Need help with water in the fuse panel.
#1
Need help with water in the fuse panel.
Well, my husbands truck almost stranded me at work this morning. Yes, it is his truck when something goes wrong and my truck when all is working well!
I drove it to work last night and I noticed that the door switches didn't go off when I opened the door. That was the last I thought of it. Just shut the door and ran in the store. It was pouring down rain so soon as I got out of the truck, all I thought of was getting in a dry spot! LOL THis morning came and dead battery. I mean dead as a door nail. Luckily my friend got off at the same time and she called her husband to come give me a jump. It jump started with no problem. We let it run for a bit, then I took off towards home.
When I first took off it didn't seem like it wanted to go to well. I chalked it up to being cold and the battery being really low. When I got going down the road I noticed the speedometer didn't work anymore. Then all of a sudden I got jerked pretty hard. Kind of scared me. The jerk is when it is shifting. It jerks in both shifts going up, and also jerks while shifting back down. If I am just making a turn and not needing to stop, it revs real high till it jerks into the next gear.
So, what the heck happened? Is this jerking and speedometer issue related to what is going on with the switches staying on?
I remember reading on here about water in some kind of abbreviated thing, like ECU or FCC. Not those, but something to do with what ever is under the dash. When I got home I took the fuse panel door off and reached my hand up in there. I can feel water on some of the wiring. So I think that is the problem.
So my next question is, how do I stop the water from getting in to that area? Where are you guy's finding the problem leak at? I would appreciate any fixes you guy's may have. My only thought is to put a plastic bag over the fuse box! LOL I'm thinking that isn't the right fix though! LOL Help!!!! I really love driving the truck, but don't want it to break down every time it rains!
Almost for got, It is a 1999 F350 V10 Automatic
Kim
I drove it to work last night and I noticed that the door switches didn't go off when I opened the door. That was the last I thought of it. Just shut the door and ran in the store. It was pouring down rain so soon as I got out of the truck, all I thought of was getting in a dry spot! LOL THis morning came and dead battery. I mean dead as a door nail. Luckily my friend got off at the same time and she called her husband to come give me a jump. It jump started with no problem. We let it run for a bit, then I took off towards home.
When I first took off it didn't seem like it wanted to go to well. I chalked it up to being cold and the battery being really low. When I got going down the road I noticed the speedometer didn't work anymore. Then all of a sudden I got jerked pretty hard. Kind of scared me. The jerk is when it is shifting. It jerks in both shifts going up, and also jerks while shifting back down. If I am just making a turn and not needing to stop, it revs real high till it jerks into the next gear.
So, what the heck happened? Is this jerking and speedometer issue related to what is going on with the switches staying on?
I remember reading on here about water in some kind of abbreviated thing, like ECU or FCC. Not those, but something to do with what ever is under the dash. When I got home I took the fuse panel door off and reached my hand up in there. I can feel water on some of the wiring. So I think that is the problem.
So my next question is, how do I stop the water from getting in to that area? Where are you guy's finding the problem leak at? I would appreciate any fixes you guy's may have. My only thought is to put a plastic bag over the fuse box! LOL I'm thinking that isn't the right fix though! LOL Help!!!! I really love driving the truck, but don't want it to break down every time it rains!
Almost for got, It is a 1999 F350 V10 Automatic
Kim
#2
The water usually comes in through one or two places. Most of the time it is through a leaky windshield. If you have cab clearance lights it can come in through those also. The first thing you need to do is fix the leak. If you don't fix the leak, it will just keep coming back. I would say, fix the leak, let it all dry out, and see what happens then. Good luck.
#3
Ok, I went out and took one of the cab light lenses off. The gasket is wet and is kind of shriveling up and breaking. The rest of the cab lights you can see condensation in them, so I am thinking they are the same.
The question is, where do I get new gaskets for those? Even a bigger question, if I replace the gaskets ( for the lenses) will that fix the leak, if it is coming from the cab lights? Or am I going to have to try to figure out how to take the base off and silicone under it? It seemed pretty solid when I kind of just pushed and pulled on it.
I bought the clear lenses so I guess this is perfect timing to have to do this! LOL I was going to take the orange lenses off anyway! LOL
Thanks for any help.
Kim
Oh, one more thing. If it is a leaky windshield, how have you all fixed that? Do you have it removed and re glued in or do you have more glue put around it while in the truck?
The question is, where do I get new gaskets for those? Even a bigger question, if I replace the gaskets ( for the lenses) will that fix the leak, if it is coming from the cab lights? Or am I going to have to try to figure out how to take the base off and silicone under it? It seemed pretty solid when I kind of just pushed and pulled on it.
I bought the clear lenses so I guess this is perfect timing to have to do this! LOL I was going to take the orange lenses off anyway! LOL
Thanks for any help.
Kim
Oh, one more thing. If it is a leaky windshield, how have you all fixed that? Do you have it removed and re glued in or do you have more glue put around it while in the truck?
#5
I have been looking online and even called the dealer. You can't buy the gaskets separate. Have to buy the whole assembly just to get a gasket!
#6
#7
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#8
Ok, I pulled all the cab light lenses off, blew the bases and all out with compressed air. Put the grey putty stuff around them and put the lenses back on. We blew the fuse box and all kinds of stuff under the dash. My lights on the doors now go off when I open them and come on when the truck is on so that is a good thing.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
#9
Ok, I pulled all the cab light lenses off, blew the bases and all out with compressed air. Put the grey putty stuff around them and put the lenses back on. We blew the fuse box and all kinds of stuff under the dash. My lights on the doors now go off when I open them and come on when the truck is on so that is a good thing.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
#10
Ok, I pulled all the cab light lenses off, blew the bases and all out with compressed air. Put the grey putty stuff around them and put the lenses back on. We blew the fuse box and all kinds of stuff under the dash. My lights on the doors now go off when I open them and come on when the truck is on so that is a good thing.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
My only problem left now is the speedometer still doesn't work and the shifting is still really bad. My friends computer says it is a speed sensor error. He doesn't know exactly where that is at though.
Another friend sent me an email a while back ago and told me if my transmission ever starts shifting hard, all I need to do is turn the key on, disconnect the battery, then hook it back up. That is supposed to cure that. Has anyone heard of that?
Oh, and I did feel the headliner and it is wet on the driver side. Mostly by the sunvisor area and towards the door curve. So I do believe it was a leaky cab light. I just hope the new grey stuff stops the leak. We did not take the cab light bases off. They appear to be pop rivoted on. So I am hoping all will be well with the better lense seal.
#11
My hubby was supposed to take it to the tranny guy and drop it off, but the tranny guy said to check the fuses. We did that (so I thought) and couldn't figure out why do it again, but I did. I found 2 fuses under the dash that looked funny, but wasn't sure if they wer blown or not. So I replaced them. Went for a test drive and I noticed the speedometer was working. Another friend told me to reset the computers one has to drive the vehicle on the freeway for 10 min. then in town for another 10 or so. So I started off. The shifting was still hard. Soon the speedometer started to not know what speed we were doing. LOL It would float all over the board.
When I got home I tried another friends suggestion of disconnecting the battery, then turning the ingnition on and off, then re hooking the battery. That didn't work. At first it didn't want to shift at all, but after I stopped at the first stop sign and took off again, it was back to the hard shifting. Took it home called it a day.
Well, hubby wanted me to bring it down to him and when I told him all I did, he decided we would just go to the tranny guy. Get there and he hooked his computer up to it, got some codes. Cleared all codes and said hop in, let's go for a test drive! It was amazing. It shifted beautifully!! That and my check engine light is off now! LOL So "bonus"!! LOL I am a happy camper again and my husband no longer has a truck! LOL
Now we just have to wait and see if we stopped the leak. I know I can take water to it, but I am going to just bask in the sun for right now and enjoy it. LOL I will wait till it rains again, then go check for wetness on the headboard. If it is wet I will not drive it! LOL Will tear down the headboard and re seal the bases of the lights. For now I am hoping it was just bad gaskets around the lenses! I really hate to mess with things if they don't need to be messed with! One thing at a time!
Thanks again for all the help!
Kim
#12
kinda of a common problem if the windshield was replaced by someone who didnt care, or possibly the w/shield has damage? anyway,, ya want to make sure there is no corrosion in the fuse-box (green fuzz in the fuse holes etc.) cuz that will mess up sum stuff easily,,i will bet beer that the leak is the w/shield--when my cab light leaked, it leaked into the o/head console (the display was swimmin!!) and i had a tiny bit of w/marks on the h/liner (good call bout that also!!)--git that w/shield repaired PRONTO and hope fur the best
#13
Well, it's raining today and I went out to check on the truck. Looks like my lens gasket fix wasn't the problem. I called hubby to let him know and he wants to pull the headliner off now and check the bottom of the cab lights.
I really think it is the windshield myself. I felt the headliner and it is still dry. Before it was wet. So I think we stopped the leak from the cab lights. Although, maybe it takes longer then a few hours of rain to get the headliner wet?
I'm going to wait till it stops raining and the truck has a chance to dry off again, before we tackle the problem. I don't want to start it and take a chance of having a melt down again! LOL
One nice thing is I have a relative that does windshields and he has a girlfriend that can get me any gaskets or what not that the windshield may need. Just have to wait for hubby to rule out the cab lights first. LOL
On that note, how hard is it to pull the headliner? Or even better, how hard is it to get back in?
I really think it is the windshield myself. I felt the headliner and it is still dry. Before it was wet. So I think we stopped the leak from the cab lights. Although, maybe it takes longer then a few hours of rain to get the headliner wet?
I'm going to wait till it stops raining and the truck has a chance to dry off again, before we tackle the problem. I don't want to start it and take a chance of having a melt down again! LOL
One nice thing is I have a relative that does windshields and he has a girlfriend that can get me any gaskets or what not that the windshield may need. Just have to wait for hubby to rule out the cab lights first. LOL
On that note, how hard is it to pull the headliner? Or even better, how hard is it to get back in?
#14
We pulled down the front of the headliner and figured out that the water is coming from the cab lights still. It is not coming from the base of the cab lights, but from the inside the lens area still. The stuff we used for a gasket didn't work and on a couple of the lights, they were filled with water. The water then runs out the little hole behind the light, which leads into the cab. So if I could have found the gaskets, I wouldn't have had the problem again.
We did learn that the gasket is not supposed to cover the whole light area. The back is supposed to be left open, for draining purposes from around the screw.
We did pull one one complete light off the cab. Just to make sure and it "was" sealed down good. Now we will have to reseal that one, but we are leaving the rest alone.
Because I can't seem to find gaskets for them, I am going to try clear silicone this time. Not going to use the grey goopy stuff that I used the first time. I will also leave the back part of the lens free of silicone, to hopefully allow drainage like it is supposed to drain.
You would think one would be able to get a hold of a manufacturer of these, or would think Ford would be able to order gaskets separate. Obviously the gaskets are going to go bad eventually. Ford told me I had to order the complete light to get gaskets. Only 16.49 a piece!
We did learn that the gasket is not supposed to cover the whole light area. The back is supposed to be left open, for draining purposes from around the screw.
We did pull one one complete light off the cab. Just to make sure and it "was" sealed down good. Now we will have to reseal that one, but we are leaving the rest alone.
Because I can't seem to find gaskets for them, I am going to try clear silicone this time. Not going to use the grey goopy stuff that I used the first time. I will also leave the back part of the lens free of silicone, to hopefully allow drainage like it is supposed to drain.
You would think one would be able to get a hold of a manufacturer of these, or would think Ford would be able to order gaskets separate. Obviously the gaskets are going to go bad eventually. Ford told me I had to order the complete light to get gaskets. Only 16.49 a piece!
#15
Well, after sealing the cab lights with silicone, it quit raining. LOL So I did a hose test. I only saw one that failed, so I resealed it again. It rained lightly overnight that night and it appeared that the leak was fixed so I put the cab back together.
Last night and today it rained really hard. I went to check on the truck after I got off work and I didn't feel any wetness on the headliner, but I did see a few drops on the floor mat. Drove the truck next door and while doing so I stepped on the brake hard, to get the water to run off the cab of the truck. That is when it really started to drip on the floor mat. I noticed that one of the cab lights had a little water in it but not enough to get over the dam my hubby built on the inside. So I took it to his work to reseal that light and also look further into the leak.
It wasn't the light that was leaking. We finally found the leak when pouring water over the windshield. It is about 4 inches from the corner on the drivers side. Because I poured the water kind of fast, it soaked that part of the head liner, but what it was doing was running down the side of the door pinch weld. Then it would go onto the windshield lower down and then finally drop on the wiring.
Put a call into the kid and he is going to attempt to reseal the windshield first. If that doesn't work he will have to pull and replace it. Hopefully without breaking it! LOL Good thing is he is a windshield guy and his girlfriend works for a windshield repair place. So even if he breaks the glass, he will be able to get us a new one for real cheap.
Hopefully this will end my water in the fuse box problem. I will report as soon as we find out!!
Last night and today it rained really hard. I went to check on the truck after I got off work and I didn't feel any wetness on the headliner, but I did see a few drops on the floor mat. Drove the truck next door and while doing so I stepped on the brake hard, to get the water to run off the cab of the truck. That is when it really started to drip on the floor mat. I noticed that one of the cab lights had a little water in it but not enough to get over the dam my hubby built on the inside. So I took it to his work to reseal that light and also look further into the leak.
It wasn't the light that was leaking. We finally found the leak when pouring water over the windshield. It is about 4 inches from the corner on the drivers side. Because I poured the water kind of fast, it soaked that part of the head liner, but what it was doing was running down the side of the door pinch weld. Then it would go onto the windshield lower down and then finally drop on the wiring.
Put a call into the kid and he is going to attempt to reseal the windshield first. If that doesn't work he will have to pull and replace it. Hopefully without breaking it! LOL Good thing is he is a windshield guy and his girlfriend works for a windshield repair place. So even if he breaks the glass, he will be able to get us a new one for real cheap.
Hopefully this will end my water in the fuse box problem. I will report as soon as we find out!!
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