Helping out daughters friend who bought a 92 Cherokee Laredo 4x4 a few weeks ago. Quick background - she's 17 and bought her first Jeep on her own - and she's very proud of her car (as she should be). Her father passed away a few years ago and we are trying to help her out with getting her first jeep up and running - and safe. Did a ton of needed maintenance work on it yesterday - brakes, rotors, drums, plugs, calipers, etc. Noticed the cluster lights were not working, so I checked the fuse box. The 5 amp fuse INST was missing. Dropped in a new fuse and the lights on the dash/cluster worked! Unfortunately, they always work and do not shut off - even when the car is off and all headlights are off. Noticed that if I turn the light switch/dimmer with all lights off that the side markers also fade on and off with the vehicle off. Can't figure out what would cause the dash/cluster lights to stay on with car off. All other lights work as designed - door switch lights, dome, etc. Is this a common Jeep issue? Thoughts on trouble shooting this issue so she can drive safely at night in her new Jeep?

 

Never dealt with that one yet. All i can think of is disconnect the headlight switch and see if they go out. Or, if it has an aftermarket radio, theres something funny with the wiring. I dont have any wiring diagrams for that, tho.

 

Not a common issue that I have heard of. I'd bet that somebody has monkeyed with the wiring to the headlight switch. That, or the switch iself is gone weirdly bad. I'm betting on the wiring being incorrectly connected, though. I suggest getting under there and looking for splices, etc.

You may be able to find the FSM (Factory Service Manual) at xjjeeps.com. Free download.

 

Thanks for the thought - will try that this week and see what happens. It does have an aftermarket radio, but I check and it all looked right (they used quick plugs to connect right into the fac wire harness). Maybe ill pull the radio out as well and unplug to see if that does anything.

 

@BlueRidgeMark - ill check the wiring of the switch....my guess is either its wired wrong of the switch is bad. Thanks for the insight and will post results of testing soon.

 

Mark is probably right about the switch. If you have to replace it, you might as well look into the relay kit for the headlights. It wires the lights to the battery with relays so the switch just acts as a signal instead of carrying all the power for the lights. A cheap upgrade to help her see better at night.

Also, while you are chasing wiring problems, you might as well start cleaning and refreshing grounds. Many problems can be traced to bad grounds. (Speaking from experience here)

 

the cluster lights are powered from the 5 amp fuse position

the 5 amp fuse position is powered from the headlight switch (the blue orange wires specifically if I remember correctly)

what happened is that there sometimes is a short somewhere in the dash wiring or in the headlight harness or somewhere else that makes the cluster lights go out and someone rigged it up to constantly be powered.

its as simple as snipping the power wire someone has monkeyed in there and reconnecting to the orange /blue Wire that is only powered when the headlight switch is turned on.

note: alldata tells me that the wire you need to hook it back up to is the black/white so use a test light to figure that part out but in my experience it is the orange/blue or literally whatever is directly across from it.

just google for a pic of the headlight switch there is one labeled to give you an idea.

if you need diagrams let me know.

 

p.s. check the headlight harness on the driver side front under the air box ....they get extremely corroded and cause the cluster lights/interior lights/tail lights etc circuit to blow fuses .

 

Actually logical thinking tells me the switch itself may be bad causing it to power the 5 amp fuse constantly .

imagine clipping the wire from headlight switch to the 5 amp fuse in the fuse box and putting a toggle on it because if all else fails that’s what ya do.