orangedude71

I've personally witnessed the sway bar motor causing major dashboard disco lights so yep, anything is possible

702Rubi

Wonder how the tech would react if I brought up the front sway bar issue...?

702Rubi

The saga continues... Met the insurance adjuster this morning at the dealership. They put the jeep up on the lift so she could get a good look at and photograph the damaged wiring (in three different spots).

Then when she asked them how long the repairs would take, they said it wouldn't be done until Friday!

Thank god I'm staying with someone I know in the area, and not paying for a hotel. At this point, I won't be surprised if they fix the wiring only to find the damn thing still won't start and we're back to square one.

Brewz

This stinks, Hope you get it going this week!

This would cause me to drink all the beer in the zip code BTW!

702Rubi

I gave up on them earlier this week and drove the rental car home to Las Vegas.

It's supposed to be fixed today (Friday), but I'm not holding my breath...

Hard to believe how long this has gone on...the jeep originally died in Mosquito Gulch on July 12!

airforce26yrs

Any update on this?

1Boltzfan

Yes, I just read the whole thread and now I'm jonesin' for an update. What a story.

blewyn

Itching to know what the reason was....

Sahara Lee

The CAN-bus (not to be confused with cannabis) is a digital communication network between all those computers. It's not a separate physical network but uses many of the wires running thru the vehicle. It is the nervous system that makes everything work (and sometimes not work).

If certain connections are shorted or loose, things won't communicate so they don't work. Something as simple as a shorted center brake light might cause the Jeep to die. Adding an aftermarket device can definitely interfere with CAN-bus by either adding noise to the system or by filtering out the CAN-bus signal with power filtering capacitors.

My Jeep refused to start once. The lights and wipers came on (although they were turned off) but the engine wouldn't turn over. Apparently the problem was in my blinker lever stalk because after wiggling it up and down and turning things on that lever on and off suddenly the Jeep started and continues to operate today (2 years later) as if nothing ever happened.

702Rubi

Sorry, guys, here's the long overdue update!

I got the jeep back yesterday afternoon, and it is running. Apparently, fixing those wires did get the vehicle running again, without having to change any more modules, etc.

Last Friday, after dropping the fuel tank to fix the damaged wires they had already spotted, they found some more. Unfortunately, since their documentation is so sketchy, I'm not sure how many wires in total were repaired.

When the service manager called me last Friday, he said they were concerned that other modules might have been fried due to the wiring damage. Apparently that wasn't the case but I'll never know for sure what they did; their communication was terrible and like I said they only wrote a few short sentences on the paperwork.

However, now the vehicle has a quirk: The door lock/unlock switch on the driver's door (my jeep of course has the power package) is not working correctly. Pushing it to lock or unlock might not do anything...or it might cause the opposite action to occur!

I noticed this shortly after picking up the vehicle so took it back to see if they had any ideas. The tech hooked up the computer to look at things, pulled out and opened up the TIPM, and fooled with it a bit. He even showed me on the computer screen how pushing the switch to one position would read out as the opposite action. But he wasn't able to figure out a quick fix.

I wasn't about to turn my vehicle over to them again, so I'll take it to a Las Vegas dealer early next week. The lock/unlock buttons on the keys are working correctly, so hopefully I won't have any problems before I make it home. At any rate, I'll be making the drive again in one day and minimizing stops, just to be safe. Pathetic to be so worried about a five-month old vehicle.

After this, my long-planned extended summer vacation to Colorado is over. Maybe if the jeep is well behaved I will consider coming back out for awhile to enjoy the last of summer here (while missing some of the heat at home!). But for the moment I'd feel better staying closer to home for a little while. Plus, this was a bit of a budget buster...

Speaking of $$$... The wiring repair job itself and the rental car was covered by my comprehensive policy, and thankfully I have no deductible. But I'm still out the $500 for the "offroad recovery". Then there were five nights in hotels, and travel costs--basically just gas--to go home to Vegas then come back here. But that was still cheaper than 7 more nights in a hotel! Plus the additional insurance (CDW) I bought for driving the rental home. BTW, I put over 2800 miles on that rental car...I put it to good use while I was home, making some extended day trips. ;-)

I figure all that adds up to about $1000 out of pocket.

If I had a AAA Premier membership (I now do!), that would have paid for lodging and meals...but they have a five-night limit. Guess they don't expect it to ever take more than five days to fix something. And this shouldn't have taken two weeks, they only actually did about two days of work on it.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I did eventually realize that I should get some reimbursement for the lodging/food. I bought the "Maximum Care" extended warranty from Chrysler. Among other things, it provides trip interruption coverage that includes lodging and food reimbursement. Since there was some warranty work done (replacing the TIPM), and since Chrysler Roadside Assistance did pay for the tow, I think I'm within my rights to request reimbursement.