headlights come on by themselves
06-05-2020, 01:32 PM
#1
Pro
Thread Starter
headlights come on by themselves
I really hope I can get some help with this! 2004 CTT has been having problems maintaining a charge, it had a battery in it that was a couple years old so I replaced it and did not cheap out! I assumed this was the fix and it worked! For about 4 weeks. This is totally random and may start every time I go try but then other times (when you need it most) it does not. One night my son looked out the window and saw light reflecting of the Sprinter, we all looked and saw it briefly. It was definitely the headlights for it to be that bright. Since, I have removed the assemblies to repair the corrosion I've read all about and found nice clean wires and good connections. I am thinking maybe the headlight ballast but am open to suggestions. Do you think this could drain a bat? Also I have noticed flickering from the pass. side while driving.
06-05-2020, 09:07 PM
#2
Pro
Thread Starter
I just wanted to add something here, I noticed some of the screws securing the ballasts in place are corroded also when I removed the ballasts there was white powder corrosion on the aluminum around the foam gasket. Maybe the corrosion worked its way inside? I do on occasion have moisture behind the lens. Could this possibly cause the battery to drain?
06-06-2020, 04:34 PM
#3
Your problem is almost certainly water getting inside the vehicle somewhere. The most common way this happens is when the front 2 roof drains get plugged with debris to the point the water can't drip onto the pavement under the car. It eventually backs up in the drain tubes and finds its way inside the vehicle. Once inside, the water finds places to pool. Wiring harnesses have splices in wires at random points as well as connectors. Pure distilled water is an insulator, but dirty water is an OK conductor, so dirty water gets into splices or harness connectors and provides a medium-resistance path to ground that can drain a battery in 2 to 14 days (maybe longer) depending on how dirty the water is and how "clean" the path to chassis ground is in that damp spot. The floor is painted and that provides some insulation from ground, but it is inevitable that the water will find an ground point somewhere, even if it is through a gap no thicker than a sheet of paper. Sometimes water even accumulates in the bottom of doors from the drain holes in the door getting filled with debris. You can also get water trapped in a few places between footwells and firewall.
The roof drains have little crimped things on the ends of the tubes that were probably there to keep debris from entering the drain tube during dry periods when no water is in the drains. But they are crimped so tightly that grains of grit get trapped in them and it's just a matter of time before the roof drains fill with water.
You have probably been thinking "But my carpet isn't wet! This can't be my problem." Oh, yes it CAN still be your problem and this is the case for most people who have water problems in the interior. The carpet almost always feels dry because the water doesn't drip on the carpet, it slides down body panels until it can't get any lower, So the water develops from UNDER the carpet. You have to lift the carpet and feel the insulation pads and look at depressions in the floor to see if there is dampness or a puddle.
The drain tubes probably have flexible plastic tubing somewhere or even everywhere in their path. Blowing the drains out with compressed air is dicey because you might dislodge a drain tube in an inaccessible place. Using very low pressure may be safe... like 10 psi or you blowing on a piece of tubing would be OK, but most compressors output 100 psi or more so you have to turn down the valve in the compressor a lot. Many times all it takes to clean the drains is to remove the little crimped drain covers... if you do that and water and grit run out, you may have just cleaned the drain tube as well as it needs to be cleaned. Some people put the crimped drain covers back on, others leave them off. Doesn't seem to be a consensus.
Once you have cleaned the drains, it can take several days of airing out in very low humidity conditions to dry all potential infiltrated water. When I had the problem in CA where we get no rain all summer and temps can get up into the low 100s during the day, I parked it in the driveway and left all the doors and hatch wide open during several 100 degree days in a row with very low humidity. But if we had still lived somewhere with higher humidity, getting the floor completely dry could be an issue. There are 2 drains in the front and 2 in the back. The back ones can get plugged also and also lead to water getting inside under the carpet and padding.
The roof drains have little crimped things on the ends of the tubes that were probably there to keep debris from entering the drain tube during dry periods when no water is in the drains. But they are crimped so tightly that grains of grit get trapped in them and it's just a matter of time before the roof drains fill with water.
You have probably been thinking "But my carpet isn't wet! This can't be my problem." Oh, yes it CAN still be your problem and this is the case for most people who have water problems in the interior. The carpet almost always feels dry because the water doesn't drip on the carpet, it slides down body panels until it can't get any lower, So the water develops from UNDER the carpet. You have to lift the carpet and feel the insulation pads and look at depressions in the floor to see if there is dampness or a puddle.
The drain tubes probably have flexible plastic tubing somewhere or even everywhere in their path. Blowing the drains out with compressed air is dicey because you might dislodge a drain tube in an inaccessible place. Using very low pressure may be safe... like 10 psi or you blowing on a piece of tubing would be OK, but most compressors output 100 psi or more so you have to turn down the valve in the compressor a lot. Many times all it takes to clean the drains is to remove the little crimped drain covers... if you do that and water and grit run out, you may have just cleaned the drain tube as well as it needs to be cleaned. Some people put the crimped drain covers back on, others leave them off. Doesn't seem to be a consensus.
Once you have cleaned the drains, it can take several days of airing out in very low humidity conditions to dry all potential infiltrated water. When I had the problem in CA where we get no rain all summer and temps can get up into the low 100s during the day, I parked it in the driveway and left all the doors and hatch wide open during several 100 degree days in a row with very low humidity. But if we had still lived somewhere with higher humidity, getting the floor completely dry could be an issue. There are 2 drains in the front and 2 in the back. The back ones can get plugged also and also lead to water getting inside under the carpet and padding.
The following users liked this post:
deilenberger (06-06-2020)
06-06-2020, 04:38 PM
#4
PS. Lots of discussions of this in the Cayenne 955-957 forum (here) but the search function doesn't seem to work for a lot of us. Give it a try, but if you don't find anything easily, check the topic list, roof drains are a fairly frequent topic. There may even be a "sticky" roof drain thread that always stays at the top of the forum topics list.
06-06-2020, 07:36 PM
#5
Pro
Thread Starter
Thank you very much "Scoot", if I may, for taking the time to get back with all the detail. I will check and double check those areas for sure. I'll also be sure to follow up with anything I might find.
JD
JD
The following users liked this post:
deilenberger (06-06-2020)
06-06-2020, 10:10 PM
#6
Banned
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Spring Lake, NJ, US of A
Posts: 10,085
Received 1,160 Likes
on
767 Posts
PS. Lots of discussions of this in the Cayenne 955-957 forum (here) but the search function doesn't seem to work for a lot of us. Give it a try, but if you don't find anything easily, check the topic list, roof drains are a fairly frequent topic. There may even be a "sticky" roof drain thread that always stays at the top of the forum topics list.