Service Shifter

[gsxr310]

Are you guys able to shift to Drive or Reverse with the “service shifter” warning?

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[zeroquanta]

Are you guys able to shift to Drive or Reverse with the “service shifter” warning?

It depends, initially yes. When the can bus is drawn down further by whatever damage... See my earlier post... Then it can be affected enough to kill the shifter fully. I only had this happen near the end.

As an aside, 800 miles in to my repair and no problems.

 

[agpthng]

Are you guys able to shift to Drive or Reverse with the “service shifter” warning?

Sometimes no I wasn't able to the shifter was frozed/locked whereever it was.

 

[Bob Burd]

It depends, initially yes. When the can bus is drawn down further by whatever damage... See my earlier post... Then it can be affected enough to kill the shifter fully. I only had this happen near the end.

As an aside, 800 miles in to my repair and no problems.

Sounds almost identical to my issue, which I think is ultimately something with the swaybar disconnect wiring. Can you share the connector matrix you discovered in your Plan B effort? I'm just starting this and the second one I disconnected won't let the engine start. Figured others could learn from an effort you've already done.

btw, I'll add my own helpful bit. I struggled initially to figure out how to get the connectors out. There's a plastic tab just behind the two (or three) wires that you need to get a tiny screwdriver (or similar) behind, then a pair of needlenose pliers to wiggle the connector free.

 

[zeroquanta]

Sounds almost identical to my issue, which I think is ultimately something with the swaybar disconnect wiring. Can you share the connector matrix you discovered in your Plan B effort? I'm just starting this and the second one I disconnected won't let the engine start. Figured others could learn from an effort you've already done.

btw, I'll add my own helpful bit. I struggled initially to figure out how to get the connectors out. There's a plastic tab just behind the two (or three) wires that you need to get a tiny screwdriver (or similar) behind, then a pair of needlenose pliers to wiggle the connector free.

I honestly don't think it will be useful, not necessarily any rhyme or reason to what is plugged in where on my 2020 Rubicon vs others. It's a bus, so if a couple of plugs are swapped around it will still work. Because of this I don't have any certainty that mine would even remotely match yours.

The connectors are delicate, I used a micro flat screwdriver and just got a feel for it eventually.

My swaybar was 8th port from the left on the front side according to my notes. I was relatively lucky and it was the fourth device that I disconnected.
I started with that front row, moved from the left and found an unknown, start stop system (I think), shifter, and then the sway bar. When I was testing for shorts and abnormal readings from each wire I was not testing with vehicle power, so no clue what those connectors actually lined up to except for the ones listed above. But again, your results may vary. As it stands my wire colors didn't seem to be a perfect match for the 2018 diagrams I found on the forum. I actually tried to buy the 2020 diagrams(what's a 100-200$ to get information to fix this...), but somehow they were out of stock.

My swaybar (electronics) have been disconnected since my original post, over a thousand miles free and clear of this issue for me. Air actuated swayloc should be here soon. Ordered for my JLU and for my LJ.

I still want to emphasize that this kind of problem is fairly easy to diagnose once you start looking at this hub. All the bus connections run here, you can test most of them there by the methods I mentioned before. It's a pretty fun diagnostic problem once you have a grasp on it. If anybody is within a few hours of Raleigh NC I would be happy to come help directly.

 

[Bob Burd]

I figured the order would be different (heck, I've moved them several times through different efforts to address this), but the specific units they connect to would be the same. There are 12 connectors on the CAN-C, and I identified:
Shifter
Temp gauges
EVIC
Power Steering
Wipers
2 of the connectors would not allow the car to start and threw a bunch of errors
2 others threw a bunch of errors like ABS/airbags/auto park/etc
The 3-wire one I believe goes to the OBDII port or Security gateway.
That left me with 2 that left me with the common sway bar disconnect error that I've gotten used to. So, I figured it must be one of these two. I will drive with one or the other disconnected for a while to see if I can nail down which one. I was hoping you might have more detail than I have above so I would know what to look for to narrow it down between the two.
My plan is to eventually figure out where on the wire harness the problem is, and repair it. Open, short, or bad module, though I doubt it's the latter.
At least now I understand better why I get Service Shifter and lose power steering occasionally. These were considered non-essential services and ended up on the CAN-C.

 

[zeroquanta]

I figured the order would be different (heck, I've moved them several times through different efforts to address this), but the specific units they connect to would be the same. There are 12 connectors on the CAN-C, and I identified:
Shifter
Temp gauges
EVIC
Power Steering
Wipers
2 of the connectors would not allow the car to start and threw a bunch of errors
2 others threw a bunch of errors like ABS/airbags/auto park/etc
The 3-wire one I believe goes to the OBDII port or Security gateway.
That left me with 2 that left me with the common sway bar disconnect error that I've gotten used to. So, I figured it must be one of these two. I will drive with one or the other disconnected for a while to see if I can nail down which one. I was hoping you might have more detail than I have above so I would know what to look for to narrow it down between the two.
My plan is to eventually figure out where on the wire harness the problem is, and repair it. Open, short, or bad module, though I doubt it's the latter.
At least now I understand better why I get Service Shifter and lose power steering occasionally. These were considered non-essential services and ended up on the CAN-C.

No more information, sounds like you are on the right track though. Would just about have to be a short or bad module, an open circuit wouldn't take anything else down with it. Would be easy enough to run a new bus wire to your swaybar if you suspect damage to the wire. Im fairly certain mine was caused by corrosion in the sway bar disconnect. I will take it apart when I get my new swaybar just for giggles. Ultimately for me it didn't matter, I wanted a dual rate swaybar setup anyway.

How severe had your issue been?

 

[Bob Burd]

I think it could be an open as well - an intermittent can corrupt bus data, I could easily imagine.
It hasn't stranded me yet, have had the problem for 100Kmi now (I've got 152K on it). Mostly it just took out the swaybar. A year ago I tried just disconnecting the connector at the swaybar, but I still got the occasional shifter and other errors. That's what leads me to believe it isn't the swaybar itself. This last trip I had some extra flexing and the shifter error became more pronounced. Which is why I'm tackling it now before I DO get stranded.

 

[zeroquanta]

I think it could be an open as well - an intermittent can corrupt bus data, I could easily imagine.
It hasn't stranded me yet, have had the problem for 100Kmi now (I've got 152K on it). Mostly it just took out the swaybar. A year ago I tried just disconnecting the connector at the swaybar, but I still got the occasional shifter and other errors. That's what leads me to believe it isn't the swaybar itself. This last trip I had some extra flexing and the shifter error became more pronounced. Which is why I'm tackling it now before I DO get stranded.

Ah, yeah good Idea to take care before it strands you. Mine went from the intermittent service shifter only to full on loss of what seemed to be the entire bus in 100 miles or so.

I am sure that you probably searched through the forums and found the rest of the posts about this. I recall seeing mention of the wiring harness getting damaged in the passenger side bumper/radiator area. I'd be suspicious of that front passenger section of the wiring harness, might be grounding/getting cut on the cooling bits up there, especially during flex. Once you isolate off the bus via the star connector you could use a wire tracer/sniffer to track through the vehicle. Not too terribly expensive if you didn't already have. Too bad you aren't close, I think it's kind of fun to track down problems like this.

 

[Bob Burd]

Ah, yeah good Idea to take care before it strands you. Mine went from the intermittent service shifter only to full on loss of what seemed to be the entire bus in 100 miles or so.

I am sure that you probably searched through the forums and found the rest of the posts about this. I recall seeing mention of the wiring harness getting damaged in the passenger side bumper/radiator area. I'd be suspicious of that front passenger section of the wiring harness, might be grounding/getting cut on the cooling bits up there, especially during flex. Once you isolate off the bus via the star connector you could use a wire tracer/sniffer to track through the vehicle. Not too terribly expensive if you didn't already have. Too bad you aren't close, I think it's kind of fun to track down problems like this.

I've had a good look at the front area near radiator/swaybar and found nothing. I suspect one of the connectors. I dug further and found the the can-c wiring diagram posted on this site very helpful. I was able to identify all the modules based on the wire color scheme (mine is a 2018, so perfect match). I've got the swaybar one identified and disconnected. I'll be out on a 1,000mi roadtrip starting later this week. Will update with what I find. Hopefully, I just have to deal with the blinking swaybar light for now.

 

[kellywi]

Well I'm back made it a few k and boom wipers come on all electronics freaked out, power steering went out and engine fan hit 11. Do we have a process for a class action suit on this bs?

 

[Bob Burd]

I've had a good look at the front area near radiator/swaybar and found nothing. I suspect one of the connectors. I dug further and found the the can-c wiring diagram posted on this site very helpful. I was able to identify all the modules based on the wire color scheme (mine is a 2018, so perfect match). I've got the swaybar one identified and disconnected. I'll be out on a 1,000mi roadtrip starting later this week. Will update with what I find. Hopefully, I just have to deal with the blinking swaybar light for now.

Just a follow-up. About 1,200mi and 100 of those on dirt roads, some quite rough. No more "Service Shifter" or other errors aside from the swaybar light being on. Next up is to debug the wire harness to find what is likely an intermittent short. Will update with pics IF if find the source...

 

[Rikail]

Hi everyone,
I had the same problem on my french Rubicon 4 doors...
i think i found the problem that was causing my christmas tree on my dashboard... and that displayed "service shifter".

for my case everyone can fix it, it's not complicated.


When I went under my jeep and looked at the whole harness from the transfer case to the glove box... + the harness going from the engine to the Sway bar connection

I found a harness that was completely bare at the Sway bar

it was rubbing against the condenser (or radiator I don't know) the sheath was completely non-existent and the copper was bare... so of course... it's a cause for concern...


I hope to have corrected the problem... and that there is no other point like this one

this cable is visible from below (under the front bumper) and from above under the grille. (by pushing the plastics of the original bumper)



I will try to make a video more explanatory...

 

[Gab469]

I have a 2021 jl willys with 22k on it went over some railroad tracks last sunday and get that warning. Of course takes dealer 10 days to get me in but when you walk on guys are standing around. Im worried cuz if have a lift and larger tire they are going to 1 use that as a reason why it happened 2 not know what it is cuz its only happened 3 more times since the first time so they are going to say that they can't duplicate the problem and 3 if they do they're not going to know what to do and they're too stubborn to listen and read the forums from what I've read about this wiring harness. Anyone with any suggestions on how many of the co concerns I have with the same issue.or any input?

 

[RMK7871]

So I had the same issue late last year. Dealer had it for weeks and no luck. The problem went away and has not happened in over 6 months now. Thinking back to prior to it happening the first time we had gone through two hurricanes and I had driven through some flooded areas. I am wondering if a wiring harness could have gotten wet and just took some time to completely dry out?

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