Installed CB, now no power to dash/steering wheel

[Jondrew]

Update:

This is spiraling into a major headache. The auto electrician went to work on it this morning, and despite my explaining about the second battery, they couldn't seem to make any progress. And things just kept getting worse the more they tried. Eventually, they did find an issue where the aux battery seems to be an issue, as it won't hold a charge. They recharged it, we got it started, the instrument cluster came back on after clearing out the codes on the computer, but after a few minutes, the dashboard lit up like a Christmas tree with all kinds of error codes. They continued to work on it.... until after 4 hours they gave up, when the car would no longer turn on at all.

AAA gave me a tow to the dealership, though the service department was closing within 30 minutes, but the tech seemed to think we may have tripped an unserviceable fuse within the fuse box, underneath the panel and out of view. Or who knows what is going on with the computer on board. All I know is that I could drive the car perfectly fine and everything worked except for the instrument cluster before I brought it into the third party, who may have blown something a bit more major.

Dealership service won't get to the car until Tuesday at the earliest, and if it's what he thinks it is, it'll be another day or two for the part to come in. And no loaner, as this one is on me. Another unfortunate part of all of this is that the salesman who sold me the car (and my wife's JK as well) is no longer at the dealership, so my internal point of leverage is gone.

Still would love to know what the hell went wrong with the initial connect of the CB. It may have very well been a faulty aux battery that was just brought to the surface by all of this. But it looks like I have way more to deal with for now.

In short: don't risk bringing your JL to an outside automotive electric shop unless they REALLY know their stuff on the JL. The new setup threw these guys for a loop, and they only made it (much, much) worse.

Dont put too much trust in dealer shop knowledge. They still havnt figured out the new JLs only get 5 quarts of oil instead of the 6 in the older jeeps.

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[EarlThe3rd]

Dont put too much trust in dealer shop knowledge. They still havnt figured out the new JLs only get 5 quarts of oil instead of the 6 in the older jeeps.

Yup, but it can't be any worse than what I just came from. Or can it...

 

[Jondrew]

Yup, but it can't be any worse than what I just came from. Or can it...

Well good luck. Its probably something simple that you just can’t get to

 

[ormandj]

Faulty batteries cause a myriad of issues. I wouldn't be surprised if your initial problem was just the bad battery, coupled with drain from your CB, or perhaps just complete coincidence on timing or a short or something. I wouldn't let shadetree electrical guys near the guts of an electrical system on a modern car, the dealerships are bad enough even with a service manual (that they never seem to follow). Repairing a failed wire to a headlight is one thing, troubleshooting a computer-controlled gauge cluster with display is another thing entirely. Hope you aren't in a much worse place now - as long as your electrical guy didn't muck with any of the wiring or cause any shorts you're hopefully ok and still at square one with a battery issue.

 

[CanAmMick]

Dont put too much trust in dealer shop knowledge. They still havnt figured out the new JLs only get 5 quarts of oil instead of the 6 in the older jeeps.

I wouldn’t let the dealership change my anyway! That’s something that I enjoy doing and I really want to see what the oil looks like when I drain it.

I can say one thing about my dealership in Sheridan Wyoming. My Jeep was in the shop for over 3 weeks. Took it there because my battery voltage showed 14.8 all of the time when the engine was running. Didn’t matter if I was going 75, or the engine was at an idle. They ended up fixing some wires that were shorted.

When I picked it up, batter voltage was a little lower, but after starting home it went back up to 14.8. I really thought taking it there at first was a big waste of time, and figured they didn’t actually find anything wrong with it. Voltage stayed at 14.8 for about two days, and since had been slowly going down. When I drove it yesterday, it went up to 14.6, then down to 14.2, which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it.

If I ever have something that I can’t figure out, I would be more than happy to take it back up them.

 

[EarlThe3rd]

So I think Jeep Informant over on Youtube just saved me with this video:


I ordered the part directly from him and will replace it (or make the dealership do it since my car is locked up in their yard) while they still take a look at the aux battery and do any computer reset that needs to take place.

Thank Baby Jesus for the interwebs and guys like Jeep Informant, as well as everybody here who's been trying to help.

 

[Varilux]

Hope the dealership gets your Jeep sorted out!

Thank you for posting that video! I was hooking up some lights a couple weeks ago, and noticed those "extra" bolts on the side of the power hub. I mistakenly thought Jeep had provided a bunch of extra ports to tie into for positive terminals, and was really confused by the readings I was getting from my voltmeter with the positive terminal disconnected.

 

[EarlThe3rd]

Hope the dealership gets your Jeep sorted out!

Thank you for posting that video! I was hooking up some lights a couple weeks ago, and noticed those "extra" bolts on the side of the power hub. I mistakenly thought Jeep had provided a bunch of extra ports to tie into for positive terminals, and was really confused by the readings I was getting from my voltmeter with the positive terminal disconnected.

Happy to share. It's clearly something that isn't well understood about the JLs yet. Jeep Informant did an even more extensive video right here:



I even bought some stuff from his online store, including the fuse terminal, as a thank you for the work he's doing.

 

[Jondrew]

Happy to share. It's clearly something that isn't well understood about the JLs yet. Jeep Informant did an even more extensive video right here:



I even bought some stuff from his online store, including the fuse terminal, as a thank you for the work he's doing.

Yea, thanks for brining that channel to my attention. I like his videos.

 

[EarlThe3rd]

So after nearly two weeks, FINALLY, my car is back to normal. After all of the headaches, there were actually three problems that were preventing the electrical system from functioning properly:

• A couple broken, or at least damaged, wires, located in the harness going through the rubber grommet in the firewall. Apparently when I pushed the CB power wire through with a coat hanger, it got caught on or must have done some damage to two wires in that harness in the grommet. One was to the climate control panel, and the other was linking an acceleration sensor in the front of the vehicle to the airbags. The dealership ran two new wires as a work-around to the damaged wires in the harness (which, according to them, would have cost ~$4k to replace....if accurate).

• A faulty aux battery, which was causing ALL KINDS of problems with the electrical system, with stop/start not working (no complaints there, though), and the radio never shutting off properly. And my Tazer JL Mini wasn't being recognized in the bypass port wires.

• A blown high amp fuse, in the non-serviceable fuse panel noted in the videos above. This was most likely done by the car electrician, caused by reversing the polarity.

After all of that was taken care of, the Jeep is back in tip-top shape (so far, knock on wood). All due to some bad luck (and dumb stubbornness) when pushing wires through that grommet in the firewall. Or in the case of the bad aux battery, that was what uncovered the problem. Learn from my mistakes. Getting through that grommet is HARD, but it's not THAT hard. If so, you're probably doing it wrong, like me.

 

[Jondrew]

So after nearly two weeks, FINALLY, my car is back to normal. After all of the headaches, there were actually three problems that were preventing the electrical system from functioning properly:

• A couple broken, or at least damaged, wires, located in the harness going through the rubber grommet in the firewall. Apparently when I pushed the CB power wire through with a coat hanger, it got caught on or must have done some damage to two wires in that harness in the grommet. One was to the climate control panel, and the other was linking an acceleration sensor in the front of the vehicle to the airbags. The dealership ran two new wires as a work-around to the damaged wires in the harness (which, according to them, would have cost ~$4k to replace....if accurate).

• A faulty aux battery, which was causing ALL KINDS of problems with the electrical system, with stop/start not working (no complaints there, though), and the radio never shutting off properly. And my Tazer JL Mini wasn't being recognized in the bypass port wires.

• A blown high amp fuse, in the non-serviceable fuse panel noted in the videos above. This was most likely done by the car electrician, caused by reversing the polarity.

After all of that was taken care of, the Jeep is back in tip-top shape (so far, knock on wood). All due to some bad luck (and dumb stubbornness) when pushing wires through that grommet in the firewall. Or in the case of the bad aux battery, that was what uncovered the problem. Learn from my mistakes. Getting through that grommet is HARD, but it's not THAT hard. If so, you're probably doing it wrong, like me.

Glad you got your ride back. Live and learn

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