch in the door jamb” is actually referred to as the “LF door jamb switch” in the service manual. You can find that switch and related circuits on pages 8W-44-5 and 8W-44-6.
B. When the door is closed, the LF door jamb switch contacts are open and the M2 circuit (yellow wire) is NOT grounded.
C. The factory manual shows that the rear washer pump is continuously grounded by the Z1 circuit (BK wire) and the pump is controlled by voltage applied to the V20 (BK/WT) circuit when the rear washer switch is turned on.
D. A possible cause is an unintended connection between the M2 circuit and the V20 circuit.
I wonder which “dome lamp fuse” was being pulled during diagnosis. Was it fuse 16 in the PDC?
On my 77 Pontiac, if the lighter fuse blew from using it to light too many bottle rockets in succession, the dome light would come on at about half brightness. The light would go out if you opened the door or pressed the horn button (but the horn would not make any sound).
I fear it may be one of the few XJs that, due to a misunderstanding, were fitted with the wiring loom from a very different XJ. Despite the best efforts of electrical engineers from Lotus, Alfa Romeo and Lucas, the Jaguar XJ 12 wiring never really worked in a Jeep.
“It’s all copper and insulation, how hard can it be?”
I mean, it says these run through the junction block. That’s where I’d start.
The don’t say if the key is in the ignition and what position the ignition switch is when they get the rear sprayer to operate. Per the service manual, the rear sprayer should only work in RUN or ACCESSORY Positions, otherwise, Fuse 22 shouldn’t be powered.
If Fuse 22 is powered, even still, the rear wiper switch needs to be in the momentary SPRAY position for the sprayer pump to run.
I would disconnect connector 5 from the rear wiper switch assembly and see if the problem persists, if it does, then something is allowing the rear sprayer pump to be powered, If not, perhaps there is issue in the rear wiper/sprayer switch. Maybe closing door jostles the switch enough to run the pump, but the circuit shouldn’t be powered if the ignition is the RUN or ACCESSORY positions.,,,,
I wonder how the feed to rear wiper/washer switch illuminating bulb is powered… if there is power to that bulb and there is an interment internal short in the rear wiper switch between the bulb circuit and the pump motor, it would explain the correlation between the dome light and rear washer pump.
The whole thing is moot because the dude cut the wires to the pump. We may never know the true fault.
God damn do I hate electrical problems with project cars.
It’s always a grounding issue.
too true
It’s like IT where it’s always DNS
Agreed, but when it isn’t, it’s firewall. In a sense, that’s not much different, but I still manage to screw up both equally well.
remind me of Tammy Faye Bakker. I can only assume its the Holy Spirit running through the XJ.
It’s ok, Hannah. Most people don’t even know that three out of every ten Jeeps suffers from door-related incontinence. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. When a Jeep reaches a certain age, sometimes it just can’t hold its washer fluid anymore. We can offer a few simple solutions to help your Jeep feel “regular” again. Yep, with the style of a rear-mounted tire, but scientifically honed absorbency, Depends XJ ™ will let your Jeep lead an active lifestyle without those embarrassing tailgate stains. After all, your Jeep belongs on the trail with its friends, not hiding in the garage trying to explain a puddle.
I nominate this for COTD.
It’s crying because it still has that Jalopnik sticker on there. It’ll be happy once it gets a shiny new Autopian one!
I’m not completely incompetent when it comes to repairing cars and motorcycles. I have done more than the average person in their 50s. Yet I still consider electricity to be mostly magic.
For anyone who says otherwise, I suggest this video that attempts to describe how electricity doesn’t flow through conductors. Or this follow-up.
It amuses me that the sticker from the old site was blurred in the topshot but not in the subsequent items.
Remove the sticker and I’ll bet everything starts working. 😀
Back alley Herbectomy?