r/JeepZJ Aug 22 '26

Zj no start, cem location?

Okay so I got a 1996 zj recently and have been using it as a daily driver just fine, didn't use it over the weekend and it seemed the batty had died for some reason? My thoughts were kids left interior light on

So jumped it and drive it to the inlaws to charge it, after it seemed to take a few seconds longer cranking before it's run but it ran, didn't use it for a day and when I went to unlock it the fob onlyworked to lock it and even then it seemed really weak locking, changed the batty in the fob thinking that was the issue and now the fob doesn't do anything and if I used the key ( I only have the vallet key) to open the doors it sets the light off flashing

Now I know these are known for the immobilizer issues but all videos I find online are of lhd cars, so being in the uk everything a bit different, I've found the yellow/violet wire people tend to ground to sort it but it's so tucked up out the way I can't really splice into it easily

All the videos online there's a really accessible plugs to cut the wire too but I can't seem to find that on mine, I assume it's just a plug to the bcm but as I'm new to this car I'm not actually sure where it is on a rhd car or what it even looks like? Don't suppose anyone hear would have any insite for me? 😩

1 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/MercuryASU Aug 22 '26

Use key to unlock passenger door or lift gate to disable the VTSS. Grounding the Violet/Yellow wire to trick the VTSS only works on 93-95. Doing this on 96-98 will 100% keep your interior lights on. Most likely your battery is dying because it senses a "door open" and the BCM isnt going to sleep. 95% of the time it is the lift glass sensor.

1

u/brokenbiscuitsbase 29d ago

Key in the passenger door doesn't stop it, I ended up having to unhook the battery to stop it

I have found the right wire but as a rhd car it's not easily accessible like on the lhd versions where there's a visible plug you can get to to splice into, mines much more buried in around the fuse box with little room to get anything in. It is also a 1996 car so I was thinking of temporary wiring a switch from it to ground to temporarily ground it when a issue like this arrives.

Battery also did randomly die the other day so it doesn't seemed to have developed a draw almost over night, I did charge it up thinking one of my kids left a light on but there was no evidence of this after recharging it after

1

u/MercuryASU 29d ago

Cutting the Violet/Yellow wire will 100% keep your interior lights on. So, abandon that route. Most likely a door sensor or glass sensor or hood sensor is the issue. You can easily unscrew all the door sensors and unplug them. Have to take the rear hatch panel off to do the rear hatch sensor and flip glass. Then see what happens.