Flooding my new Outlander PHEV! Radio problems...

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fixxxer

New member
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Messages
4
Location
Germany
Hi all. Wanted to share my story in case it could help anyone else. I also have one question that I'm hoping to finding an answer to.
After owning the Outlander for only 2 weeks I tried to cross a small river (stream.... not deep at all) but midway through, the car lost all grip in the mud and before long water started streaming into the car. Before going in I had checked the depth and I thought I was under the wading depth (40 cm) but didn't take into account, that once you are stuck in mid stream, the barrier the door makes, means the water level rises and goes over the 40 cm, which is the height of the door sill.
The car soon stopped and wouldn't start... and I started panicking. If I had had proper tires I sure I would have been able to cross, but the summer tires provide no grip at all in the mud and are complete rubbish for anything else that city driving. Not trying to blame anyone for what happened, I was a little careless and not critical enough before going in, so what happened, happened.
I managed to get a buddy to tow me out, but the floor of the car was completely flooeded, with a few inches of fresh water in the floor of the car.
After letting all the water out that I could using my hands as cups, it did somehow manage to start and I could drive it to a garage to try to get more water out and let it dry.
There was a lot of water in the car and soon that car stopped working again, I suspect the amp was flooded and short circuited the car. I took out the fuse for the amplifier as it was surging a lot even though I had turned off the power to the car. There were plenty of error messages in the dash, everything from ABS malfuntion, remote key system error and what not!
For a few hours, I tried to remove all water from the car, but there was a bunch under the floor and despite using a small tube to try to suck the water out, there was still water that kept appearing.
So I let it stand in the garage for a week, with a heater in the car hoping the rest of the water would evaporate. It wasn't an easy week, I thought I might have ruined my new car and saw potential damage in the thousands!
But after a week of drying (I'm pretty sure it's completely dry - but have cat litter in a pillow case to take any moisture in the car that might be left) the car started and without any errors! It's an understatement when I say I was relieved!

However! One of the main reasons I bought the car, the high end entertainment system (I have the 710 watt system) didn't work after putting the fuse back in. The console works, I can turn on the radio, the navigation etc works, but no sound comes out, not even the annoying beeps when I select the buttons on the system... never thought I would miss that sound.

As I have learned (or correct me if wrong) the amplifier for the radio and speakers are under the driver's seat. So, it would have been flooded and under water the longest.
Can anyone tell me their thoughts on this and if the amp might have a fuse that is broken or even if I need to buy a new amp (I can't find the name of the amp anywhere!).

I'm not a very tech savvy person so any suggestions, help or comments appreciated (but please no lectures about river crossings... I know it was stupid... learned my lesson... moving on). :)
 
If you had the power on in the amp when flooding it is not unlikely that it developed electrolytic corrosion on the prints. If so the only thing you can do is take it apart and carefully remove all the green fluff you can find, spray the print plates with silicone oil or WD40 and hope for the best.
 
Maybe he should trade it in on a PHEV, The knowledge of high electric power everywhere would make him more careful ;)
 
jaapv said:
If you had the power on in the amp when flooding it is not unlikely that it developed electrolytic corrosion on the prints. If so the only thing you can do is take it apart and carefully remove all the green fluff you can find, spray the print plates with silicone oil or WD40 and hope for the best.

Do you know any resources on how to take it apart or what amp is in the car?
 
fixxxer said:
"Lucky is wasn't a PHEV you would have drowned the 300v battery!!!"

It's a PHEV ;)

Impressive and quite lucky :cool:

So ... the battery under the car is water proof ... with very good sealing .. or at least .. the water did not fully flood the battery pack .... since the electronic and connections are on the top part

It could have even gone on fire the car ... if the battery get full of water ... with multiple 300v shorts ... and Lithium battery all around ... does sound a good receipt for see fireworks
 
elm70 said:
fixxxer said:
"Lucky is wasn't a PHEV you would have drowned the 300v battery!!!"

It's a PHEV ;)

Impressive and quite lucky :cool:

So ... the battery under the car is water proof ... with very good sealing .. or at least .. the water did not fully flood the battery pack .... since the electronic and connections are on the top part

It could have even gone on fire the car ... if the battery get full of water ... with multiple 300v shorts ... and Lithium battery all around ... does sound a good receipt for see fireworks

It was fully submerged... for some time, so it's fairly well sealed.

But I wouldn't expect anything less with increased flooding happening all over the world, they need to take this into account.
 
Checking again the video of the PHEV battery disassembled : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf9fDbwF1K0&t=442s

But I can't spot anything that suggest the battery is water proof ... no visible sealing ... and the guy manage to open the pack without any effort after he did remove the bolts that close the battery shell.
 
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