Hey there. We have a 98 XJ, and I have ran into a rather odd issue. Up her in the arctic the first thing to go is the wiring in the doors. I replaced all the wiring with arctic grade wire in all the doors and rear hatch. Everything was working great. Now for the weird thing. The Rear hatch ajar light on the dash comes on any time the dome light is off. In the car with everything closed, the dome lights are off, and the hatch indicator is on. Open a door (or the hatch) and the dome lights come on, and the indicator shuts off. Unlock the vehicle with the key fob and the dome lights come on for about 15 seconds. Indicator shuts off. Dome lights turn off and the indicator comes on. In the car without it running, turn the dome lights on with the headlight switch, and the indicator shuts off.

Thoughts? Why is this indicator even remotely tied into the dome lights? I am considering just pulling the bulb out of the dash.

On a separate note, now the passenger door window will go down, but not back up. I ran it up with the regulator, so that isn't it. I am guessing the pass door switch is bad. Either way, that is not the issue.

Also had an issue with the brake lights coming on and off while the car is parked and shut off. I replaced the rubber deal on the brake pedal, so hopefully that solves that.

 

possibly missed wired the hatch switch or a short to ground on that wire

 

Why would the dome lights effect how the indicator functions. I can understand the door switch being an issue, but the dome lights work perfectly with the door switches. Don't the dome lights and indicator use the same door switches? It also started randomly. Worked fine for months after I redid the door wiring.

 

SO a new revelation as to this issue. The damn door open indicator works perfectly fine when the car is running. Turns on when open, along with the dome lights, and off when all the doors are closed. This makes NO sense.

 

As BlueRidgeMarkYou stated, you can first try cleaning up and inspecting your grounds. This is more commonly done before attempting other kinds of troubleshooting.

Some of the Interior grounds include:

G201 BLK near glove box lamp switch
G202 BLK/Light Green near Headlight Switch.
G406 BLK near rear window defogger grid
G402 BLK near left tail lamp

Any Ground related to where you have replaced wiring. Inspect all of your spliced connections.

There are different approaches taken for troubleshooting electrical problems. I might start by disconnecting the main battery and test different parts of the wiring harness and connections for continuity. Perhap apply my own 12+ volts to certain circuits to determine any responses. There are other types of test such as jiggle parts of the wring harness and observe any responses.

Before testing I would study the schematics to get an idea how the circuits function and operate.

Your just trying to find something that may be very simple such as a crossed or broken wire, bad ground, switch, relay, etc. It's often something very simple that causes the incorrect behaviour.
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The dome light is part of an overhead console (which varies depending on options) and uses a couple pcb plugs to connect to Ground, Power B+, Ambient Signal, CCD Bus +, CCD Bus -, Fused Ign. (S/R), Door Illum Sense (door jam switches) and ambient ground.

The dome light is from where your key fob controls your locks.

I would need to study the schematics further and actually perform tests on my own vehicle. It's difficult to provide help unless a person has had or is having the same sort of electrical problem and able to perform there own testing to get an idea how a circuit operates. Perhaps another XJ owner has had the same or similar problem and can shed some light.

You want to find single tasks that can be easily duplicated, which normally will reveal the problem.

The service manual does have wire schematics for different components.

AIR CONDITIONING/HEATER . . . . . . . . . . 8W-42-1
AIRBAG SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-43-1
ALL-WHEEL ANTI-LOCK BRAKES . . . . . . . 8W-35-1
AUDIO SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-47-1
CHARGING SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-20-1
COMPONENT INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-02-1
CONNECTOR LOCATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-90-1
CONNECTOR PIN-OUTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-80-1
FRONT LIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-50-1
FUEL/IGNITION SYSTEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-30-1
GENERAL INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-01-1
GROUND DISTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-15-1
HORN/CIGAR LIGHTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-41-1
INSTRUMENT CLUSTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-40-1
INTERIOR LIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-44-1
JUNCTION BLOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-12-1
OVERHEAD CONSOLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-49-1
POWER DISTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-10-1
POWER DOOR LOCKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-61-1
POWER MIRRORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-62-1
POWER SEAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-63-1
POWER WINDOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-60-1
REAR LIGHTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-51-1
REAR WINDOW DEFOGGER . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-48-1
SPLICE INFORMATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-70-1
SPLICE LOCATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-95-1
STARTING SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-21-1
TRAILER TOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-54-1
TRANSMISSION CONTROL SYSTEM . . . . 8W-31-1
TURN SIGNALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-52-1
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-33-1
VEHICLE THEFT SECURITY SYSTEM . . . . 8W-39-1
WIPERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8W-53-1

 

Grounds.

 

I will start checking the individual components, and referencing the wiring schematics.

Off hand, can anyone think of why it would be an issue when the car is shut off and not when it is running?

Thanks!

 

The '98 diagrams don't show the liftgate agar light circuit so here's a partial diagram from a '99 that does show the interface of the dome light switch and the liftgate switch.


.

 

So looking at 8W-44-6 the 12VDC+ power comes into the junction and heads to circuit S304. Continued on 8W-44-8 to connector C314, out to the NO side of the 2 pole liftgate switch on terminal 3. when the liftgate switch is made it send 12VDC+ to terminal 2 and out to the lifgate ajar sense switch (continued on 8W-40-15 which goes straight to the indicator), and out to terminal 1 (which looks like it goes to ground at G304).

Would it be worth measuring the load draw from the battery and pulling fuses to narrow down what it could be? Only thing I can think is that there may be a piece of wire shorting the indicator circuit out, but I would imagine that would have an effect on everything on that circuit.

From what I can tell, there is absolutely nothing different that would happen between the vehicle being powered, and the vehicle not being running. Did I miss something? I am not that versed with these schematic layouts, but they look like pretty standard line diagrams.

Thanks a a ton guys!

 

Here are some interior lighting, overhead console, power door locks and ground distribution schematics with another overview of the circuits.

Interior lighting

Overhead Console

Power Door Locks

Ground Distribution



Ground Distribution