Water leak intrusion in door causing CEL, VSC, and flashing 4LO? (1 Viewer)

[ApexRex]

2008 LC200 w/ 165k on it, bought in January and have had the CEL, VSC, and flashing 4LO lights several times now. I've begun to notice that it is just after a heavy rain and the truck is stationary - it does not occur if I drive through rain or wash the car. The codes I got were:

P2446
C1201
C1268
B1421
B1424

I've checked all the usual suspects for water intrusion but can't find any actual source, though the large plugs for the body harness at the base of both of my doors had some corrosion in them, I cleaned those but still had all the previously referenced lights come back once afterwards.

However, after the last incident, I noticed a significant amount of water pour out when I opened the driver door. The floor mats were bone dry, I pulled up the carpet on both sides and the padding under the carpet was also completely dry. I began taking the door off and started finding evidence of more water. The back of my speaker was damp and so was the rest of the inside of the door (the interior being on the inside of the outer shell and inside of the inner structure of the door). There are a few electrical components in that area, namely the window motor, rear view mirror ECU, window switch pack, and the speaker. Would any of these components taking on water cause those dash lights to come on?

I suspect that the door seal itself has failed, there is a place where the seal on the door has a plug that goes into the door frame and is separated, and there is some rust around that hole. I suspect water is getting in there, going down the structure of the door, and getting something wet. Although it seems like a lot of water was in there, so maybe it is the window seal instead.

I appreciate any thoughts or insights you all might have.

 

[Sandroad]

Have you pulled up the trim on the drivers side floor sill from the A pillar to the B pillar? It seems very likely you’ll find water and corroded connectors that are causing the problem. New door seals will help, but also check the sunroof drains and windshield leaks, especially if the glass has been replaced.

 

[ApexRex]

The windshield is original, I did not see evidence of leaks from it. There is also no water whatsoever on the floor mats, carpets, or underneath the carpets. The padding is absolutely dry.

After the previous incident I pulled the trim and cleaned the connectors. They had some minor corrosion but were dry. I cleaned with electrical cleaner and a soft bristle toothbrush but the issue keeps occurring.

 

[ApexRex]

 

[bgladd]

How do you remove that top trim piece where the handle and Airbag are? I need to replace mine.

 

[Sandroad]

I suspect that corrosion is the culprit. You'll probably have to do a better job of cleaning the contacts after you fix the water leak. I bet the door seal leak let water run down into the wiring channel at the door sill along the floor and messed up those connectors, if you're certain the windshield and sunroof drains are ok. The wet speaker indicates the door seals. Maybe others on here will chime in with good contact cleaning advice.

 

[bloc]

The door is designed to have some water move through it. There just isn’t a great way to completely seal it out given the window needs to move up and down.

End of day, if water isn’t draining out of the door the small drains along the lower edge are clogged. I can imagine a scenario where it leaks into the cabin by draining into the door card area then flow on top of the weather strip where it’ll then go into the foot well.

 

[ApexRex]

Maybe I do need to clean those again, I'll order an electrical contact corrosion removal kit and hit it again since that isn't that intensive.

The door still does have water moving through it, the drain plugs don't appear to be clogged since the water poured out when the door opened. The point at which the water was being held was lower than those body harness connectors in the panel.

Also, at the same time I removed the door and found the speaker had significant amounts of water on it, I had also pulled up the carpet and it was dry, and there was no water in the channel underneath the body harness, everything was dry.

I can tell I'm not the first one in here looking for this issue, I'm going to guess the previous owner sold it because this kept popping up. At least it doesn't affect drivability (unless you suddenly need low range and can't unhook the battery for 15 mins to reset)

 

[bloc]

Did you put the speakers in? Those aren’t stock. Someone was definitely inside that door.

 

[ApexRex]

Nope, those were there when I got the car. First thing I noticed when I took the doors off, how they hacked the harness to make them work.

They sound terrible, they aren’t appropriately powered. At max volume you can hold a conversation without really even raising your voice.

 

[ApexRex]

while the water intrusion into the door may be an issue, it doesn't appear to be the cause of the dashboard chirstmas tree. It rained hard here two days in a row and I have not gotten the error lights again.

I did some more reading about P2446 in relation to the Hewitt Technologies SAIS bypass kit, that code appears to indicate a possible failed pressure sensor. Hewitt sells a dummy sensor for similar issues and is much cheaper and less time intensive than replacing the entire assembly. I've emailed for support and will report back as I continue to track this down.

A new issue has popped up since I originally posted, and independently of these other lights, the CDL light will flash at startup and until I shut the truck down. I never touched the button, so unrelated to actually trying to engage it. I have not run techstream to diagnose, but everything operates as normal and at the next startup the light goes away. could be unrelated, but noted.

 

[bloc]

CDL light is a well-known issue if you do some digging here. The transfer case does a self-check so you don't need to press buttons to trigger it.. and yes it does seem restarting often kills the light, temporarily at least.

 

[pvchaitanya]

The windshield is original, I did not see evidence of leaks from it. There is also no water whatsoever on the floor mats, carpets, or underneath the carpets. The padding is absolutely dry.

After the previous incident I pulled the trim and cleaned the connectors. They had some minor corrosion but were dry. I cleaned with electrical cleaner and a soft bristle toothbrush but the issue keeps occurring.View attachment 3387387

View attachment 3387384


View attachment 3387388

where are these connectors you are showing in this picture? Is it below driver side footing? If you can tell me how to get to them, I would like to check mine as I am having multiple error code pop up.

 

[ApexRex]

where are these connectors you are showing in this picture? Is it below driver side footing? If you can tell me how to get to them, I would like to check mine as I am having multiple error code pop up.

Check out this thread, it describes in detail on how to remove the kick panel and get to those connectors. I followed the procedure on the connectors on both the driver and passenger side.

As a follow-up to the issues I described in this thread - still have not identified the cause of the C1201, C1268, B1421, B1424 codes. However, the P2446 was being caused by an old and faulty SAIS bypass module. The manufacturer sold me a new module (I bought my truck with it already installed, so that's a fair deal) and the issues described in the original post have not occurred again. Water intrusion doesn't seem to be causing it, it has been outside in heavy rain several times with no adverse effects.

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