Arctic Blue

I am having some electrical issues I need help diagnosing!

The first week of December 2013, my dashboard freaked out it about ten times within 45 seconds. During this ‘freak out’ there were two chimes, the speedometer dropped to 0 and back up to driving speed AND the ABS, E-Brake and traction control lights lit up then went black. I took it to the dealership and they replaced the brake light switch and the wireless control module.

The jeep was fine for about a month and a half. The first week of January 2014 I installed the rugged ridge a-pillar switch pod. I transferred the kc light wires and air horn wires to switches. I also wired in an ESP kill switch. This required cutting a single wire in the harness. There are write-ups on this in the forum. There were no problems for a few weeks.

While driving the dash freaked out again, same symptoms. I flipped the EPS kill switch, restarted the jeep and all was fine. I took it into the dealer the following week. In that week, the jeep was fine. The next week, the dealer said there were no stored fault codes so I was dead in the water. On the way home the dash freaked out. This time is was only the ABS/Traction control lights and two chimes. I took it back to the dealer, they plugged in an OBDII reader and got two codes…

ECUCODESTATUSDESCRIPTION
:culpability:
ABSC2103ACTIVESYSTEM HIGH VOLTAGE
ABSC2101ACTIVEBATTERY HIGH VOLTAGE

The dealer looked into it and said because I wired in the ESP kill switch into the manufacturer’s wiring harness that they could do nothing about it. Even when I rattled off the Magnuson Moss Act (regarding vehicle modifications) Chrysler/Jeep stood by the decision.

The jeep was fine until last week. Had one freakout, just the ABS/traction control lights, and chimes. Then yesterday it freakout several times, same symptoms.

The warranty has expired. I am worried that something in the system will fry or something because it says high voltage.

ALSO, when this happens the cruise control kills too!!

PLEASE HELP!!!!!

No air bag light
No wiper blade malfunction
No random horn honking

Driving conditions...

Speed varies from 30-75
Weather is dry days, cold ish, not wet, snowing or raining.
Roads in Wisconsin are VERY bumpy.




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Mark Doiron

I guess this is worth mentioning: During the f-stop Arkansas run a few months back one of the other Jeeps (a 2012) had problems starting one morning. He had a very dead battery (took two Jeeps to jump start him). After we did get it started, we headed off the trail to get him a new battery. And he said during the drive that sometimes his dash would freak out. Codes, all kinds on lights coming on at various times, etc. I know that this is a long shot, but if your Jeep still has the OEM battery, wouldn't take much effort to have it checked out. Make sure you clean the battery terminals and everything that is attached to it before putting it back in.

Noticed you mentioned the horn and wipers, etc, which are tell-tale signs of a TIPM problem. Even though you don't have that, I'd recommend also pulling out the TIPM (be careful, lots of fragile connectors). Give it a good look for anything unusual. Clean up all of the connectors and the battery wire to it before putting it all back together. Again, another long shot.

Arctic Blue

What is that? Whats it do? Where it is located? Tests OEM battery for what, charge?

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Mark Doiron

The TIPM is the official name for the fuse and relay box. It's under the hood near the battery. And, yes, check the battery for holding a charge. Remove it and take it to a local auto parts store and they should check it for free.

metaldemon

My ABS and Traction control lights came on and stayed on since last week. She is going to the dealer today. I have also noticed the headlights get bright and go back to normal every now and then. These Chrysler electronic are bad. My son had a 2010 Doge Dakota that he got rid of because of electronic glitches. He now has a Nissan truck that he is happy with. I wanted a Wrangler, so I might have to get rid of the newer one and buy an older one. One without any extra electrical stuff.

Mark Doiron

When my ABS and TCS lights started acting up, it was one of the unit bearings. Happened immediately (within a couple miles, quite literally) after running the quicksand-filled Canadian River, so undoubtedly caused by that. The fine silt gets into everything when it's carried in river water. Check out 3:08 and 3:50 on this video if you're interested in seeing quicksand ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbSsQSWHSY

7kings

In the last two mopars I've owned, the dash would freak out exactly like you mention when the battery was dying and needed to be replaced. I'm not sure how much it applies in your case, but the symptoms sound very similar.

Ryan0260

Pull the battery and have it load tested. Dash lights going crazy is a common problem when the battery is going. Not saying this is the problem, but a good place to start. This happened with mine, but even though the dash looked like a Christmas tree, it wouldn't start.

Arctic Blue

Can the battery be tested while hooked up? What should the norm be for an OEM battery after 2 years?

Haven't had the headlight thing...just slight flickering which apparently is normal...

Although a dying battery after two years seems ridiculous, considering my track record with jeep it would not surprise me.

I will have to do this qhen I have mt next stretch of days off. Can't it be tested while on the jeep?

The two codes popped up were high voltage codes...how could this be so if the battery was in fact dying out?

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Firelyle

You will need to pull it out to test. The reason you can get high voltage codes is typically when a battery goes bad the plates in one cell begin to touch and this is basically a direct short. The alternator then senses that current is not flowing right and increases its output thus the high voltage code.