I just bought a 99 frc, 86k miles. I got an amazing deal and i'm starting to see why. Drove home through rain. While driving the car home i started getting a lot of weird displays (reduced engine power, service vehicle soon, check gauges, tire sensor, etc.) radio flickered on and off, truck latch would randomly disengage, reverse lights turned on, headlights turned on, horn turned on. The passenger side floor is soaked and the electrical components in the area did get wet. I've see several threads about A/C condesor tubes being plugged and spilling into that area. Disconnecting the negative termianl and reconnecting did nothing (didn't expect it to) and i am currently drying the floor. What advice can any give me. I'm desperate.

 

oh i forgot to mention...the reason i'm posting this is the car will not start. everything electical seems to turn on, but it won't turn over.

 

Do not try to start the car, dry out the floorboards as good as you can and remove the panel that sits in front of the passenger's feet.

Under that panel you will see a silver box, that is the BCM. Take it out and look for any sign of it getting wet. If it did get wet, open it up and dry it out. Re-install it and see if everything works, hopefully it did not get wet inside with power on and fry itself.

 

 

pure water doesn't hurt electronics as it is not a conductor. The minerals and contaminants, however do conduct electricity. I like to clean circuit boards with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol and then dry with a hair dryer. Be mindful of static electricity as many of the components can be destroyed from it. You can use the house ground from any plug in the house to ground yourself while handling the board and use a Mylar bag to carry it if you want to be totally cautious. I have fixed literally tons of electronics using the alcohol and hair dryer method.

 

Not entirely accurate. Even pure water will conduct, while poor, it will conduct. You are correct about the nature of minerals and contaminants, which can cause shorts and bridging between discrete components and circuits. For consumer electronics, that are not conformal coated, alcohol cleaning works well. Many automotive devices are coated with a conformal coating that helps the PCB resist moisture, but can be removed with Alcohol, which leads the pcb exposed after cleaning. Finally, depending on the type of flux vehicle used in the assembly process, alcohol can attack residues and loose materials naturally encapsulated by the flux residue....so clean with caution.

Now, if you think water doesn't hurt electronics...try dripping water on a ceramic device operating at 100 degrees C.

 

I had the same problem turned out someone put in an after-market blower fan with no rubber seal. Water poured all over the electronics and shut the car down.

Pull out the passenger seat, carpet, etc and dry everything out like the others have said.

Pull down the inner cover under the dash area and inspect the blower to be sure it has a rubber gasket seal on it. Then crawl under the car by the firewall on the passenger side and check the drain from under neath.

I would also check your udders. Do a search and you'll find some nice pictures by Bill Curlee.

 

I appreciate everyone's help and the more information I get the better. Something else...the security light started blinking. Could that have something to do with the car not starting? Just and idea.

At least i'm not getting the "column lock" code.

 

Yeah ... the SECURITY system will prevent engine start if it thinks the car is being stolen.

Display your DTC data and it should tell you what is triggering the SECURITY system.

 

My 97 did the same thing. The person above stating that water will not affect your bcm (body control module aka computer)is not totally correct as same thing you are describing happened to me on my 97 vette. My ac condenser began to leak into my passenger side due to a clogged line. It leaked a lot and drained into the bcm which is not a sealed unit. The floorboard/carpet was always soaked. My car acted like it was possessed and wouldnt start sometimes and flashed all kinds of codes including my security light staying on, traction, ect. I replaced my ac condenser myself for $100 and took out the bcm and dried it with hair dryer. It still did the same thing sometimes but it was the guilty party. I bought a used bcm off of http://www.car-part.com/ for I believe $55.00 I reinstalled the bcm and the car started and all the lights shut off. I had the old bcm tested and put it in my car again just to double check and again all the lights flashed and car wouldnt start. So, my bcm was bad due to water shorting it out. I now have a plastic bag around my replaced one so this doesnt happen again. You can fix this yourself in about 5 mins. The bcm unplugs with I think 1 wiring harness' that just snaps out and you are finished (my trunk latch also stopped working like yours is doing)

Ps. Ever got your cel phone just a tiny bit wet and the screen starts flashing or half the numbers show up? Same thing will happen with a wet computer/bcm. Peace

 

Nobody above said water won't hurt electronics. Water can cause problems that many times can be resolved by proper cleaning and drying. Sometimes the shorts created by the water will cause permanent damage. It is critical when PCB's get wet to get all traces of deposits removed. If that is done properly and it still doesn't work, time to buy a new one.

 

You're right. I was just throwing some trivia out there that helps explain that the minerals in the water that remain after the water has evaporated need to be removed. I guess I should have just come out and said that.
Here's the trivial facts:
Good clean tap water conducts 1000 times better than Pure water. Ocean water conducts 1 million times better than pure water. Pure water is 55nS/cm and tap water is 50uS/cm and ocean water is 53mS/cm. This is why we use brine solution to help cook people in the chair. The fact is that once almost anything touches the water, it is no longer pure.

So what is your recommendation for cleaning conformal coated PCB's? Distilled water, tooth brush, compressed air and a hair dryer followed by careful inspection?

 

Provided the conformal coating is intact, and the PCB has not been exposed to standing water (or immersion), the PCB should be ok and uncontaminated. The last engine controller I designed was required to be heated to 105 degrees C, and then dropped into a -40 degree C bath. This tested the integrity of the RTV seal, gasket seals on the electrical connectors. Occasionally, we would get a bad RTV seal, and water would enter the ECM, but the conformal coating would keep the water off the PCB, and the ECM would still function. In the event that the PCB requires repair, then localized removal of the conformal coating is the best approach, followed by a re-coat of the repaired area. I just want folks to be aware, that if they used alcohol on many Automotive PCBs, they may end up with a mess of goo, and may do more harm then good.

 

It has been a little while since i last opened up one or our BCM's, but i am fairly certain it was not conformal coated, and the container is far from waterproof