rain caused dead battery.

[SwampySi]

I was on a NE PH run to Scotland this weekend, and all was great on Friday, nice weather good run up the west coast with 15 other cars.. however on Saturday morning I got up to find my lights on and by battery all but dead. Luckily there was just enough power to open the door, but not to start it.

It looks like overnight we had a big downpour of rain which has soaked the engine bay and shorted the electrics for the lights, this meant that the front fog lights came on and over night drained the battery.

A nice Scottish RAC man got me started by charging the battery (after taking the front wheel off to get to it), but it meant all I could do was drive it home and missing 2 days of the scotland tour. I tried pulling various fuses but couldn't get the lights to go off (they eventually dried themselves out after about 3 hours of motorway driving home).

My question is, has this ever happened to anyone else? and other than getting a car cover if there any way I can stop this happening again?

Thanks.

[CHAPS100]

Hello Mate,

I have been reading some of your posts, you havint had much luck with my old car by the sound of things.
When I had it I never had that problem, the car was out in rain and snow with no problems at all.
I hope your still enjoying the TVR.

Take it easy.

[SwampySi]

I've had a few little problems but nothing that puts me off TVR ownership yet..yesterday was a bummer as I' had to come home early while the others headed further through Scotland. I just need to work out what happened and try to fix it (and always remember to bring my Anderson jump leads with me)

The only real big problem was the water pump but luckily most of that was covered under warranty.

[clive f]

seems a bit strange this one, after the heavy rain was there any water in the driver or passenger footwells, I can`t see water getting to the headlights themselves, but could certainly get in via a windscreen or door seal, or badly sealed holes in the engine bay baulkhead.

try a hose pipe over the roof / windscreen area for a while and check down in the footwells for wet wiring and ecu`s.

[SwampySi]

I didn't notice any.. I had my head in the drivers footwell looking for fuses to remove and didn't notice it being wet. I'm going to give it a good look over later today and give the seals a check to see if I can see anything. could have water got behind the dash somehow rather than in the footwell?

The hose idea is a good one.. I'll give that a try and see if I can identify anything. I'm going to nip out today and pick up a Halfords outdoor rain cover just to make sure it's Ok, don't want it happening again next time I'm out on a trip.

Not sure if it's relevant, but the dash was reading "lights on" when leaving the car so the ECU knew they were on (even though they were turned off on the dials).

Edited by SwampySi on Sunday 17th July 08:54

[clive f]

I`d remove the floor mats, give the outside a good soaking with a hose pipe, then get back in the footwells with a torch and see if you can find anything, if the dash said lights on even though the switch was off I`d be thinking of a damp ecu somewhere, the dash ecu is down by the drivers throttle pedal, remove the panel and its tucked in on the righthand side, check the fuse panel above the steering column as well.

I`m not sure about water behind the dash, it would need to run in from above the bottom of the windscreen to get there, more likely footwells, but with electrics you can never be certain.

anyone else any ideas?

[Targarama]

Look at the loom connector/cable which runs into the driver's footwell/firewall. It sits under the airbox in the engine bay. Seems like an ideal place for water to run in and along the loom to me.

[SwampySi]

Will do, the top of the airbox had a small swimming pool there