Battery Cable problems of the 2008 Jeep Wrangler

Tl the contact owns a 2008 Jeep Wrangler. The contact stated that on several occasions the doors locked and unlocked independently, with the horn blaring and headlamps flashing with the windshield wipers activated without warning, or driver input. The contact became aware that the failure was due to the failure of the totally integrated power module (tipm). The contact stated that to prevent the failure, the negative battery cable was disconnected while the vehicle was parked. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 115,000.

Opened passenger door. Front and rear wipers turned on by themselves on high. 30 seconds later horn went on constant blast. Started vehicle, wiper and horn still on. Pulled keys from ignition, but vehicle stayed running. Popped clutch to shut off. Pulled battery cable. Everything reset. Later in day, tried to start, wipers turned on by themselves again, hazzard lights started flashing - but Jeep would not start. Power locks and windows would not work. Radio did work along with headlights. Starter would not click or engage, it was just dead. Towed to dealership. Tipm replaced twice previously 5 months and 9 months earlier. Now at dealership, battery rehooked up, everything is fine.

Tipm failure. Horn, wipers, windshield go off while driving, would not stop even with vehicle off. Have to pull battery cable. Would also go off by just opening door, key not in ignition. Auto transmission stopped shifting gears, a/c fan stopped working.

Tipm --- the vehicle began having electrical seizures in which the horn, lights, locks, wipers, and washer fluid all began activating at once. I had to pull over after I lost visibility because of the washer fluid covering the windshield. After turning the car off and back on several times over the course of 10 minutes, I finally pulled the battery cable to stop the problem. But as soon as I reconnected it, the problem would start again. I eventually pulled the horn fuse and limped back to my office and the next day took it to the dealer where they diagnosed the problem as a bad totally integrated power module and charged me $863. 87 to replace it.

My 2008 Jeep Wrangler unlimited began to have starting problems. At first it was very intermittent and I assumed it was due to a worn battery so I replaced the battery with a new one and the problem was resolved for about 4 days. Again, the vehicle would not start without repetitive turning on and off of the ignition until it would finally start. This problem occurred every few days. Finally on the morning of 8-23-2010 the vehicle would not start no matter how many times the key was turned. After about 50 attempts it finally turned over and I drove it directly to my local Jeep dealer to have the problem investigated. That afternoon I received a call telling me that the problem was common amongst 2007 and 2008 Wranglers. The technician said that there is a design defect which causes a poor grounding between the battery and the starter. He said that they had been installing a new grounding strap between the battery and the starter and that it was $177. 00 and not covered by warranty even though it is a known design defect. Upon getting my Jeep back from the shop I looked under the hood to see this $177. 00 grounding cable and it is simply a $10 battery cable attached to the negative post on the battery and run over the top of the engine, down along the firewall, and attached somewhere on the back side of the engine. Really, it is ridiculous that Jeep has a poor design and then charges owners to repair it. From what the dealer technician told me this is not an uncommon problem.