Duecedalton

Jeep was in neutral and rolled away from me, down a bank and into a river. Luckily I jumped in before the hood went under and was able to start it fast enough to drive it back out. Mechanically everything is fine for now. The interior was up to seats in water before it got out. I drained and shopvac’d everything and got it sitting in the garage with fans going. However now the check engine light is on for code p1698 and p1694, airbag light is on, and my cluster went out and is saying no bus. Pcm never even got water on it so I’m guessing I have some wet connections under the dash or behind the cluster. Any ideas what to look for or where to start? It’s a 2000 4.0

Corky

First thing...Don't rush it and let it dry... Unhook the battery and give it time to evaporate the water out of the connectors and some/most of the problems will probably go away..The more you mess with a wet/shorted harness in the name of "fixing" it you could cause more permanent damage that could have been avoided...The real problem with flooded vehicles isn't the immediate trouble it's the corroded components down the line..Wiring/components that's been submerged will hold water and corrode much faster than age alone...
You're already on the right track trying to dry it out as quickly as possible...

Duecedalton

yeah I’m gonna drive my truck for Few days and just leave it in the garage with the fans going. Not gonna have time to chase down wiring for a few days anyway hopefully by then some things might have dried out. Thanks!

Jim Malcolm

Personally, I'd tear the whole thing apart. Perhaps I'm biased because the interior of my beloved XJ is completely stripped at the moment. Steering wheel, heater box, harness, all out. Just started reassembly, so we're on the good side of this project...

It's really not that bad... The worst part is the fact that the harnesses are connected to the dash, not to the cowl. I'm going to rectify that when I put it together; next time it will take but a few minutes to pull the dash. Perfect opportunity to apply dielectric grease...

I'm just paranoid like that perhaps, but in my experience, no amount of air drying will dry the carpet all the way through. Getting all the misc panels out to allow removal of the carpet is 2/3 the battle.

I know the newer dash comes apart in pieces, so perhaps you can access all the connectors and disassemble them without take the dash substruture out.

It's really not that bad... :-)

Duecedalton

im gonna give it a week of drying and hope that it fixes some of the electrical issues before I pull the dash (partly because I don’t have time until next weekend) but in terms of the carpet, I was planning on bedlining the interior in a year when I did the cage, I’ll probably just do that sooner to prevent floor rust. Didn’t wanna do it till I was done daily driving it because I live in the mountains (it gets cold) but for the next week all I can do islet the fans do what they can and hope for the best

Jim Malcolm

It'll help if you can pull up the carpet, even just a little bit to let air get to the jute backing. It really holds the water. I've been fighting water issues at all four corners of the interior and removing the carpet to let it dry has a been a yearly spring ritual. In my experience, it will never completely dry unless you take it out, flip it over and lay it out in the sun for the better part of a day...

But I completely understand time and work... Removing the rear seat bottom takes seconds, 13mm for the nuts holding the front seats in place, at least on my '94. At that point, you may be able to pull the carpet out from under the trimwork without unscrewing them all. If you can't, prop up the carpet in the "middle", between the center console and the doors, and direct a fan under there. Maybe you can't/don't go the full monte, but anything you can do to let air under there will help immensely.

I read a lot about the gauge cluster causing no bus issues, so it may be as simple as that to get it running. I just think about the handful of electrical connectors down below that connecting the RH/LH "body" harnesses to the Dash Harness, plus the Power Window / Power Door Lock Harness, if they're still seperate in a '00. Electrical issues aren't fun...

Duecedalton

Update to everyone. After leaving it in the garage for 4 days with doors open and 2 fans pulling air thru, and then four days with doors closed and humidifier running with under-dash panels removed, i started it up today and the “no bus” code is gone as well as check engine codes. I let it idle for half an hour and then drove around and still no code. Fingers crossed they don’t come back but for now it’s looking like I got lucky. As far as my sound system goes it’s toast but that’s a lot easier to replace. I will be removing the carpets over the winter and bed-lining the floors when I do the roll cage. Thanks for all the suggestions!i

Sig220

One XJ I had got minor flooding in a hurricane. No problems until a couple of months later the starter went out. You might want to check/clean the grounds on the passenger side engine, just to be ahead of the game. Glad you have had good luck so far!