covalt

It's been a doozy getting my new stereo all installed. Almost a month actually, but it's all done, and it sounds great.

However, yesterday when I re-connected the negative terminal on the car battery, I noticed a few problems.
The first, most concerning is that my brake lights are always on. Even when the car is turned off, the brake lights are on.

Secondly, the interior lights also are staying on. The only way I can get those to turn off is if I turn my dimmer all the way down to the lowest setting. Anything higher and the overhead lights are on.

Third, I have a message in the dash saying that a door is open, when in fact all the doors are secure.

Already I've tried a few things to see if it'd resolve the issue:
I've pulled out the new Pioneer Head Unit and replaced the factory stereo.
I've checked most of the fuses under the hood. One was broke, the one for the horn, so I replaced it - that also didn't fix problem. (I'm having a separate issue with my horn and Jeep said I need a replacement, so that's prob why the fuse was out).

I'm totally at a loss now.
Any ideas?
My only guess now is maybe that, after having the battery disconnected for 3 weeks, the computer got reset or jarbled some how? Now I need Jeep to reset computer maybe?

Thanks for any suggestions!

Vernnz

Brake lights: Did you do any work under the steering wheel? The brake pedal switch is up under there on a bracket. You or somone helping you might have accidentally bumped it out of alignment. Find the switch and manually push it in to see if the brake lights go off.

Interior Light & Doors: These two sound like an indication of the same thing. Did you disconnect either door? Check all of the doors and make sure the connectors are plugged all the way in.

covalt

Hey thanks for the suggestion!
You were spot on with the brake lights!
When I pushed the button, the lights turned off.
It's at the dealership right now getting an oil change and horn replaced, so they're looking at it (hopefully will fix it).
As for the doors - all the connections were secure. While driving, about 10 minutes into it, the light turned off. Weird.
I don't get it, but for now, if Jeep can fix the brake light thing, and the door message was just a fluke, I might just be alright.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

covalt

Crap. I guess I'm not in the clear yet.

Picked up the Jeep from the dealership. Horn is fixed, brake light is fixed (they adjusted the trigger under the dash).
However, doors open message remains (and they didn't know to fix that).

So if the Jeep thinks the doors are open, it keeps the interior lights on.

While driving to the dealership this morning, it turned off (meaning, it suddenly changed to thinking all the doors were locked) and the interior lights turned off, as they should.
So I thought maybe the problem just went away.
But when I picked it up tonight, it again said that a door was open.
I pointed out to the service guy there but he said all the technicians had left and he couldn't do anything about it then.

I did not disconnect any of the doors.
Also, all the power windows work on each door, so that tells me that the wire connections are good (right?)

Anyone have any ideas of what I can check?

Vernnz

Windows going up and down does mean the door is connected. The dealer might have to get into each door and check the triggers there.

If you are annoyed with this and want to dig into it yourself, take off the door panels. Check the sensor on the latch. It will be a similar situation as the brake pedal. Once you find the offending sensor/switch you should be able to defeat it by pushing it with a finger and see if your dome light goes off.

I've never been inside the doors so you are on your own with that. Don't forget the dome light has a 15 or 30 second delay between closing the door and light turning off.

covalt

Thanks for the tips.
Last night I checked all my wiring connections (after disconnecting the battery) and still couldn't find the source of the problem.
That is, until I started driving to go get some food, and I thought to lower my hand under the steering wheel and touch the car alarm module. Random I know. But sure enough, I moved a wire to the side, and POP! That corrected the door issue, and the car suddenly realized that the doors were shut and performed normally!
So all it was was a loose wire on the car alarm!
Must have been wiggled loose during the installation.

Oy. What a mess. But it's all finished now. No more problems, and the stereo sounds amazing.