2018 JGC WK2 replace fuse block

1613 Views 24 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Secretisher, 2 mo ago

treacych

Discussion Starter · 5 mo ago

Hey all, first time posting here since I'm in quite a pickle. Sorry, here's the long version...
I recently had issues starting my GC. The first attempt to start would fail. Lights come on, the engine tries to turn over but quickly gives up. The second attempt it would start up just fine. After a few weeks (I got lazy over the holidays), it would usually take a third attempt before it started.
After some advice from a mechanic we replaced the main battery assuming that was the issue. Didn't fix it. After driving it just a few minutes, the ESS system seemed to give out. It attempted to engage when I came to a stop light but failed and the "Stop/Start unavailable; service stop/start system" error message came up. I took it to the dealership just to ask them some questions and they told me the ESS/auxiliary battery was dead. Made perfect sense.

While changing the aux battery, we accidentally hit one of the screws in that area with a wrench and sparks flew. Didn't think too much of it at first. We started the Jeep up again and it started fine but now a battery warning light was on. After a couple more starts, my GC started performing some sort of exorcism. All the lights/warning/everything just started going nuts. It was shaking, yes shaking, during it's freakout. It wouldn't let me turn it off and after about a minute of all of this, it shut down on it's own (I think, I was honestly freaking out myself).
We have a friend who had a similar issue with their GC and it turned out they also hit one of the screws with a wrench which blew a fuse. Unfortunately, the fuses for this are in a small panel underneath the positive jumper terminal (underneath the hood on the passenger side) apparently called a High Current PDC panel? Problem is we can't figure out how to remove this panel. As you can see from the pics, we have the top connectors removed but after that we're stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate it!

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treacych

Discussion Starter · #2 · 5 mo ago

Ended up figuring this out the other day, thankfully. For anyone in the future who runs into this problem, there are two tabs (circled in screenshot) on both sides of the top of the black plastic case. Once you push both of those tabs, you should be to push the positive jumping terminal (circled in screenshot) down and the fuse block should slide out. Mine was stuck in there so hard so that's what made it hard to figure out (and not wanting to break anything else).
After we removed the fuse block, we were able to buy a new one at our local dealership. Here's the listing on the mopar website:
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA | Mopar Estores
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA

store.mopar.com
Amazon also has them (sold by Mopar) for about half the price but I would have had to wait a whole week for it to arrive.
Anyway, once we replaced the fuse block and both batteries (since that was the original problem), my Jeep started up real nice! All the warnings went away and auto stop/start actually worked for the first time in the whole year I've had my Jeep haha.

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Reactions: 1

jamesmcneal213

· #3 · 4 mo ago

I do not see where you circled it

treacych

Discussion Starter · #4 · 4 mo ago

jamesmcneal213 said:
I do not see where you circled it

Sorry about that, here you go:
These are the two tabs and the piece that slides down is the whole fuse block in the center. Once you push the two tabs open, you should be able to push down on the big metal connector in the middle. Mine was stuck so it took us a few tries.

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jamesmcneal213

· #5 · 4 mo ago

How do I take off metal part that is over the screw that u have circled

treacych

Discussion Starter · #6 · 4 mo ago

jamesmcneal213 said:
How do I take off metal part that is over the screw that u have circled

You shouldn't have to because it should push down to come out, not up.

josephmrp1

· #7 · 3 mo ago

Do you have to disconnect the main battery before replacing this part? Can anyone share more details on replacing this part? I've been ripping my hair out with this exact issue.

josephmrp1

· #8 · 3 mo ago

treacych said:
Ended up figuring this out the other day, thankfully. For anyone in the future who runs into this problem, there are two tabs (circled in screenshot) on both sides of the top of the black plastic case. Once you push both of those tabs, you should be to push the positive jumping terminal (circled in screenshot) down and the fuse block should slide out. Mine was stuck in there so hard so that's what made it hard to figure out (and not wanting to break anything else).
After we removed the fuse block, we were able to buy a new one at our local dealership. Here's the listing on the mopar website:
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA | Mopar Estores
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA

store.mopar.com
Amazon also has them (sold by Mopar) for about half the price but I would have had to wait a whole week for it to arrive.
Anyway, once we replaced the fuse block and both batteries (since that was the original problem), my Jeep started up real nice! All the warnings went away and auto stop/start actually worked for the first time in the whole year I've had my Jeep haha.

treacych said:
Ended up figuring this out the other day, thankfully. For anyone in the future who runs into this problem, there are two tabs (circled in screenshot) on both sides of the top of the black plastic case. Once you push both of those tabs, you should be to push the positive jumping terminal (circled in screenshot) down and the fuse block should slide out. Mine was stuck in there so hard so that's what made it hard to figure out (and not wanting to break anything else).
After we removed the fuse block, we were able to buy a new one at our local dealership. Here's the listing on the mopar website:
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA | Mopar Estores
2011-2022 Mopar Fuse Block 68089468AA

store.mopar.com
Amazon also has them (sold by Mopar) for about half the price but I would have had to wait a whole week for it to arrive.
Anyway, once we replaced the fuse block and both batteries (since that was the original problem), my Jeep started up real nice! All the warnings went away and auto stop/start actually worked for the first time in the whole year I've had my Jeep haha.

Do you have to disconnect the main battery before replacing this part? Can anyone share more details on replacing this part? I've been ripping my hair out with this exact issue.

treacych

Discussion Starter · #9 · 3 mo ago

josephmrp1 said:
Do you have to disconnect the main battery before replacing this part? Can anyone share more details on replacing this part? I've been ripping my hair out with this exact issue.

I don't know if you necessarily HAVE to disconnect it but it's probably a good idea. What exactly are you having trouble with? For us it was really hard to get the fuse block out. There's very little room and both of those black tabs have to be pressed in order for it to release the fuse block.

josephmrp1

· #10 · 3 mo ago

treacych said:
I don't know if you necessarily HAVE to disconnect it but it's probably a good idea. What exactly are you having trouble with? For us it was really hard to get the fuse block out. There's very little room and both of those black tabs have to be pressed in order for it to release the fuse block.

I’m am completely broken mentally at this point. Stress levels beyond your imagination. So I’ll start from the very beginning…
Last week driving with my kids and everything you described in your post happened. Pulled over… had the Jeep towed 50 miles. I rented a car while dealer was running tests on it. He calls and tells me nothing showing up on diagnostic tests but suggests possibly Aux Battery. It cost me $700. and I pick up the Jeep. 3 days later same exact thing happened. Had the Jeep towed and dealer ran tests with nothing showing up. I printed out your Post from this site and he claimed nothing was showing up. I dropped off the rental car again and picked up my Jeep yesterday. I have 3 young kids and I’m driving around nervous as hell. Decided to take it to a different dealership to possibly look to trade it in but they only want to give me $16,000 when I still owe $24,000. Now I just signed up for Triple AAA road side assistance because I’ve used my insurance tow allowance up.
So after reading all these posts referencing the same exact issue I was tempted to replace the Fuse Block myself. So now I’m just wondering is the first step to disconnect the Red power cable under the passenger seat from the battery before I disconnect the Fuse Block under the hood?

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treacych

Discussion Starter · #11 · 3 mo ago

josephmrp1 said:
I’m am completely broken mentally at this point. Stress levels beyond your imagination. So I’ll start from the very beginning…
Last week driving with my kids and everything you described in your post happened. Pulled over… had the Jeep towed 50 miles. I rented a car while dealer was running tests on it. He calls and tells me nothing showing up on diagnostic tests but suggests possibly Aux Battery. It cost me $700. and I pick up the Jeep. 3 days later same exact thing happened. Had the Jeep towed and dealer ran tests with nothing showing up. I printed out your Post from this site and he claimed nothing was showing up. I dropped off the rental car again and picked up my Jeep yesterday. I have 3 young kids and I’m driving around nervous as hell. Decided to take it to a different dealership to possibly look to trade it in but they only want to give me $16,000 when I still owe $24,000. Now I just signed up for Triple AAA road side assistance because I’ve used my insurance tow allowance up.
So after reading all these posts referencing the same exact issue I was tempted to replace the Fuse Block myself. So now I’m just wondering is the first step to disconnect the Red power cable under the passenger seat from the battery before I disconnect the Fuse Block under the hood?

Wow I feel your pain, I'm sorry, this sounds incredibly frustrating! Car can be such a nightmare sometimes... Ok so just to be clear, your car is currently running right now, correct? The need for me to change the fuse block only happened after we accidentally blew a fuse while trying to change the aux battery. While loosening the nuts/bolts to disconnect the aux battery cables, we hit a piece of metal under the seat with the wrench we were using, therefore blowing one of the fuses (we didn't know we'd blown a fuse yet though). After we connected the new battery and turned the Jeep back on, it almost immediately started shaking, all warnings lights came on and off, horn was honking, and I literally couldn't control the car at all to stop any of this. After talking to a friend who had done the same thing we knew we probably blew a fuse like they did and the fuse block needed to be replaced. If your Jeep is actually running right now, I wouldn't think that this would be the same issue.

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josephmrp1

· #12 · 3 mo ago

treacych said:
Wow I feel your pain, I'm sorry, this sounds incredibly frustrating! Car can be such a nightmare sometimes... Ok so just to be clear, your car is currently running right now, correct? The need for me to change the fuse block only happened after we accidentally blew a fuse while trying to change the aux battery. While loosening the nuts/bolts to disconnect the aux battery cables, we hit a piece of metal under the seat with the wrench we were using, therefore blowing one of the fuses (we didn't know we'd blown a fuse yet though). After we connected the new battery and turned the Jeep back on, it almost immediately started shaking, all warnings lights came on and off, horn was honking, and I literally couldn't control the car at all to stop any of this. After talking to a friend who had done the same thing we knew we probably blew a fuse like they did and the fuse block needed to be replaced. If your Jeep is actually running right now, I wouldn't think that this would be the same issue.

Okay Thank God we communicate. I thought that you ended up determining it was the Fuse Block from the original problem. So currently my Jeep is running with NO issues or warning lights on. This is why I’m so confused. The Jeep is fully functional with all things working. I’m driving it now. However, this was exactly how it was after receiving it back from the dealership last week. So I’m paranoid that it’s going to happen again. Because it happened after the Dealership stated it replaced the Aux battery…

josephmrp1

· #13 · 3 mo ago

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josephmrp1

· #14 · 3 mo ago

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josephmrp1

· #15 · 3 mo ago

All of those pics are what showed up on my dashboard. The Jeep stop vehicle warning light came on first…. I pulled over and within seconds all these lights just started blinking non stop. Virtually lost power to steering, windows, locks, sears, etc…
This was even after the dealership claims they replaced the Aux battery.
So this now has happened twice in two weeks.

josephmrp1

· #16 · 3 mo ago

Currently I picked up the Jeep again after having it towed to the dealership twice in two weeks. The Jeep is now running but the dealership claims they couldn’t identify anything wrong. So I’m very paranoid driving the vehicle because it happened twice even after having it serviced by the dealership the first time.

josephmrp1

· #17 · 3 mo ago

I mean could it be possible the dealership just reset the gauges the first time and didn’t truly replace the Aux battery? I find it very confusing that they’re claiming nothing shows up on the diagnostic test but yet I experienced what I experienced.

josephmrp1

· #18 · 3 mo ago

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josephmrp1

· #19 · 3 mo ago

So that’s the receipt from the first time I dropped it off at the dealership.
and then the same exact problem happened again.

josephmrp1

· #20 · 3 mo ago

treacych said:
Wow I feel your pain, I'm sorry, this sounds incredibly frustrating! Car can be such a nightmare sometimes... Ok so just to be clear, your car is currently running right now, correct? The need for me to change the fuse block only happened after we accidentally blew a fuse while trying to change the aux battery. While loosening the nuts/bolts to disconnect the aux battery cables, we hit a piece of metal under the seat with the wrench we were using, therefore blowing one of the fuses (we didn't know we'd blown a fuse yet though). After we connected the new battery and turned the Jeep back on, it almost immediately started shaking, all warnings lights came on and off, horn was honking, and I literally couldn't control the car at all to stop any of this. After talking to a friend who had done the same thing we knew we probably blew a fuse like they did and the fuse block needed to be replaced. If your Jeep is actually running right now, I wouldn't think that this would be the same issue.

So was your original problem the Aux battery?

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