View Full Version : Car stopped working after drive thru car wash
Rollout
12-20-2010, 04:33 PM
Today I decided to take my car to car wash after having it dirty from snow and what not. Car was running fine going into it no lights on or anything. I noticed it took exceptionally long for the car to come out but I thought nothing of it at the time. I get home realize that the ESP and ECP lights are on and figured they would go away if I turned the car off and back on. Turned it back on lights didn't go off and now the check engine light is on. I decided to leave the car be for a little bit to see if it would go back to normal. I come back an hour later car won't even start up now. So I give it a jump, turns on, I go inside and decided I'm gonna take a ride around the block and the car won't start up again. Any ideas on what's wrong guys??[confused]
rvca3112
12-20-2010, 04:42 PM
Have u scanned it?
BASARAB
12-20-2010, 04:50 PM
battery is fried? scan with vag-com
Rollout
12-20-2010, 04:59 PM
Do you think the car wash could've caused that? And I don't have vag-com guess I should look into buying it
mr shickadance
12-20-2010, 05:02 PM
how high pressure was the car wash....if your seals were bad water could have gotten into the ecu?...idk seems odd
Rollout
12-20-2010, 05:05 PM
I've used it plenty of times before, never had a problem
mr shickadance
12-20-2010, 05:10 PM
sunroof? i know audi has a recall for a bad seal on the passenger side of the roof, somehow water can end up in your electricals and mess some stuff up...other then that idk?
Titanems
12-20-2010, 05:22 PM
take it to autozone and get it scanned. Can you try jumping it again and then driving straight to AZ?
mo17k3y85
12-20-2010, 06:10 PM
happened to me before, LONG TIME AGO....with a hondaaaaa. It was the distributor that got fried, seal wasn't good water seeped in. Doubt that's the case with our cars.
WasGTIguy
12-20-2010, 07:15 PM
happened to me before, LONG TIME AGO....with a hondaaaaa. It was the distributor that got fried, seal wasn't good water seeped in. Doubt that's the case with our cars.
We have coil packs. I had this problem before too. If you were recently chipped. I had my old MKIV Jetta TDI chipped and water got into the computer after the upgrade and stuck my into idle. No throttle what so ever.
Stewy
12-20-2010, 07:18 PM
Have it scanned.
Rollout
12-20-2010, 07:30 PM
Jumped the car EPC and ESP shut off CEL is still on, currently at the gym and the car died on me again. If it's any help cars completely off keys not in the ignition and my fan keeps turning on and off, on and off non stop, any ideas why this is happening. And this is the 3rd time the cars died today
Leo14
12-20-2010, 08:11 PM
Sounds like water got where it wasn't supposed to be, could be the sunroof problem mentioned above
Korrect414
12-21-2010, 12:06 PM
I would definitely get it scanned ASAP. Once you get the codes you will be able to go from there and narrow it down.
Let us know what codes come up.
Also, you should probably buy yourself a Vag-Com for Christmas. It will pay itself off very quickly.
tankdeer
12-21-2010, 01:30 PM
Sucks dude. Yet another reason why I only hand wash my car.
Rollout
12-21-2010, 02:00 PM
With help from my sisters boyfriend he found out that water was leaking into where the ecu is and building up, thus frying a few fuses in there. Dried it out replaced the fuses and car works fine. Gonna stick to hand washing from now on haha
bmc333
12-21-2010, 02:08 PM
Merry Christmas ur car works!
Korrect414
12-21-2010, 02:51 PM
With help from my sisters boyfriend he found out that water was leaking into where the ecu is and building up, thus frying a few fuses in there. Dried it out replaced the fuses and car works fine. Gonna stick to hand washing from now on haha
Glad to hear it. Yeah, I think you learned your lesson :). It could of been an extremely costly mistake.
mr shickadance
12-21-2010, 03:13 PM
when it gets warmer u may want to look at where else water is getting in and causing damage
Quattro
12-21-2010, 03:14 PM
yikes! i would go back to the car wash and complain.
AudiCoupe
12-22-2010, 02:07 AM
Mine did this after a carwash last winter... I got all kind of fault codes and it jumped and shook all over the place. I found out the last owner had broken a big plastic piece of the ECU cover lid so water got int to my ECU box and fried two relays on the bottom of the ECU box.
I bought 2 new relays for 20 bucks and dried out the ECU box and bought a new lid after that no problems at all.
My tip is check the ECU box!
Damn didn't read that you already found the problem...
Happy holidays!
a4dc89
12-22-2010, 08:39 AM
My coilpacks got ruined from a car wash once