Hi to all-
This is my first post here and, unfortunately, its problems with my new used 2008 Jeep Commander 3.7 4x4 Sport with 37,000 miles on it. I've had it for only three weeks now.
I searched other threads to see if anyone else had this series of problems and I didn't come up with any results. Forgive me if there is another thread like this.
I'm not sure if any of these problems are related, so I'll rattle them off in order.
The airbag light was on before I bought the car and I told the dealership they had to fix it before I bought it. They brought it in, and it turned out to be a sensor in the passenger seat. They fixed it, and it hasn't come on since. I only bring this up because I read on another thread that "crushed/pinched" wires underneath a seat was causing electrical problems for another Commander owner.
The second problem is about a week after driving it off the dealership lot, I noticed that I had a difficult time shifting it from park to drive OR from drive back into park. After several attempts, it would finally slide into the position I wanted it to be in, and I was good to go. One day, it simply would NOT go back into park, only drive or neutral. Even after turning off the engine and turning it back on several times, it still wouldn't move. This was a big problem, because the Jeep does NOT let you take the keys out of the ignition in any position but park, so essentially I would have to leave my jeep unlocked with the keys in the ignition - not good. Luckily, an amateur mechanic co-worker helped me out, and after trying several different things, we finally popped off both peices of trim around the shifter and started poking things. Luckily, we poked an orange circle piece that we pushed back in towards the driver's side, and it freed the shifter back up. I still need to have this fixed, and I am still popping up all the trim every couple of days and poking in this orange plastic circle to free the shifter. On to the next problem.....
This is fairly bizzare. I turn over the engine, put the Commander into drive (if it lets me shift) and drive off. The speedometer and tac work, as does the electrical readouts of the gears under the speedo and the direction and temperature under the tac --- but thats it. No radio, no fan/blower/heat/a/c, the power windows do not roll down, sunroof does not open, front and back windshield wipers don't work. I'm not sure about brakes/headlights/power seat etc. However, if I pull over, shift it into park, turn it off, and turn it back on - everything works and power to all electronic accessories is restored. There are no check lights that come on, the dash lights do not come on and/or flicker, and after doing the key jingle dance X3, no error codes show up. The problem is just night and day - either everything works or nothing works. So far, everything starts back up after shutting off the engine and turning it back on the first time --- so far.
The last thing is the fog lights. I pull the headlight lever out, the green icon on the dash appears for the foglights, but they don't turn on. I admit, I failed to test them before buying the vehicle. I'm not sure if the problem is a fuse, bad wiring, a switch --- or the off chance both are simply burnt out. Where is the fuse for the foglights?
That's it in a nutshell. Has anybody had any of these problems? Are they or could they be related? Does anybody have any idea where to start looking at for each problem? Please, any advice or comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
