Hacking a JeepSat., Feb. 04, 2006 19:45:30
 I know I should have written this about four months ago, but come on, give me a break, I'm a busy guy. Okay, okay, I really don't have any excuse. You can express your frustration in the comments section.
Here it is, my 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I got it back in October, but never wrote about it.
It's been good to me so far. The engine runs fine, and the 4-wheel drive performs well. I had only one complaint: the electronic diagnostic display in the center console always blinked.
I quickly discovered that the cause of this problem was that the clock wasn't set. I assumed the dealship must have had to disconnect the battery for some reason and didn't care to correct the time. I looked in the manual to figure out how to change the time, as just pressing the SET button didn't seem to be working. The manual indicated that the SET button needed to be pressed. Hmm. I tried that. Maybe it's a hardware issue.
Disassembling the dash was fun.
 Eventually I got down to the diagnostics box and manged to get it out. It took another 15 minutes or so to get the stupid thing open. I get the feeling that it wasn't designed to be user serviceable. Instead of screws, they had a series of 16 plastic clasps that all had to be pryed up at the same time to pull the case off. Of course, the deepest circuit board was the front panel I needed. The buttons were just a plastic piece mounted over a few tactile, through-hole switches.
Ah ha! The culprit—a failed switch. This is actually a picture of the switch after I cut if off the circuit board when it wasn't a problem anymore.
The whole switcheroo went pretty smoothly. I cut the failed switch off the board. and found another to replace it with that was similar in base size and more than long enough. Before I soldered it on, I compared its height to that of the failed switch that I had already cut off. The new one was a little bit long, so I trimmed it down enough that the plastic buttons would still fit over it. Once sized, I soldered it down and put everything back together.
Well, it worked. I now have full 24-hour, date, as well as 4-wheel drive mode and engine diagnostics. I hope my months-old matter-of-fact description of the experience didn't bore you too much.
CommentsWell, you just had to be lame and delete my last comment, so I think it's time I left another.
Your car's hot.
Elizabeth Wow, those snow training photos. There's a lot of Ian. Kinda creepy. It looked so fun. I really wish I could've gone.
Tag I still want a jeep.
Erika Add Comment
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