eDisassemble and Unstick Housing and Tow/Haul Button

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randomuser107

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Hello, just thought this would be the relevant place to post this, although it's more of a recap of what worked for me.

I'm getting ready to sell my 2011 Jeep Liberty and wanted to fix some things that have been bothering me, including the driver's side master switch as well as a stuck tow/haul button.

The tow/haul button has been stuck for a while and I thought I was probably going to have to invest a lot of time into getting to the bottom of this, but in actuality, this project takes less than 10 minutes to complete! Some kind person on another forum posted some verbal directions, but didn't have pictures. I thought I'd take some photos while I was doing this, although I admittedly had the idea and started at a late point in small project. Thankfully, you can extrapolate and draw inferences and move backwards through the photos I have taken. I'll try to organize things in a digestible manner despite where I was in the process so that you don't have to organize it yourself!


Step 1 : You'll want to get some type of prying tool, although a flathead screwdriver will work as well. I went ahead and made my way perpendicularly into the gap about an inch underneath the first gear option on the shifter box. I then pried upward and it popped out at these points, You can also do this in between P and R to pop out the side closer to the dashboard.

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Step 2, 3, 4 : After popping out the plastic, remove your shifter knob. Mine is one that you can pull right off. You can then remove the 4x4 wiring harness by pressing on the little retainer button and pulling it out. Now you can remove the entire plastic housing. I removed it by raising the side closer to the center console first.

4x4 Wiring Harness :
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Shifter Knob :
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Step 3 : With these things out of the way, you can now remove the upper face plate of the gear shifter. There are little retaining clips on all 4 sides. I started with the clips on the left side first, using a flat plastic wedge and then simply pulled the right side out by leveraging the loose left side. It came right off after this.

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Step 4 : With the face plate removed, the tow/haul button is now exposed and can be messed with. The clips retaining the tow/haul button are vertically positioned and can be squeezed to free the button itself. Once the button is free, I took the plastic wedge, and gently pushed against the small piece you see in the middle of the button. This, combined with pressing the button a few times, freed the button up and revealed to me that the spring inside of the button was still mechanically working. There was a bunch of dust that started to slowly make its way out of the spring as I continued to press the button!

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Step 5 : Once you've determined whether or not your switch is still good (Turn on the car, press the button, see if the cluster responds with the respective tow/haul light activating. If not, maybe you will need to research further :(. But... if you're lucky, as I was, you should now begin to reassemble the parts the opposite way in which you removed them in this little recap!

Replace button and ensure wiring is routed corrected for tow/haul button > replace face plate for gear shifter and ensure little blue strip is not removed > replace the 4x4 wiring harness, put the car in neutral and ensure all 4x4 options are working correctly > if all works, replace the outer plastic housing and the shifter knob. Viola! All done.

If this is totally unhelpful, sorry :D.
 

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lfhoward

Wheel. Repair. Repeat.
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Nice thorough write up! That tow-haul button is pretty finicky. I bet mine is filled with dust and dirt too after 17 years. Not to mention spilled coffee.
 

randomuser107

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Thanks! I feel like this thing runs so much better with the tow/haul on to be honest lol. I have no idea how much gas I'm wasting in comparison, but the power feels awesome. It's like I'm in a totally different vehicle lol
 
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