The Famous Jeep Grand Cherokee Electrical Problem

my problem is my computer or command center in the dash right in front of the transmission shifter, that shows that a door is open or how many miles till my next service works fine.But every time i turn my jeep off i have to recent it.I've checked the fuse it was fine can someone please tell me how to fix this problem

just had one of these. the wiring on the A connector (black) had a broken pin in it. worked intermittently. just a thought

So the issue I had was pretty much the same.Replaced the battery and it would start fine etc for about a week then dead. Today I got lucky and realized that if I pulled the red positive cable towards the front of the car it would all come back to life and start as normal. I believe I just need to replace the cable, the pair are intertwined with other connections right next to the right headlight. I believe the 90 degree turns are putting too much stress on the cable and connections. It will eventually go back to dead again Im sure, but at least now I know where the issue is at.

look for an obvious shorted or worn wire rubbing against mettal... good luck

My air conditioning, power windows and locks had stopped working abruptly in my 99 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The temperature gauge on the overhead console just displayed lines. I inspected the wires running from the drivers side door to the body and the black wire was broken. It was an electrical problem that my mechanic thought a dealership would be better able to diagnose and repair. The dealership took about an hour to tell be my BCM was bad and it would cost $900 to replace. Apparently this is a very common problem in older Jeeps, especially models previous to 2000. One solution I found was to simply unplug the battery - plugging it back in would reset the BCM. I did this and my air conditioning came back, keep in mind the black wire was still broken. I called the dealership and told them what happened, he said that my BCM is still bad but if I want to take it back in so they can look at it again I could. I asked if the broken wire could be the reason that the windows are not working, he said No, it's the BCM. I went back to my mechanic and had them mend the wire. My windows and locks came back immediately, my air conditioning is fine.

So basically the wire needed to be mended and the BCM needed to be reset which just required me to unplug the battery and plug it back in.

I do not think that it was anyone's intention to miss-diagnose my vehicle, but maybe someone could have been more thorough? Maybe they should have known that this was a common problem among Jeeps and that one very easy solution was to reset the BCM/battery? Maybe they should have mended the wire and reset the BCM? The thought that I would have paid $1000 to fix something on my vehicle that was not broken is nauseating. The thought that there are probably a TON of people that have replaced their BCM's and may have been able to avoid it is crazy.

it was a crunk sensor. my mechanic just changed it and it works fine now

I Have a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee...

It has about 127000 miles on it and has been a pain in my side since I got it about 6 years ago. Inital problems were that the battery would drain if it sat without being driven for 3 or 4 days... but then the problems got worse.

I now have issues with stalling (I can be sitting at a light and it will turn off, and I can be going 50mph and it will stall);
Other issues it will back fire on me;
It has already blown the muffler once;
Before stalling it will jump in RPMs to about the 3,000 or 4,000 mark and then it mill fall dramaticly jump up and down at about 500 - 100 rpm and then fail;
I at one point just decided to keep the thing from having battery issues I would disconnect the calbe every night. It worked, but it was also a pain to do every day.

I've taken it in to about 3 different shops all of them charged me about 200-300 dollars in labor and it is till having issues. I've changed the spark plugs myself, replaced the computer, replaced the ABS system, changed the catalitic converter, changed the O2 censor, and there is no helping it. Right now the check engin light is on, and I'm taking it to the mechanic yet another time to see if they can play guess and check. no issues with the lights... at one point my car told me my back lights were out which they were not. It no longer tells me that though. There is a lot of feed back in my speakers as well. I also notice it has alot more issue with stalling in wet weather and then battery draining occures more frequently in winter.

I'll let you know if they find the problem...

As a last resort before deciding to dump thousands into this issue, I thought I might try the google search thing to see if I might find some help solving the problem?

For the last 90 days on my 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee, I've had no AC, windows would not roll down, over head lamps would not come on, and the over head temp/computer was not working. I took it to a mechaninc to examine. He checked the fuses under the hood and under the steering column. Nothing. Played with some wires and again nothing. This estimate came back with very little certainty. Who knows how long and if they'll find the problem?

Today, after reading several posts, I disconnected the battery for 30 minutes. After re-connecting the battery and starting the Jeep, WALLLLLAAAAA! It worked! AC nice and cold, windows are rolling down, and the temp. gauge and computer are working! Now we'll just keep our fingers crossed!

i had similar problem. when the dash goes haywire, it's like when the car starts-up. ie. when the car starts, it uses the battery. and as soon as it cranks over, it switches to alternator power. during this process all the electricals (lights, breaks, blinkers etc...) start up, and the dash does like a test of everything. it turns on all the dash indicator lights. if it's all ok, it turns the dash lights off. like your haywire lightshow, but in reverse.
this means that the alternator, while driving, doesn't put out the power the car is drawing up. if you tested the alternetor, and its ok, the there must be a short somewhere (corroded blinker sockets, inadecuate/loose ground wire, loose battery terminals etc.) these faults can cause the battery to die. also everytime the altenator quits, all the power the car needs, is sucked from the battery. for a brief moment, then switches back to the alternator. as if you re-start the car while driving. these few seconds of re-diverting haywire, gives the battery a heavy workout.

in conclusion: check all connections, fittings, terminals, bulbs, wires (inc. spark plug leads) for any imperfections and replace.
my problem was with my spark plug leads and a sulfated blinker light socket. the leads weren't good quality. and weren't insulating enough. it was arcing outside the enginge. and a loose battery terminal. i got a set of MSD extra thick silicon spark leads and NKG spark plugs. heavy duty battery terminals. and replaced the entire blinker wire and socket, for good measure.

i hope this helps.
regards,
chefaustra.

My JGC 2002 would start and cut off, gauges was acting haywire, and the car would not run on idle. The first thing I did was change the battery, but that did not solve the problem even though the old baterrt was bad. The next thing I did was clean the battery cable. I took them out the terminals and clean them with a steel brush. I noticed a significant amount of rust and corrosion fall out the cables while I was cleaning them. After I did that my JGC started right up. I recommned you to start of by checking your battery then clean your wires and terminals.

Hello everyone.
I'm posting very far from you (from Europe) and I do have the same problems that everyone as stated here.

I do have a 1999 JGC Quadra Drive 3.1 VM Diesel Engine with 234000km with some of the synthoms described here.
- Gauges do not work, go to zero
- Odometer does not count mileage
- No AC
- No Electric Windows
- Never Stalled the engine
- P1687 and P1686 are the errors stated on Odometer

Normally I do hear a "click" noise on passenger side before this happens.

Normally I do solve this problem by cutting off the battery for one night and in the morning everything works perfectly.

I'm on the mood to solve this problem as I like the car as it is safe and confortable.

I was thinking to take the car to a dealer but after viewing some posts here I think I'll have to quit this idea and try to solve it at an independent shop.
My idea is that if I take the car to a dealer it will solve the problem for the moment, charge me a lot of money and I'll have to return in a near future for the same problem but another cause. One problem, hundreds of causes, so hundreds of possibilities to charge me money. "This time is another thing, not the same last time..." that's what I'll hear from dealer.

I want to sell the car but not as it is and I'll not sell it before I solve the problem in a permanent way.

But if this problem just irritate me there's another problem that scarrys me as it's putting my family's life in danger... So here's where I really need help, to see if this already happened to someone:

On a bumpy tarmac road if the front wheels hit a hole or a small bump on the road the steering starts to shake A LOT, you can't turn the stering as it is too heavy, all car is shakes itself, you hear a lot of noise coming from the front wheels. You'll have to reduce to below 60 km/h for it stops and than you carry on your journey. Tyres are new, tracking is fine, no sign of mechanical damage. May think this might be an electronic problem that upsets the car on irregular roads. It used to happen once in a while but is frequently to happen now.

Would like to know if this happened to someone and some ideas to share.

Thank you.
Nuno - Portugal

Hi...friends

You just go to your nearest service center and check it by car expert....Then car expert will replaced the required parts...and EVERYTHING WAS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!

I had this problem a year or so ago and researched it extensively. I found that there was a wire beginning to break in the tube that connects the driver's door to the body. The wire is black and a thicker gauge than most of the wires in there. It's a pain to access the tube and once I did couldn't figure out how to get it back into position. However, I completely broke the wire, stripped the ends and reconnected them with the screw on cone shaped wire connectors you can buy at home depot. This fixes all of the problems immediately. I had all of the interior lights staying on, the instrument panel was going haywire, the overhead info panel was dead and the doors wouldn't lock or unlock. It cost 30 cents to fix. One way to check if this is YOUR problem s to open and close the door to see if this seems to help the problems. I found that if the door was open 50% of the time everything worked. That narrowed it down really quickly. Hope this helps. Good luck!!

I have a 96 Limited 4.0, with 160K. Turcks been sitting for about 8 months. I started it once a month, no problem. Pulled it into the driveway to get it back on the road. Shut if off, went back to start it...will not start. Low fuel light comes on and it has a half tank of gas in it. The fuel guage does not come up. Its getting no spark from the coil. Replaced the coil and still nothing. Its giving the following codes:
12
42
44
24
22
23
55
Can somebody please help?