scielerep

Seems to be a never ending saga lately with my car. This one has me stumped.

Today there was a really bad thunderstorm, and all of a sudden the fog lights came on, the trunk opened, and the fob would not work to unlock the doors. My husband went out and was able to manually unlock the driver side door, and started the car, drove it for a while thinking maybe that would "reset" whatever is going on. (The trunk has not worked in over a year unless using the key.) He is currently reading the manual, but really hasn't found anything except how to set the door locks to manual, which we have done.

I have been scanning earlier posts and I think I may have a PSE pump problem. I am not a mechanic so I would appreciate a little help. The issues listed below have been ongoing.

1. The interior lights do not function properly. They would not turn off, so I just manually turned them off.
2. Before the storm, when I locked the doors with the FOB (remote) the yellow lights did not blink...however, when I unlocked the doors the yellow lights blinked. Since the storm, the fob isn't working at all.
3. Turn signal blinking is irregular (faster) than normal.

The battery in the fob is good, (we actually used both fobs) and I had the battery replaced in the car last year, so I'm pretty confident it's good as well.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance

raymond g-

my guess is that your car may have suffered short circuit issues within the battery compartment
area which houses critical components which control the electronic appliances you've described.
you or your husband should inspect that area very carefully for any signs of moisture, water stains,
dampness in the foam surrounding the PSE pump, battery, rust, etc.

if, indeed, water short circuited some of the fuse block connections, you should be aware that
even upon evaporation, some moisture may still be present. so the area should be cleaned,
dried, and possibly even contact cleaner be used to ensure that every contact is completely
dry.

that is the easy part, because if you did find signs of moisture, then that likely means that you
either left a window or roof open, or that the water entered the battery well as a result of a plugged
gutter from the doors, roof, trunk....

if the PSE pump was compromised, you really need to open it up and dry it completely in
similar fashion as you do with the fuse block

scielerep

Thanks for the quick reply! during the night the trunk popped open twice. I'm hoping the fuse for that is easily accessible. (we removed the fuses for the lights)

scielerep

Update -- this morning the battery was dead, so my husband jumped it to get it going. We had removed several fuses last night to get the lights to go out, but apparently the battery had had a bigger drain that we thought. We took out the back seat to check the battery area and apparently there has been a leak because there were little puddles of water under the battery. The "casing" around the PSE wasn't wet, but could have been a little damp (hard to tell when it's cold outside). So we left the seat out so everything could dry out. He drove it around today, and no problems. Then this afternoon, one of the fog lights just "magically" turned on. Since it was still mid afternoon, I called a MB specialist (that's all he's worked on for the past 30 years) and he said to drive it over and he'd take a look at it. He said I need to find out where a leak could be; we opened the trunk (manually) and there was moisture all around the gasket. There was also a lot of nature "trash" (gotta love Spring and the pollen) so we cleaned all that out. That could be the source of the leak, since I haven't cleaned that before.

He also told me to simply disconnect the negative charge on the battery for the night. Hopefully, things will reset in the morning. On the way home, the interior lights started blinking.

If anybody has done this, can you tell me what to expect?

I swear I think Herbie the VW spirit has invade this vehicle.

raymond g-

You cannot just remove the seat and expect it to evaporate completely. Presuming, of course,
that the moisture shorted the circuits, you will have moisture on multiple fuse contacts and
relays. EVERY component should be removed, wiped clean, sprayed with contact cleaner,
air blown (jet and/or hair dryer) before reinstalling. The little nooks and crannies in the fuse
block should be gone through.

Everytime you continue to leave the power connected and/or drive the vehicle, you are energizing
the potentially damaged circuit and risk making it worse. If moisture is allowed to remain (even
if the device appears to be functioning) rust on the metal components can result which will
compromise the electrical contact (and increase its resistance)

scielerep

You have no idea how much I appreciate your help!

I was able to reprogram just about everything, but had to leave fuses out for the fog lights, so if I'm out at night I won't have any tail lights. Good thing it's the beginning of daylight saving time; it'll give me some time to work on that. Only a few other problems remain and that's the door locks and the buttons on the dash. I can lock the doors with the fob, but the locks do not go down. The door lock button on the dash is not working and the light on the tow button is lit. I guess that's the alarm? It's been a while since I've seen THAT. Oh, and when I went to listen to CD's, the message "No CD magazine" or something to that affect. (This has happened before, I just jiggled the wire connecting it...I just haven't had a chance to do it yet)

Suggestions? Many thanks again!

scielerep

We left everything alone for a couple of weeks. I'm not in a position to pump a couple of thousand dollars into something that is probably going to be a huge rabbit hole, so we bought a Jeep...

That being said, we juiced Christine up yesterday and everything is right as rain, except when starting, now the trunk pops open! Even works with the fob, and that hasn't happened in a year and a half.

So we are going to take her to an expert and see what he says to do.

{{{sigh}}}