The Cause of Door Connector Bent Pins and How to Fix Yourself

[EugeneTheJeep]

Did you know the door wiring connectors have a built-in mechanism to prevent the pins from bending? Did you also know that whoever puts the connectors together at the factory hardly ever installs this mechanism properly, hence all the issues with bent pins? If you want to take your front doors on and off, follow these steps:

1. Remove the door and use a trim removal tool to pop the dash side of the connector off. Inspect the pins and sides of the connector. There is a white plate that slides up and down the pins when you turn the lever keeping them straight and protected. Look at the image below to see the tabs on the plate and the grooves they are supposed to be riding in.

2. If the pins are straight and the tabs are in the grooves, the plate should be low on the connector, and only short lengths of the pins should be exposed. The factory might have jammed the plate in past the tabs so that too much of the pins are exposed. This leads to bending. If so, bend the pins with a trim removal tool or likewise so that they’re straight.

3. Now use a small flathead screwdriver to push the two tabs on the lever (where it says “Push” in the image) to release the lever so it can be turned without plugging in the door side of the connector. You now can move the plate along the pins by nudging it on the sides of the connector (inside the grooves of the lever).

4.If you get it right position, the plate will pop into place when you open the lever fully. Just watch how you can move the plate up and down manually on the sides and with the lever.

Once you have the pins straight and the plate in the tabs, you should be good to go. I hope this helps.

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[BDinTX]

Thank you for this tip - bookmarked!

 

[Warlocke]

I just lost my Blind Spot Monitoring and Remote Start functionality after I had her naked last week.

I'm thinking that this issue is the culprit.

Thanks for the information!

 

[EugeneTheJeep]

Well, after a few times plugging and unplugging the plate goes right back to being jammed up there on one of the doors. Sorry for wasting your time, I give up on this…

Hopefully we see some clever fix soon. TSB maybe. @JeepCares

 

[WagzDad]

Did you know the door wiring connectors have a built-in mechanism to prevent the pins from bending? Did you also know that whoever puts the connectors together at the factory hardly ever installs this mechanism properly, hence all the issues with bent pins? If you want to take your front doors on and off, follow these steps:

1. Remove the door and use a trim removal tool to pop the dash side of the connector off. Inspect the pins and sides of the connector. There is a white plate that slides up and down the pins when you turn the lever keeping them straight and protected. Look at the image below to see the tabs on the plate and the grooves they are supposed to be riding in.

2. If the pins are straight and the tabs are in the grooves, the plate should be low on the connector, and only short lengths of the pins should be exposed. The factory might have jammed the plate in past the tabs so that too much of the pins are exposed. This leads to bending. If so, bend the pins with a trim removal tool or likewise so that they’re straight.

3. Now use a small flathead screwdriver to push the two tabs on the lever (where it says “Push” in the image) to release the lever so it can be turned without plugging in the door side of the connector. You now can move the plate along the pins by nudging it on the sides of the connector (inside the grooves of the lever).

4.If you get it right position, the plate will pop into place when you open the lever fully. Just watch how you can move the plate up and down manually on the sides and with the lever.

Once you have the pins straight and the plate in the tabs, you should be good to go. I hope this helps.

I’ll add, don’t use the cam lever to re-assemble the connection. Take your time and go slow coupling the assembly by hand and then moving the lever to let you move forward. You can actually see most of the small pins through open spaces before it is fully mated If you keep it detached from the body like mentioned in step #1.
good post.

 

[BDinTX]

Well, after a few times plugging and unplugging the plate goes right back to being jammed up there on one of the doors. Sorry for wasting your time, I give up on this…

Hopefully we see some clever fix soon. TSB maybe. @JeepCares

I still appreciate you pointing it out. If nothing else it’s a reminder for us to look there if we have a problem.

 

[TroyBoy]

Ugh. I’ve had problems with the driver side. Had to straighten the pins a couple of times.

 

[JeepCares]

Well, after a few times plugging and unplugging the plate goes right back to being jammed up there on one of the doors. Sorry for wasting your time, I give up on this…

Hopefully we see some clever fix soon. TSB maybe. @JeepCares

Thanks for tagging me here. If you decide to bring your concerns to the dealer and need an added layer of assistance, we can certainly get you in touch with a case manager. We're in private message at anytime.

Kate
Jeep Cares

 

[Trader979]

Did you know the door wiring connectors have a built-in mechanism to prevent the pins from bending? Did you also know that whoever puts the connectors together at the factory hardly ever installs this mechanism properly, hence all the issues with bent pins? If you want to take your front doors on and off, follow these steps:

1. Remove the door and use a trim removal tool to pop the dash side of the connector off. Inspect the pins and sides of the connector. There is a white plate that slides up and down the pins when you turn the lever keeping them straight and protected. Look at the image below to see the tabs on the plate and the grooves they are supposed to be riding in.

2. If the pins are straight and the tabs are in the grooves, the plate should be low on the connector, and only short lengths of the pins should be exposed. The factory might have jammed the plate in past the tabs so that too much of the pins are exposed. This leads to bending. If so, bend the pins with a trim removal tool or likewise so that they’re straight.

3. Now use a small flathead screwdriver to push the two tabs on the lever (where it says “Push” in the image) to release the lever so it can be turned without plugging in the door side of the connector. You now can move the plate along the pins by nudging it on the sides of the connector (inside the grooves of the lever).

4.If you get it right position, the plate will pop into place when you open the lever fully. Just watch how you can move the plate up and down manually on the sides and with the lever.

Once you have the pins straight and the plate in the tabs, you should be good to go. I hope this helps.

 

[Trader979]

Anyone have any updates on this issue? Has their dealer replaced the plugs? My pins are exposed; the white plate is not covering them. The JK had a much better design.

 

[Slgraha1974]

OMGosh, I am so glad I found this post. I’ve had my Jeep for less than 3 months and two weeks ago we took it through the Rubicon Ridge Trail in Ark. I’ve had issues ever since putting my doors back on 3 weeks ago. Started with the Auto Start/Stop warning light. Took the doors and top off last weekend. When I put everything back on, the light was no longer on. This week I noticed the driver door electronics were not working, blind spot was temporarily unavailable on both doors, and my remote start was not working. Called our local dealership and was told they were too busy to check my Jeep and if I dropped it off, it would be a week or two before they would even be able to touch it. Found this post today and I fixed ALL my problems. Bent connectors!!!!! Hard to believe because they weren’t bent bad but I guess they were bad enough and weren’t making good connections.

 

[aw2657]

I have heard about this issue for months now and it finally happened to me. I'm always so careful when plugging the connector back in but it doesn't really matter how careful you are if the white pin guard is defective and stuck back up in the connector not doing its job protecting the pins. I completely agree that there are faulty connectors out there and nothing we can do about it. Every time I plug it back in I test to make sure all of the electronics seem to be working. BUT....this time I was unaware that the blind spot monitoring was not working until it was almost too late. Works fine on the driver's side but as I was switching lanes, nothing came up on my passenger mirror and I almost took out a motorcycle rider cutting lanes (legally) on the freeway. Sure you could say "I should have looked" and I did. But that is why I paid extra for this feature that is not working and you don't even know it's not working until you need it. This is a huge safety issue as far as I'm concerned and #jeepcares really needs to do something about it before something bad happens. Yeah it's an annoyance to have to manually check the pins each time and carefully plug it together. But there has to be an issue with these connectors and the pin protector not coming down like it is supposed to each time. And it's definitely not user error like some people mentioned. I followed the manual perfectly and there's nothing you can do to get the protector to work correctly each time. @JeepCares

 

[sentience]

Did you know the door wiring connectors have a built-in mechanism to prevent the pins from bending? Did you also know that whoever puts the connectors together at the factory hardly ever installs this mechanism properly, hence all the issues with bent pins? If you want to take your front doors on and off, follow these steps:

1. Remove the door and use a trim removal tool to pop the dash side of the connector off. Inspect the pins and sides of the connector. There is a white plate that slides up and down the pins when you turn the lever keeping them straight and protected. Look at the image below to see the tabs on the plate and the grooves they are supposed to be riding in.

2. If the pins are straight and the tabs are in the grooves, the plate should be low on the connector, and only short lengths of the pins should be exposed. The factory might have jammed the plate in past the tabs so that too much of the pins are exposed. This leads to bending. If so, bend the pins with a trim removal tool or likewise so that they’re straight.

3. Now use a small flathead screwdriver to push the two tabs on the lever (where it says “Push” in the image) to release the lever so it can be turned without plugging in the door side of the connector. You now can move the plate along the pins by nudging it on the sides of the connector (inside the grooves of the lever).

4.If you get it right position, the plate will pop into place when you open the lever fully. Just watch how you can move the plate up and down manually on the sides and with the lever.

Once you have the pins straight and the plate in the tabs, you should be good to go. I hope this helps.

These are very detailed instructions, but I’m an idiot. My neanderthal brain tried following along to this, and was unable to figure out how to activate the jam clearing white plate. Does anyone have a video of this procedure?

 

[aw2657]

These are very detailed instructions, but I’m an idiot. My neanderthal brain tried following along to this, and was unable to figure out how to activate the jam clearing white plate. Does anyone have a video of this procedure?

I followed the directions and was able to slide the protector back over the pins. But it won't stay in place and just slides freely in the connector but won't come back down to protect the pins again. The author did mention he wasted his time and his is stuck again as well. It's a good way to understand how everything works but I don't believe it's a "fix" for the issue.

 

[Jwisdom]

Just fixed mine myself after hearing about dealership blame... patience and tweazers to str8ten the pins back out.

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