Passenger turning signal light does not work?

2016 JEEP PATRIOT
2.0L • AUTOMATIC
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LETICIARAMOS2890
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  • 58 POSTS
Passenger turning signal light does not work when headlights are being used. We replaced turning light bulb and checked fuses. We are not able to travel at night and use turning signal. Any help would be appreciated. Ty
Sep 20, 2026 at 4:48 PM
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STEVE W.
  • Experienced Mechanic
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That sounds like there is a bad ground to the turn signal. With the headlights off the turn signal uses the parking light as the ground. Then when the headlight are on and the parking lamp has power there is no ground path for the turn signal bulb. If you look at the light there are 3 wires to the lamp assembly. White w tan is the turn signal, White w gray wire is the parking lamp. The Black wire is the ground and goes to ground point G909A. Either the ground wire failed internally or the eyelet that they crimped on to the wire to attach it to the chassis. Chrysler used the same method on a lot of their vehicles and they have a very bad habit of failing. Sometimes it's all of them, other times it's just one wire. The repair is to cut off the bad crimp and install a new one and attach that to restore the ground.
This shows the common issue and the repair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9E14geB78
Sep 20, 2026 at 5:39 PM
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LETICIARAMOS2890
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  • 58 POSTS
I failed to mention it is the back passenger turning signal. Would we follow the same steps?
Sep 21, 2026 at 6:31 AM
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STEVE W.
  • Experienced Mechanic
  • 15,337 POSTS
OK for the rear it is still a bad ground and black wire. The ground location is different though and the rear light has three black wires that go to the ground 924A location. Still the same issue though. What they do is take 2-8 wires and crimp them all into one eyelet. Get a bit of corrosion in there and you get lights or other items that just stop working, but the crimped area looks perfect and as a result it's treated as good, and you get charged for bulbs, then a complete lamp assembly, then a BCM and finally you get fed up and bring it to someone who knows these vehicles who says, "Yep, you're describing a bad ground" and 20 minutes and a 6 pack later you have working lights again. In your case, access the light harness and find the three black wires that all go to the same ground in that brilliant design. This is how you can tell that vehicle has European engineering, It was a joint design of Daimler and Mitsubishi and it is overengineered in a bad way. The easiest repair is to take all three wires there, cut them at a convenient length, then either crimp those to a new wire that you attach to a handy ground point with a screw or find the other end under the panels, cut the wires there and add new ring terminals and ground them there.
Sep 21, 2026 at 1:27 PM
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