Electrical issues after getting water over fog lights for hours

Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
  • MEMBER
  • 2009 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
  • 3.8L
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 165,000 MILES
Got water over front fog lights for hours. Started up and no BUS came on dash. Driver side airbag sensor started smoking. Disconnected battery, took out driver and passenger sides side sensors, disconnected power sliding door connections. Started up all electrical worked great. Next day wipers wont go off, head lights stay on. Let run 10 minutes goes off then back on?
Sunday, October 20th, 2019 AT 8:13 AM

33 Replies

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
Hi,

No question you have electrical issues but the problem is you have about 2 miles of wiring in that vehicle and hundreds of connectors. More than likely you have water in a connector but the only way to figure it out is to monitor the bus voltage and start unhooking them to see when the voltage returns. Then you either unhooked the problem connector or it was down stream of this one.

The wipers and headlights staying on is a safety default when you lose the bus network because these components are commanded on via the bus and if this is down then you may not be able to turn them on when you need them so they are just defaulted on.

You are on the right path with unhooking connectors but again, you need to monitor the bus voltage while doing it so you know if you made a difference.

Let me know if you have questions. Thanks
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Sunday, October 20th, 2019 AT 7:32 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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I know the fog lights stayed under water for a good six hours. Did not disconnect the front airbag sensors yet. That is next.
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 7:27 AM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Disconnected fog lights and front airbags started up. All dash lights on no gauges, radio runs fine seems worse now.
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 1:21 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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  • 21 POSTS
Now radio out. Dash warning it goes off for 5 seconds then comes back on. Dash will not let me check codes manually. Should I get a volt meter?
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 3:10 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
What is your bus voltage with the key on?
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 3:11 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Don't know. When I held the odo button with key off then on. Showed sw ver. 647 also can ver. 729. Last one lin ver 505.
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 3:50 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
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Sorry if I wasn't clear. I meant the voltage of the bus network which you get by measuring voltage at the DLC on pin 6 and ground. Then Pin 14 and ground with the key on.
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 4:11 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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What is dlc?
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Monday, October 21st, 2019 AT 4:29 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
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Sorry. It is the Data Link Connector. It is the one under the driver side dash that you plug a scan tool or code reader into.
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Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019 AT 5:52 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
  • MEMBER
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Thanks KaseKenny1. I found PCM, took connectors off cleaned with electrical cleaner put all back on. Put in new battery, now it is worse!
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Friday, October 25th, 2019 AT 11:15 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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Yeah, unfortunately, just taking connectors apart and cleaning them is not the issue. You are looking for water intrusion so the inside of the connectors will most likely have green growth in them. Did you measure bus voltage like I suggested? What were the voltages?

The only way I know of actually finding this issue is to measure the voltage and then start unhooking the connectors that were actually under water. Clearly if the entire vehicle was then this is going to be time consuming but if it was just the front end then I am sure we can find it. However, with out measuring bus voltage then you have no idea if what you are taking apart is the issue.
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Friday, October 25th, 2019 AT 5:27 PM
Tiny
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Thanks KaseKenny1. I will try it. I will stay in touch.
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Tuesday, October 29th, 2019 AT 12:57 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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How to find and remove the front airbag sensor?
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Thursday, October 31st, 2019 AT 7:00 AM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Took off front bumper still can't find sensor?
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Thursday, October 31st, 2019 AT 12:12 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Took out head lts. Can't find, tried to find photo, not diagram. Can not find.
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Thursday, October 31st, 2019 AT 12:56 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Found front air bag sensors disconnect. Same. Pressed odo. Button turn key on, showed s--64.7/l--50.5/c--72.9/cf--.9 then=187
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Thursday, October 31st, 2019 AT 1:34 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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I thought you said you found the airbag sensor smoking so you disconnected the sensors?

Sorry to be a broken record but until you do what I suggested, I am not sure I will be much help.
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Thursday, October 31st, 2019 AT 5:02 PM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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The side airbag sensor was smoking not the front.
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Friday, November 1st, 2019 AT 9:05 AM
Tiny
ROBERTMOGLIE
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Going to buy volt meter.
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Friday, November 1st, 2019 AT 9:06 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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Haha. Sounds great. I guess I made the assumption that you already had one. Let me know what you find and we can go from there. Thanks
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Friday, November 1st, 2019 AT 3:39 PM

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