goldie9309

Hey guys I'm having some terrible electronic problems with my jeep. It's a 2000 xj sport. It all started with the automatic start the previous owner put in screwing up. The jeep would randomly start itself, try to start while it was already running in park ( burned through two starters), the wipers could be put on no keys in the ignition, same with the radio, . Well I thought the auto start was the problem so I had it taken out. Now the problems are much worse. I think the person who took it out messed something up. It drove fine on the way home from his house and day two things started going crazy. All my gauges on the dash went out, interior lights are out, blinkers stay solid they do not blink, rear defroster doesn't work, door locks don't work unless physically pushed, and you can smell a burning when the Jeeps on. I don't know crap about electrical and am normally a do it yourself kind of guy but this is way over my head. If anyone can save my jeep please let me know. I love her and don't want to lose her.

one_speed_heuer

Sounds like a one of a kind issue. If it was me. I would probably end up rewiring. The rear defroster could be as simple as the guy didn't reconnect the switch. Blinkers may be the blinker fuse. Radio for me is an aftermarket stereo. It's wired wrong and knocked out my dash lights. I need to rewire the radio to get my dash lights back.

Try to start simple. Check fuses.

BlueRidgeMark

My guess is that the people who put in the auto start screwed things up, and the people who took it out did more damage.

You are going to need to buy a Field Service Manual (FSM) so you have the wiring diagrams.

Start tracing wiring, looking for broken connectors, kludged wiring, and places where Scotchloks were attached. There might be broken wires hiding in those places.

And check your grounds, grounds grounds! Bad grounds will make CRAZY things happen.

XxXJ99xX

If this all started when the transmission was removed and replaced by the previous owner you should be checking any wires/harnesses running in that area. Especially near the bell housing, Its been awhile since I've owned an XJ so I'm not sure if theres a Body harness running along the firewall there but if memory serves me right I believe there is....Check your harness in that area, it sounds like you have a lot of shorts and shorts to ground. Inspect your harness around the transmission to start with...Then stem off from there.

prcherokee

He is talking about an auto start alarm system, no where in his post he talks about the transmission.

BlueRidgeMark

Oh, details, details!

XxXJ99xX

Alittle late last night when I posted, MY MISTAKE. Should've read into it further. In that case it sounds like you need to take a look at everything the alarm system spliced into and go from there. It sounds like whoever removed it for you has no clue what they're doing.

landude

Do you know what brand of auto start it was? A few had harnesses available that would install in the steering column to save a lot of splicing. Perhaps in removal that was left in place. Just a thought, I installed one in my 99 XJ and used just that type of harness..
It's a Bulldog remote start system.. There was a lot of splicing involved in installing this thing, took better part of a weekend and lots of IPA..

Hapdad

Uh BIG RED FLAG!!! Burning smell!! Get into that dash! Pull Cover panels. Take a really bright flashlight and start looking for wire with insulation melted or misshapen like it has started to melt. Look for misshaping or discoloring on wires, connectors, and at connector blocks. Check fuse sizes, are any rated higher than they are supposed to be do they show signs of excessive heat? check for wires spliced together in groups ( a connector splicing a single wire back together is now what I am talking about.) Circuits that are supposed to be separate could have been connected together causing a circuit with more than one feed so instead of drawing through a single say 10 amp fuse you are drawing through a 10 amp and a say a 15 amp fuse, enough power to overload a wire to the point of melting without blowing a fuse. The same goes for overloading grounds. Look for loose connections. Something Is shouting loud and clear that there is a problem. As a very last resort turn the jeep on for a short time ( I cant say how long as you did not say how long it takes for the burning smell to become noticeable) I would say turn the jeep on for 1/4 the amount of time (or less) it usually takes for the smell to appear and then turn off and start feeling your wiring, and electrical components. Heat indicates a place or a circuit to look at. Again this is a last resort. Try to find problems in other ways first. If a poorly installed and or removed remote start started this then when it was removed the wires should have been simply reconnected back together, taped due to scotch lock removal ect. So if they were simply reconnected then they should not change color from one side of a connector to the other unless a short section of wire had to be spliced in due to a wire being too short. Wires that had scotch locks on them should have tape over the area where the scotch lock was. It is common for people to simply remove the scotch lock and not repair the spot in the wires insulation that was damaged by the scotch lock. This is an intermittent dead short looking for a place to happen.
Hapdad

rompnXJ

Yeah.. personally, I would yank the interior wiring harness out, toss it into the garbage and replace it with a junkyard harness. I've replaced my interior harness in my 97 and it's pretty easy, only took me a few hours. That would be the quickest/easiest way. It sounds like your harness has been majorly F'd with on multiple occasions, and undoing all that nonsense would likely be a huge headache.

Of course, you could get a FSM with wiring diagrams, trace every single wire and painstakingly repair your harness, but damn... life is too short for that ****.

goldie9309

The problem ended up being a broken/corroded wire in the dash screwing everything up and I ended up bypassing the starter and putting in a push button start. Shes running good again. Electrical problems blow good luck to anyone who has to deal with them. I went the easy route and everything has been fine so far except some minor things that work when they want to. As long as i can read my gauges and she doesn't start herself i dont' care its not a luxury vehicle lol. Sorry for the delayed response I hate when threads I read don't have a solution. Thanks for the help everyone!