BlackXJay

Okay so I have a 99 xj sport. Driving through heavy rain I noticed a smell of burning from the rear of the car. Pulled over and shut off the car. The signal lights wouldn't turn off and I noticed when I hit the brakes the radio and odometer would dim. I suspected it was a wire being grounded and upon inspection found the harness in the trunk behind the spare tire was melted. The one closest to rear of the car was toast. Not sure what caused this other then the tow harness I installed there shorting out?

Well my question is how do I go about fixing the wiring? Does anyone have a diagram? Where can I get the plugs from? Thanks for your help! I'm stuck without a car until I get this fixed.

cliffy

I would suggest a pick and pay junkyard to find a harness, then if you wind up needing to splice it in because the colors don't match just compare it to the other side. On my '95 the harness that was in that area only included the rear courtesy light, speakers and left tail light assembly. Delete the towing hook up, and leave the speakers and light out until you have more time to complete if you are in a bind. http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...tail/1213.html, this should help you with the stereo wires at least.

BlackXJay

Thank you cliffy. Good advice. I live in nyc so I'm not sure how many pick and pay yards will have a xj buy I will call and look around. For now I will just look at the other side and wire up the tail lights and then figure out the rest. Thanks again

BlackXJay

Okay so after taking apart the other side is found where 5 of the 8 wires go. The wires only occupied 5 of the 8 pins. The drivers side has the same 5 of 8 pin connection but 8 wires coming from the main harness. So the problem is where do the other 3 go? I took a few pictures so if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it.

BlackXJay

BlackXJay

BlackXJay

cliffy

Did you click on the link I posted, some of those colors might be speakers.

cliffy

In my initial response I posted a link to a site called the12volt. I see some of the colors listed that are in your pictures.

cliffy

Off of the harness to that tail light the other wires that come through there route up to the sound bar and rear courtesy light, at least on mine. If those wires were laying there bare with no other connections, just cut them off and tape the ends really thoroughly so they don't short on anything else. I would say as a temporary fix you should be fine until you can sort the rest of it out. Good luck .

BlackXJay

Yes I saw your initial post. What I am trying to ask is....the tail light harness connector has a 8 pin connector with only 5 pins being used. (In picture) The main harness going to the tail light harness has 8 wires. (8 wires in picture)

So I wired a connector with pigtails( different colors with 8 pins ) to the main harness that and have 3 wires Ieft over and don't know which wires to splice too to complete the harness.. thanks

BlackXJay

Thanks you cliffy. The rear light is fixed. Car is drivable. I was just trying to see if anyone knows what the other 3 wires were for instead of trial and error to save some time.

BlackXJay

Basically if you are looking at the back of the connector 1,6,and 8 are empty and I have 3 wires left. What are they for and where do they go

cliffy

The fact that it is only using five of the eight pins to the taillight should be right, 1)reverse, 2) turn signal, 3) ground, 4) regular lamp when headlights are on and 5th) extra wire to the taillights for brake light. If you only have 5 wires going to the tail light are they all working at this point the other three wires could be for some other feature you don't have. If there was no other connections other than the 5 wires to the taillights you in theory should be able to just tape those 3 extras up until you can gather more info.

cliffy

Sorry I did not see the other posts, hope it didn't sound too redundant