Chasing the Electrical Gremlins

[goVawls]

Hey guys! Longtime lurker, and finally picked up my first Cruiser last month from a fellow Mud member. Mildly built 2009. I have been loving it, but have run into the electrical gremlins as ColdCruiser calls them.

The week before last, the "Check TPMS System". Replaced the battery in one of the sensors this week and the light turned off. Then I noticed the passenger side heated seat light was on, even though the seat was turned off. The day after that, "Check PCS" came on along with the PCS light. I started searching here, and it led me to these threads:

Electrical Problem - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/electrical-problem.1260038/
Driver Heated Seat Stays ON - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/driver-heated-seat-stays-on.1235015/#post-14141654

Today I pulled the trim in both the driver's and passenger's front footwells.

No moisture found in the driver's side. Although I told my wife that a few weeks ago and again last week with all of the rain we have had in TN, the driver's side B pillar (upholstered part) felt cool or damp to the touch a few times but it did not appear damp just felt damp...or really it just felt cool if that makes sense. I even pulled the trim off the B pillar today and there was no sign of moisture. The bottom plug to the harness on the driver's side did have signs of corrosion. I cleaned with a can of air, then used CRC Electrical Cleaner spray, let dry, then applied dielectric grease before putting the plug back in the harness.

The passenger's side however had water below the wiring harness, and again the bottom plug shows signs of corrosion. Followed the same process of cleaning with air, followed by the CRC cleaner. I am letting it dry overnight before putting the dielectric grease and plugging it back in since there was water below the harness and a little moisture when I unplugged the bottom plug. I would say there was less one ounce of water below the harness.

The truck has a Prinsu rack that the PO had installed basically right before I purchased it. He used clear silicon to seal it around the hardware. I noticed today that the windshield is not OEM, and that there is an XM antenna on the roof above the front passenger seat, with its wire running down the windshield channel to below the passenger seat.

Do y'all have any tips of where to prioritize looking for the water intrusion point? Sunroof? Windshield? Prinsu? And what is the best way to check each of the ways?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Leaky2014]

Here we go again….

If you have water on both drivers and passenger side I would guess it’s the sunroof drains are clogged.
Pull the covers off where the tweeters and oh s*** handles are, get a hose out and put in sunroof, you’ll see the water dripping if that’s it around that area.
Kudos on the dielectric grease.

 

[Markuson]

Hey guys! Longtime lurker, and finally picked up my first Cruiser last month from a fellow Mud member. Mildly built 2009. I have been loving it, but have run into the electrical gremlins as ColdCruiser calls them.

The week before last, the "Check TPMS System". Replaced the battery in one of the sensors this week and the light turned off. Then I noticed the passenger side heated seat light was on, even though the seat was turned off. The day after that, "Check PCS" came on along with the PCS light. I started searching here, and it led me to these threads:

Electrical Problem - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/electrical-problem.1260038/
Driver Heated Seat Stays ON - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/driver-heated-seat-stays-on.1235015/#post-14141654

Today I pulled the trim in both the driver's and passenger's front footwells.

No moisture found in the driver's side. Although I told my wife that a few weeks ago and again last week with all of the rain we have had in TN, the driver's side B pillar (upholstered part) felt cool or damp to the touch a few times but it did not appear damp just felt damp...or really it just felt cool if that makes sense. I even pulled the trim off the B pillar today and there was no sign of moisture. The bottom plug to the harness on the driver's side did have signs of corrosion. I cleaned with a can of air, then used CRC Electrical Cleaner spray, let dry, then applied dielectric grease before putting the plug back in the harness.
View attachment 2938949
View attachment 2938948


The passenger's side however had water below the wiring harness, and again the bottom plug shows signs of corrosion. Followed the same process of cleaning with air, followed by the CRC cleaner. I am letting it dry overnight before putting the dielectric grease and plugging it back in since there was water below the harness and a little moisture when I unplugged the bottom plug. I would say there was less one ounce of water below the harness.
View attachment 2938947

The truck has a Prinsu rack that the PO had installed basically right before I purchased it. He used clear silicon to seal it around the hardware. I noticed today that the windshield is not OEM, and that there is an XM antenna on the roof above the front passenger seat, with its wire running down the windshield channel to below the passenger seat.

Do y'all have any tips of where to prioritize looking for the water intrusion point? Sunroof? Windshield? Prinsu? And what is the best way to check each of the ways?

Thanks in advance!!

Pronsu is a leak machine as the mounts are just bad news. Still fighting with mine. Silicone doesn’t work well either… Definitely worth looking into. If you remove the expandi g side pieces from the left and right side of the sunroof ooening…youmay be able to actually see drops forming under the Prinsu mounts from the inside.

 

[Blackbirdaerial]

I had the same XM antenna on mine. That’s not an issue.

 

[GordJ]

The last time I had water problems I took it back to the shop and they had a sensor that helped detect leaks. I don’t know how it worked but they put one part of it in the truck and went around the windshield with a “sensor” to find the gap. The door was open on the truck so it didn’t pressurize the cab but they were able to find the leak around the glass. This should be able to help locate a leak elsewhere in the truck. Just don’t let them try to tell you that it is somewhere on the firewall on the passenger side, that’s the heater intake.

 

[TheGrrrrr]

I'm beginning to think I may want to come up with some kind of moisture barrier to cover/protect the electrical connections on/near the firewall as a preventative measure. These kinds of issues are my #1 concern in terms of "problem that you find too late".

 

[goVawls]

Thanks Leaky2014 for the tip on removing the A pillar trim to watch for water when checking the sunroof drains!

Markuson, I’ll try that to check the Prinsu! Do you think it’s worth trying to remove the silicon and replace with non hardening gasket?

GordJ, like a sniffer you use for looking for gas leaks? That’s pretty genius.

Today’s update: I put some dielectric grease on the passenger side bottom most harness this morning after letting it dry overnight after it’s cleaning, reconnected the battery, and low and behold the PCS light is off, the driver’s door master switches (locks and windows) are all back working. The passenger seat heater LED indicator is still on, even though it’s turned off but that is the only symptom today. So progress has been made. Still have to figure out the source of the leak though.

 

[Leaky2014]

I would disconnect the seat climate module ASAP!

 

[goVawls]

I would disconnect the seat climate module ASAP!

How can I find that? I found several plugs under the seat yesterday but didn’t find them labeled to know which plug is which.

 

[Leaky2014]

Should look something like this.

 

[GordJ]

?

GordJ, like a sniffer you use for looking for gas leaks? That’s pretty genius.

Yes, it was like a sniffer but I don’t know what it was sniffing? Ionized air?
And the seat heater light was the first symptom I saw and I just kept unplugging and cleaning until it went away. My seat heater wasn’t on so I wasn’t worried about unplugging it.

 

[Leaky2014]

It cost nothing to unplug it until you get the issue sorted, it could cost about $400 if you don’t, per seat, if you can find one for sale.
Ask me how I know.

 

[TheGrrrrr]

The seat heater switch may be unrelated. @JohnJB recently had a switch failure where the light stayed on… I think.

 

[JohnJB]

Correct, I recently replaced a seat heater switch in a 2011 LC that’s only symptom of failure was that the amber LED constantly stayed lit even when off. I can’t offer much more help than that.

I did not have any evidence of water intrusion as that was my first concern. I left the switch with Rob so he could disassemble it and see if he could tell why it failed. I ended up buying a replacement switch from the UAE for $102 shipped as I couldn’t locate one in the US for under $165.