Yesterday we stopped for lunch in Susanville, CA on our way towards Sacramento.
When we started off again, our 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD began acting weird. Every few minutes there would be a ding, and the ESP/BAS, traction control, and ABS yellow error lights on the dash would turn on. Within an instant, they would turn off again.
Uhhh?!?
The Jeep was driving fine, but with a ding happening every few minutes, we were concerned.
We stopped in at a Jeep dealer in Susanville for some advice, and though the tech didn’t have time to take a closer look right away, he observed that all three of those lights are driven by the same wheel sensors, and maybe one of them is dirty from our recent dirt-road driving. He suggested that blasting out the wheel wells at a car wash might do the trick, and he said we should be fine driving the rest of the way to Sacramento despite the dinging.
And indeed, we made it to Sacramento just fine. Despite the non-stop ding-fest, our Jeep drove fine, and the engine never faltered.
Unfortunately – I think that there is more wrong than just a dirty sensor in the wheel.
During the 180 mile drive from Susanville to Sacramento, we noticed that our odometer actually only advanced 80 miles (great for prolonging our extended warranty I guess)… Also, though the three-way ESP/BAS, traction, ABS flash was by far the most common, the airbag warning light would also occasionally flash on for a moment, and sometimes the passenger airbag disabled light would flash on too. And most bizarrely to witness, sometimes the fuel warning light would flash on, and the fuel gauge would drop to zero before a moment later recovering to display the correct amount.
I’m pretty sure that isn’t caused by a dirty sensor in the wheel well…. I think our Jeep has gone mad.
Or more likely – there is a loose or corroded connector on the main computer or one of the wiring harnesses, but I don’t know where to start looking to track down and fix this. Tracing down intermittent electrical ghosts is a troubleshooting nightmare. And as we have an extended warranty, it’s not worth trying to tackle ourselves.
Interestingly, the check engine light never flashed on.
Another glitch — the steering-wheel mounted controls for adjusting volume and changing radio stations and iPod tracks have started to work intermittently. And the radio itself seems to keep switching from iPod to CD mode without prompting.
Poltergeists? Gremlins? *grrrr*
The question now is whether we should find a Jeep dealer here in Sacramento, or push on to our next planned extended stop in Hemet (near Riverside, CA) next week.
Anyone have any thoughts or advice on the issue we are seeing? Is it purely a mental issue, or is there a significant chance that this could turn into something worse that leaves us suddenly stranded on the side of the road?
How about any dealer recommendations in Sacramento, SF, or down in SoCal?
We’ve had a bad experience with getting our diesel Jeep Liberty serviced in California before, and I want to hopefully find a place that doesn’t start by saying — “wow, a diesel Jeep Liberty! I didn’t even know we made one like that….”
I’ve had similar, it _was_ the wheel sensor. L-R Disco II in my case, but very similar symptoms. Resolved by swapping the whole wheel hub assembly to get new sensor and toothed wheel.
I had some sensor issues that were resolved by replacing a section of loom that runs from within to without the engine itself. It let oil through the loom wrap down into the ECU itself, causing misread sensor issues all over the place! So if you know where the ECU is, try removing the connectors to it and give them a dose of keyboard cleaning air product.. bound to be dust in a connector somewhere. It might work, and it’s free except for your time…
I take it you’re involved in a good on-line owner forum to ask help for vehicle specific gurus too?
Fingers crossed, waving my bag of dead chicken bones over the monitor as we speak… :-)))