TheMonSSter
Member
- Car
- 2013 FX37
- Name
- JP
Hello Everyone. Originally came here to find some help on some issues. Found fixes that didnt work and had to try something new so I am here to post. I have owned this thing since new, and have the passenger floorboard leak, not caused by the sunroof that took forever to fix.
I am very good with cleaning my sunroof rails, I use wheel cleaner every 6 months and flush them which keeps them squeeky clean. I occassionally had water drip on my legs during Florida monsoons but could never track it down, thought it must be condensation. Safelite came to fix a rock crack and replaced our windshield. The drip turned into a flooded floorboard and A/C and Radio Gremlins. Finally tracked it down to the windshield's plastic cowl. One thread I found had a fantastic "how to fix the gasket in the plastic cowl" that led me to the issue. I can't find it unfortunately, but if you have the leak track down the thread that has the gasket part from Home Depot. Safelite never replaced the gasket, water poured in through the terribly designed A/C filter duct...right under the windshield. Water poured in through the opening, shorted out the A/C and radio.
For whatever reason, Florida monsoons, bad windshield install. It still leaks right at that spot even after I fixed the cowl gasket, though nowhere near as bad. So I bent up a sheetmetal plate that for $1, permanently fixed the issue. I'm sorry I lost the phone with the pics of me installing it and it all clearly visible. It's Z shaped, tucks between the wire connectors under the cowl. It pours water to the center and out of the car. It's mounted to the battery tie down, 2 bolts, 2 washers. I used the extra gasket material on the sheet metal plate to eliminate contact rattles. I'll try to get better pics. Still plenty of room for the A/C to draw. Only rubber gaskets contact anything on the top and back of the plate. You can see the base of the cowl is straight in line with the A/C opening.
Shortly after the inside of the car stayed dry finally, the rain created two new electrical Gremlins. My wife woke me up, called me outside and said "the car was running while not running."........ "What?" We went outside and she said the fog lights were on and the fans were running when she first came out. The car had been off for hours. It now made a very loud sound that I can only describe as a hand crank generator, and a telegraph machine. It was also make a high pitched SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound near the grill. I have a video below, it really doesn't capture the volume of the noise on a completely shut off car. Please excuse the bug eyed, WTFisthat, just woke up and can't see shit look on my face, lol.
So this ended up being a shorted fan relay and horn draining the battery and causing the issue. At some point I think it triggered the alarm which would explain the lights. When the wife hit the starter button, it kept trying to fire off on a dead battery. Still never heard or seen a car do anything like this. The horn was impossible to track down without replicating the conditions, so I plasti-Dip coated everything on the fans and horn that was exposed electrical. It seems to have done the trick. It would explain the short battery life this cartruckwagon has always seemed to have. This has been a fantastic vehicle other than these issues and a lazy CVT.
I am very good with cleaning my sunroof rails, I use wheel cleaner every 6 months and flush them which keeps them squeeky clean. I occassionally had water drip on my legs during Florida monsoons but could never track it down, thought it must be condensation. Safelite came to fix a rock crack and replaced our windshield. The drip turned into a flooded floorboard and A/C and Radio Gremlins. Finally tracked it down to the windshield's plastic cowl. One thread I found had a fantastic "how to fix the gasket in the plastic cowl" that led me to the issue. I can't find it unfortunately, but if you have the leak track down the thread that has the gasket part from Home Depot. Safelite never replaced the gasket, water poured in through the terribly designed A/C filter duct...right under the windshield. Water poured in through the opening, shorted out the A/C and radio.
For whatever reason, Florida monsoons, bad windshield install. It still leaks right at that spot even after I fixed the cowl gasket, though nowhere near as bad. So I bent up a sheetmetal plate that for $1, permanently fixed the issue. I'm sorry I lost the phone with the pics of me installing it and it all clearly visible. It's Z shaped, tucks between the wire connectors under the cowl. It pours water to the center and out of the car. It's mounted to the battery tie down, 2 bolts, 2 washers. I used the extra gasket material on the sheet metal plate to eliminate contact rattles. I'll try to get better pics. Still plenty of room for the A/C to draw. Only rubber gaskets contact anything on the top and back of the plate. You can see the base of the cowl is straight in line with the A/C opening.
Shortly after the inside of the car stayed dry finally, the rain created two new electrical Gremlins. My wife woke me up, called me outside and said "the car was running while not running."........ "What?" We went outside and she said the fog lights were on and the fans were running when she first came out. The car had been off for hours. It now made a very loud sound that I can only describe as a hand crank generator, and a telegraph machine. It was also make a high pitched SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound near the grill. I have a video below, it really doesn't capture the volume of the noise on a completely shut off car. Please excuse the bug eyed, WTFisthat, just woke up and can't see shit look on my face, lol.
So this ended up being a shorted fan relay and horn draining the battery and causing the issue. At some point I think it triggered the alarm which would explain the lights. When the wife hit the starter button, it kept trying to fire off on a dead battery. Still never heard or seen a car do anything like this. The horn was impossible to track down without replicating the conditions, so I plasti-Dip coated everything on the fans and horn that was exposed electrical. It seems to have done the trick. It would explain the short battery life this cartruckwagon has always seemed to have. This has been a fantastic vehicle other than these issues and a lazy CVT.
first job 17 yrs as an oncology scientist, company bought out, this one clinical oncology research, contract ended...fml), and I'm not caregiving for my mother that has just been diagnosed once again after 21 yrs stage 4C ovarian cancer...and I have 7 appointments to take her to, over the next two weeks...FFFFF***...sorry this is way over the off topic TMI. Apologies everyone...endpoint he says I can just keep refilling the PSF reservoir and drive on for a good clip, before needing to pay like $3,000+ for this totally "unexplainable" steer column/pack whatever they call it scenario...my 2016 QX70S has 38,800 miles on it, btw.