2000 WJ Ltd. w/107k miles. This is the first cold/wintry weather exposure ever for Cherry_II. On Tuesday morning, after a 15 degree overnight temperature, the front passenger door power lock made an angry, short and loud "BZZZ" when locking. (I almost passed a turd when it auto-locked at 15mph, disabled auto-lock that day.) It still locks the door but the power lock seems to stop short of a full locking stroke, as I cannot open the door from inside or manually slide the lock button after using power lock. If I manually lock the passenger door, thus completing a full lock stroke, then I may open the door and/or manually unlock.

Opinions please? Given the above conditions, does it sound like it's simply a matter of cleaning and lubrication of the mechanisms or a technical/electrical issue?

 

Does your wj actually have key entry all the way around? Mine doesn't it's a pain in the *** because when I bought it, it didn't have the fob so I have to manually lock all doors otherwise the stock alarm goes off when I open the door. The buzz, my best guess would be it's getting jammed up inside there, that or the mechanism is getting worn out. If I were you I would take off the door panel and inspect it. Look for broken or worn out, or dirty parts clogging it up. Make sure you buy some white clippies for the door panel because you are bound to brake a few... It just is what it is with those things

 

There's no all-around key entry on this 2000 WJ. Thankfully, I have both FOBs. Being a pack-rat with Jeep history has left me with many flavors of fasteners and linkage clips as I have broken quite a few myself. Thanks for your advice and opinion, confirming my suspicions...

 

No problem keep me updated, going down to the garage soon I have an xJ in there to strip!

 

Removed the passenger door trim panel in 35-40 degree garage. Broke some plastic things. Oh well, it is what it is. Found that the solenoid within the latching assembly was definitely failing. Found a new one in stock at a nearby Jeep stealership (funny, it's where the PO bought it). Replaced assembly. All better. The kicker here is that the trim panel is no-longer 100% pinned/attached. What a PITA it is to set it onto those two buttons at top of door! After nearly two hours of trial and error, I decided to take what I got and battle it another day. Taking them apart is always sooo easy...

 

The easiest way is to pull those two buttons out of the door with wire cutters and a prying tool, then put them into the panel. Been there, done it.

 

I tried. They won't budge. They'd just break anyway. I'll get a new assortment then shear-off the old ones ... the next time I open that can of worms ... time for a beer and a game.

 

Owning a 2000 WJ myself, I must warn you about the door latches. Even though I lubed the latches as much as I could, There really is no easy access to the linkage mechanisms, especially on the front doors and hatch latches. You can get to the rear door linkages thru the "child guard" lever slot and spray the snot out of them. All the others are pretty well hidden from the outside. I only have one key tumbler on the jeep and it's in the driver's door.

BTW, if the hatch won't unlock electrically, there is a little access panel in the inner panel for it. You'll have to cut thru the insulation to get to it, but you can manually unlock the mechanism that way.

If nobody's told you about it, check out wjjeeps.com for a bunch of info about WJs.

 

Funny you mentioned the hatch. In my '99 XJ, due to a malfunction of hatch release by exterior handle, I actually made my own internal release mechanism for the hatch by drilling a half-inch hole in the trim panel and attaching some beefy ty-wraps to the linkage. Nice to know they (Chrysler) thought of it in this model.

Anyway, speaking of trim panels, Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appeared to me that there are three (3) fastener part numbers used to attach the passenger door trim panel. I searched Amazon and found what I think is the correct part for the larger of the fasteners - for those two top buttons that I spoke of earlier. Can I get an amen for these or do you think they're the wrong flavor?
I found what I think is the other pin shaped fasteners that remained attached to the trim panel but left their receptacles in the sheet metal (whew) at Sears on-line. Are these right? http://www.sears.com/w-e-fasteners-2...5&blockType=G5

...OR - Did I misjudge what I saw attaching the trim panel, and they're really all the same fastener part number? Did I see them in varied states of broken, uncoupled and detached after pulling off the panel?

 

To tell you the truth, when my front fascia came loose on the bottom, I found the push rivet part numbers on wjjeeps.com. I went to the dealer with part numbers in hand and bought them. You can probably find them for your panel is well if you search the site. There are links for the WK and WK2 as well. That's where I found out that in order to change a headlight on the 2015 WK2, you have to take off the front fascia and grill to do it! Yawza!