Gryphon439

Vehicle Stats:

1991 Jeep XJ
4.0 High Output
Aisin AW4 Transmission
NP242 Transfer Case
4" lift

Problem:

When driving down the freeway, at speed, today there was a mysterious clicking sound coming from my dashboard. When the click would happen, I would loose my stereo, and when it clicked again, the stereo would come back.

History:

For a while now, when I get in and start the Jeep it will occasionally the stereo will not come on and the wipers or HVAC won't work. Being in a hurry, I would wiggle the ignition switch a little bit and it would come on. So I figured I was starting to have problems with my ignition switch and that I would eventually need to replace it. This never seemed to become more frequent or get any worse, but now there is the new symptom which leads me to believe that this is something other than my ignition switch.

My Thoughts and Questions:

It sounds like a relay is clicking on and off when I hit bumps on the road, this makes me think that whatever the problem is is a loose, physical, connection of a wire or linkage to an additional switch that feeds a relay in the dash.

Has anyone else had a similar problem and found an issue? If not, do you know more about the XJ dash than I do? I would rather tear into it with a target in mind, than to find a gremlin. ;-)



Edit: I found the problem and have solved it, you can either read about the problem and solution in the last post, or you can read the whole thread for the history of it all.

DustyWagoneer

Probably on the passenger side of your dash?

The HVAC relays will do that if the ground comes loose.
The relays are mounted to your HVAC unit. The black ground wires are bolted to side above the kick panel.
To access this area you need to remove the bottom part of the dash.

Gryphon439

No, it sounds like it's coming from in front of me in the drivers seat.

DustyWagoneer

You have the relay center mounted to the lower dash.
In this center you have illuminated entry relay, rear window defog relay, power locks relay x2, horn relay, radio illumination relay.
Maybe some others depending on the year. The ones I read off to you are from a 93.

Gryphon439

Last night I replaced my ignition switch, thinking that it might have been the shorted terminal that everyone seems to experience. Turns out that didn't solve it, but my shuffling around in there may have changed the behavior.

Here are the newly observed symptoms:

When I start to roll down my drivers window the the offending click(potentially a relay) clicks once. When I roll up my window the click only appears once as well, but only once the window is all the way up. The click did not happen as I was driving down the road today, but did happen as I drove out of a driveway and had the chasis flex a little bit. I uploaded a video of the clicking sound to help share with the forum.

Gryphon439

I found out today, while digging around with my stethoscope that it is the brown relay in the picture below. The thing is, it only clicks if the drivers drivers door is past halfway shut, regardless of the illumination switch's position.

Anyone know what that relay does?

Gryphon439

Looks like this is the illumination relay for the courtesy lights, but what I don't know is why it would be triggering when I am rolling up and down the window. I know that the catch-all relay is the one in the middle (next to the brown one).

That relay seems to do all of these things:

• Fuel System Feed
• Heated Glass
• Horn
• Parking Lamp
• Passive Restraint
• Power Window
• Radio

Why would the window cause the illumination relay to click? It will click, in normal operation, when the courtesy lights do come on or turn off. Which to me means that it is functioning correctly, but the window part is what bothers me.

Tsaani97xj

Maybe check the wiring between the kick panel and door. Might have exposed wires shorting to ground which I think is what the door position switch does. Vibrations from driving, operating the window or locks may be causing the short.

Gryphon439

Yesterday, with a stroke of luck, I found the problem. The video I took is pretty bad, but here's what I found.

I went into the door to fix the loose rivets on the reinforcing bracket on the inside of the door. The loose bracket rattled when driving and drove me nuts. So while I was in there, I noticed that the door flexed while I was rolling the window up and down, which led me to notice that there was a wire that was rubbing on the sheet metal that could potentially end up shorting.

Sure enough, the wire was shorting against the door and causing the relay to click in my dash. I confirmed it by manually touching the wire to the door and hearing the relay click on/off. This is unfortunately the video that didn't record, but the one that did record is choppy at best, but should give you an idea of what I found. Here is the video and pictures:









To resolve the problem, I isolated the wire and painted on some plati-dip to add back on a layer of insulation to it. I then wrapped it up firmly with some electrical tape and also cut open a piece of hose length-wise and placed it over the wire for chaffing protection.



I also drilled out the rivets on the re-enforcement bracket and installed 1/4-20 screws with nylock nuts to hold the bracket firm, and now the door does not flex at all when rolling the window up or down.

The flex in the door has caused some cracking in the sheet metal that I will eventually need to grind and weld back together, but for now I drilled a hole at the top of the crack to stop it from growing.

I hope this helps at least one person out there with a similar issue. I think this thread would be better off in the "Stock XJ Cherokee Tech." section but I don't know how to move it there. So if someone knows how to move a thread, please let me know. Otherwise, thank you to those who tried to help me troubleshoot the issue, I'm glad it was not a short in a wiring loom deep inside the dash or in a kick-panel somewhere because that was starting to look like the only potential culprit.