I upgraded the interior lighting to LED bulbs and built a switched control box for a 24″ light bar that is now mounted above the back glass. Since Daimler-Chrysler removed the rear dome light from the hard top prior to my model year, I’ve been dealing with a very dark rear cargo area and finally got sick enough of it to do something about it. The bar is really bright, as you can see, but only pulls 4.8 watts. I’ve got it wired in to my ham radio power distribution block, so it’s live all the time. Between that and the other two pairs of bulbs, the interior is significantly brighter.

The rest of the parts came in from Crutchfield while I was at kendo practice last night, so after work I got busy with the install. It all went in easily, once I got the adapter to connect the radio to the factory wiring harness. The speakers just dropped in to the existing mounts, no steuggling at all. It sounds great, and having integrated Bluetooth, including hands free, is a significant improvement over the crappy stock radio.

I started working on the Jeep this morning, first disassembling the dash to get the radio out. It wasn’t too hard, but involved removing the center console as well as the glove box in order to remove the anti-theft bolt holding the radio in. Once I got it out, I started pulling it apart in order to get the CD out. It was as bad as I feared it would be, because there were multiple deep gouges through the CD, so now I’ve got to buy another copy. I took a short break to head over to Crutchfield to order a new radio and speakers. I’ve got a pair of 4x6s and 5.25s coming to replace both the in-dash and sound bar speakers, as well as a new Sony head that has Bluetooth and HD radio functionality. It’s a heck of an upgrade from the 2003-era stock radio that the Jeep came with. Since the radio was toast, and I needed to remove the old speakers anyways, I did just that. They came out pretty easily, and now I’ve got lots of open compartments in the dash.

While I was at it, I pulled the cover below the steering wheel and started in on the repairs to the fog light switch. Due to including air lockers on the Rubicon model, Daimler-Chrysler moved the fog light switch from the center console to the end of the turn signal stalk. Unfortunately, it’s a weak point and mine stays on all the time, running the battery dry. I’d pulled the relay a while back to keep the battery intact, but I miss the extra forward lighting, so it was time to fix. I went a slightly different route than some of the other guides on the Internet, just because I felt like it. What I did was open up the wiring bundle on the right of the steering column, located the white wire with orange tracer, and cut it. From there, I spliced in a lit rocker switch so that the original fog light switch would still work, but until that rocker is switched on, they won’t come on. They work just fine, and the indicator light in the instrument cluster still works, so I’m calling it good. I buttoned up some of the loose bits, but left the center console and speaker compartments open so that when the stuff comes in, I’ll be able to start installing a little quicker. Hopefully that’ll be in before this coming weekend.

Here’s a before pic. The new fog lamp switch is already installed in this one.

Thanks to our record breaking summer heatwave, the thermostat on the Jeep had failed in the permanently open position. While we were experiencing 100+ degree days, week after week, it wasn’t noticed because the engine would still come up to temperature. But now that the heat has backed off, my check engine light has been on, throwing a P1281 code (engine too cold for too long). I picked up a new thermostat and gasket a couple weeks ago and finally got time to do the replacement today. As I suspected, once I pulled the housing, the thermostat was locked open. After cleaning up the gasket residue and lining up the new gasket, I bolted everything back together and fired it up. There was one small leak, but a re-torque of the bolts solved it. The engine’s coming up to normal operating temperatures and hopefully the light will go out soon. I don’t have an OBD-II scanner yet, so I’ve got to wait until it goes through enough cycles.

Mike and I tore into the Jeep a little bit ago and got the thermostat replaced.  It’s been overheating and going through coolant for a while, but since I rarely drive it, I didn’t really worry too much.  But since the weather was nice and I had a willing and able assistant, it was time to get it fixed.  The old one was definitely stuck, considering it didn’t open in boiling water.  We had a little trouble getting the housing reattached, or more precisely keeping the gasket aligned while attaching it, but got through that.  It’s all buttoned up now, no leaks, and is holding temperature where it should.  After a short test drive things seemed good, no overheating or smelling coolant when we got back.  Time will tell if this fixes the problem, but I’m pretty confident it will.

While Jeff was working on the kitchen I was fixing some problems on the Jeep. My list of things to do was pretty simple. I had to replace the broken A/C selector knob, replace the turn signal/headlight/foglight switch that has been shorting out and leaving my foglights on and my battery dead, and seeing what’s wrong with my subwoofer. Here’s the post-mortem:

1. A/C selector knob – It took more work than I’d expected because the little metal bushing inside the knob was stuck on the selector shaft, but other than that it was no big deal.

2. The switch from hell – Take off the steering column shroud, undo both switches, disconnect the windshield wiper switch from the turn signal switch, unplug the electrical connection, and then reverse everything with the new one. It all went together nicely, but the new switch is even worse than the one I was replacing. The foglights stay on unless you push the switch in by hand (when it’s already in the off position). It will be going back. The original one is back in place.

3. Subwoofer – Blown and Chrysler wants way too much for a new one. It’s now disconnected until I decide what I want to do on the soundsystem front.

I got started again on that sheared off bolt after church.  My first attempt was to cut a notch in the end sticking out to try to use a screwdriver bit to get it out.  That was not to be the case as the tabs just kept shearing off whenever I twisted.  So I took the throttle body off and drilled in a little to get an easy-out in there.  It worked, to an extent, but all that would happen is I’d get a couple tenths of a millimeter at a time and eventually I couldn’t go any deeper, so I just drilled the rest of the bolt out and ran a self tapping metal screw in.  The new sensor’s in and working fine.  Now I’ve got to drive it enough for the ECU to reset the check engine light.

I’ve been having some issues with the Jeep not running right, all traced back to the throttle position sensor going bad, so I pulled it off today to replace it with the shiny new one I picked up yesterday.  Unfortunately, one of the two bolts had a different idea and sheared off, leaving about a 1/4″ nub sticking out of it’s hole in the throttle body.  I could not persuade it to move, so I’m going to take a break and tackle it later.  Thankfully I’ve got a second vehicle to get around on…