I have a 2001 Cherokee that had a small electrical fire in it related to the tail lights. All the damaged parts have been replaced, but now my gauges don't work. They light up, but don't register any info. My radio doesn't work either. Everything else does. Could the fire have blown some fuses, or, should I be looking for something more serious being wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

Do you get a "No Bus" error on the odometer?

You should go through all the fuses in the interior fuse panel and make sure everything is good and also the PDC (the fuse box thing under the hood in the engine compartment).

If nothing jumps out then I'd start going through the wiring and tracing it back from the cluster. You could try swapping in a different cluster and seeing if something got fried on the cluster itself.

 

No message on my odometer. It's completely blank.

 

http://cruiser54.com/?page_id=365

Download the 01 XJ Factory Service Manual. This will give you detailed wiring diagrams for reference. You can test the connector at the back of the instrument panel - it's surprisingly easy to get out and I believe it's the same cluster used on all 97+ XJ's and TJ wranglers if you find that the cluster is damaged.

 

Thanks!

 

Anytime! Maybe someone else has some better advice.

What are the details of your electrical fire? Where did it happen, what parts were replaced?

 

A couple months back I had a taillight out. After I got pulled over for it, my husband "jury rigged" it, and, my Jeep is kind of rusty, so we think water got up in there and shorted it out. It melted some plastic and burned the fix my husband had done. We replaced all the wiring and the harness it goes in. The plastic was replaced too. The fire was caught before it caused irreparable damage.

 

it could certainly be a fuse..caused by a shorted wire burned thru that touched metal...or a burned power supply or earth wire

step one imo ...check every fuse lol

 

It does sound exactly like a blown fuse. One of my Jeeps blew its cluster gauges fuse a little while back, and it resulted in none of the gauges working any at all. That is solid evidence and proof right there.. a blown cluster gauge fuse has the ability to completely stop the gauges from working any like what it is happening on your Jeep.

For a situation like what is happening on your Jeep, one of the very first and most important things to do is going to be checking all of the fuses. Checking the fuses should be done first IMHO. I would check all the fuses if it were me...

I heard the cluster gauges fuse was in the #9 spot on the fuse panel in the Junction Block for a 1999 XJ. I am not 100% sure it would be the same on a 2001 XJ.. it should be though.

 

Agree -- I would recommend buying a full set of assorted fuses and replacing all of them that haven't been replaced in a long time. Especially if you've had electrical "issues" and had things shorted out - better to be safe than sorry when we're talking like $10 in widely available parts.

Just because the fuse doesn't appear to be blown does not guarantee that it's OK - you can test the continuity for the fuse with a multi-meter or fuse tester to confirm that it's functional.

 

Thanks to both of you. My husband did pick up an array of fuses. Problem may be completely resolved by Sunday.

 

Sounds good. Please do report back regardless of whether that corrects the problem. We like to know that 1 - The member's problem is corrected and 2 - What exactly solved the problem (and if there were any additional findings). It helps people in the future when they are searching these threads with similar problems.

 

Will do.

 

Just wanted to let you know that it was one blown fuse. Everything works again. Took husband a couple of hours.

 

I was counting on this for you and your Husband. Very cool. A nice simple and easy fix!