Hello,
My problem is simple but the solution seems to be out of my league so far. My power door locks work great. My brake lights work, but not when I press the brake pedal. They will only come on if I lock and hold the power locks (for a couple of seconds) or they come on almost instantly when I unlock the doors. This is on a 2001, upstate NY (read that as slightly rusty) Jeep Cherokee. I have very limited to no electrical knowledge. Also, I have a 15 amp fuse in the engine fuse block that pops everytime I press the brakes (on another post I found it numbered as #23 and it says it's the brakelamp switch). I think that I have it narrowed down to a bad ground somewhere but again I have almost no electrical knowledge and am not sure where to look and what to look for. Any ideas would be so greatly appreciated.

 

So I see there were a few views of this thread and I figured I'd post my findings. The pictures are what I found and where I found the problem. When the hatch is opened there are two rubber seals that house a few clusters of wires. I had to do a bunch of digging but managed to get the wires fed back into the jeep and found 4 completely broken wires and two that were very worn (wire coatings cracked and exposing the wires). I did a quick repair on the wires and hooked everything back up and boom, problem solved. No more fuses blowing and the brake lights work perfectly now. Unfortunately I had to cut and mangle the rubber that the wires were fed through to get to them and the repair I made is very temporary, but it'll pass a NY inspection. Once I get a few hours and some better wire I am going to go back in and make a more permanent fix. Hope that someone, sometime will find this info useful, but if not I am still happy that I fixed it myself. Now on to other fun...

 

Good job finding the issue! That same wiring harness through the hatch has plagued a number of us.

 

It took me almost 4 months of driving around and locking/unlocking my doors whenever I needed to put my brakes on to finally locate the issue. I was getting so frustrated. Now, I am like, well that was easy. I'm really new to Jeeping and trouble shooting my own issues but i get such a thrill when I accomplish my goal. I am addicted.

 

Good job of determining the fix. I suspect a lot of us can related to being "addicted" to XJs! I'm on my fourth one.... lol

 

this is my 3rd one. The first two stayed stock and I did everything I possibly could to destroy them, but neither one would just die. They just kept going and going. So I got this one for really cheap and have started fixing and upgrading. I have a long way to go but I will just keep working on it whenever I get time. The addiction is consuming.