I bought a used 2005 Jeep Wrangler Renegade with front trail lights. I found the switch for the light bar on top but the extra trail lights on the bumper doesn’t light. Any ideas on troubleshooting after I see if they are burned out?
The lights in the bumper are fog lights and are probably not on the same switch as the overhead lights. There’s probably a cryptic switch somewhere that is supposed to look like a headlight shining downwards, or it could be a position on the headlight switch. They also might not come on when your headlights are on.
If your 2005 Renegade is anything like the 2004 Liberty I used to have, there’s quite an array of lighting permutations.
Generally, the “fog” lights, the brights and the roof lights are all mutually exclusive - only one can be on at any given time, and IIRC, the regular headlights need to be on as well.
This assumes the “fog” lights and the roof lights are factory-installed. If the original owner installed them, all bets are off and you’ll just have to start tracing wires to see what switches and relays they go to.
This is the procedure you should follow:
1.) Check to see if these lights are wired up at all. The lightbulbs might be installed, but not the wiring.
2.) Check to see if the light bulbs work, or at least one of the light bulbs works. If possible, remove one of the light bulbs and hook it up to a battery or battery charger; or just look at the filamient.
3.) Check to see if the lights are properly grounded. 99% of the time when a light goes out on the car it is because of a bad ground. Find the ground for the lights and see if they are properly wired to the chassis for the ground. If the ground is bad, make a new one to a better spot on the chassis or run it directly back to the negative battery post.
4.) If the ground is not the problem, you need to dig deeper. First check to see if any lighting fuses are blown. Check all the fuse boxes. Most cars have at least two. Mine has three. If all of your fuses are good, check to see if the lights are properly wired to your light switch. This may be difficult because the wires will most likely be covered up. Do your best with matching colors and using diagrams if they are available. After that, check any relays that are inlvolved.
That’s the best advice I can give you without knowing more info. I work on cars all of the time, electrical is one of my specialties. I know how frustrating this can be.
Set aside about 4 hours to work through this whole procedure. Bring screwdrivers, a knife, and an SAE socket set. Bring a continuity tester if you have one.
-Leidenfrost