A few week ago i left the window open all night on the drivers side of car like an idiot and it rained hard causing the fusebox at the right handside of the steering wheel to get soaked wet through. Ever since the radiator fans would turn on a minute after i turned the ignition off, but would turn off as soon as i put the ignition back on. But this was intermittent so i was hoping the problem would eventually go away..Until yesterday i was driving along and the car would flash the EML and the glow plug light everytime it did that it would cut out. The car apparantly will now sit and run until it reaches near temperature and it then seems to be shorting out until it eventually cutting out again. Then the fan will stay on with keys in or not, and one of the relays under the bonnet starts to make a ticking noise.It is not damaged because iv changed the relay over and it continues to tick when i swapp with a different one. BUt when i take this relay out It will then turn over without starting, either until the battery nearly drains and the ticking will stop on the relay and fans stop. then the car starts and runs fine until it all happens again.......ohh and to add to the point when the cars isnt going to start the temperature gauge doesnt work also......seems to be all connected with each other??????????

I dont know if this has anything to do with it, but i got given a battery off my mate abouth three week ago. JUst noticed its a much more powerful 80 ah instead of the 50 ah what i took off.... Any help would be appreciated by this 20 year old recently jobless lad who wants to avoid the garage for the longest time possible.

The cars a 1.9tdi 105bhp with dragon tuning chip at 137000 miles if this helps

Any 1?

Any 1?

Water and electrics are a poor combination. Particularly so on modern cars where the wiring carries both the current and signals. You might be lucky and not have to replace anything if you can successfully dry the panel out. Remove the cover and angle some blown air (a fan heater on cold, for example) across and through it. This process will not work on a damp day with 100% humidity - for that to work you will need gentle heat. A vacuum cleaner might also work on a dry day (but it won't do the bag any good, and isn't really designed for long periods of operation).

The fuse panel may not be the only location affected. If you got a large amount of water into the footwell then components mounted under the seat will also be suffering. From memory Passats with leaking pollen filters managed to kill lots of expensive underseat boxes in this way.

Finally, try to work out where the water could have run to after a few weeks behind / in the fuse panel. It does seem odd to get the EML / cutout fault after so long and this may be an unrelated fault. At this point I would be looking for a friend with a garage with an electricity supply you could use for a couple of days. Removing trim panels around the drivers knee area may help you assess if you've got any retained moisture. Good luck.

Time to crack open the fuse box, check for water ingress under the fuses, dry them (hair dryer on warm not hot) out and clean up any deposits left by the water.

Also worth checking the relays under that area too as they probably won;t like a lot of water in there.