Tiny bit of Jeep work today. I took about a half an hour and reconnected my backup (or reversing) lights.
About a month ago I disconnected all the extra electrical “stuff” that I have added to my Jeep, Zen, over the years. I did that because Auto Stop/Start stopped working on Zen. Normally I’d be happy with that because I really hate Auto Stop/Start, but in this case it meant I wouldn’t be able to get Zen smogged. So I took it down to the dealership to see whatever the problem could be.
The Jeep dealership is, um, a problem. I don’t think they know what they’re doing. But Zen is still under warranty, which meant they had to fix it for free, only they couldn’t fix it, and it turned into a whole big thing. Because the entire problem seemed to be centering on the batteries (there are two batteries in Jeep JL — a horrible design), I became suspicious, and continue to be suspicious, that I have some kind of a parasitic draw in the Jeep.
Which is why I disconnected all the custom electronics in the Jeep just in case they were the cause of whatever it was that was destroying the batteries.
To date, all those electronics remain disconnected. But I really don’t like not having the backup lights working. The stock backup lights on the JL are wimpy (understatement). Other drivers ignore them, or don’t see them, or are just jerks when I’m trying to back out of a spot. Even worse, they don’t actually light anything up when I’m backing up at night. But with a couple of Baja Designs S2 Sports on my bumper (1581 lumens, each, of you-can’t-effing-ignore-me on my bumper), all my reversing troubles disappear.
And, yes, I very carefully aimed those slightly down so that they aren’t blinding anyone.
To reconnect them, all I had to do was pull the right taillight assembly and crimp wires back to together again. Yeah, I crimped them. No, I didn’t solder them. No, a heat gun was not involved. What I’ve done is just temporary. It is my intention to add in a control wire to my switch panel so I can turn those lights on even if I’m not in the drivers seat and the Jeep is not in reverse. I want this to help light up a camp site if, for example, I’m forced to pitch my tent at night. Which means I’ll be getting back in behind that taillight assembly again at some point in the future.
But, yeah, it took longer to write this post than it did to actually do the Jeep project. I like that.
Anyway, that concludes my Jeep projects for the month. I think. Don’t hold me to that. There’s other things I need to get done before I can go camping again this fall. Maybe I’ll do some of them before the end of July. We’ll see.