D3 has gone a bit silly after a wash!!

[Nomad9]

Hi Forumites,
This afternoon I decided to give my D3 a bit of an under the bonnet wash, long overdue irt was atad dusty and grubby. Anyway I used an environmentaly friendly degreaser. Washed everything down using low pressure water I left for a while to dry out and started the vehicle up. well I was met with an array of falshing lights, the suspension went to access level, the info window tells me I have many any failuts, indicators flash every now and again, tacho works every now and again, temp and fuel gauges flick on and off, park brake fault, the list goes on. i suspect water is somewhere where it isn't supposed to be. Do I just leave things to dry and and will everything return to normal, what do I have to do? Anything, hair dryer on all the junction boxes. I'm sure I'm not the first and I won't be the last. Any help greatfully accepted.
Thanks in anticipation.

[stig0000]

prity much let it all dry adn do a hard reset,

[Nomad9]

Stig,
"hard reset" and by that you mean? Is this a disconnect the battery reset?

[Nomad9]

Hi Stig or anyone else out there in D3 land,
I let everything dry out, this morning everything is back to normal except the transmission which is still telling me I have a fault and that no special programs are available, any ideas??

[gghaggis]

Sounds like you may have got the Tranny control module in the battery housing wet. IIRC CaverD3 had that issue before - send him a PM. I think you have to remove the battery to get to the module and dry it out.

Cheers,

Gordon

[buzz66]

It's days like these I bet you wish you still had the truck in your Avatar.
MMM....sounds like a problem in deep creeks.

[Nomad9]

Hi Buzz,
You are right to a point, the old truck yes I never had so much fun with my clothes on. Times have changed alittle bit now, when anything happened to my old Rangie if bits fell off I just used to throw them in the back. Nowadays I'm more into the touring "thing", towing the camper trailer and camping where I can. I'll more than liley get another toy at some point, my wife and I were only reflecting at the weekend how much fun it used to be, the old Rangie was more or less bomb proof despite what a lot of others say. Near standard it was apart from alift and a locker in the rear, great bus.

[Nomad9]

Gordon, aka ggHaggis,
Eternally greatful my good man, I didn't hear from Caver D3 but I went searching anyway. Took the battery out and found the tranny module, the multi pin sockets were full of water, and had also been soaked in some sort of silicon goo, this has obviously been a problem in the past going by the grubby fingerprints all over the module. Anyway I've now cleaned everything up and I'll asemble tonight hopefully no electrical damage has taken place inside the module due to the water ingress.
Right on the money Gordon, very greatful for your assistance, bloody good forum this.......

[drivesafe]

Hi Nomad, yours is actually a bit of a common problem and when you reassemble everything, make sure the loom plugs are firmly fitted together, otherwise you may end up with a new and different set of problems.

BTW, for those buying a D4 and finding that the auxiliary battery compartment is now full, it's the gear that Nomad is having problems with and has been moved into the auxiliary battery compartment to rectify this problem.

[gghaggis]

:BigThumb:

If it's not too late, when you re-assemble everything, give the terminals and casing a coat of some type of conformal spray such as CRC Plasticoat.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Nomad9]

Hi Gordon,
I'm on it I've bought some electrical grease, guaranteed to prevent water ingress, we'll see. It's a Dow Corning product, came recommended. The terminals look to be in quite good condition so I'm ever hopeful.

[gps-au]

Hi Gordon,
I'm on it I've bought some electrical grease, guaranteed to prevent water ingress, we'll see. It's a Dow Corning product, came recommended. The terminals look to be in quite good condition so I'm ever hopeful.


hehe, be careful its not the stuff telstra use to use years ago, which ends up corroding the connections :angel:

[Nomad9]

Hi People,
Well I did the reassembly thing with little success, the faults I had before are the same as when I took things apart, one thing different the faults now are consistent, before they were different giving off different symptoms every five or so minutes. At one point I thought I nearly had it then (last night) everything went back to where it was originally. I cleaned all the connections as best I could, dried everything out and tried to reset the fault codes. gearbox is all clear the problem is all around the trasfer case or at least appears to be.
Is it normal to "toast" the module when this electrical fault happens or is it normal for it to recover? The fault that won't reset is the clutch reading is high, can't remember the exact wording.
Thanks in anticipation for any help rendered, the forum is doing really well so far.

[gghaggis]

When you say 'faults' - are these the normal messages reported by the car, or do you have a diagnostic box plugged in? Diagnostics would (hopefully) quickly pin-point the offending module. If you're still under warranty, take it to Southerns up the road and get them to diagnose it for you. If not, you could try Kevin Falconbridge at RoverTech in Bentley - he has the Autologic modules for the D3.

Yes, you could fry the TCM if it was wet for a period of time. You'll have noticed that it isn't completely sealed.

Cheers,

Gordon

[CaverD3]

Sorry Nomad never got your PM. :confused:

Try to make sure it is really dry (use SWMBOs hair dryer ;))
I coated mine with CRC Plasticote as haggis suggested.
You can seal it better if you take it out. Then coat the connectors well when all is working.
A fair few of these modules have been fried, some by the dealers which is why the LR moved it in the D4.

[Nomad9]

Hi Caver D3,
Not sure what happened to the PM, lost in IT space somwhere I suspect. I dried everything out I left the module in a warm place for 24 hours (upstairs in the loft I know what people might think!!) I connected everything up and I had the same fault, prior to drying everything out I was getting different messages flicking up, sometimes the LED would come up and tell me things were happening, next time I switched the ignition on as soon as I started the engine the little light on the selector would go out and a message would come up telling me the special programs were no longer working.
After drying everything out and cleaning everything up all I get is the little light lit up by the selector at the position two of the ignition key as soon as I start the engine the light goes out and tells me the special programs aren't available.
I've hooked up my Faultmate MSV-2 this tells me the fault is in the transfer case somewhere, all the other modules are fault free. After the assistance from Gordon aka GGHaggis I learnt about the transfer case module, then I found the terminal box connection immersed in water and a gooey silicon grease solution, all very yuk I thought I had found the problem, I still think I have but I belive the module is rooted, TRS in S.A. are sending me over a reasonably priced transfer case module to replace mine, this way I'll know for definate what the problem is and maybe recify the problem.
I have my D3 booked into Southerns a week on Friday to get the wheel alignment checked and adjusted, if things still aren't right I'll ask them to have a look. I'm hoping things will be near rigt by then. Interestingly the module I took out appears to have been replaced late last year. I only bought the vehicle from a person in the ACT in July, I suspect he may have got things a little wet.
Really appreciate the help from you guys, you've been very helpful, hope I can return the compliment one day.

Yours Marty

[CaverD3]

Good luck Nomad, hope it sorts.
I am sure you will be sealing the new one and won't be pouring water there next time you clean the engine bay.;)