98 XJ Intermittent Keyless Entry Failure

  • I’m at a loss for trouble shooting the intermittent failure with my keyless entry. Let’s see if anyone has any bright ideas.


    Before you say “why care about keyless, just use the key in the door” know that the front and passenger door locks do not turn with the physical key. Only the rear hatch can be unlocked with the key, so when the keyless doesn’t work I have to open the back and crawl through to unlock the front doors. I suspect this is an issue with the door lock cylinders because I’m 99% sure the doors are original to the Jeep.


    The key fob only has two buttons, “lock” and “unlock”. So here’s the skinny:


    I have the same issue with multiple key fobs so I don’t think it’s the fob itself.
    When pressing the unlock button the interior lights and dome light will turn on but the door locks don’t turn over.
    When pressing the lock button the horn will honk as if locking, but the door locks won’t turn over.
    The interior lock switch on both the passenger and driver’s side work fine to turn over the locks so I do not think it is related to the physical locking/unlocking mechanism.
    I read on a different forum that some of the wiring for the locks runs through the tailgate and could be broken. I have already re-wired the entire tailgate wiring harness so I know that isn’t the problem.
    This happens intermittently because sometimes the fob works and sometimes it doesn’t. If I go through the effort to crawl through the back to unlock the Jeep, then drive it a short distance, the fob will suddenly work to lock it, and then continue to work for the rest of the day.


    My theory is that the fob only starts to “fail” if the Jeep hasn’t been driven for 2 weeks + or so. Does this mean it’s the Jeep battery causing the issue? Like it doesn’t have enough charge while at rest to turn over the locks but has just enough charge to work the lights/horn?


    My other theory is that the fob fails in rainy weather or after experiencing rainy weather. When it rains there’s water that trickles in from behind the glove box and pools on the passenger side floor. I haven’t found the source of the leak so I haven’t been able to plug it. The passenger side kick panel is where the fuse box is and where one of the plugs for the keyless entry is. Could there be water in there affecting the keyless entry? If so, then why would it start working again after running the engine?



    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • your key should unlock the door. Im guessing u have an issue with one of the plasic clips or connecting rods. First thing i would do is pull the panel and see why the key wont unlock the door. Not an answer to your question but the first thing i would do before a permanate failure of the keyless entry.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!