liftgate electronics not working after rain

[hankd]

hi folks - bad luck here for me with water. this morning, after a few days of heavy rain, my tailgate equipment stopped working (power rear window, liftgate motor and wiper all went dead at the same time and they had all been working fine). i am wondering if i got water back there and shorted something because i noticed water had collected in my rear hatch over some heavy rain in the summer.

i want to open the rear liftgate to examine things, and i know where the latch is on the inside but if i open it i don't know how to get it shut again with no actuator motor. is there a trick to shut it with no power?

is it possible the ecu back there is a wet and it might just dry out? i fried the engine ecu a few years back and it was a nightmare and had to be replaced a few times before i got it straightened out. is the rear ecu prone to damage?

i checked ecu b fuse under the hood and it is fine. not sure what to do from here. might it dry out and come back to life in a few days? just wondering if anybody has similar experiences.

thanks!

 

[MikeinNH67]

You should be able to open it manually and it should latch back up if I remember correctly. I think that part is spring done it's the soft close that uses the motor but I could be off as mine never worked properly. There's a control box in the hatch, you may need to reset it by pulling power to it or unplugging the battery.

 

[hankd]

ok great thanks. i can close my hatch and every time it will power itself shut like it normally does, so that is good to know. i removed the back panel and it was still wet inside but not soaked.

i noticed my rear windshield would kind of intermittently go up and down real jittery when i used the dash window control. so maybe the rear hatch area just needs to keep drying out. there was a large split in the little rubber conduit hose that the wires go through go get to the hatch so i think that may be how the water entered.

 

[AuSeeker]

ok great thanks. i can close my hatch and every time it will power itself shut like it normally does, so that is good to know. i removed the back panel and it was still wet inside but not soaked.

i noticed my rear windshield would kind of intermittently go up and down real jittery when i used the dash window control. so maybe the rear hatch area just needs to keep drying out. there was a large split in the little rubber conduit hose that the wires go through go get to the hatch so i think that may be how the water entered.

If that wire conduit is spit then it's possible that that a wire or two has also been stressed to a point that one or more could be broken and erratically making a connection, the conduit been split means it has flexed enough over time to split/crack, the wires inside could of also suffered from the flexing.

There would have to be a LOT of water getting in there to cause everything to short out, having a roll down window the hatch is not design and can't be designed to keep all water out so the wiring and components in there are also design to operate with some amount of water getting into the hatch and if it did short out from water there should be blown fuses!

As stated you can't keep some water from getting into the hatch, there are drains on the bottom of the hatch to allow the water to drain out, if there's a noticeable amount of water in the hatch when you open it, as in you can hear it in there then your drains are clogged and need to be cleaned.

 

[hankd]

this sorted itself out this morning after the sun was up for a bit. the hatch release button started working, then the window started going down smoothly. i had to reset the auto rear window and then the rear wiper started working too. going to repair that conduit today. thanks folks