deilenberger

It usually isn't just one destroyed wire or junction in that bundle. There are quite a few splices and joins in the bundle - and each has to be inspected (and better - taken apart, cleaned, soldered and covered with lined-shrink wrap - which has a lining that melts down around the wire making it waterproof - look in a marine store for it..) Usually when the connection is corroded away - the wire under the insulation for some distance from the connection is also damaged. Capillary action draws water up the wire strands and the result is corroded wire with great looking insulation on the outside. These have to be cut back until you reach clean wire, then spliced.

VulcanGrey

I'm working on this exact problem today... Thanks for all the info in this thread!

deilenberger

Good to hear it was of help - and yup.. you've got a corrosion problem there.

VulcanGrey

I cleaned my wiring up yesterday. My corrosion wasn't as bad, all the splices were intact.



So I removed most for the corrosion with water soluable acid flux and added solder. The splices that were too corroded, I cut back, cleaned the wire with flux and re-soldered together.
I then coated them with silicone di-electric grease to prevent future corrosion or oxidation, and covered them with the sealing marine shrink tubing. And then pinched the ends while they were hot to seal them. I also plugged the ends with the di-electric grease. I re-wrapped the tape and put on new zip-ties.



I also cleaned out the cowl drains, and removed the bird beak valves.

I then cleared all codes with the Durametric.

The original code was "steering faulty", which totally disabled the vehicle, I had to have it towed on a flat-bed home. Then I saw in the Durametric scan that there were codes for PSM, ABS, Steering angle, Air suspension, Trailer Hitch, Gateway, signal implausible, key 1 not coded correctly, KESSY fault, etc..

Car runs great now.

deilenberger

Vulcan - for some reason your images in this thread and in another thread aren't displaying. Perhaps convert them to JPG and upload again?

FWIW - acid flux really shouldn't be used for electrical work. It will corrode the conductors. Some of it may get sucked up the wire by capillary action beyond where you were working, and cause problems later one. Electronics grade flux won't do that. Acid flux is for plumbing..

VulcanGrey

Thanks for the reply. Apparently the images were yet shared. They should load now? If not, let me know.
Good point about the acid flux and capillary action.
I actually had a flux pen for electronics as well, but that wasn't enough to get the solder to take, had to clean the corrosion first. I'm well aware of the risk of capillary action, so I tried to burn off all the flux paste (paste to prevent as much capillary action), and then washed it with water and alcohol to dry the water. I then coated the exposed copper with silicone dielectric grease. And then the marine shrink tubing. And then more dielectric grease to keep any water out of the tubing.

The car ran really well today! Even the steering wheel buttons are now more responsive and working correctly! Previously I couldn't change radio stations easily (took multiple presses) and the manual radio frequency up down didn't work at all.

deilenberger

Images still not appearing. You're best off uploading the pics here.. Dunno if you did or not, or are hosting them on another website (photobucket is notorious for breaking thousands of threads by retro-restricting display of images stored with them.)

I'm not faulting you on using the acid flux - it sounds like you probably did an adequate job removing it - but I am warning others against using the same thing. Use of it could eventually create exactly the same condition that you repaired using it.

VulcanGrey

they are hosted on google photos. Let me know if you see them now?

deilenberger

Yup. Look fine now.

VulcanGrey

thanks

nycmotorsports

This recently happened to me. oh lordy! in in for it now... i wish i had a savy guy in New York City that could help with this, I would pay any amount!

I feel so screwed by Porsche. the car is poorly designed with plastics and wire locations. I expect this sort of craftsmanship from Toyota or any other 15000$ production car but instead Toyota engineers seems way more practical then these early model Porsches.


help?

dpatel710

In terms of stuff that can go wrong, this is actually a pretty easy fix. The best way to fix it is by soldering the wires, if not, you can strip them and tape them together like porsche did. You'll need a flat head screw driver to pull the carpet out from under the trim, a plastic glass or other prop to keep the carpet up, a pair of wire strippers, and some electrical tape. Good luck!

Jaymac7

I just had to revive this old thread to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this thread regarding flooded and corroded wires under the drivers front carpet. I got the code 288 “Steering Faulty” error which left me stranded at a gas pump. Thankfully I was 5 minutes from home and my wife happened to be working from home that day and was able to bring my laptop and Durametric cable to the gas station. A quick google search directed me to this thread where I was able to use the Durametric to clear the code, start the Cayenne and drive it home, where I discovered water under the carpet and 4 corroded connections. I soldered and shrink wrapped them all, and the fault has disappeared! INCREDIBLY grateful! Thank you!!!
Jeremy

pnickisson

quick question - this DIY fixes the error brilliant - but what do you do to make sure the water does not collect there again...has anyone found any drain plugs that are blocked??

kadn33

I'd say a high percentage of the users here have unblocked or removed the drain grommets at some stage. Others like me don't really need to because there is no rain in my area or debris that could block them, just sand dust.

Do a search in the forum and some threads will show the exact location of the drains. One picture in reply #17 in this thread shows one of them.

Regards,