2007 Liberty electrical issues

[Jay Michigan]

2007 Jeep Liberty Limited
3.7L automatic
Roughly 158,000 miles – maintenance history pretty much unknown.

Hi again everyone,

About a week or so ago my Jeep was parked, off, and hadn’t been driven in a couple of days. At about 10:00 PM the horn went off by itself and wouldn’t stop (not the panic alarm, just a solid beep for what seemed like 4 hours). I tried pressing on the horn, turning the Jeep on and pressing on the horn and nothing stopped it. We finally disconnected the battery to get it to shut up. I pulled the horn/windows fuse before I drove it a couple of days later. When I pulled the fuse the fuse box made a clicking sound for a minute or so and then stopped and didn’t do it again.

A couple days after that, again with the Jeep parked and off, my husband said when he got up to let the dogs out everything was fine, but an hour later when he left for work the headlights had come on by themselves. When he started the Jeep the headlights worked like they should, but when he turned the Jeep off the headlights came back on and nothing he could do would get them to shut off so he again pulled a battery terminal.

I needed the Jeep a couple of days later so reconnected the battery and pulled the four headlight fuses. The fuse box made the clicking sound. I drove the Jeep on errands and when I shut it off the fuse box made a really fast clicking noise that turned into a whining, clicking, crackling sound. After the second stop when I came back out and started it up there was no fuse box noise. It’s been parked since then.

I’ve read through a bunch of forum posts with these issues and haven’t come up with anything too conclusive. It could be bad relays, it could be one of the sticks on the steering wheel column, basically it could be a bunch of different things, so I’m hoping someone has had a similar issue and found a fix.

Unfortunately it’s been snowy, rainy and ugly here and we don’t have a garage to do anything too complex. Thanks for reading this far.

 

[turblediesel]

A weak/dying battery can cause odd things to happen. Next time it's disconnected clamp the battery wires together for awhile (45 minutes). That's supposed to reset the computer.

Try to locate the clicking relay by sight and touch next time it acts up. That'll give you some idea what circuit has a bad switch or short. Try swapping an identical relay and see if that helps.

Bad corroded grounds can cause odd problems.

 

[Eric120daniel]

I don't know about Liberty's but GM has major issues where the fuse box corrodes and messes up the entire electric system. I'd pull a few fuses and see if any of the post on them are corroded. It could also have overheated or exposed to water or mud. I'd inspect it thoroughly maybe even take it off the battery tray assembly if possible to get a better look at the sides and bottom. also try and smell the area and see if you can smell a burning plastic electronic smell. If so if probably recommend going to your local salvage yard and getting a fuse box of the same year of liberty if possible. I'd also recommend checking and cleaning your terminals with a wire brush or sandpaper but make sure to use gloves. it doesn't take a ton of Corrosion to cause issues. Make sure they're nice and tight and I would also take off the wire terminals on your fuse box and clean them both as well. Well not sure if an 07 has them but my 03 does. Hope you're able to find the problem Unfortunately cars only have issues when the weather is horrible. My liberty no longer has heat and I said whatever because I thought we where past the major cold weather and now it's snowing!!!

 

[Billwill]

One way to eliminate the "sticks on the steering column" ie. "multifunctiion Switch"..is to remove the plastic cover over the top of the steering column which holds the Multifunction Switch in place. There you will see the single connector going to the switch...pull this off and see if the lights still go crazy.

The BCM also has some control over the lighting...keeping the lights ON for a while after turning off the ignition at night.

The Clockspring under the steering wheel Boss carries the Horn power...I have replaced the Clockspring twice on my 2002 Export CRD...180,000 kms.

Export models...which I presume yours is not... have a switch under the Hood that senses if the hood is being forced open...this sets off the horn!

Probably a wiring problem...wires shorting to other wires or to ground. There are no 2007 Service Manuals available here but the 2006 manuals should be close enough....colors of the wiring are probably different!

You can download the Jeep KJ Service Manuals here

www.colorado4wheel.com/manuals/Jeep/KJ/

 

[JeepJeepster]

Pop the cover off of the fuse box on the left end of the dash and make sure its not wet. The BCM is also in there and if the door seal leaks, then this sortve stuff happens.

 

[Johnny O]

Battery check first, then I agree with bill- you got a short somewhere.

 

[Schinde]

The issue is the fuse box and kick panel on the drivers side got wet. The reason is your drain tube(s) for your sunroof is plugged or broken, and water is leaking down into the fuse box and kick panel via the "A" pillar. This happened to me (same year and model). Horn started going off at 4:30am. You won't be able to completely cure the issue until you get the leak fixed, and the whole left side under the "A" pillar dried out, including the fuse box.

 

[Martin Jackson]

Would a low battery voltage cause the clock spring to burn out?
I threw the engine belt few days back, and lost power steering, alternator, water pump etc.
Had to keep driving for a few miles to reach a gas station to pull off the highway.

Just before I pulled off, I got a low voltage warning (lights drained the battery, not getting charged) then a few seconds later all hell broke loose.

Airbag, ESP and anti skid lights came on, horn stopped working, cruise control didnt work.
Got the belt sorted, engine now runs fine, cleared the low voltage code etc, but the airbag, ESP warning lights still lit, cruise control, horn etc not working.

I think this all points to a defective clock spring, but how would a low voltage cause this?

I am searching junk shops for a second hand clock spring, but no luck so far. No shops or Jeep dealer have stock of it (I am in Abu Dhabi, UAE), so might have to ship one from US off Ebay - but just want to be sure this is the real issue here.

Is there any way to test a clock spring? Or anything else I can look at (fuses, relays etc)?

 

[lfhoward]

Because the original poster’s KJ is an 07, which is electrically similar to the 08-12 KK, I would say her issue was a failing TIPM (totally integrated power module, or the fancy underhood fuse box).

The lights on after the low voltage issue might be reset by disconnecting the battery cables and tying them together for an hour. This discharges the system and resets computer memory. Hopefully everything works again when reconnected (if the battery has a full charge).