Water near the ECU

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dattard21

New Member
Posts
53
A few weeks ago after a really wet rainy day and wading through some water, (less than a foot deep) I got a few faults. After some diagnostics, found that the ECU was all wet. Took it out, opened it dried it well, and all was well and good. Sealed the wiring loom going into the ECU with silicone, and thought that would be that.

A few days passed and it was raining again (btw ... I'm from Malta ... it doesn't rain too often here), splashed (fast) through a few puddles ... and found a water again near the ECU. No engine faults, but it was such a small puddle I went through that its worrying that water still made it on. Sealed a joint under the middle seat, and thought that would do the trick. However, few days a few puddles later ... some more water was found near the ECU. So leak is still not fixed :(

Checked the grommets and they seem to be fine, spraying them with water directly doesn't result in water near the ECU...but water is obviously leaking from somewhere. Need to find where its coming from since 1) its embarassing to have a Defender and having to slow down for puddles though right now that is what I have to do and 2) don't want to bugger the ECU or have to limp home again.

Any ideas on how to solve the leaks please? Would appreciate some details on what could be wrong, and what can be done to fix the leak.
 
dattard21 said:
A few weeks ago after a really wet rainy day and wading through some water, (less than a foot deep) I got a few faults. After some diagnostics, found that the ECU was all wet. Took it out, opened it dried it well, and all was well and good. Sealed the wiring loom going into the ECU with silicone, and thought that would be that.

A few days passed and it was raining again (btw ... I'm from Malta ... it doesn't rain too often here), splashed (fast) through a few puddles ... and found a water again near the ECU. No engine faults, but it was such a small puddle I went through that its worrying that water still made it on. Sealed a joint under the middle seat, and thought that would do the trick. However, few days a few puddles later ... some more water was found near the ECU. So leak is still not fixed :(

Checked the grommets and they seem to be fine, spraying them with water directly doesn't result in water near the ECU...but water is obviously leaking from somewhere. Need to find where its coming from since 1) its embarassing to have a Defender and having to slow down for puddles though right now that is what I have to do and 2) don't want to bugger the ECU or have to limp home again.

Any ideas on how to solve the leaks please? Would appreciate some details on what could be wrong, and what can be done to fix the leak.
Click to expand...

If you have a TD5 you should be able to drive through this with no issue..

 
Well the first time it was a lot, with silt and everything and since the seat box was closed it didn't dry off. Now the seat box cover is open, so anytime it comes in, it evaorates out rather than staying near the ecu.

So first time there was quite a lot, everything was wet and the whole bottom and sides must have gotten quite wet. There was silt too from the rainfall... The next times less, mostly trickles, let.s say a few tablespoons but bear in mind that in the next few times i just splashed through some large deep puddles though admittedly i didnt slow down too mch. the kind of puddles that any normal car would go through without getting into any issues. It looks like the tires are kicking up water into some spot which then ends up in the seat box ...
 
could it be getting on to the ecu loom by the gearbox and running down into the seatbox?

If your saying there is no corrosion in the seatbox and it is sealed i cant see how else it would get in.

Is yours a left hand drive or a right? Is the ECU still in the right hand seatbox if it a left hooker?
 
Nope, definetely not from the loom, since its all sealed very very well. I thought it might be from there, and that's what was sealed first. I.e. the part where the loom comes from near the gearbox into the seat box is sealed very well, and its not coming in through there for sure.

Right hand drive, and the ECU is still in the right hand seatbox.

What corrosion do I need to look for? Should I change the grommets regardless? Both myself and the guy who services it is a bit perplexed about where it could be coming from :S
 
dattard21 said:
Nope, definetely not from the loom, since its all sealed very very well. I thought it might be from there, and that's what was sealed first. I.e. the part where the loom comes from near the gearbox into the seat box is sealed very well, and its not coming in through there for sure.

Right hand drive, and the ECU is still in the right hand seatbox.

What corrosion do I need to look for? Should I change the grommets regardless? Both myself and the guy who services it is a bit perplexed about where it could be coming from :S
Click to expand...

If you don't find the cause you could pm The Mad Hat Man about making you up an ECU extension loom or even a short loom going into a waterproof box. It may cost you a few quid but it could save you forking out for a new ECU or ending up with a rather red face.
 
Still have to fork out for a new ECU. The current one is the MSB type which needs to be shipped to Alive Tuning for a remap. I want one which is more accessible so I can fiddle around with the remap as necessary, until I'm happy.

Obviously still would like to solve the issue, because if I kill the newly remapped one, I will be seriously unhappy. I've thought about the extension loom but if possible I'd like to avoid that, since that might be another point of failure.

Having said that, if the water keeps coming in ... I'll have to do that...
 
I had this problem too, and my ECU failed eventually!!

Turned out to be the gearbox access cover under the middle seat... the flimsy metal plates that the screws located into had rusted, and the panel was letting in water over preceeding years... this had found its way into the ECU locker... the deepest water i had been in was a deep puddle - 2-3 inches!

I only found out when the final screw gave way, and the water gushed in and filled my left boot!

I applied a good amount of silicone, and used nuts and bolts to secure the cover in place... unfortunately the damage had been done, and the ECU failed a few months later... being beyond me, the landy was recovered to a local Landy specialist, and some 'delamination' of the circuit board was found, so the ECU was a write off... £700 later and we were back on the road!

All seems dry now, but I do need to get one of those damp absorbing pouches that change colour to indicate damp... might even go to an electronic water finder linked to a warning light on the dash...
 
I don't know how this would go from the point of view of being able remap and things in the future, but what about epoxy potting the ECU?
 
One advantaage of the new ECU was that it was 'flashable' for and easy re-map.. To re-map older ECU's the unit has to be removed and the chip taken out for the job.
 
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