Topic: Water trouble (Read 5006 times)

prophet · « **on:** February 01, 2010, 05:48:28 PM »

I managed to get my 97 XJ full of water at hill and ditch and now I've got a few things to sort out..

Firstly, the headlights now have an inch of brown water in them. Also, the ABS light has come on.. but the brake pads were down to a minimum before I went playing in the mud. The radio has died, or possibly the amp under the back seat has drowned. Oh, and lastly.. the interior now smells like a wet dog as the carpets are all sodden. If any body has any advice on what to do with any of this, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Are there drainplugs in the floor of the jeep? I couldn't find any rubber bungs to pull out and had to resort to parking on a steep bank and bailing out the water by hand!

scrw · « **Reply #1 on:** February 01, 2010, 08:25:13 PM »

headlights, take em off, rinse them out and leave to dry somewhere warm

ABS hopefully will just be shit in the tone ring, just will need cleaning

carpets, I'd take them out, jetwash & dry, not too bad a job but you will need to take out the centre console. Problem is there is soundproofing that soaks up water, I wouldn't just leave it as is

BOP · « **Reply #2 on:** February 01, 2010, 09:41:56 PM »

and stick a tray or two of cat litter inside it after washing carpets to help draw out damp!

isle of man · « **Reply #3 on:** February 01, 2010, 09:58:05 PM »

Drill holes in the floor and put a sink plug in.

prophet · « **Reply #4 on:** February 01, 2010, 10:09:04 PM »

Are there drain holes in the floor already? I had a quick look underneath, but couldn't see anything.. nowt in the haynes manual about draining water out. Not looking forward to taking out the whole interior to get the carpet out, but unless I want to start growing mushrooms in my Jeep, it'll have to be done.

As for the headlights, do I take the whole front grill off first and then release the lights?

isle of man · « **Reply #5 on:** February 01, 2010, 10:13:27 PM »

As you are the prophet surly you can just part the water?

scrw · « **Reply #6 on:** February 01, 2010, 11:38:46 PM »

Quote from: prophet on February 01, 2010, 10:09:04 PM

Not looking forward to taking out the whole interior to get the carpet out, but unless I want to start growing mushrooms in my Jeep, it'll have to be done.

4 bolts for each front seat, rear just unclips, centre console is just screws

Quote from: prophet on February 01, 2010, 10:09:04 PM

As for the headlights, do I take the whole front grill off first and then release the lights?

No, just the cowl around the light

Bishops Finger · « **Reply #7 on:** February 01, 2010, 11:53:34 PM »

There should be drain holes in the floor...just lift the carpets....

scrw · « **Reply #8 on:** February 01, 2010, 11:54:51 PM »

a voice of experience

Bishops Finger · « **Reply #9 on:** February 02, 2010, 12:15:41 AM »

Nob off and start planning your trip to Hawkstone....

prophet · « **Reply #10 on:** February 02, 2010, 08:09:44 PM »

A bit of an update.. cleaned out the headlights and refitted them. The ABS light has gone out, no idea why, but it's fixed itself.

The check engine light is still on though.. and it's idling too low and nearly stalling. Seems fine when driving along. When it got drowned, we pulled out the plugs and turned over the engine to purge the water. The HT leads were in a pretty poor condition, but the plugs looked ok. The air filter got soaked, so I've replaced it with a new one. When spinning the engine, the battery started to falter a bit and I've heard that a low battery can cause poor idling. The guage on the dash shows 14 volts the whole time. Is there something that may still be damp? Am I missing something obvious?

All your help is really appreciated..

jonny ramrod · « **Reply #11 on:** February 02, 2010, 08:19:58 PM »

i would pull the carpets out and bin them if your planning on playing in water again.

If you played at hill n ditch, does that mean you aren't far from me..? Cheshire..?

prophet · « **Reply #12 on:** February 02, 2010, 10:51:53 PM »

I'm on the Wirral, so not far from you Mr Ramrod.. keep an eye on youtube, it was all being filmed.

Hill and ditch was good fun, but a lot of the site was too much for a standard Cherokee on AT tyres, so didn't get around a lot of it. I might look for a slightly tamer pay and play site next time..

scrw · « **Reply #13 on:** February 03, 2010, 08:37:43 AM »

you ain't trying hard enough, only bit that defeated me was after I bottomed the xj on a root

http://www.offroading.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1655

prophet · « **Reply #14 on:** February 03, 2010, 03:47:34 PM »

In my own defence, this was my first time properly off road.. I reckon I did pretty well

getting stuck in the water and being pulled out kind of took the wind out of my sails a bit though. Looking at the standard air intake on the Cherokee, it seems designed to funnel any water directly into the engine! It's odd that you lost your number plate.. I lost mine too! I guess there's a heap of them in all that water!

I found the source of my poor idle though, which as usual turned out to be a simple thing. When we spun the engine to purge the water, we took off the air filter cover and the big plastic box from over the engine to remove the plugs. When I put it back on, I didn't tighten the jubilee clip that seals it to the engine, so air was getting in through the gap, few turns of the screwdriver and everything is peachy again. Check engine light is still on, do I have to reset it in some way? I thought the problem might be the HT leads which pretty much fell apart when I took them off the plugs.. could a duff lead be causing the warning light to come on? It does feel like it's missing a beat sometimes and only running on 5 cylinders. I'll have a trawl around ebay and see if I can get a new set.

jonny ramrod · « **Reply #15 on:** February 04, 2010, 11:27:00 AM »

i have a plate somewhere there too...

its not a bad little site, and is only about a mile and a half down the road from me..

Bishops Finger · « **Reply #16 on:** February 04, 2010, 12:45:12 PM »

Disconnect battery for 10 minutes...might get the check engine light to go out..

prophet · « **Reply #17 on:** February 04, 2010, 05:58:55 PM »

If I disconect the battery, will I have to reteach it the key fob code? Despite being a facelift model, it still has a seperate key fob with lock and unlock buttons on it. I'm sure I've seen the procedure listed around here somewhere..

This thread and seems to be merging with this one http://www.birtydastards.com/frm/index.php?topic=6278.0 , so I'll try to just continue here for simplicity (because I'm a simple kinda guy

)

BOP · « **Reply #18 on:** February 04, 2010, 07:31:44 PM »

Nah you wont need to have the fob re-programmed to it, just disconnect the negative, leave it 10 mins or so, re-attach the negative, press the unlock button, put key in ignition, turn to on,wait a coupla seconds for the immobiliser light to go off and hey presto start it! thats what I have to do when I disconnect the battery!

prophet · « **Reply #19 on:** February 05, 2010, 02:23:10 PM »

Off to give it a try now..

prophet · « **Reply #20 on:** February 05, 2010, 06:00:05 PM »

Ok, it sort of worked. The check engine light has gone out, but the symptoms are the same, idling at 500rpm and eco fuel thingy is showing between 4 and 12mpg when driving normally. Did the fault code thingy again and got 12 and 45! 45 is a turbo only fault! I think the o2 sensor still needs changing, but at least the engine warning light has gone out. Anybody agree or disagree?

Author Topic: Water trouble (Read 5006 times)

prophet

scrw

BOP

prophet

scrw

Bishops Finger

scrw

Bishops Finger

prophet

jonny ramrod

prophet

scrw

prophet

jonny ramrod

Bishops Finger

prophet

BOP

prophet

prophet