This is a bit of a long one, so please stick with me! The car in question is my 04 roadie cabriolet.
It all started about 6 weeks ago, when the ESP warning triangle lit up as I was driving along normally. Turning off the ignition seemed to clear the problem, and at first it only occured intermittently, coming on every few days or so.
This continued for a number of weeks, despite me fiddling with fuses and generally keeping my fingers crossed it would just go away!! It didn't!!
Fast forward 4 weeks to the day before my MOT. It had been sunny for the last month pretty much, but this day it was absolutely hammering it down. As I was driving along the car went mental!! Cut out, roof opened, dashboard lit up, lights flashed etc.
The car got completely soaked as I couldn't close the roof, and I had to get the AA out to get me restarted. Thankfully by the time they arrived the weather had cleared up a bit. The guy diagnosed water in the electrics, and managed to remove enough from the top of the SAM unit to get me going again.
The next day I managed to dry the car out as bes I could, gave the SAM unit a good once over with a hair dryer, and somehow it managed to pass it's MOT!! Personally I think it's because the seats were so went the tester didn't want to sit in it!!
Following the MOT I looked into the leak which caused the mental behaviour, followed the advice online and sealed up the wiper tray with mastic type sealent to prevent anymore water ingress. At the same time I gave the SAM unit another going over with the hair dryer.
For a day or two everything was ok, so naturally I linked the original ESP light fault to the water ingress problem. However, a day or so later the original problem returned, but this time it was accompanied by the ABS light. This hadn't happened before the mental behaviour. As it wasn't affecting the driving of the car, I persisted with it for a week or so till I had some time off to investigate properly.
Anyway, yesterday I removed the Sam unit from the car, took off the lid and removed the PCBs to have a look. As far as I could see, the only problem was a bit of corrosion around a single connector pin. The connector pin in question was N11-5, which according to Evil's guide is the one for windscreen wipers and lights etc. Which explains the breakdown and odd behaviour.
However, other than the small bit of corrosion the PCB seemed 100% intact. There was no dampness or moisture at all. I cleaned up the connector hoping it might solve the problems. It didn't
Driving to work today the same ESP and ABS lights came on. Although the ABS light seems to go off after a few secs, the ESP stays lit up like a xmas tree!!
The fact that the corroded connector N11-5 is nothing to do with ESP or ABS, and the fact that other than the corrosion which I removed the SAM was in good condition, leads me to conclude that my problem is elsewhere.
I think the water ingress was just an additional problem which threw me off the scent!!
So ESP and ABS lights, any thoughts? A few people have mentioned brake sensors. Is there any way to diagnose this? Steering sensors have also been mentioned. My steering wheel was replaced a year ago because the angle sensor was broken on the old one. The replacement was second hand, but was in very good condition, and has worked perfectly up till now?
Any thoughts or comments would be gratefully accepted!!
It all started about 6 weeks ago, when the ESP warning triangle lit up as I was driving along normally. Turning off the ignition seemed to clear the problem, and at first it only occured intermittently, coming on every few days or so.
This continued for a number of weeks, despite me fiddling with fuses and generally keeping my fingers crossed it would just go away!! It didn't!!
Fast forward 4 weeks to the day before my MOT. It had been sunny for the last month pretty much, but this day it was absolutely hammering it down. As I was driving along the car went mental!! Cut out, roof opened, dashboard lit up, lights flashed etc.
The car got completely soaked as I couldn't close the roof, and I had to get the AA out to get me restarted. Thankfully by the time they arrived the weather had cleared up a bit. The guy diagnosed water in the electrics, and managed to remove enough from the top of the SAM unit to get me going again.
The next day I managed to dry the car out as bes I could, gave the SAM unit a good once over with a hair dryer, and somehow it managed to pass it's MOT!! Personally I think it's because the seats were so went the tester didn't want to sit in it!!
Following the MOT I looked into the leak which caused the mental behaviour, followed the advice online and sealed up the wiper tray with mastic type sealent to prevent anymore water ingress. At the same time I gave the SAM unit another going over with the hair dryer.
For a day or two everything was ok, so naturally I linked the original ESP light fault to the water ingress problem. However, a day or so later the original problem returned, but this time it was accompanied by the ABS light. This hadn't happened before the mental behaviour. As it wasn't affecting the driving of the car, I persisted with it for a week or so till I had some time off to investigate properly.
Anyway, yesterday I removed the Sam unit from the car, took off the lid and removed the PCBs to have a look. As far as I could see, the only problem was a bit of corrosion around a single connector pin. The connector pin in question was N11-5, which according to Evil's guide is the one for windscreen wipers and lights etc. Which explains the breakdown and odd behaviour.
However, other than the small bit of corrosion the PCB seemed 100% intact. There was no dampness or moisture at all. I cleaned up the connector hoping it might solve the problems. It didn't
Driving to work today the same ESP and ABS lights came on. Although the ABS light seems to go off after a few secs, the ESP stays lit up like a xmas tree!!
The fact that the corroded connector N11-5 is nothing to do with ESP or ABS, and the fact that other than the corrosion which I removed the SAM was in good condition, leads me to conclude that my problem is elsewhere.
I think the water ingress was just an additional problem which threw me off the scent!!
So ESP and ABS lights, any thoughts? A few people have mentioned brake sensors. Is there any way to diagnose this? Steering sensors have also been mentioned. My steering wheel was replaced a year ago because the angle sensor was broken on the old one. The replacement was second hand, but was in very good condition, and has worked perfectly up till now?
Any thoughts or comments would be gratefully accepted!!
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