Rain Causing Electrical Issues

[SuddenBraking]

Hey all, have a 2020 Gladiator (bought in May 2019) that's been flawless for me for the five years I owned it.

However, in trying to air out five years of kids a couple of weeks ago, I left my top down overnight (first time ever) and of course it rained pretty good.

The next day it wouldn't start up, and I got these error messages (video attached). After disconnecting the battery and letting it reset for 30 seconds, I was able to drive it with the check engine line on. The next time I drove it a few days later, no check engine light at all and I assumed my problem was fixed.

However, in the couple of weeks since I've gotten the error messages a couple of times, and the check engine light a couple of times as well. I've tried to spray contact cleaner into crevices on the dash, center console, and the steering wheel to try and help dry it out, but based on the latest error codes that isn't doing the trick.

So the question is, does anyone have a likely place where the water got into to try and do a proper job of drying it out?

Thanks for reading!

Sponsored

 

[kevman65]

So, I can't tell you for sure what it is, but there's a LOT of expensive maybes involved.

You've got a CANBUS front passenger footwell, left side of it. You've got a CANBUS behind rear passenger seat on back cab wall and low. You've got a BCM passenger front, wedged in right side of glove box, against blower motor, behind everything over there.
You've got a ton of electrical connections low to the floor all over the cab, you've got electrical connections all over in the dash.

You got a whole bunch of faults showing up, so you probably have multiple things involved and things shorted out.

 

[Hootbro]

The three straight likes on the MPH gauge is a new one on me. I am with @kevman65 that something is dragging the CANBUS down.

That is going to take some experience diagnostics to isolate it down to wiring and/or module. May clear on it's own if water related and allowed to dry out but there maybe future problems with corrosion setting up in a connect point.

Right now, would be a lot of stabbing guesses.

 

[SuddenBraking]

So, I can't tell you for sure what it is, but there's a LOT of expensive maybes involved.

You've got a CANBUS front passenger footwell, left side of it. You've got a CANBUS behind rear passenger seat on back cab wall and low. You've got a BCM passenger front, wedged in right side of glove box, against blower motor, behind everything over there.
You've got a ton of electrical connections low to the floor all over the cab, you've got electrical connections all over in the dash.

You got a whole bunch of faults showing up, so you probably have multiple things involved and things shorted out.

Appreciate the reply.

Judging by those locations, it sounds like the passenger footwell would be the most likely - I realize I left out a key detail in my OP, which is that I've got a Sunrider top on mine, so only the front seats were exposed to the vertical rain (although the rear windows were open, FWIW).

Is there a schematic or diagram showing what functions each of those CANBUS (CANBI?) are responsible for? I feel like it's a pretty safe bet that there's water in one of them.

 

[Hootbro]

Is there a schematic or diagram showing what functions each of those CANBUS (CANBI?) are responsible for?

 

[Hootbro]

Here is the layout sheets.

 

[SuddenBraking]

Awesome, thanks!

Based on these I'm thinking it's CAN-C - happen to know where that one is located? I sure hope it's the one in the passenger footwell

 

[SuddenBraking]

Awesome, thanks!

Based on these I'm thinking it's CAN-C - happen to know where that one is located? I sure hope it's the one in the passenger footwell

Looks like it's on the driver side assuming it's the IPC in the second pdf you linked for CAN-C - am I reading that correctly?

 

[Hootbro]

Awesome, thanks!

Based on these I'm thinking it's CAN-C - happen to know where that one is located? I sure hope it's the one in the passenger footwell

There is multiple inline junctions for the CAN-C. Most common is behind the glovebox if you remove it.

 

[kevman65]

You may want to consider turning this in on your insurance, you know because the tarp you had tied down to protect it overnight blew off and water got inside the cabin..........

Diagnostics alone are going to be murder.

 

[SuddenBraking]

New twist - disconnected the battery twice, and that didn't work (same startup sequence as in the first video, which doesn't allow the car to be put into gear).

Ripped up the passenger side floormat and unhooked a drain/snorkel, which gave me enough room to fire a leafblower up into into that area.

I also allowed the car to idle for a while in that state (I usually just shut it off), so I'm unsure of whether it was the additional idling time (5 minutes-ish) or the leafblower, but when I looked the check engine light was on but the dash showed "0 mph" (which means it's driveable).

Something else I forgot to mention - the center console screen looks different when it's behaving like this, and has a blue color scheme. Also, the backup camera doesn't come on when I'm reversing.

I think next steps are to shoot more air up into that area to try and get things as dry as possible, and then maybe follow that with wire dry.

Does anyone know of a good tutorial for getting the center control panel off? I did it when I first got my truck five years ago to install a dongle to disable to auto start feature but can't remember how I did that.....

 

[Josh00333]

Put a small electric space heater in it, low heat low fan mode heat the interior up and mini bake it dry.

shoot for 110-120 for a few hrs with a window cracked.

 

[Josh00333]

Don’t burn your rig down or do something dumb like a full-size electric heater on full for 18 hours and melt everything small heater on low just to warm the cab up for a while.

I used to have to park my truck outside. I had a small heater set to medium heat in the foot well plugged into a thermostat on a timer so every morning at 6 AM. It would turn on defrost all the windows in the truck and I would get up go to work and not have to scrape my window.

 

[SuddenBraking]

Put a small electric space heater in it, low heat low fan mode heat the interior up and mini bake it dry.

shoot for 110-120 for a few hrs with a window cracked.

I was going to do something similar, but with a small fan instead (to start).

A strong amount of airflow overnight will do a surprising amount of drying out.

 

[SuddenBraking]

Welp, I think I may be over it. The fan doesn’t seem to help, and I just don’t have the time or inclination to chase electrical gremlins through this thing.

Would you guys take to a dealership or local independent? And if independent, anyone got any good tips around Philly?

Sponsored