Re: 4000CSQ Electrical Problem

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

> A strange thing happened last night.  While driving home in heavy rain, four
> of my dashboard idiot lights gradually faded on.  They where the the (OXS),
> the water, and two others that I can't remember right off.  This happened on
> and off until I got home (2 miles).  It also seemed that my dashboard light
> dimmed some, but I'm not completely certain about this.  My wife had mentioned
> that she'd experienced the same symptoms about 5 weeks ago (in the rain as
> well).  However, we were never able to duplicate the symptoms until now.

Hi there Thomas,

It sure sounds to me like you've got a grounding problem.  The fact that it
is dependent upon rain would indicate that the ground is outside the passen-
ger compartment, but I thought the lights grounded behind the dash.  If you 
have a Bentley you might want to try to correlate the grounds on the failing 
circuits, or you might simply want to poke around under the hood and clean 
up the grounds you find.  I'm not completely familiar with your car, but 
you'll probably find some on the driver's side firewall and perhaps even on 
the passenger's side firewall.  Whenever I do this I usually scrape some 
paint off the body under the lug.  I suppose it would be a good idea to put 
some kind of protectant on the lugs as well ... I usually don't.  While 
you're at it you might want to check the ground braid that connects the 
engine to the frame.  On my urQ it is on the drivers side of the engine, 
near the motor mount.

HTH!
Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)