JK Door Harness Replacement

A2112Priest

Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2020
Messages
66
Location
Central Florida
So new I bought this JK and realized the radio stayed on AFTER turning the engine off...figured it was timed or would turn off once the door opens. It does turn off with the PASSENGER door open but not the drivers side...hhhmmm. Well, rode around with the doors off and broke the connector so I ordered a new harness. In preparation for replacement effort I did / do what everyone else does...YOUTUBE'd it. Found this little gem. I truly appreciate the unediting version of this as most videos NEVER shows what can happen during the filming. Very educational!
Skip to about minute 3....yeah, you saw it coming too huh!

 
doesn't sound like this is the fix (maybe) but the radio has a setting to turn off the radio after X seconds of turning of the vehicle (can be from zero to 45 seconds I think). My daughter's jeep was set to 45 seconds when she bought it. I changed it to zero.
 
Hey @Just Adam , understand. Unfortunately for me, the radio was the first thing i replaced... I had almost zero reception here in central Florida. I should have been able to get some signal due to FL being so flat. Nevertheless, without pulling the new head unit out and trying to work through the timer reset, is there any other way? My connector is definitely bad...as in broken so it needs replacing regardless. Prior to my ignorance, the dome light didn't even come on when I opened the driver door.... Hopefully by this afternoon, i will have the answer as the new harness is due today for delivery.
 
Yikes! Good luck in finding the issue. Hopefully it is just the connector. To be honest, I haven't connected my door for about 3 years so I'm going on memory only....
 
I guess I'm fortunate! 2 door, roll down windows so it's just a 2 wire connector...I'm assuming for the radio cutoff & dome lights. It's definitely the door connector...which is obviously bad/broken. I guess it could be upstream though? Which i REALLY hope its not...I can't contort my body like i use to and get up under that dash! LOL
 
Have not had my doors of in 8yrs, two door no power windows. Does a dash light come on when the harness is disconnected? That timer for the interior lights, I remember way back in the day leaving the tail gate ajar for a few days. Well the computer (which one?) went wonky and I had to Ctrl Alt Del to turn the engine over ( disconnect the battery). Weird.
 
Have those classic side panel dimples from the mirrors, because I forgot to secure the harness straps when I had put the doors back on.
 
No lights are on being disconnected - radio, dome, etc... Both my daughter and myself leave the connector disconnected (I've got a JKU and she's got a JK) b/c we take our doors off regularly (a few months a year - we're in southern California which is nice a lot). The dome light turns on only with the back gate like what you said. No dome light when opening the doors of course....especially when there's no door :)
 
LOL...jealous here. I'm in central FL so during Hurricane season torrential downpours are all too common. From mid-Nov to May or so, doors will be off. I don't mind the light not coming on when i open drivers door but I just hate the radio is on a timer...kinda silly if you ask me! Why on Earth would you put a timer on a radio when the ignition key is in the OFF position???BUT, new harness is suppose to be here any minute...
 
Yeah i heard about that...but only after i replaced it with a Kenwood head unit. HOWEVER, new harness worked out like a champ. PITA to get to the door lock plug but once in & buttoned up, light comes on and radio turns off!
 
Congrats! Trust me when I say, I know how you feel about an issue taking so long and not logical to fix. My son's JK (yes, we have 3 in the family - his is the 2014 on the right, daughter's in the middle) had a transmission issue which turned out to be just a transmission computer reprogramming issue but it took about 6 months and 2 Jeep dealers and 2 transmission "specialists" and finally a Jeep shop to figure it out. The Jeep shop figured it out in ten minutes....
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