Jeep Enthusiast Forums banner

Won't Start, Wipers and Lights Turn on, No Dash!

934 views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  Redtwo 
#1 ·
I posted this in the JK section but thought I see if anyone here had anything else.

So I have found a couple of threads with similar issues but so far the solutions I've tried haven't helped. So let me describe what been going on. The past couple of days my clock has been resetting on my radio. No big deal but thought it could be leading to something. Checked the battery connections and everything seemed fine.

Drove to work today and things got really bad. While driving the dash, everything, every gauge, light, everything, goes black. My lights and windshield wipers turn on. Radio, all other electrical works. I notice zero issues with actually driving it. Eventually things would reset and wipers and lights turn off. This happened maybe 2 times in a 50 min drive. Got to work parked and turned it off.

On the way home same thing but did it the entire way home. Dash would go out, gauges go nuts and stop, and wipers and lights would turn on. I'm sure I pissed off a few drivers thinking I was flashing them with my lights. It must have reset and gone dark 20 times on the way. I made it home but just before I pulled it in it goes dark again and wipers and lights go on. I put it in park turn off the ignition but engine doesn't turn off, neither do the wipers or lights. I had to pull a fuse to get the engine to turn off but wipers and lights stayed on. I eventually pulled the neg side of the battery to turn off the wipers and lights.

I've gone back out and reconnected the battery as some suggested that it would reset after 15 mins. Nope. Lights and wipers come on immediately and I get nothing when I turn the ignition. Any help on this would be appreciated.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
That has to be either a bad ground/connection, something got wet, or your computer's fried (in order of likelihood, I think). First thing I'd look at is the connections at the computer. If one of those plugs is loose, it could be making intermittent contact like a shoddy ground. I don't have any kind of wiring diagram...do these systems have anything else in common? Like they all run through the same 1 or 2 fuses/relays?

I hate trying to find weird electrical problems that cross multiple systems.
 
#3 ·
Unless someone at night is dumping gallons of water on the engine in my garage and cleaning up the mess I can rule out something got wet. I did some initial test on the connection at the computer and it seemed fine but like you said chasing down wiring and electrical issues like this can be such a pain. Ugh! First and only issue with this Jeep and it has to be something like this.
 
#4 ·
If you figure it out and need an extra set of hands, I've got more spare time nowadays. I'm not in West Haven anymore, but Clinton is only a couple more miles away.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for all the input guys. I triple check some things last night and found a ground had come loss on my aux lights. Made sure it was grounded right and tada everything is fixed. So glad it wasn't worse.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top