I seem to have a nasty electrical gremlin in my 97 TJ Sport. I was headed to the bank when I noticed that when I hit my brakes my odometer would go out. Also when I turned on my turn signal it would blink very fast and the odometer would also blink very fast. The odometer would also go out when I would put my jeep in reverse. I checked all of the fuses and all of the bulbs and they are all good. I had a person at the bank look at my tail lights and they said they were not coming on at all. I looked at them and they do come on but very dimly. Also when I turn on my turn signal they will both flash, but again very dimly. They only thing I have done to the jeep lately that has anything to do with the lights is installing some tail light guards. I pulled them off in the parking lot to see if I had pinched or clipped a wire or something but they are all intact and not showing any bare wire. The strange thing is that after I put everything back together it seems to be working now. The other strange thing is that now with them "working" the driver side brake light is brighter than the passenger side. Any help getting to the bottom of this would be really helpful. This is my daily driver and I don't want to be driving around with no brake lights or turn signals.
"Dangerous" electrical issue
- Thread starter Cyanide
- Start date
bobcat481
New member
Sounds like a ground thing to me. When weird stuff happens, and especially in different places at once, it's normally a ground. Start at your battery, then you engine block, then the firewall, grill, tub, and so on cleaning the grounds as you go. If you find an especially loose or corroded one, that is probably your culprit. BUT, on the other hand, I don't know TJ very well. It could possiblly be something wacking with a computer or something. You might be best to wait until someone else has some thoughts before you start chasing the worng thing. I don't want to send you on a wild goose chase for a fix that may be common and easy with the TJ's. Later
Do your dash lights work? Look at the tail light sockets for corrosion.
Another thought is that it's common to see the plugs that go into the the instrument cluster age causing intermittent problems. Most people say that smacking the cluster will make it start working. If that helps then clean your cluster's connection with some electrical contact cleaner then put some dielectric grease on the female sockets and reassemble.
Another thought is that it's common to see the plugs that go into the the instrument cluster age causing intermittent problems. Most people say that smacking the cluster will make it start working. If that helps then clean your cluster's connection with some electrical contact cleaner then put some dielectric grease on the female sockets and reassemble.
Well it was a ground issue..... The jeep used to live in chicago so I am still finding rust in places I would not think I would find it. Damn salt on the roads lol. Turns out that the bolt holes for the tail lights had so much rust in them that it was preventing a good ground connection. I sat there staring at it for a while trying to think of the best way to clean it out. Then I went and grabbed my gun cleaning kit and put the .22 bore brush in a drill and went to town lol. Good news is I now have a good solid ground connection and the bad news is now I need a new .22 bore brush lol.
That's alot cheaper than a $700 instrument cluster. Good work.
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