'03 Expedition - Sunroof open, thunderstorm, electronics malfunctioning
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'03 Expedition - Sunroof open, thunderstorm, electronics malfunctioning
My wife left the windows down and sunroof open on our '03 Expy. LOTS of rain inside the truck. Vacuumed out the water from the carpets, toweled off the seats, then decided to turn the truck on and run the heater. But....No heater! No A/C. The control panel for heat and a/c shows no lights. Security system/remote locks not working. Rear power fold seats not working. Truck will not come out of park. Truck will start, and shows check engine light. Man! Where to start?
Postmaster
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,584
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From: Chesapeake, Va.
Check your insurance policy, if you have comprehensive coverage, file a claim. You are not the first to have this happen and it should be honored.
If no coverage you can do the following;
Remove the seats and seat tracks to help them dry, use a small electric occilating space heater and give it a couple of days to totally dry out. You could use an incandesent light of around 25 to 40 watts to dry under the dash, just don't put it too close to the wires or any plastic. Remove the radio and hvac controls to dump the water out as well as the GEM and the fuse box. If water got to them they will hold it for a long time before drying out completely. Under the door sill plates are some pretty deep channels that will hold a lot of water, remove the sill plates and vacuum the water out the leave open to get completely dry.
Good luck with this project, it's a lot of work but to save your truck you need to do a thorough job and when you're finished you may still have strange things happening in the electrical system.
If no coverage you can do the following;
Remove the seats and seat tracks to help them dry, use a small electric occilating space heater and give it a couple of days to totally dry out. You could use an incandesent light of around 25 to 40 watts to dry under the dash, just don't put it too close to the wires or any plastic. Remove the radio and hvac controls to dump the water out as well as the GEM and the fuse box. If water got to them they will hold it for a long time before drying out completely. Under the door sill plates are some pretty deep channels that will hold a lot of water, remove the sill plates and vacuum the water out the leave open to get completely dry.
Good luck with this project, it's a lot of work but to save your truck you need to do a thorough job and when you're finished you may still have strange things happening in the electrical system.
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Thanks for the head's up on the door sill plates. I removed them all and found water standing in the passenger side channel. Dried it out yesterday. I pulled and inspected every mini-fuse in the fusebox this morning, and found the #5 fuse was cooked. Replaced it, and now everything is functioning. The #5 has the brake/shift interlock on it, PCM, security system, heat/ac manual control panel, etc. So all of my malfunctions were stemming from that one 7.5 amp fuse. Still running a fan in it, and the weather here is hot and dry. Thanks again for your responses!
Postmaster
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,584
Likes: 3
From: Chesapeake, Va.
Thanks for the head's up on the door sill plates. I removed them all and found water standing in the passenger side channel. Dried it out yesterday. I pulled and inspected every mini-fuse in the fusebox this morning, and found the #5 fuse was cooked. Replaced it, and now everything is functioning. The #5 has the brake/shift interlock on it, PCM, security system, heat/ac manual control panel, etc. So all of my malfunctions were stemming from that one 7.5 amp fuse. Still running a fan in it, and the weather here is hot and dry. Thanks again for your responses!
Freshman User
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 43
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From: Rural Hall, NC
I just wanted to say thanks too Moto Mel for sharing the advice. I am not experiencing this problem but it is people like you who take the time to write up what others need to resolve their problem.
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