I had my convertable top down while visiting my friends home, only to come out and find his young son spraying hose water inside my car.

I just bought the car the day before; it is a 2000 Jaguar XK8 convertable. After we stopped the little car washer...we went to work drying everything inside the car with towels. He soaked everything, especially the radio/heater control area and center console.

Initially the clock was spinning and would not stop, the speakers were making clicking sounds, the radio would not come on, and the radio display was now displaying "PHONE" and that display would not go away. After more drying and letting it sit outside and dry out for a couple of days, I was so happy that everything seemed to be working again...but that happy feeling only lasted a day, because now the battery drains in about a day.

I recharged the battery and tried it again, and it drained overnight again and would not start. I really love this car and I am fairly handy. I have disconnected the battery and recharged it overnight and it is back up to 13.4 volts. I am willing to try to do the work myself, but I would really appreciate your advice on what to first start checking to try to troubleshoot this electrical draining issue.



Thank you in advance for your advice,
Utah John.

 

Ouch!!

Fair chance it's something still wet/damp.

There are threads about current/power drains, which you can just follow. I like to measure (tiny) voltage drops across fuses (after waiting say 45 mins).

 

Follow the link below and scroll to response 10. It is a great video for tracking down a parasitic drain. Make sure the bonnet,doors and boot are open and let sit for 45 minutes to an hour. This will default to sleep mode. Once you know the circuit you can find out what components are on that fuse.



https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...estate-193954/

 

You are probably going to have to do the same as they do for houses that suffer from a flood. First thing is to open stuff up and dry it out. I would say start by removing the center console. Start with the screws under the armrest lid and make your way around. The entire surround trim pulls out and frees up a LOT of space for air to flow through, especially in the radio/AC area. Also, the wood trim can be removed without too much effort as well (less sure about the airbag trim on the passenger side). Then check the seat control modules if they have any water (under the front seat bottoms). I would probably work on the glove box, steering column knee bolster and column trim pieces. Door panels need to be checked too, especially if the speakers were wet. The shifter area has switches and electronics for the lights. You need air all around. And frankly, the more modules you can remove and dry up the better. Pick one (radio?) and if it is soaked, all the rest is likely wet too. The background is that the overall electrical system is engineered as a number of modules communicating over 3 separate digital data networks, so a failed module can prevent others on the same bus from working.

Then start the drying process. Use a fan. Air conditioned space is better of course. Also, look into Exquisicat cat litter, made with silica crystals. Dry them up as best you can (read up, but 30 min in 200 deg oven might do), then close the top, put the crystals in there to absorb the moisture. A hygrometer would not hurt in there as well.

There we posts a while ago about someone buying a (cheap) flood car from Houston. It was repeatedly emphasized that wet circuits do not like to be powered up. Getting these circuits wet is not necessarily a problem (besides salt water), but the drying process matters.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

PS: Obviously, you were looking at your own car and you could tell the severity of the soak, but if this is beyond a casual fine spray that might have gone behind a few radio buttons, you might want to check the terms of your insurance policy...

 

+1 with Vern. Don't lose hope, we've all (well almost all) have gotten caught with the roof down during summer downpours and survived.

I'd describe how to measure current draw with an ammeter, but Vern's post is far simpler. If you need a DMM (Digitl Multi Meter measures volts, ohms, amps), you'll do fine with an inexpensive one from Radio Shack.

If you are new to electronics feel free to ask us questions.

John

 

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate your advice.
John

 

Thanks to each of you who took the time to send me your advice.
I greatly appreciate it. I will start by opening things up and starting to air them all out tonight. I will also watch those links and go from there.
John

 

Thank you for helping me.
John

 

Wow. Thanks for taking the time to write me so much information. I appreciate your thoughts and advice. I will get started tonight.
Utah John.

 

Method I used on a shallow flood car was to pull the carpet, seats from interior,. Then we placed a good dehumidifier in the interior and raised the windows, closed the doors, let it run for a day or 2 to completely dry the car on inside. Packed the lower electors connectors with die electric grease and never had a problem. Possibly this would eliminate any residual moisture left in car.

 

Good luck with the issue. And from now on, always raise your top, close the windows, and lock the car when you drive to your friend's home. I hope he has offered to open up his checkbook to you as needed to repair your car....

 

I agree with fmertz's post, and particularly this. Even 'clean' water is not a perfect insulator. I strongly recommend you disconnect the battery as soon as possible and don't reconnect until you have completed the drying process. Dismantle the wetted areas as much as possible: if you can lift the lids on the ICE head unit and any affected modules so much the better.

Good luck.

 

Thank you again. I have been working on that, but so far I have not found the source of the drain, but...
in checking the battery, I have discovered something interesting.
When I put a meter on the battery, I am showing with no key in 13.5 volts
with it started and running im showing 15.5 volts
but when I turn it off and check AC current, it is showing 30 volts AC, what is that? does not mean the alternator is probably bad? it should not read any ac voltage, right? Maybe its just something with my voltmeter and not the alternator.

I have removed the fuses for the radio and phone ( since I don't use that) and I will check the battery voltage now and then again in the morning to see if I still have the drain...I have a feeling it may be the radio.

 

The more common source of drain is the trap door in the ignition key. If it is stuck open, the car "thinks" the key is still in the ignition and does not go to "sleep".

 

I checked the key and it seems to be reading fine. I put the key in and it dings and adjusts the steering and when I pull it out it adjusts back.
Here are some other things that I have noticed though.
1. when the engine is running, the volt meter on the dash shows 13 volts, but when I check it at the battery with a meter, it reads 15.5 volts
2. the ABS light is on as well as a warning "Trac not available" and " ASC not available"
3. remember when I mentioned my friends son soaked the inside of the car with water? Well the radio is working again, but only the front speakers. When I switch the mode to move the sound to the rear speakers, there is only a very slight sound coming from them. I imagine if the radio has failed in someway, it could be causing the drain... I can try removing the radio fuse overnight and see if I still get a drain.

 

Do not rely on the dashboard voltmeter it is inaccurate and imprecise. Only use your external meter.

I think I need help with your statement about 30 AC volts. Nothing in the car is AC. Only use the DC settings for this job. Were you trying to measure current (amps) drain?

John

 

Hi,
I had read that if I switch my meter over to AC and check the battery, if there are a small amount of AC current then the alternator may be bad or its diodes

 

Hi John, I've never heard of that, but let's move past it and figure out things for you.

Are you trying to track down what's draining the battery?

There are a few ways to do this.

1) voltage drop across the fuse. Were you able to follow the instructions for this in Vern's post? If not, that's ok, would you like a hand with it?

2) disconnect the positive terminal from the battery. Place your Ammeter (measures Amps) in between the positive terminal on the battery and the cable you just disconnected. With ignition off, all lights and everything else off, measure the current draw. Your current should be about 0.03 amps as I recall.

This is the sledgehammer method. Itll tell you if something is drawing current, but you don't know any more than that.

3) one by one pull a fuse. Place ammeter across the exposed fuse terminals read and compare current draw. If I recall, you suspect the radio. Try this across the radios fuse.

Just lost a paragraph & its late- ouch. Come back with questions if I've omitted any thing mate.

TEST ALTERNATOR

Driveway:
A working alternator puts out a few volts more than your batteries voltage. This is capped at about 1 1/2 or 2 volts above battery voltage. If your voltmeter shows 13.5 to 14 volts at idle alternator is working.

Take the car to an auto parts store to use their more advanced testing tools.

Hope this helps some. John

 

Thank you for your advice. I did the things you suggested and found the radio to be drawing excessive power when the car was off. I ordered a used original radio from ebay that came out of a simular year and it works just fine. I replaced the radio myself and after a week of use...I still have no battery drain. It looks like the problem is finally solved.
Thank John and everyone who offered their help
Sincerely,
UtahJohn

 

My sincere thanks to all of you who offered your time and very helpful suggestions.
With your help I was able to find the problem and solve it. The radio has an issue and was quickly draining my battery. I found a used radio on ebay and I replaced it myself, no problem. It has been over a week and I have had no draining issues.
I am so happy to finally get this solved and I appreciate you all.
Sincerely,
John Austin
Utah John