When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
So it's been raining really hard the last 2 days, and on my way to dropping my wife off at work, we hit a pretty deep section of road that was flooded. Maybe 1 foot of water, didnt see it at all (night time), and before we realized if was even there, we were in it.
So the rest of the drive there and back the car was totally fine. No water got in the intake, and everything was normal, all lights, stereo, subwoofer everything.
I parked the car for the night, came out to start it this morning and the battery was dead. Jumped the car, it started up just fine and drove strong to pick the wife back up.
We get back and park the car and it starts doing some WEIRD ****. Turn the key off take it out, and the fans come on. Headlights come on and off by themselves. Interior lights stay on. I start the car back up and the idle sounds different. Not misfiring, but its hardly responding to the gas pedal, where I can press the pedal all the way down and it revs to maybe 2,000 rpm and that's it.
I immediately shut the car off and it's doing the fans, lights, ect again. I'm guessing this was why my battery died because it wouldnt stop until I pressed the brake pedal down...? Also when I pressed the lock button on the keyless remote, the horn went off blaring and stayed on until I got back in and started the car again.
I'm currently drying the car out letting it sit parked, going to drive the other car for a few days...
What the hell is going on here? Should I disconnect the battery and let it sit?
Remove the IPDM, completely disassemble it (take good pictures first so you can get all the relays and fuses back in the correct location), put everything in a bag of rice for 24 hours to dry out. Reassemble and install.
It probably wasn't the puddle of water that caused the issue, it's probably your COWL DRAINS are slightly clogged and all the excess water waterfalled off onto the IPDM and saturated it. Given that every item you listed is controlled by the IPDM I'm pretty sure that's your problem, clogged cowl drains leading to saturated IPDM is a fairly common issue once these cars are 10+ years old. You should also remove the cowl and clean the drains out.
Remove the IPDM, completely disassemble it (take good pictures first so you can get all the relays and fuses back in the correct location), put everything in a bag of rice for 24 hours to dry out. Reassemble and install.
It probably wasn't the puddle of water that caused the issue, it's probably your COWL DRAINS are slightly clogged and all the excess water waterfalled off onto the IPDM and saturated it. Given that every item you listed is controlled by the IPDM I'm pretty sure that's your problem, clogged cowl drains leading to saturated IPDM is a fairly common issue once these cars are 10+ years old. You should also remove the cowl and clean the drains out.
Heres pics of everything, got the IPDM out today, it looks Mint but it definitely has some water inside of it. Not a ton but enough to get droplets coming out if I bump it across my hand.
All fuses are good, none blown, fuses do have some oxidation type build up on the prongs a bit, kind of a little sticky feeling. Hopefully all my relays are still good.
The drains in the plastic cowl at the bottom corner of the windshield were clear. Is this the one you're talking about or are there drains up under where the IPDM is mounted? My battery tray had 2 puddles accumulated in the round indents at the bottom of it.
Currently have the IPDM dismantled and sitting in front of my heater vent at home... Clean Looks mint All fuses good Little bit of sticky/tacky orangish oxidation on the prongs of the fuses, maybe from the moisture? Alot more water came out before, by time I got the phone to take the picture this is what was still shaking out. Definitely enough to cause some problems still...
By the way - does anyone have a link or pictures of the wiring harnesses that plug into the IPDM, or could anyone be so kind as to take a few pics of this harness so I can see the pinout?
When i was trying to disconnect all the harnesses, this one was a PITA and I popped the clip off by mistake, the wires came out of their positions and got mixed around so now I dont know how they correctly pin back in. 🤕 Need to know which wires plug into where on this harness
Good news is you probably caught the moisture contamination early before it corroded anything, you really need to get it into a bag of rice though to make sure it's REALLY dry, the heater vent will "probably" work but I would give it a full 24 hours and rotate it around a few times so the air can blow up behind the PCB.
Losing the harness on connector E7 however might end up being a nightmare to get pinned out properly. Someone is either going to need to post a picture of theirs with the correct wire order or you'll need to go through the FSM one wire at a time and look up color codes for each of the items from their respective sections of the FSM.
This is all from my 2006 coupe, colors should be the same but if you have extra wires for pins 19, 23, 29, or 32 you will want to verify in the FSM for your exact vehicle (don't know what you have). If you don't know how to look it up then just post back what exactly your car is (sedan/coupe, rwd/awd) and I'll look it up later.
Yes pins 24 and 30 were both the same color which is unfortunate, those would need to be rung out individually to verify where they went, 24 goes to the O2 sensors and 30 goes to the left side headlight.
Yes pins 24 and 30 were both the same color which is unfortunate, those would need to be rung out individually to verify where they went, 24 goes to the O2 sensors and 30 goes to the left side headlight.
My car is a 2005 G35 Coupe 5AT RWD- they make those harnesses extremely hard to remove, there is no push release on them you have to sort of pry it out with a flathead which Is Extremely ackward with the position of the IPDM in the engine bay....
When those wires popped out I knew it would be a pita getting them back correctly 😔
The wires are still in their general locations but not close enough where I could pop it right back on - so I think pins 24 and 30 wont be too hard to discern which color went where if that diagram is correct
It will probably be easiest to just take apart that left side headlight and ring out the wire from there. Definitely don't want to get anything mixed up.
Your '05 coupe should have the same wiring on the IPDM as my '06.
I did I quick scan of the wires to see if my colors matched what you had posted Cleric - I have a Blue with white or yellowish stripe that doesnt list on your pinot, could I have an extra wire or are my colors different?
So I found the Nico FSM and got to the IPDM section but am not seeing anything detailing the color wires for that harness... Blue with white stripe towards my pinky Cowl drain was extra clean Only visible water was pooled in the battery tray, but there was alot in the IPDM
Blue/yellow stripe is pin 32, I updated the previous post to include it. It's color wasn't listed in section PG but it said it was the front wipers so I referenced section WT and found it in the wiper schematics.
I also cannot find ANY reference for pin 29, I'm assuming it's unused. 19 and 23 both specifically said "unused" so that's why they were left blank.
You also need to drill holes in your battery tray so water doesn't accumulate in them, it probably is a sealed design so that a leaking battery doesn't make a mess but with the prevalence of water damaged components in that area I personally think drilling holes in the battery tray is the lesser evil.
Below the battery tray is a drain for that compartment that can also accumulate debris and become clogged, clean it out as well.