Hello,

I will cut short: yesterday there was a very heavy rainfall, with lots of roads covered by rain water. I was driving home, so did not have much options to stay somewhere dry. On several occasions car passing by just poor all this water on me. Even though I drove slow, some very strange things things happened. At first cruise control engaged and car started acceleration. This was not much of an issue although felt scary. Next was some strange error, disengaging DSC, Parking Brake and something else. In about 3 minutes the car just stopped. I tried starting it, but with no luck. I plugged the cheap Bluetooth OBD reader and here is the errors that came out:
I left the car on nearby parking lot (pushed it there) and now I am wodering what on earth may I do to sort things out...

I forgot to disconnect the battery. I will do this after work hours (it is atill raining, so not much can be done at this point).

Any idea what might have happened to the car?

The car is 2005 (manufactured in 2004) Jaguar XJ6, X350

 

Water and sensitive Jaguar electronics are never a good combination. Provided none of the modules have been flooded then I'll be suprised if, once you can get the car under cover and thoroughly dried out, it doesn't run as normal.

The P1000 code shows OnBoard monitoring tests have not been completed since the last memory clear. If you were already troubleshooting existing problems, it could get trickier.

Graham

 

Graham,

Thank you for reply. I even tried to contact Jaguar dealership, but they opened in 2012 and all their equipment is designed for later models. They told it is highly unlikely they would be able to diagnose anything on my car...

I will put the car in dry garage and wait a while to dry it out. Hope it can bring to some results. Only thing that is really bothering me is the Cruise Control self engaging. I think that means water got to ECU, BCM or something like that. I just do not know where these computers are mounted so I could inspect if everything is dry there

 

Their equipment should be able to handle your car, as my local new Jaguar dealer a mile away have no problems with checking mine. As far as I know all the codes in your car are still in the codes used in the later Jaguars.

One thing to check is the plenum chambers, one for the heater intake and one where the brake fluid reservoir is located. There is a drain there and if it's blocked this could have flooded some electronics. Water flooding down the windscreen could have gone in these. If you look, you'll also see drains near the windscreen wipers.These need checking to make sure they are clear.If not the water goes elsewhere. YOU need to lift the hood and check for water anywhere as I indicated above. Last week I went through rain that was like Niagara Falls but the car was OK. My water drains are clear, though.

 

Fraser Mitchell

Thank you for the reply. I looked in both boxes and one with cabin filter was full of leaves. The filter is also wet. I checked passenger side floor and it is wet as well...

Seems I got much more damage than I thought I might have. Unfortunately I have a business trip this weekend and will have to wait another week to take off the glove box and see what is there that I might need to change.

By the way, are parts from X-type or S-type interchangeable with parts from X350 V6? I am sure there are no parts for my car in Tbilisi, but there are lots of X and S types here, so I might be able to find parts from those models at brakers.

 

If you have water in the foot well, you will definitely have water under the carpet too. Pop the plastic tread plate off the door sill (pry it up), and the plastic outer foot well panel (just in front of the door, which pops off too). With those two parts removed, you can lift up the carpet with integral foam backing enough to sop up the water and let things air dry out. You will see a large harness of wires running under the carpet next to the door sill. I can't recall if there are any wire connectors along this harness that might potentially get wet when water gets under the carpet.


I think about the only electrical item between the cabin filter box and the foot well is the climate control blower fan.

 

If the drain under the cabin filter was blocked the water can affect the main connector to

the ECU. I believe the connector is on the engine side of the firewall but the ECU itself is
on the other side. I suggest that you need to disconnect the connector as soon as you can
and look for water and corrosion.
If you suspect water has entered the ECU open it up as soon as possible.
All is not lost the good news is that it's not sea water

 

If the drain under the cabin filter was blocked the water can affect the main connector to

the ECU.

I believe the connector is on the engine side of the firewall but the ECU itself is

on the other side.

I suggest that you need to disconnect the connector as soon as you can
and look for water and corrosion.

If you suspect water has entered the ECU open it up as soon as possible.

All is not lost the good news is that it's not sea water

 

Today, just because taxi was late to pick me up for work, I decided to give the car another try. I reconnected the battery and gave it a try. Well, car runs and drives without anything showing up on the dashboard

I drove 17 kilometers to work, no problems. I have not taken anything apart (I was traveling on each weekend after this happened), nor did anything apart from cleaning the drainage.

The cheap Bluetooth reader is not able to connect to the car ECU, but other than that - car is fine...

I will try my luck and drive it everyday, hope noting goes wrong

Thank you for the support! It really means a lot when someone is trying to help!

 

Small update: Car still runs great, but every morning it meets me with a suspension low. If left for more than a day, suspension is too low. The suspension does not have any sound when driven and operates great, just leaks from somewhere when stopped. This Saturday I will take it to my mechanic that does the air suspension parts on my car, let's see if he can find something...

 

Are you getting suspension fault messages ? If so, get the codes read.

 

No Codes, no errors. Unless I leave the car for a few days and the suspension gets too low, that is the error it gives until the suspension gets leveled. During usual driving, there are no sounds, car drives well and there are no symptoms of anything being wrong

 

I am out of options and I think I should close this thread....

The car stopped dropping road clearance and now hold as it should. I did not touch the car for this weekend and the ride height was exactly as I left on Friday. I do not know how this 'self healing' works or where it leads, but at this stage everything seems fine...

Thank you all for help and support.