Liftgate (Rear Hatch) latch cycles with car off

I've been chasing an intermittent problem with the battery being drained on my daughter's 02 Liberty Limited. Yesterday, the rear hatch glass was open and the rear latch kept cycling with the car off and the key out of the ignition. Now I'm not sure if the battery was drained by something else and the low voltage caused the BCM to become erratic or if the latch issue is causing the problem. I'm going down to check it out on the weekend but though I would ask if anyone has seen anything similar?

I just had some weird lock unlock problems too on sunday, and found my batt voltage low.

Everything was normal, I had been driving around for some hours. Went to park and lock the jeep and when I hit the lock button all of the locks repeatedly tried to cycle unlock.

I opened the door, locked and unlocked with the door switch a few times, and then tried to lock using the fob again. Same thing, click click click click as all doors unlocked again.

Checked battery voltage and found it at 12.1v.

Started it and it cranked slow, but voltage went right up to 14.4v. Let it idle for a minute turned off, and the voltage was right at 12.6v.

Tried the fob again and locks worked normal with the usual horn toot (I dont feel comfortable walking away from the jeep unless I hear it).

Now why my battery was suddenly low voltage but recovered right away is anyones guess, strong bet its a bad battery though (I dont drive around low speed that much usually so i can imagine the battery is not normally exactly that warm, and then having the hood open messing with it gave it time to cool just enough).


Out of all the cars I have owned, this one seems to be the most finicky with batteries and voltages.

The rear latch will lock/unlock with a loose battery connection...try loosen the positive connector on the battery and move it around...you will hear the latch locking/unlocking.

So it is worth cleaning the battery contacts very well and check the connection of the negative battery lead where it goes to chassis.

I recently replaced my battery again on my 2002 Export CRD....seems to last for about 4-5 years every time then dies!

These rear latch problems can be caused by dirty battery leads or dirty grounds or a bad battery. There is also a known problem regarding the micro-switch inside the rear gate handle. Water gets into it and the switch fails and needs replacing. This normally cause problems with opening the rear gate but it could cause other problems.

Best to start with a known good battery...if battery loses charge then there is a procedure to measure current leakage with a Digital Multi Meter.

5 Years is when my battery dies; When I turn the key to start the rear glass opened, that is all.

My microswitch died and wouldn't open the glass. It got water in and rusted it's guts out. Seems like yours has enough water in it to make contact.

I just got through chasing an intermittent rear wiper and "coincidentally" had a tail gate lift switch not working. Eventually found three shorted wires at the point where the harness goes through the gate hinge. There is a connector just in front of the left rear tail light (behind the interior quarter-panel)and you can easily take off the tail gate panel and check all of these for continuity. It solved the two problems I knew I had and also the rear defroster started working again.