P38A Electrical gremlin.

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Henry_b

Think outside, no box required.
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Ok here's my issue.

I went out today to open the boot, the minute i pressed the button that releases the tailgate i heard a crackle and pop!
now the boot won't open.

Not only that the inside of the car stank of brunt plastic, not good.

I pulled the fuse cover off of the BCM and found fuse 15 had melted, went to replace it but the minute a new fuse touched the terminals POP it blows!

Now the really bad bit, i pulled the plastic trim off the floor and around the seat and found the wiring loom that runs along the floor was submerged in water!!

Also the sound deadening is soaking, but the carpet is dry?!

The BCM unit itself it bone dry but is it possible the water crept up the wires into the bcm?

She was totally fine yesterday and the water looks to have been there a long time...


I've mopped up most of the water

And i'm also looking at the ground points, do ya'll know the location of all the grounds??

I've cleaned the 2 visible ones in the engine bay, are there any others???

Appreciate any advice
Cheers Henry...
 
another thing i discovered is if you disconnect this fuse "pictured below"
It cuts power to fuse 15 and you can put a new fuse in, however once that big 60amp fuse is reinserted the fuse in bcm blows. etc etc

I've measured the voltage at both Fuse points and both show constant 12v is this correct??

zrhgYeOl.jpg
:confused:
 
another thing i discovered is if you disconnect this fuse "pictured below"
It cuts power to fuse 15 and you can put a new fuse in, however once that big 60amp fuse is reinserted the fuse in bcm blows. etc etc

I've measured the voltage at both Fuse points and both show constant 12v is this correct??

zrhgYeOl.jpg
:confused:

You obviously have a dead short to ground. You need to find it. Fuse 15 feeds several things but if it only blew when you pressed boot unlock i would suggest the problem is within the boot lock actuator.
 
Last edited:
Thankyou wammers for your response.

I've pulled the boot trim off and disconnected the boot lock actuator and switch but it still blows Fuse 15.

:oops:
 
Thankyou wammers for your response.

I've pulled the boot trim off and disconnected the boot lock actuator and switch but it still blows Fuse 15.

:oops:


The switch only provides a ground. Power from fuse 15 goes to pin 1 on lock actuator switch grounds pin 2 to complete the circuit. The short will be in the actuator itself. As said before if the short only appeared after you pressed the switch and circuit was stable before that, it points directly to actuator. Disconnect power from actuator and see if you still blow fuse 15.
 
Reading back i see you say you have already disconnected actuator with same result. If you don't have it, i suggest you download RAVE and look at the diagrams.
 
Hope you find the problem @Henry_b.
You next challenge will be to find how the water is getting in to the body compartment.
Mine was flooded too. Luckily nothing blew. My sources of water ingress were:
1. Poor seal round the OS Pollen filter.
2. Poor seal round the windscreen.
The tell-tale for me was the puddle in the drivers footwell after a heavy storm.
 
I think i've tracked it down to a fault lock actuator in the Driver door.

Pulling all the electrical connectors from the tailgate inc the rar wiper stopped the fuse blowing which was a result.

The driver door actuator makes a horrible noise when operated and it fell apart, the car looks pretty sorry for itself lol :D
 
I think i've tracked it down to a fault lock actuator in the Driver door.

Pulling all the electrical connectors from the tailgate inc the rar wiper stopped the fuse blowing which was a result.

The driver door actuator makes a horrible noise when operated and it fell apart, the car looks pretty sorry for itself lol :D

Talk to @martyuk and see if he has a spare lock actuator. He upgrades the microswitches to stop this sort of thing happening. Got a feeling he might be working away at the moment though.
 
Cheers I've already ordered one! Doh lol

It was making one hell of a racket lol

;):)

If you pulled all the plugs to tailgate and fuse stopped blowing it is hardly likely to be the drivers door lock is it. No matter how noisy it is. The fault has to be in that which was disconnected.
 
If you pulled all the plugs to tailgate and fuse stopped blowing it is hardly likely to be the drivers door lock is it. No matter how noisy it is. The fault has to be in that which was disconnected.

I thought he said he'd disconnected the boot actuator and it still did it until he unplugged the driver's lock?
 
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