kb0nly
Full Access Member
My oldest son has an 05 KJ thats been acting all sorts of weird and i am trying to replace the BCM on it, but for the life of me after hours of trying the only way i can see to get the PIA out is to go caveman on it with a sawzall and start cutting the dash out. How in the world are you supposed to get the fuse box down and out to replace the BCM module on it??
I removed all the cables connected to it, unscrewed it, loosened up harnesses, removed the knee pad from the dash, the underside panel, cleared out everything that can be loosened, shoved aside, unbolted, you name it, there is still not enough room without maybe taking out the steering column as well because the large bracket thats part of the steering column support has this big ear off it to the left side that the fuse box hits. I get about a 1/2" of wiggle room to move it inward from its mounting location and thats not enough to clear anything below it to pull it out. So after three hours fighting it i gave up put it back together and walked away.
As for the back story, here is the issues, the darn thing thinks there is a door open all the time, says DOOR on the odometer display. If you open the glass it says GLASS, if you open the rear door it says GATE, but his unlike my 03 says DOOR for all four doors, my 03 will say drivers, passengers, rear drivers, etc. I thought it must have been a door ajar switch on one of the doors, so i checked all four doors, traced out all the wiring and unplugged the connectors from the BCM and i can probe the four door wires at the BCM and any of the ground pins or just to a body ground and open and close all four doors and see they are switching, so its not the doors ajar switch in any of them causing it. Also the wiring all checks out with continuity checks from the inside of each door to the BCM plug.
According to the service manual when the door is open the door ajar switch closes the circuit to ground, and indeed thats what all four doors do, but since opening the door is what closes the circuit then removing the connection to the door ajar switches would fool the BCM to thinking all four doors are closed even if they aren't. So i removed the four door wires from the BCM plug as a last ditch effort knowing it wouldn't make any difference and plugged it back in, and sure enough it proved my troubleshooting because even with the door ajar switch wires disconnected from the BCM it still thinks a door is open, but since his just says DOOR i don't have anything else to go on.
That just leaves the BCM as being the problem, so i was going to pull the BCM and have a look at it and then replace it. I know on some other Dodge vehicles that members of the family have owned over the years that i was able to repair BCM problems, usually just a bad FET or blown resistor on the PCB. But i cannot for the life of me get that dang BCM out of the vehicle!!
The service manual description says to remove the three screws, and the lower panel and drop it out the bottom.... Fat chance, you couldn't fit something half its size out the bottom. So what am i missing here?
I removed all the cables connected to it, unscrewed it, loosened up harnesses, removed the knee pad from the dash, the underside panel, cleared out everything that can be loosened, shoved aside, unbolted, you name it, there is still not enough room without maybe taking out the steering column as well because the large bracket thats part of the steering column support has this big ear off it to the left side that the fuse box hits. I get about a 1/2" of wiggle room to move it inward from its mounting location and thats not enough to clear anything below it to pull it out. So after three hours fighting it i gave up put it back together and walked away.
As for the back story, here is the issues, the darn thing thinks there is a door open all the time, says DOOR on the odometer display. If you open the glass it says GLASS, if you open the rear door it says GATE, but his unlike my 03 says DOOR for all four doors, my 03 will say drivers, passengers, rear drivers, etc. I thought it must have been a door ajar switch on one of the doors, so i checked all four doors, traced out all the wiring and unplugged the connectors from the BCM and i can probe the four door wires at the BCM and any of the ground pins or just to a body ground and open and close all four doors and see they are switching, so its not the doors ajar switch in any of them causing it. Also the wiring all checks out with continuity checks from the inside of each door to the BCM plug.
According to the service manual when the door is open the door ajar switch closes the circuit to ground, and indeed thats what all four doors do, but since opening the door is what closes the circuit then removing the connection to the door ajar switches would fool the BCM to thinking all four doors are closed even if they aren't. So i removed the four door wires from the BCM plug as a last ditch effort knowing it wouldn't make any difference and plugged it back in, and sure enough it proved my troubleshooting because even with the door ajar switch wires disconnected from the BCM it still thinks a door is open, but since his just says DOOR i don't have anything else to go on.
That just leaves the BCM as being the problem, so i was going to pull the BCM and have a look at it and then replace it. I know on some other Dodge vehicles that members of the family have owned over the years that i was able to repair BCM problems, usually just a bad FET or blown resistor on the PCB. But i cannot for the life of me get that dang BCM out of the vehicle!!
The service manual description says to remove the three screws, and the lower panel and drop it out the bottom.... Fat chance, you couldn't fit something half its size out the bottom. So what am i missing here?