SOLVED: Broke my Gladiator by drilling into wires

[ShadowsPapa]

That twisted pair is the CAN bus wiring... that's not so simple to fix in many cases because it is super sensitive to interference and you might need to replace the entire harness. Fortunately, that top harness just runs from a-pillar to a-pillar and is about 30-60 minutes to replace so it's very do-able on your own.

edit: there's a few part numbers on BAM Wholesale so you'll need to give them your VIN but it looks like its under $60. It's #1 in the top section of this page.

You also might have shorted something out but personally, I'd throw that $60 at it and hope. If that fails, I'd be picking up a Blue Driver or some other OBDII tool that will let you read body modules and see what codes you're getting. They won't pop the light because they're not emissions related but they'll be stored in the body modules.

I cringed when I saw the twisted paid untwisted and crimped. That's high-speed bus operations there and the twist negates interference like you stated.
We had to re-run several hundred feet of IBM network cable once because one of the team let it kink - We were 3/4 from one building to another through the skywalk system and oh, crap - the guy didn't say a word, team lead saw it, never asked anything, just said - ok, pull it out, start over.

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[StingGrayJT24]

Looks like my home insurance deductible is $1,000.

Could this fall under a comprehensive auto claim? This way you don’t get hosed on your home owners insurance? Might be worth checking into.

 

[Gatorized]

Sorry you are going thru this ordeal... but thanks for reporting it here so we can all learn from it.
I suggest that perhaps you have fried the wiper switch and it is locked in the on position.
Also, check all your fuses thoroughly to insure none are burned out. I would pull each and check for continuity.
Good luck!

 

[Kindafearless]

I’m with Gatorized on this one. CAN is sensitive, but it’s not black magic. I assume you have the new harness on order, so that is a good backup plan.

Any solid OBDII tool will help you dig deeper.

Sounds like you are using logic, keep it up.

If the steering wheel control module is out, then you’ve either got some wires that have interference (harness with fix), fuse blown (new fuse), or the computer reset and turned something off because it couldn’t find it (OBDII tool will help you check that).

There could be another blown component, true, but it sounds unlikely in what you’ve said so far.

You definitely shouldn’t panic yet Keep a cool head, keep posting info, and you’ll get through this!

 

[mike921921]

It's not hard to do this if you take the proper precautions... dropping the trim panel will drop the wires too and there's a few inches of clearance you'll need to vacuum all the shavings up anyway.

Yep, if you take a look at the Manufs. install video ~1:56, they do warn about hitting wires......

 

[Jimmy07]

I went to a friend's house in Riverton and we took out the whole wiring harness, resoldered the three wires, and then did tests. We tested continuity, measured 0.6 ohms on all the wires, and found no shorts between any other wires. We put it all back together, and stuff still doesn't work.

He read the computer codes, and they indicated unable to communicate with the steering wheel controller module. And sure enough, none of the controls on the steering wheel work other than the horn.

And then we took off the airbag and steering wheel and pulled all the wires off the control module in the steering wheel, and nothing really changed. The windshield wipers are still running. So I don't know.

We did disconnect the two batteries while we worked on the wires to give the computer time to reset.

I just don't know what to do next. Please advise.

When you drilled through the canbus wires, you shorted them to either battery or ground. Since the canbus junction block has termination resistors for each position, you may have taken any module plugged into the junction block before that one off line. What are all the faults you have in each module.

 

[Jimmy07]

Also, locate the canbus c junction block behind the glovebox (there are two, one with a bunch of white connectors plugged into it, and one with a bunch of green connectors plugged into it). Unplug the white connectors from the junction block, and check the resistance at each connector port on the junction block. Each one should be ~120 ohms.

 

[Factoid]

I hate to be the bearer of worse news, but those control wires are not fused. If you shorted them to ground or worse 12v there is a high probability that you burned out the module(s). I believe the last solder job addressed the wiring issue until the new harness arrives, but you now have module damage to address.

Sorry, man, I know this sucks.

 

[Jimmy07]

I hate to be the bearer of worse news, but those control wires are not fused. If you shorted them to ground or worse 12v there is a high probability that you burned out the module(s). I believe the last solder job addressed the wiring issue until the new harness arrives, but you now have module damage to address.

Sorry, man, I know this sucks.

Not necessarily, hopefully, wouldn’t go there yet.

@jeephambikepcpets , the module in question you’re dealing with is the driver assist module, and the related fuse is F33. Is the scan tool being used able to connect to the driver assist module?

 

[Andy29847]

Crimped connections are much better than soldered connection in a car.

A few post back, somebody said fuses. I'd check those.

I doubt you fried anything. You might have deprogrammed something.

I am not a can bus expert, but electrons are electrons.

I'm going to send this without reading page 2 and 3 first. I hope I don't turn out to be the dummy.

 

[GoVR46]

Crimped connections are much better than soldered connection in a car.

A few post back, somebody said fuses. I'd check those.

I doubt you fried anything. You might have deprogrammed something.

I am not a can bus expert, but electrons are electrons.

I'm going to send this without reading page 2 and 3 first. I hope I don't turn out to be the dummy.

Never heard of a crimped connection ever being better then a properly soldered connection.

 

[Andy29847]

Never heard of a crimped connection ever being better then a properly soldered connection.

Google is your friend.

https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/solder-vs-crimping/

 

[GoVR46]

Google is your friend.

https://www.hpacademy.com/technical-articles/solder-vs-crimping/

Google is my friend?
How about experience is my friend.
I've been working on race cars and motorcycle since before Google was even a thing.
I'm from the generation of dictionaries and encyclopedias.
I still work part time at a high performance turbo shop in California. My personal car makes over 700whp. Two of our shop cars run 10 second quarter miles and our Audi RS3 runs mid 9's.
But let me go back and crimp all the wired connections I made. Cause Google is smarter than me.
I'm not against crimped connections, I just don't use it much.

 

[Andy29847]

Google is my friend?
How about experience is my friend.
I've been working on race cars and motorcycle since before Google was even a thing.
I'm from the generation of dictionaries and encyclopedias.
I still work part time at a high performance turbo shop in California. My personal car makes over 700whp. Two of our shop cars run 10 second quarter miles and our Audi RS3 runs mid 9's.
But let me go back and crimp all the wired connections I made. Cause Google is smarter than me.
I'm not against crimped connections, I just don't use it much.

You said you never heard of crimped being better than soldered. Now you have. Congrats on your advanced age and accomplishments.

https://lateral-g.net/crimping-soldering-whats-best-wiring-connection/

 

[jeephambikepcpets]

Thanks for all the great feedback. Tomorrow, my plan is to test all the fuses since I haven't done that yet. I'm also especially interested in what @Jimmy07 was just saying about fuse F33 and the driver assist module. I won't have as much time to work on the Jeep tomorrow as I did today, but I'm motivated to make time to get this working asap.

I have some bad news about the replacement wiring harness I ordered from BAM wholesale. They said the part isn't being released by Mopar yet, as they are only using it for production. On the other hand, my friend in Riverton did very clean solder splices and the wires tested good. So hopefully I don't really need a replacement harness anymore.

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