Parking lights flickering on and off

[Sunbeam63]

I’ve been observing this issue on my 2021 Base Gladiator Sport for several months now. It’s an intermittent issue seen when lights are off. The parking lights will randomly turn on and off. Some additional information:

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1. Dash dims and front and rear parking lights turn on. Headlights do not turn on.​

2. Issue appears to come and go. Very intermittent. Appears to happen daily for a few days, then go away for a few days.​

3. Turning the headlight knob after the flickering has started does not stop the flickering.​

4. Appears to have started after the dealer had to replace the entire fuel cell.​

5. Observed twice while the truck was not running and fob was not near the truck.​

I’ve taken it to the dealer once to diagnose, but all they did was check tail light connections. I have another appt next Thursday, but do not have faith they will resolve the issue. At this point, I’m thinking it’s between the headlight switch, BCM or a bad ground. Anyone have thought on the cause?

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[bd100]

Anyone nearby with a huge antenna over their house? Something like a CB radio user with a huge illegal amplifier. Does anything else electronic behave in strange ways at the same time?

 

[Sunbeam63]

There are some ham/CB (not sure which) radio guys in the neighborhood. One of their large antennas is in a backyard about a mile down the road.

Nothing else electronic behaves strange. Only the parking lights and dash lights.

 

[Moby]

Hmmm…interesting problem. I would look at the “auto on” light sensor and affiliated parts. It looks very similar to what happens when driving into a dark, shadowed area from sunlight. Otherwise, I dont know what to suggest.

 

[charliez]

Could there be somethng on your dash sliding over or covering the light sensor? It's a little round bump

 

[Sunbeam63]

Could there be somethng on your dash sliding over or covering the light sensor? It's a little round bump

I don’t think the base has any sensor for lights. The switch is only off, parking lights, headlights.

 

[Sunbeam63]

Hmmm…interesting problem. I would look at the “auto on” light sensor and affiliated parts. It looks very similar to what happens when driving into a dark, shadowed area from sunlight. Otherwise, I dont know what to suggest.

Same response as above, this is a base sport, there is no sensors for lights.

 

[Moby]

Same response as above, this is a base sport, there is no sensors for lights.

Didn’t know it has a different setup. Have you added anything that taps into the lighting circuit? Had a vehicle a while back that did that, and it turned out to be a tiny nick in some wire insulation when a brake controller was mounted. It “back flowed” into the brake light switch, so when I hit the brakes, all the turn signal lights lit up (just for illustration of how odd things can create electrical gremlins).

 

[Sunbeam63]

Didn’t know it has a different setup. Have you added anything that taps into the lighting circuit? Had a vehicle a while back that did that, and it turned out to be a tiny nick in some wire insulation when a brake controller was mounted. It “back flowed” into the brake light switch, so when I hit the brakes, all the turn signal lights lit up (just for illustration of how odd things can create electrical gremlins).

The only other things I have added for lights is fog lights and spot lights to the aux switches.

I also added a 12volt adapter harness to the cigarette lighter and a switch for an inverter. That’s the only other thing that I could think that may be causing issues. I was going to look into that. Otherwise, the only other mod that I made was installing a GMRS radio to one of the battery wires that was part of the aux wiring factory option. But the radio is hardly ever turned on. At the same time, I did not notice flickering until long after I made these mods.

Those are all outside of the BCM (hooked up either straight to the battery or to the aux wires), which makes me think it might not be caused by the mods, but I will disconnect it all to rule them out. I agree though, wiring can be very strange, and it’s even harder to diagnose now with computers and software.

 

[ZoMojave]

Have you monitored what is happening during night driving? Do the dash lights flicker from normally dim (at night) to bright? Also do your lights come on automatically with wiper operation like my Mojave did? Just food for thought.

 

[Sunbeam63]

Have you monitored what is happening during night driving? Do the dash lights flicker from normally dim (at night) to bright? Also do your lights come on automatically with wiper operation like my Mojave did? Just food for thought.

When I manually turn the lights on at night, I don’t see any flickering from dim to bright. And to my knowledge, the lights do not turn on when using wiper operations or any other switches.

I am curious as to what the fix was for that - did you need to place the entire wiper/turn signal module?

 

[ZoMojave]

When I manually turn the lights on at night, I don’t see any flickering from dim to bright. And to my knowledge, the lights do not turn on when using wiper operations or any other switches.

I am curious as to what the fix was for that - did you need to place the entire wiper/turn signal module?

Just throwing some diagnosis ideas out there. I didn't have an issue with mine. I thought if it were a wiring/connector problem it may exhibit the same issues at night. In the case of the auto headlights w/wipers, it usually takes 10-15 seconds for the lights to turn on automatically once the wipers are on. I thought it was a standard safety feature on all including Sport models, but I may be wrong.

 

[CJ99x]

Just curious have you ever had the power module (fuse box) under the hood looked at? JKs were notorious for this when the dimmer switch became defective.

 

[Sunbeam63]

Just curious have you ever had the power module (fuse box) under the hood looked at? JKs were notorious for this when the dimmer switch became defective.

I read that the fuse box could contribute. I have only pressed fuses back in, but that’s also something I can look further into. I will put it on my list to investigate!

 

[Mr._Bill]

Mine has an option in the head unit settings to disable the headlights turning on with the wipers.

As to the flickering issue, I would look at the wiring harness and the ground connections in the area they worked on when doing the repairs.

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