My Felicia 1.9 D will not start after a heavy rainfall have flooded the fuse box. My guess is that water entering the air vent has not been drained properly and it has filled up and spilled over to the fuse box somehow. The floor on the passenger seat just below the box was flooded and when I opened the box it was filled to the brim.

The car is totally dead. No indication lights or clicks when i turn the ignition key. Is there any main power fuse or relay that I should check first?

 

Do not attempt to start the car or open lights etc now !

 

Take a good picture or draw them and the remove ALL the relays, the plugs and the fuses, let the whole thing dry naturally or help it a bit with a head gun (in lower scale).

Use Contact cleaner (No Oil edition) spray everywhere.

The water may came in from the wind shield ''gasket'', i had that problem in the rear wind shield.

Use a soft brush to clean all the ''female'' part of the contacts, water-leafs-branches-mud can be everywhere.

Be patience, don't make moves ''in a hurry", take your time and clean everything.

Check for burned fuses or relays that does not work properly, DO NOT try to start the car you may make things must worst.

 

Go to a repair-shop and asked them to clean the area behind the wind shield gasket and then apply a special sealant so in the next rain you won't have the same problem.

Plus ask them to clean the drain holes of your car (left-right side) because after so long they will be clogged.

 

7 hours ago, youone said:

My guess is that water entering the air vent has not been drained properly

Either that (check drain holes in the heater inlet in the engine bay) or around the rotted window frame. Sealing it up, as d.fylaktos advices, is only a temporary solution.

 

Anyway, water in the fusebox very likely drained the battery and it's possible that some corrosion happened. Make sure it's all dry and clean before recharging the battery, corrosion can damage the fusebox.

Here was my problem with my tailgate gasket, 3 times made my trunk carpet full wet and cause me a great headache.

 

 

I fix it in the best technician here for windshields etc.

Cleaning, isopropyl alcohol, compressed air, wiping and expensine sealant apply.

Since then " case closed".

1 hour ago, D.FYLAKTOS said:

expensine sealant apply.

Since then " case closed".

Until you have to remove the tailight

13 minutes ago, Thefeliciahacker said:

Until you have to remove the tailight

 

The door seal was changed with new (example)

 

the 2 rear lights are in good condition with a product in their gasket to be soft and the rear windshield gasket was treated by the expert.

The water is sneaky, here was the ''entry point" (yellow arrow) from my tailgate seal, from there was rolling down to to point above the rear light and the (as the video showed) was dripping inside the trunk.

 

 

In the beginning i thought that the culprit was the seal of the rear light (blue arrow) but my mechanics manage to find the real cause.

One was outside with water hose and the other was inside the trunk with flash light and cellphone ready to record the drops.

 

The @youone problem is in front and i think must make an inspection to his front wind shield seal, time-sun-salt etc are enemies of sealing.