poppydawg13

Hello All;
I have a '96 XJ, 4.0 SE with 172,000 and Auto trans. I was looking at the speaker wires and found a silver tube (relay?) hanging under the steering column that is hot to the touch. There is no ID number on it, wire colors are Pink, Yellow, Yellow/Pink. Any idea what it is, why it's hot, do I need a new one?
I found 2 plugs under the hood just hanging out. One on the firewall in the middle, wires are Red/Black, Black. Another in front of the Coolant Bottle, wires are Purple/Green, Black/Blue.
Last question.. I'm getting an intermittent ABS light, mostly when it's hot outside. My OBD gets a communication error trying to read it, no other codes. Any ideas to diagnos the problem?
Thanx for your help. Scott

jordan96xj

#1 I believe that is a capacitor that holds electricity like a battery for temporary lighting (such as the glowing ring around your ignition key cylinder).


#2 The plug pictured is -probably- the connector for a missing/optional under-hood lighting. I have a 96 with an open plug in the same location. I also have an empty connector by the coolant bottle. It may be for optional cruise control components, but I'm not certain. Someone with more 96 knowledge will have to chime in.


#3 ABS codes/warnings are not typically available through OBD2 data. But the most likely cause is a bad/dirty wheel sensor or hub tone ring (what the sensor watches). These can be diagnosed by a mechanic pretty readily. If you do it yourself, there are quite a few videos online for troubleshooting.

fb97xj1

What he said. ^

poppydawg13

Thank you for the reply.
1. makes sense.
2. a. ok, makes sense. b. not the cruise, mine is plugged in and working. no big deal, just curious.
3. my OBD2 has an ABS check function, worked on my Prius. might not work on this age vehicle. I'll search the videos.

jordan96xj

Some vehicles will add ABS related data to the OBD2 data stream. Most manufactures don't. They require a special manufacture specific computer to read things like ABS, air bag, traction control, security (key resets), and even things like transmission data. It could also be that your scanner has extra goodies for reading some manufacture specific data (this is becoming more common), this data is often accessed via same the "diagnostic port" but isn't necessarily part of OBD2. But the chances of a new scanner being able to read manufacturer specific codes on older vehicles is slim (because they typically have to reverse engineer the data stream and make it work without any help from the manufacturer, which is expensive and difficult so it would typically be only be for newer vehicles).


Because the XJs are getting so old (20+ years), it is getting easier to find aged manufacturer diagnostic equipment for them that shops no longer desire to keep on the shelf. I have seen the old chrylser computers for XJs for $100-300 on ebay (the full kits with many vehicle specific adapters are more expensive).


There is a big cat-mouse game going on with consumer grade diagnostic tools now. The manufactures are trying to keep it proprietary, but smart people are able to figure it out and incorporate some of the features that a couple of years ago could only be had in a $5000 scanner into $40 devices. The next big thing for cheap scanners will be bidirectional controls. Most modern expensive scanners will allow not only to read data from the computer but also command the computer to take some action, or enable/disable some component. Or arbitrarily set a voltage on some component. Cool stuff coming to cheap adapters near you.