2nd Aug 2009, 21:14
I have a 97 Wrangler with 97,000 miles, the wipers, radio and turn signals go out. The radio has been acting up for years. When I turn the key to accessories everything comes on fine, when I start the Jeep nothing comes on or everything comes on and then goes out... this happens mostly when it rains. My air bag light has been on for years and my horn hasn't worked for at least that long. There was a recall on the air bag (in 97) and I did take it in. Every once in a while my gauges go crazy. Other than that she's been a dream...
3rd Aug 2009, 19:42
OK, I have replaced the signal light switch on my 99 TJ. It was easy, and seems to have fixed all of my electrical issues.
It was a $40 part, and I replaced it myself in about half an hour using nothing but a philips head and a torx driver. If you don't have the torx driver, you can pick up a set for less than $10. I am not normally one to even change my own oil, so that should give you an idea of how easy it is to replace this part.
Putting in the new signal light switch fixed the following issues for me:
Wipers going dead
Radio going dead
Signal lights going dead.
I previously had a stuttering issue (never stalling, just stuttering) that was fixed by replacing the throttle position sensor.
At this point, my Jeep is not experiencing any strange issues, and I could not be happier.
20th May 2010, 03:52
It's amazing this discussion has been going on for almost ten years now. I have a 1997 Wrangler Sport (13 years old now) and have been dealing with the electrical issues for 11 of those years. Dash works sometimes and doesn't other times. I have over 680,000 miles on it, so it doesn't cause any other problems except an annoyance. It is great when you get pulled over for speeding too because you can say, "Officer, my gauges suddenly went out and I didn't know how fast I was going." Anyway, I finally decided to look it up on the net again to see if there have been any solutions in the last few years. The grease one is the best.
8th Aug 2010, 02:17
I own a 1997 Jeep Wrangler that has had some electrical problems with the gauges also. I took it in, and found out the previous owners had attempted to install a alarm system by themselves. I had it taken out and rewired, and haven't had a single problem since.
Being that it is 13 years old now, I have to say I am impressed at how well it has held up. I drive almost full time with the hard top off, and have only put a summer brief on it when it rained this summer. I've forded water in it and have even had to hose down the interior after a really good mudding trip, and I have had no problems with the electrical components.
As far as the vehicle performs, I am (as of yet) extremely impressed with its capabilities, especially because all of its parts are the 13 year old stock parts. The only thing that has really broken down on me was one of the sway bars, and that is completely understandable considering I went rockcrawling and forgot to disconnect them.
Other than that, it is by far the most fun and enjoyable vehicle I have ever driven. My only regret is that it is an automatic (the fact that they even make automatic Wranglers is almost a sin).
7th Oct 2010, 11:21
At the beginning of the post of comments, I was reading on and on about electrical problems in the dash where everything would go wrong and then a little bit later everything would be fine.
I had a problem when trying to start my car. All the electrical components would go dead and then come back on as soon as I turn the key from the start position back to the run position.
And then I would try it again and everything would start up like normal.
I'm thinking it must be some sort of computer problem, or an electrical problem through the ASD relay.
25th Nov 2010, 18:57
I own a 97 Wrangler - and the best thing I can say about it is that it looks good and is fun to drive, when it runs, but as for the rest of the lights, blinkers, idling and overall performance, it just plain sucks, and I would buy a Toyota before I would ever buy another Chrysler product - and that is very bad to say. If you don't print what I have to say, then you are as bad as the Chrysler corp for producing such a piece of garbage, that looks so good.
17th Aug 2011, 22:00
Check under your hood. There are ground wires near the headlamps on the back of the grill shell. And some that attach to the firewall. Make sure all of these ground wires are clean and secured. The power is backfeeding into the electrical harness, because there is a poor grounding in your wiring. This should clear up your issue. Good luck.
20th Jul 2009, 21:21
I've got a 99 TJ that I've had since it was new, it now has 115k on it. The engine blew up on me on the way to work a couple of months ago, at 112k. It has a remanufactured engine in it now.
When it was very new, it had the issue where the gauges would go out and the odometer would read "NO BUS." This was fixed under recall, and hasn't recurred.
It had intermittent sputtering issues, which were fixed by replacing the throttle position sensor.
I have also replaced the crank sensor.
My issue is similar to a couple of people here... Every once in a while, either upon starting or upon turning on a signal light, I will lose the stereo, the wipers and the signals. Turning the ignition off and back on takes care of it 90% of the time, and seems to work better when I turn a signal light on (which doesn't actually work), then restart.
I've gotten so used to doing this that I don't even stop the vehicle, I just push in the clutch, flip the signal light, turn off the ignition, turn it back on, and release the clutch to pop-start. This will almost always take care of the problem. On very rare occasions, doing it a second time finishes the job. A third time has never been necessary.
I'm betting that the issue is with my signal switch. How difficult would it be to replace just this switch with a new one?