1 week ago, went to warm the truck. Remote starter key fob caused the Alarm to engage. This has happened before and in the past using the Rover Fob remotely to unlock and re-lock solved the issue. This time it did not. Hurriedly I disconnected battery and took another car to work. It sat like this for a few days until I hooked up the battery to see what was going on. Batter hooked up, fob doesn't work, I notice that the fob is causing the alarm led on dash to flash or stop flashing dependent upon lock or unlock via fob, but no door locks move. I use key in the door to access. Attempt to start car, it cranked but no start, I tried to start 5-8 more times with no success and drained the battery. Just to be safe I charged the battery over night. Next day still no action from the Fob's or lock button on dash. I check all the fluids and with a full battery on the fist attempt she started up. No wipers, no turn signals, no hazards. I drive her to the end of the driveway and then reverse back into parking spot. I put it in Park and got out to look under the hood while it was running for anything I could have missed. Actuator switch was fine, put the hood down and tried to take her for a drive. Could not switch out of park. I Look at dash and notice a D or B with a line through it. It was flashing where normally I would see my current selected gear. Turn her off. Check all the fuses, checked battery cables, checked for anything out of the norm. Get back and try to start her again about 10 minutes later and she would crank but not start. The back seat dome light seemed to be stuck on, pulled the bulb. Battery 1 1/2 years old, had it tested and all was fine. Two days go by and here I am. I just went out and tried the EKA 1515 Immobilizer fix but nothing has changed. I have had an issue before all this that I think is the Crank Shaft Position sensor. Where the rover would shut down while driving if I traveled further than about 2 miles. Then it wouldn't start for hours. It's been winter and I haven't had a chance to install the new sensor. But I have driven it around the block once every 3 days. Could I have screwed something up doing that?

 

After tossing the issue around my head for a little while I came to the realization that all my issues had a common theme. That being they were all electrical-ish issues that could be blamed on blowen fuses or relays. Though I had no fuses or relays that were bad. I disconnected the battery and started messing with the power cables under the dash. After I removed the lowest covering to the driver side electrical system I was horrified by the 1/4 cup at least of water that came pouring out from the cover. Assuming that something major was wrong here I completely removed the IDM. While doing that I was more horrified as 1/4 cup or more of water drained drained from the IDM as I removed the rear wiring.

Long story short water was getting in from someplace just above the IDM. Shorting out the IDM and making everything on my Rover freak out.

It took me a while but I ended up cracking the case of the IDM open. The circuitry of the IDM was super simple and the damage didn't seem that life threatening. So.. I opted for the Steve Austin fix (Six Million Dollar Man). Using some electrical cleaner, a toothbrush, soldering gun and a **** ton of dielectric grease. I attempted to turn things around and make it "Better than it was before. Better...stronger...faster.".

I have some pictures but not as many as I wished I'd taken. Especially since it took me forever to figure out where that jumper went on the fuse box face. I didn't take pic's before removing the fuses, relays and case from the IDM. I'll post a whole writeup later after I upload the pics.


Longer story shorter. It worked and now everything works.
So if things are acting weird and it's more than just 1 thing like the Alarm and the shifter, check the IDM. If someone says for you to replace the IDM, be sure you figure out if it's getting water leaking on it before you replace it. As for me I am still unsure where my leak is. Though, my baby's sitting in the garage until I find out. Plus I put enough dielectric grease inside the IDM casing and rear connections (being sure not to block the heatsink vent) that it's now practically waterproof.

 

What is the lowest covering to the drivers side electrical system? What is the IDM? I am not familiar with these terms

 

IDM is short for Intelligent Driver Module, without getting into details it's basically the fancy name for the in-cabin fuse box. My IDM is on the drivers side behind a latched access panel just below the steering wheel at knee level. This panel unscrews and folds out and down revealing the Fuse Box and all the wiring to and from the dashboard. If now looking into this access area and downward. You should see another panel horizontally spanning the entire left to right accessible area. It is secured with plastic pins and blocking access to the brake / gas pedals. This is the "lowest covering" I referred to previously. It wasn't until I was removing this panel that I noticed the water. If you can stick your hand up from the gas pedal and easily touch wires behind the steering wheel then this panel is probably already removed. Do you have the RAVE LR Workshop DVD or PDF's? If not google it and download it. Tons of good info in there. Sorry about the heavy wording details. I'm just trying to be informative. I'll setup a photo share and upload some pics that will prob be easier.

 

Need to click the dead image but you should be able to access images from there. If not let me know. I'll post some more another way after I find my phone in the garage. Basically what I've got pictured is the internal Fuse Box (IDM) I removed from under dash. I've taken the plastic casing off using some screwdrivers and trim nails to release the plastic locks holding the side together. The damage was on almost all the rear circuitry showing green and tarnished with oxidation. I cleaned carefully with the electric cleaner (make sure it's the safe for plastic kind of cleaner) and used the toothbrush + cleaner to spot clean everything that was bad. If you do this or any other circuit repair be careful to always clean going with the
"grain" of your circuit wiring. That keeps anything from tearing off that shouldn't. I had a few solder pins that looked weak so I touched them up. All the wiring was visibly still intact. Though I tested to verify using my electrical tester. I cleaned it once more with the spray cleaner and I let it dry for a few hours under a hot light. Coated all the wiring pins and areas that might be exposed from the back to any water with the dielectric grease. I put the plastic case back on and added more dielectric grease to any open or missed areas and hooked her back up. After putting all the fuses back in, I connected the battery and held my breath. Keyless lock worked and everything else is perfect and working as it always had. Still need to replace my crank shaft sensor but that was a preexisting problem.