I have 1999 Sport that I purchased 1 month ago. The vehicle is in great condition, 110k miles, automatic tranny.

Here is the problem that started yesterday:

I live in Oregon and yesterday was my first time driving the vehicle in very heavy rain and through some standing water- large puddle about 8 inches deep. Earlier in the day I noticed the windshield wipers were operating slower than normal but no other problems. I parked the car in heavy rain for about 4 hours, when I started it I had an SRS light and an Anti-skid light. I drove the 15 miles home with headlights on, wipers on high, heater fan on high.

Here is what was happening:

1- Wipers at half speed
2- very erratic shifting from automatic tranny
3- limited power, most likely from poor shifting
4- radio didn't work
5- Tachometer very erratic- at times just dropping to zero rpms with engine running normal

I experimented with reducing the electrical load, turning off everything but the lights- this did not help. And then I turned off the headlights and everything immediately went back to normal. I further reduced the load with the headlights off by turning off everything else and then the SRS light and Anti-skid light went out. Turning the lights back on immediately affected the tachometer, turning them on halfway also affected the tach but to a lesser extent.

So... obviously, this seems to be related to the headlights. The only thing noticably wrong with this vehicle when I purchased it was a rock chip in the left headlight lens- with a noticable hole, light a bb shot through glass. What do you guys think? I have done no troubleshooting yet but could water be getting in though the hole in the lens? Would that cause these problems?

Thanks for any help, you guys. I appreciate it.

Jeff

 

dry that headlight, then seal that small hole with silicone caulk, just a dab maybe so water cant get in and short out the bulb contacts.

 

Thanks for the input. I pulled the light and it was completely full of water. Its drying now and I just applied some silicone sealant like you suggested. Hopefully that does the trick.

Thanks.

 

Never heard of a head light doing all that but alright. I would check to see if you blew anyfuses with water being in there. Check under the hood and the ones on the driver side kick panel.

 

Drying the headlight out and sealing the hole didn't fix it. Now I think it is less related to the moisture and more related the high load on the electrical system. I took it out for a drive and the antiskid light came on followed by the slow wipers and the SRS light. Reducing the load helps and the headlights on with wipers and heater really make it go wacky. In the driveway I turned everything off and all was normal except the antiskid light which would go out if i revved the engine to about 3000rpm and come back on when it went back to idle. I'll check the fuses.

What do you guys think? Alternator? Voltage control?

 

Well if it was your alternator you could just check it with the volt meter, even then I doubt it would do all that. I would check all the things that are going heywire and see what voltage they are reading.