okay so 2 days ago i was sitting in my house and heard a horn blowing randomly on and off to find out it was my jeep in the driveway so thinking maybe it was just the horn switch i pulled the relay and it was fine, drove it to work today and when i got there i noticed the rear defogger switch was lit up and it wouldnt turn off, so i pulled the relay to that allso and when i came outside the battery was dead, so i jumped it pulled both the fuses that are for rear defogger, and everything seemed fine till i got home and turned my jeep off and the switch for rear defogger stayed lit but dim.. so i tried checking grounds and wires and couldnt find anything wrong so i started up the jeep to let it charge and when i went to turn it off it stayed running. i opend the door and the jeep shut off, so i cloed the door and it turned the ignition on with the key off so i opend the door agin and it turned everything off besides the blower as far as i can tell.. any ideas? bad ground or shorted wires or did something get wet? it been wet and snowing here.

 

I've had drains coming from the rear hatch wiring being damaged. Look at your boot up at the top and see if there is exposed wiring that shouldn't be visible. I had a dealership replace that years back on my 2000. I had been charging and swapping batteries on occasion before that. It seemed to only do it on cold nights so I think the condensation closed the circuit from the positive lead on one of the wires to the chassis (the chassis is connected to the negative battery lead).

 

ill have to go out there and check right now! I've seen a lot of people talking about back hatch problems, I haven't opened it in a month or so, we shall see. thanks

 

well I found part of the problem.. the smoke coming from under the dash as I'm cranking it gave this away

 

That could do it if that's link to the same circuit. Rust indicates water. It must've been shorting out whatever it was. A 10 minute way to know for sure is use the multimeter test on all of those fuses with it plugged in (testing for amp draw).

Detail which fuses show a draw (with the key off/out). None of the fuses in that panel should have any draw. Then when you find the one, unplug it and make sure it goes out. Just because you find one problem doesn't mean it's the one and that there aren't others. You may find 2 or 3 fuses that have draw, as an example. Don't skip testing any of them.

 

well pulled apart the dash, come to find out the defrost wire melted the connector and made 3 terminals touch, dome lights and an ignition wire due to water coming in antenna grommet and running down harness I'm assuming, hopefully it didn't cause more problems elsewhere, looks like ill be making a junk yard visit this weekend for connector, and for junction block.

 

Shneikies, I should investigate my antenna. It has a bit of an angle sticking outboard.