A Weird Problem

[toneinblack]

Hi all,

Drove home from work in the rain at 1am this morning and it was pouring down ( noticed 2 days ago wet floor on front passenger side but not sure if connected ) parked the gal and locked it by remote on the key fob - all windows were up and car locked , red light was flashing on top of drivers door ,

G et woken up this morning about half eight by neighbour telling me i had left a window on gal open , look over at gal and all 4 windows were down and gal was unlocked !! went and done the windows up but gal wont lock with either the key fob or thru the key .

Any ideas?

and thanks for help :-)

[Andrew T]

Look under the passenger seat and you will find the "Black Box" that controls the windows and locking is sitting in a puddle of water. Remove it right now and put it in an airing cupbpoard or on a radiator and you may save having to replace it. While its drying out search "Scuttle drains" and "Rear Washer pipe".

[toneinblack]

Just got the black box out , it was in a pool of water and now the box is on the rad in doors , started to empty my gals indoor swimming pool :(

will now do a search for rear wash and scuttle drains lol

thanks for very quick reply andrew t , hopefully the box will be saved , ( as it looks expensive lol )

[Guest vr6galaxy]

You can remove the cover of the box to aid the drying proccess, also with the cover removed you can check out the condition of the circuit board, any build up of corrossion should be removed with a light brushing with a soft brush and a dose of circuit board cleaner

as the expence of the ECU it depends on what options are fitted? IIRC there are three boards available and somewhere on the forum is a site that sells them cheaper than Ford! VAGSPARES or something?

[Andrew T]

If the problem happened in heavy rain it's most likely your scuttle drains, but don't assume your washer pipe isn't leaking as well.

 

If the passenger carpet is wet, the acoustic matting underneath will be sodden and it is an absolute bugger to remove. It seems to be moulded as a single unit with the driver’s side. I ended up sawing out the passenger footwell section using a short bladed "Kitchen Devil" knife. A stanley knife won’t go through it. I then put a small fan heater in car for a few hours to dry up the surrounding area.

 

When you remount the control unit, put some nuts near the top of the studs, which will keep the unit out of the water if (when?) it happens again.

 

Have fun.

[toneinblack]

ive just read thru an almost identical post on here re this problem lol ,

will now try to get the cover of the box ,

rain has been coming down solid for hours , :(

[toneinblack]

cover is off , circuit board felt damp , hopefully not too much damage has been done .

fingers crossed lol

[cambrian]

The same thing happened to me this morning, but I have checked for any sign of water under the passenger seat but it is totally dry. there was though an extremely heavy frost, is it possible this could have any effect?

My Galaxy is a 2000 1.9 tdi Gia.

Any solution would be appreciated. :huh:

[Guest vr6galaxy]

You shouldnt have the central locking ECU under the seat, so the chances of it getting damp and causing the same problem is unlikely!

are the locks shields on the doors ok? the Galaxy can suffer the same method of entry as certain VW models :huh: where the locks are forced and held in the opening position causeing the global opening to operate :(

if they are ok it could be the damp shorting out the switches in the door or the wires in the rubber boot shorting out and causeing the windows to open? try a drop of WD40 in the locks and check the wires for signs of damage

or if you had the remote in you pocket the button could have been pressed and held? operating the global opening?

[Guest hanleyd151]

Exactly the same as you ToneinBlack. Only that at the mo my windows are fine, but my rear doors won't open so having to put my twins in the car seats via the windows!

 

unblocked the drain hole in corner, no longer wet passenger carpet, but gonna take andrew T's advise and remove the black box and dry it out.