High beam switch goes to turn signal bulb
I just bought an 2004 grand Cherokee (my first jeep) that I'm trying to fix up and get through road-worthy, but I'm having an issue with the headlights.
The passenger's side works fine, but the driver's side are screwed up. The normal beams work, but when I turn on high beams, the turn signal bulb illuminates and is crazy bright (the high beam bulb does nothing). However, if I activate the right (drivers) turn signal, the high beam bulb flashes dimly. Somehow those two wires have been switched. I have switched the bulbs between the two sides of the car to confirm that the difference in brightness is the power going to the bulbs, and that does appear to be the case. Also, it may be worth mentioning that if I use the turn signal while the high beams are on, the flashing becomes really fast.
Whoever owned this before me had an aftermarket light bar on it, which they dismantled before selling it, so I think that they must have done some re-wiring that doesn't work super well (especially when they removed the switch and such for their light bar). It went through a wrecker and second owner before ending up in my hands, so contacting the owner that did the light work isn't an option.
I've tried to track down exactly what they did to the wires, and I may have found at least part of it. At the wires that runs under overflow tank for the radiator, there is a large red/pink wire that is cut with electric tape around the ends (very clearly not factory done). Neither end goes to anything, but one end also has small piece of a clear-coated wire attached to it that is clearly aftermarket. Also, I found a few pieces of that same clear wire sticking through the firewall and going into the dash (again, clearly a modification).
Sorry that this post was so long, but does anyone know how to fix this? I am tempted to just reconnect the two halves of that red/pink wire to see what happens, but I don't know what it goes to, I don't know what else the previous owner cut, and I don't want to accidentally send a massive jolt to the computer or anything like that. I also struggle to see how reconnecting a single wire will fix this.
I suppose I can just cut and switch the wiring right where the wires go into the lights, but given that the speed increases when I use high beams and the turn signal together, something else is obviously wrong, and I'd like to fix it properly if possible.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
|