21st May 2006, 23:31

Add me to the list of door locks and tail-light problems. This web site has been a huge blessing since stumbling on it earlier today. I have my work planned and bought the Harada actuators earlier today 2/$21. A short term fix hint on lights: the turn signal socket is the same as the upper tail light (brake light) in the housing and I found it had far less wear than my non-functioning brake socket. I switched them and now the tail/brake lights work correctly... much more important than my signals till I can get the new sockets from Jeep! Thanks again for those who posted solutions to these common problems!!

9th Jun 2006, 21:41

Wow. I have a 2000 JGC. Same issues.

1.) Door locks (duck calling noise) - rear lift, passengers front door, and rear door locks (three total). I fixed the rear lift myself. What a complete pain. But I will purchase the Harada switches ASAP and try it myself to save $300 to $400 dollars.

2.) Brake light problems - ditto... Same thing. I thought that my wife was crazy or something...

3.) Tweeter problem - ditto.. Same thing.

Plus one other major problem - Main computer board.

One of the earlier posts noted that his 2000 JGC would just die at a intersection. Same thing was happening to us. The car would just jerk and sputter everywhere. Yes it would give us the dreaded check engine light. Took it to the dealer and got the alarm code read - Bad injectors (1, 2, 3, 7, and 8). The dealer thought that this was a bit unusual, but charged me $500.00 to replace and install the injectors. About one week later, same issue. This time I took it to a local garage and he talked me into a tune up and fuel pump. He thought that I got some bad gas. Another $450.00 down the tubes. Same problem. I took it back to the dealer, and finally they THOUGHT that it could be the PC board (main computer board). Problem fixed.

NOTE: If you are experiencing this problem, be aware that the good old government passed a law stating that all auto manufacturers must warranty this PC board for 8 years and 80,000 miles. Luckily I had 74,000 miles on mine.

I hope that this helps someone.

This is our fourth Jeep (96 JGC, 98 JGC, 02 Liberty, and the 2000 JGC that we all are having problems with) and this one is the only Jeep that we had major issues with. I can't believe that Jeep will not stand up and say "We have a problem and let's fix it". I spoke with the dealership service department in my area, and they are aware of the issues, but can't do anything about it. It's just a shame for another American car company to get a bad reputation for these easily solvable problems. I too will look at a Honda or Toyota in the future.

17th Jun 2006, 01:28

My 2000 GCL's rear liftgate is starting to quack too, darn it.

For those whose liftgate locks have gone out, you can open it manually through the tiny door on the inside of the liftgate. After it's open, you've got to feel your way through the insulation to move the lever down - once it's down, you have to go back outside and open the door latch. There's a great pic at http://www.wjjeeps.com/liftgate_03.jpg.

17th Jun 2006, 11:38

A few weeks ago my passenger front power door lock stopped working, and started making the grinding sound. About a week after that, the same thing happened to my passenger rear lock. About a week later, after cleaning my car one Sunday afternoon, I discovered quite a bit of water on my passenger side floorboard. I have very limited experience with cars, the only thing I had done with mine prior is install a stereo (which ended up being helpful because I was familiar with taking the door panels off). I'm writing this comment to help a novice like myself.

I stumbled into this forum when doing a Google search. Although the posts helped, ultimately the solutions varied a little bit, as my car is a bit older than most others in this post – it is a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. It has about 115,000 miles.

(1) Water on floor boards:

After a look though this forum and a search on the Internet, I came to this site:

http://www.aircondition.com/tech/questions/4/

Take the screws out and pull the carpet back and drill a ¼ inch hole in the middle of the black plastic drain tube housing. I used a coat hanger to try and clear the blockage.

Problem was, after exhausting that means of repairing the problem, it still leaked! It was coming from the bottom of the piece of plastic I had drilled a hole in.

I went to home depot and bought outdoor waterproof caulk. I caulked around the bottom half of the drain tube housing and I am not having a leak any more. If it does start to back up in there, I figure the water will leak from the top half of the drain tube housing instead of flooding the blower area (hopefully!).

I also opted to caulk the hole I drilled to clear the drain pipe with the same caulk. It worked great and can easily be peeled out if necessary. Leak is gone and no problems yet – it has been a week.

(2) Door locks:

The 98 part is a bit different than the actuator that everyone talks about here. I called my local Jeep dealer and asked for a door lock mechanism for the passenger front and passenger rear. Actually I called all area dealers to try to get the best price. I found about a $50 variance from the high to the low for both parts, so calling around ended up saving me about $100. I got the front mechanism for (with tax) $94 and the rear for (with tax) $138. Apparently the child safety lock in the rear makes the part more expensive. Part #’s (front passenger 4798914-AC 23018005 // rear passenger 4798916-ab 23018005). Not one dealership carried the rear part, it had to be special ordered, but only took one day to get.

Basically you just have to take the door panels off, disconnect the network of rods, and install the new part. Make sure you have a power drill and also some heavy duty Zep hand cleaner with pumice, because you are going to get dirty. Didn't think I needed any special hand cleaner and I went to work the next Monday morning looking like I shoved my hands in the dirt before walking through the door. The front lock took me a couple of hours because I didn't know what I was doing, and the rear took about 30 minutes. After you install the new mechanism, make sure to adjust the screw (you can see it through the hole in the side of the door after the new mechanism is installed, the inset part looks like a square), or else the door button on the outside of the car will not work! After I got both of these completed, I also took my trunk panel off and adjusted the tension on the handle for the trunk – it never worked properly, but now it does!

Hope this helps someone.