SOT, Chrysler engineering

[davestlouis]

Unbelievable, the same people who designed some of their 90's era cars so the front bumper cover has to come off to change the battery really did an engineering snafu on my wife's 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It started running hot in traffic, I discovered that the electric fan wasn't kicking on. Sounds simple enough, check the fan and check the relay...only issue is, the relay is mounted on the frame rail, under the right headlamp. It gets worse, when the lamp is removed, the plastic headlamp mount panel is in the way. To get that off, the grille comes off, the other headlamp comes off, and the bumper cover comes off. I bought the relay at the dealer, and it had instructions inside. The instructions stated that the relay is on the LEFT side of the car, and showed line drawings to that effect. The instructions show the relay to be clearly exposed under the LEFT headlamp...even if it was on that side, the headlamp mount panel would be in the way. These people are stupid. I found a shortcut online that involved taking a 2in holesaw to the lamp mount panel, and gaining access that way. The relay is prone to failure...why on earth did they bury the silly thing where it's this tough to get to?????