Q: I have a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7L v8, 4x4 auto with air conditioning, 110,000km. Every so often the following things will happen: -car starts but headlights will not function for 1-2 minutes -interior lights click on and off on their own -on using the key fob lock, interior and parking lights flash then stay illuminated but very dull and won't go out -while driving, lose all guages and interior lights for a second then will flash back on with seat belt indicator dinging This problem comes and goes and is entirely unpredicatable. I purchased the car used and the previous owner stated that he noticed some of these problems not long after installing a remote starter from Future Shop. Would have been nice to know before i bought it... Anyway...my question is could this be caused by the aftermarket remote starter? or is this likely the body control module...or something else I haven't thought of. Thanks
A: I have a '96 Grand Cherokee all the same as yours, and it has the same problems as well. Perhaps, if your Jeep is like mine, it is just a rough enough ride to knock out some of the connections and make the interior lights and gauges flicker and sometimes not even illuminate. I do most of my own work, with some help from a friend of mine who owns a shop, and honestly we haven't found the true cause of the shortages, other than it seems like jolts knock it out a bit. And until I replaced a bearing, my Jeep was having some issues with the front brakes and shocks. However, it is interesting that you say aftermarket remote starter- mine had an older model one on it before and has since been removed by the company, but maybe not completely. I think maybe Jeeps just have those kind of flaws sometimes. They all seem to be weak in the same areas, and its not performance luckily.