Rear Locker Engage on Highway

-AINOKEA-

-AINOKEA-

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So I was driving on the highway yesterday going around 65-70mph, looked down at my dash and saw the rear locker light illuminated. Kinda freaked out a little and tried to turn it off. Light kept blinking. Pulled off to the side and tried to get it to turn off but it never did. The only way to get the light to go away was to turn off the truck and wait a few minutes before restarting. A few miles later, it turned on again on its own. Any idea why this could be happening? I know for a fact I did NOT hit the switch to engage it.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

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That's happened to me on my old 2018 JLUR. Weirdest thing and it just came on out of no where. Pulling into a gas station, you could clearly hear the barking of the tires as they made a turn too, so it wasn't just a light thing. Somehow, it eventually went away after a couple of cycles of the engine and didn't come back after.
 
Brute

Brute

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That’s not good…having the light on is one thing, but having your locker engaged for no apparent reason is another…
 
-AINOKEA-

-AINOKEA-

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Ok thanks. Yeah definitely not good. Gonna take it in to the dealer soon… as much as I hate to. Only about 2500 miles left before warranty runs out. Also have a nagging service 4wd every time it gets bumpy off the pavement in 4Hi. All these electrical components aren’t much fun when they act up.
 
Mike Pierson

Mike Pierson

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I have that right now and so does my brother’s JT.

It turns out that it’s the locker positioning sensor. Jeep doesn’t “pot” the electronics on the sensor and so metal debris can get in there and short the circuit. It’ll clear if the debris gets knocked out. I ended up buying the Z Automotive locker bypass harness. It blocks the sensor error and enables the normal use of the locker.

Jeep was replacing the entire axle before February of 22. Now they have the ability to replace the sensor only but they are backordered the last I checked. Z’s bypass harness id also backordered as of yesterday.

Also, I believe it’s covered under the drivetrain warranty, not the bumper to bumper.
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

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Staff member
Mike Pierson said:
I have that right now and so does my brother’s JT.

It turns out that it’s the locker positioning sensor. Jeep doesn’t “pot” the electronics on the sensor and so metal debris can get in there and short the circuit. It’ll clear if the debris gets knocked out. I ended up buying the Z Automotive locker bypass harness. It blocks the sensor error and enables the normal use of the locker.

Jeep was replacing the entire axle before February of 22. Now they have the ability to replace the sensor only but they are backordered the last I checked. Z’s bypass harness id also backordered as of yesterday.

Also, I believe it’s covered under the drivetrain warranty, not the bumper to bumper.
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Wow, that’s great info!! Thank you so much for posting this up 👍🏻
 
Mike Pierson

Mike Pierson

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wayoflife said:
Wow, that’s great info!! Thank you so much for posting this up 👍🏻
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My pleasure. My failure occurred on my way to Montana, two weeks before Sierra Trek. 😂

Luckily I was able to get one sent 2-day, a few days before we left for Truckee. It worked perfectly!
 
wayoflife

wayoflife

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Staff member
Mike Pierson said:
My pleasure. My failure occurred on my way to Montana, two weeks before Sierra Trek. 😂

Luckily I was able to get one sent 2-day, a few days before we left for Truckee. It worked perfectly!
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Awesome! Just so that I'm on the same page, are you talking about the harness that allows you to use something like a UD60 e-locker on the factory switch?
 
JimLee

JimLee

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wayoflife said:
Awesome! Just so that I'm on the same page, are you talking about the harness that allows you to use something like a UD60 e-locker on the factory switch?
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Different part, this one is specifically for the factory lockers with faulty sensors.
https://www.zautomotive.com/product/z_lkr_oem/

Although, it looks like the only real difference is the connector at the locker end, one has a generic 2 pin connector the other has the Jeep specific connector (4 pin but only 2 used), I'd hack it if I needed one.
 
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-AINOKEA-

-AINOKEA-

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Awesome! Thanks for all the info. I’ll keep an eye out for that harness to be back in stock.
How concerned should I be about the gears/axle shafts since this thing apparently engaged at such a high speed?
 
Mike Pierson

Mike Pierson

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-AINOKEA- said:
Awesome! Thanks for all the info. I’ll keep an eye out for that harness to be back in stock.
How concerned should I be about the gears/axle shafts since this thing apparently engaged at such a high speed?
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I honestly don’t believe it’ll engage while in 2wd and at speed. The main issue is that when the locker goes from an intermittent warning to “service lockers” you can’t use them at all. At least during the warning phase they still function.
 
-AINOKEA-

-AINOKEA-

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JimLee said:
Different part, this one is specifically for the factory lockers with faulty sensors.
https://www.zautomotive.com/product/z_lkr_oem/

Although, it looks like the only real difference is the connector at the locker end, one has a generic 2 pin connector the other has the Jeep specific connector (4 pin but only 2 used), I'd hack it if I needed one.
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Part was labeled “backordered” on the website but apparently shipped today.. should be here by Friday. Thanks!
 
-AINOKEA-

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Well, not much of an update but here goes… had to cancel my appointment a couple weeks ago due to family emergency, as mentioned in another thread. Rescheduled to today. In all the chaos going on in my life, I forgot to take out my Tazer. Of course they couldn’t duplicate the issue, then blamed it on the Tazer causing the issue and said take it out, then bring it back if issue returns… all after a $170 diagnostic fee. I hate dealerships.
Also, harness I got from Z auto didn’t look right. On one end, it looked like it was previously installed and someone pryed it back out again. I couldn’t get the other end connected without risking damaging the pins with too much force. Returning it for another one.
 
Mike Pierson

Mike Pierson

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-AINOKEA- said:
Update. Took it back to dealer with tazer removed. Basic warranty was expired by 4 days, but they covered it under powertrain. 3 week backorder for parts.
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I understand the repair also requires them to remove the gear set… do you have after market gears?
 
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